media21geneva.org - Introduction

media21geneva.org - Introduction

CONCEPT: Media21 will organize its 27th journalist workshop on global issues as a side-event of the International Workshop on Addressing the Livelihood Crisis of Farmers - Weather and Climate Services, Belo Horizonte, Brazil - 12-14 July 2010, organized by the World Meteorological Organization together with several co-sponsors.

A similar workshop has been successfully achieved in Nairobi (6-16 April) with the participation of 40 mostly African journalists. They visited various project of sustainable agriculture and forestry in Kenya, and met 35 experts, diplomats and policy makers during the 1st Conference of ministers responsible for meteorology in Africa. The Belo Horizonte meeting will be a framework to report on the impact of climate change, particularly in Latin America, and the solutions towards a sustainable agriculture in order to meet the challenge. Journalists will interact with actors of different sectors (governments, NGOs, business, farmers, universities).

Some panels will also feature the sharp conclusions of IAASTD (International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development: www.agassessment.org), a global 2000 pages report prepared by 400 experts. It appears as a road map towards sustainable food production in order to cope with population growth and climate change, with new knowledge to fight poverty, hunger, diseases, etc.

The focal point of the workshop will be the role of media in passing down scientific assessments and meteorological information to small farmers, rural population and decision makers. This will require a discussion on the necessary language and story-mapping in order to reach out to the population. Local and regional journalist organizations will collaborate with Media21 on this.