THE International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) has held a Media-Civil Society Organisations Roundtable Meeting for the North-East and North-West themed ‘Strengthening Collaboration with Media and CSOs for Social Accountability’.
The training took place at Tahir Guest Palace on Friday in Kano State.
The training, which is part of The ICIR Open Contract Reporting Project sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation, was organised by the Centre to build the capacity of media personnel and CSOs on investigative, multimedia and solutions journalism.
In his address at the event, the Executive Director of The ICIR, Dayo Aiyetan, urged the CSOs to work in synergy with the media to achieve accountability and promote good governance.
“Regardless of the sector in which Civil Society Organisations work, there should be a collaboration with the media (journalists) to achieve the common goal of accountability and good governance; we should be able to promote transparency and amplify our impact in society,” he said.
The ICIR Open Contract Reporting Project initiative was launched in 2017.
The project aims to increase the capacity of Nigerian media personnel to scrutinize and report on contracting and procurement processes and provide them with the necessary knowledge to aid in their advocacy.
Since the project’s inception, The ICIR has organised capacity-building training for journalists and provided funding to cash-strapped Nigerian newsrooms to conduct investigations into public procurement and the budgeting process in order to hold public officials accountable.
The Open Contract Reporting Project training will also take place in Lagos State by November 2022.
Esther Ilesanmi is a Multimedia Journalist with The International Centre of Investigative Reporting.
She is also a Social Media Manager and Trainer who teaches others how to maximize social media effectively.
Esther can be found on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/estherilesanmii
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