This seminar was exchange of knowledge, which was extensive and benefited about 30 people including journalists and weather forecasting groups in Djibouti and Somalia, was concluded in Djibouti and lasted for four days.
Icpac-Igad, Norcop and Met Office UK have collaborated in this training, which has great importance for the media and meteorology. through the Horn of Africa scientific process, the EAHW collective hazard warnings, the S-MAP Seasonal Media Planning Process, which enables the media to base their messages and stories on the different seasons of droughts, floods and storms, which are delivered by Meteorologists. and Climate, and make it easier for them to convey to the people what to expect and how to protect themselves from it.
Mr. Abdiwali Suleiman from the Regional Organization IGAD-ICPAC gave a further explanation of the purpose of this workshop for Somali and Djibouti media and thanked ICPAC and NORCAP.
This is 8th country that we have held for such training and it is very important to the media or reporters who are in the first place to report or inform the news that are related to climate change and weather forecasting that affect them, so they should know what they are reporting. to a level where they can explain knowledge about climate change and forecasting closely, they are not those who have been assigned to the news,” said Abdiwali Salad.
Mr Abdiwali also explained the gap between the media in the Horn of Africa and the Somali media and how they can coordinate with each other in reporting on weather forecasting and climate change, through EAHW.
“Somali journalists have another priority, we have other problems to report, which has been going on for the past 30 years, the other issue is the weather, trained journalists and the Met Office in the country, everyone has their own work, when we are in the Horn of Africa. In addition to that, let’s reach out to the journalists who are on the lookout, give importance to reporting and talking about climate change and weather forecasting is a big thing and that is what we are trying to do as ICPAC and our international friends who help us” said Abdiwali Salad.
THE REPORTERS VIEWS
Abdishakur Dayib, who was one of the journalists who have received this training, said that he benefited from the use of weather forecasting and climate change data to present a weather-based system.
“We benefited from three points,” said the journalist. First, to make people understand that Climate Change that is affecting their lives and the process of adaptation. We have had the consistency of weather forecasting news in an informative way that includes dangerous things, we are grateful to the organizations that support this program to improve the knowledge of Somali journalists” said Abdirashakur Dayib
Hidaya Mohamed from Djibouti government media emphasized that she will transfer the knowledge she learned here to the working journalists, which will improve their daily work in forecasting and climate change reporting.
“Personally, I have benefited a lot from being a journalist instead of going through, how to report on climate change, first we look for news to deliver to the community, then we have better training to do the stories. In relation to this issue, how can we talk to the community, political leaders, experts and the process of analyzing the various information that can be secured for its coverage. Since this was very good training, I will share with the journalists who work with me about the weather that we train ourselves to deliver good news to the public,” said Hidaya Mohamed.
The Somali journalists who were trained in Djibouti came from the cities of Mogadishu, Hargesia, Dhusamareb, Baledwayne and Baidoa and work in the media in different parts of TV, Radio and social media.
A report by the humanitarian agencies and institutions for Climate Changes say, that 5.6 million people are at risk of food insecurity due to drought and conflict-related and displacement-related crises.
By : Abdirashid Nur. Senior journalist and Comms Specialist
