MFDA: Curriculum Development

The Media for Democracy programme supports an initiative to promote national structures of journalism training (financed by national governments, publishers and students with initial support from abroad). Such structures should be administered by journalists, media owners and journalism trainers and must provide training in journalism skills while promoting awareness of ethical and professional issues. Training modules covering human rights reporting, investigative journalism, election coverage and media law should be included in the curriculum.


The IFJ has been working in close relations with UNESCO in this regard, as the organisation published a specific comprehensive study and communication on curriculum development issues in Africa:

Communication Training in Africa: Model Curricula" (Paris: UNESCO, 2002)



The MFDA programme supports particularly the following activities:


  • Organisation of two regional High level conferences to develop strategies for the creation of sustainable national journalism training structures (East Africa and Western Africa).


  • Report on the two conferences and follow-up meetings at national level and at ACP/EU level to agree a plan of action and commitment for funding


  • On-the-spot curriculum development with journalism schools in Senegal and in Kenya to incorporate media law and human rights into national curricula


  • Translation of existing handbooks (human rights, ethnic diversity) into French



  • Organising agreements of commitments from the journalism schools, the journalist’s organizations and other groups active in the field



  • Distribution of the curricula models and resource materials to other journalism departments


    The IFJ and UNESCO organised a regional Seminar on Curriculum Development and Human Rights Journalism Training in October 2002.

    Report from the IFJ/UNESCO Regional Seminar on Curriculum Development and Human Rights Journalism Training, 14 -15 October 2002, Grand Regency Hotel, Nairobi

    (PDF-file)