Global news association targets women journalists for leadership programme

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has announced a call for applications for its flagship Women in News (WIN) programme.

WIN is a media leadership development programme, empowering media women in sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa as well as Southeast Asia. It has run for seven years and this is the fifth call for applications in Kenya.

Women journalists have until December 15 to apply.

The WIN accelerator is an intensive, nine-month long programme for journalists and editors.

The programme, which accepts 100-150 applicants, annually, offers coaching, training, mentoring and networking. 

It was formed to tackle the issue of few women in media being represented at top levels of leadership.

A report by the Media Council of Kenya titled ‘The Gender Agenda: Assessing gender issues in the Kenyan media’ showed women are poorly represented at top leadership levels.

“Women’s relative invisibility in the traditional news media has also crossed over into digital news delivery platforms,” the report said.

WIN East and Central Africa programme manager Jane Godia said, “Media houses are dominated by male leadership at the top hence very few women get to top management positions.”

She has encouraged women to apply for WIN, adding, “One who has joined the WIN programme cannot leave the same."

"They will go through the 360 degrees, re-evaluate themselves through self-discovery and eventually the coaches will support them through coaching and mentoring in constructing their career road maps. Our core call is: Believe in yourself and you will get there.”

WIN boasts of having one in four women who go through the leadership programme being promoted within six months of completing the programme.

Applicants to the WIN accelerator must have at least two to three years of management experience and be working in the media sector.

Journalists from Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe can apply for the 2020 programme.

Successful applicants will benefit certified media management training delivered by regional and global experts drawn from the WIN and WAN-IFRA extended community.

Participants also benefit from online or in-person training nationally or regionally, gender balance and sexual harassment training, one-on-one coaching to create a three to five year career roadmap and facilitated group mentoring with peers.