The Germany Ambassador to Malawi, Jürgen Borsch, has said the Germany government fully endorses the media capacity programmes that Media Institute of Southern Africa Malawi Chapter (MISA Malawi) and DW Akademie are implementing and will continue supporting such programmes.
Speaking in Lilongwe Tuesday, October 23, at the end of a five-day Train the Trainer course MISA Malawi and DW Akademie organised, Borsch said capacity building is critical for the development of the media sector.
“In the media profession, it is paramount to network and exchange benchmarks…I think it is only natural to be here and support what DW Akademie is doing with MISA Malawi. We are coming closer and closer…I am very happy,” Borsch said.
The Train the Trainer course is one of the first activities under the MISA Malawi Training Centre project that DW Akademie is supporting technically and financially.
MISA Malawi chairperson Teresa Ndanga said the chapter cherishes the relationship that exists between the Malawi media and DW Akademie, in the process of achieving media freedom and freedom of expression in Malawi.
“Capacity building is critical if we want to successfully promote and defend media freedom and freedom of expression. Capacity building helps ensure high quality journalism and we are happy that DW Akademie is assisting us in achieving our plan to have a Media Training Centre,” Ndanga said.
One of the course participants, Anderson Fumulani, a media consultant of more than 20 years in the media profession, said the course was transformative.
“This is my first time to attend a training of this nature. It is very transformative because almost every day of the five days involved practical tasks. You gain the knowledge and immediately apply it…which is a very big missing component in most training styles,” Fumulani said.
The course facilitator, Udo Prenzel of DW Akademie’s Media Training Division, emphasised on the need to focus on outcomes when planning trainings.
“You certainly need to look at what people need to have certain progress in life and then you decide how they can do that,” Prenzel said.
Among other things, the training looked at how to plan trainings, learning objectives, visualisation and training methodologies.
A total of 8 MISA Malawi members were identified and trained as trainers and will be part of the MISA Malawi trainer pool for the Training Centre.
MISA Malawi is in the process of establishing a Training Centre as part of the Chapter’s sustainability efforts.
