ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, July 18, 2014/African Press Organization (APO)/ — AFRICAN UNION TOWN HALL MEETING TO ENGAGE THE DIASPORA MEDIA ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE AU COMMUNICATION STRATEGY AND 2063 AGENDA IN SIDELINES OF US-AFRICA SUMMIT
INVITATION TO MEDIA REPRESENTATIVES
WHEN: 4th and 8th of August 2014
WHERE: The event will hold in two phases as follows:
4th August 2014 – the Town Hall Meeting will hold at the conference room at the World Bank MC4800 at 18181 H street NW Washington DC. USA
8th August 2014 – the Town Hall Meeting will hold in the New York, meeting room of the AU Mission, NY. USA.
WHO: Organised by the Directorate of Information and Communication (DIC) of the African Union Commission (AUC) in collaboration with the Citizens and Diaspora Organizations Directorate (CIDO), AUC
WHY: The Diaspora is being considered as the 6th Region of Africa. Therefore engaging the Diaspora media to take ownership of the different thematic issues for the development of Africa is a legitimate call by the African Union in view to reach out to the majority of the Diaspora through their respective media outlets.
The Town Hall meeting will be a catalyst to ensure the ownership and involvement of the African media in Diaspora for a more vibrant, positively visible and people centred African Union, supported by more effective communication structures. This will not only raise awareness on AUC activities but also engage the Diaspora journalists and the international media interested in covering the activities of the AU to the development agenda of the continent.
OBJECTIVE: The main objectives of this Town Hall meeting is to narrow the gap between the AU Organisation and its citizens through enhanced advocacy and popularisation of the activities of the AU with the view to building networks with the Diaspora media. This will enable the African population abroad to be informed timely on the development agenda of the Union through the different Diaspora media channels.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:
The Town Hall Meeting will be a platform to present to the Journalists of the Diaspora, the African Union Communication, Advocacy and Marketing Strategy 2014 – 2017 Strategic Plan. An essential instrument that will enable the successful implementation of the Strategic Plan of the Union, in the spirit of the AU Constitutive Act, which establishes the need to assemble the key internal and external stakeholders of the Union as well as the African Citizens, and include their voices in devising its strategic operations.
There will be a presentation of the African Agenda 2063: the role of the media to achieve the goals of the Agenda so as to create awareness in the world on the activities of the Union through the Diaspora media.
METHODOLOGY:
In line with the Communication Strategy of the AUC and in order to raise awareness on the activities earmarked in the African Union the two Town Hall Meetings will be a side event to the upcoming United States–Africa Leaders Summit billed for 5 and 6 August 2014 in Washington DC, USA. Given that this event is an international conference seeking to widen US trade, development and security ties with Africa, with an expected participation of over 50 world leaders and African Heads of States, there will be a considerable number of the Diaspora journalists as well as international journalists interested in covering African issues at this summit.
To this effect, the DIC, in collaboration with the AU Missions in New York and Washington, is planning to seize this opportunity to have the African Union leadership address the Diaspora journalists on Monday 4 August 2014, just before the Summit in Washington and on Friday 8 August 2014, just after the Summit in New York.
The Town Hall meeting will discuss the communication component of the Africa 2063 Agenda so as to invite the Diaspora media to contribute to this important agenda through their respective channels and update them on the ongoing consultation which the AUC has embarked on, with the view to involving all the classes of people so that African citizens can take ownership and be part of the process through the popularization of the vision by the journalists. The Town Hall Meetings will also feature a questions and answer session to enable the AU leadership address some of the inquiries of the participants.
PARTICIPANTS:
The participants of the workshop will include:
• Representative office of the AUC Chairperson;
• Representative, CIDO, AUC;
• Representative SPPMERM – Strategic Policy, Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Resource Mobilization, AUC;
• Head and officials of AU Missions Abroad;
• African journalists in the Diaspora;
• Journalists covering African issues based abroad;
• Communication Officers from UN and other Organisations based Abroad;
• Diaspora Civil Society in the area of advocacy
• Focal persons dealing with communication in Organisations;
• Other Stakeholder and partners organisations representatives.
EXPECTED RESULTS
o Outcome of the Town Hall meeting will be to engage the Diaspora media to the implementation of the communication activities listed in the AU Communication, Advocacy and Marketing Strategy 2014-2017 ;
o Ensure that the DIC through the Diaspora journalists raise enough awareness on activities of the AU through their respective media channels.
o Create a network of Diaspora journalists who can be invited to cover AU major events and know more about the AU.
o Create a data base of journalists of the Diaspora interested in covering AU activities; they can be invited to attend workshops organised by the DIC inline with the AU Communication Strategy.
o The report of the meeting will further enrich the AU Communication Strategy on how to engage the Diaspora through their media channels.
BACKGROUND:
The African Union (AU) and its precursor the Organization of African Unity (OAU) were founded on the ideals of Pan Africanism. The main objective has always been to consolidate African unity and foster continental development and progress. The inception of the African Union, following the Sirte Declaration of 9 September, 1999, of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity, generated tremendous interest about the prospects of Africans finally taking control of their collective destiny.
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