Source: Ben LARYEA
The Ghana WASH Journalists Network (GWJN) has held a national delegates training workshop for members at Dodowa in the Greater Accra Region.
The training programme was sponsored by +1 Global Foundation of Roddenberry Foundation under the theme, “Building A Strong Media Coalition For Effective Wash Advocacy” and forms part of the effort to build the capacities of members to report on water, sanitation and hygiene issues in communities across the country.
It’s also geared towards building partnerships between GWJN and stakeholders in the WASH value chain particularly policy and decision makers to identify challenges and measures and strategies to put in place for the country to achieve the targets set in the Sustainable Development Goal’s (SDGs) for the country to have access to safe water and improved sanitation and hygiene facilities.
Participants includes representative from the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, consultant in the WASH sector and other players in the WASH space as well as a cross section of the media.
Topics presented and discussed were, Ghana’s Sanitation Situation: Pointers by the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) and the Joint Monitoring Platform (JMP) reports, Overview of the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) sector in Ghana progress, gaps, the way forward and the Role of the media in Ghana’s WASH SDGs Agenda.
In a brief address, the National Coordinator of GWJN, Mr. Justice Lee Adoboe said the network plays an advocacy role between end users in the WASH space and to engage also policy and decision makers to ensure sustainable access to safe water and improved sanitation as well as hygiene.
“Issues relating to WASH activities must continuously be highlighted to enable the country work on the gaps and challenges to ensure that the said WASH SDGs targets are achieved in a sustainable manner.
He however urged members to share the knowledge acquired at the workshop saying it forms part of the drive towards a collective effort to achieve the SDGs goal 6.
In a presentation, Mr. Edmund Smith Asante, Regional Page Editor of Daily Graphic challenged the media to intensify reportage on WASH activities and explained that issues relating to water and sanitation have continuously come to the fore for governments and other bodies to help address and provide the needed facilities for communities.
He therefore urged the practitioners to explore WASH facilities in and outside their jurisdictions to enable duty bearers come to the aid of households and the community at large.
