Media Training Workshop in Accra
On Saturday, September 8, 2018, COLANDEF held a training workshop for media practitioners in Ghana, at the Alisa Hotel in Accra. It was a workshop on Land Governance in Ghana.
According to the Executive Director of COLANDEF, Mrs. Nana Ama Yirrah, this event was held to:
build a shared understanding of Ghana’s land sector and its challenges
identify key national policy advocacy issues and how the media can contribute to set this agenda
establish collaboration with different media houses for sustained engagements on emerging land rights issues
The speakers at this workshop, in order of appearance, were Mrs. Nana Ama Yirrah, Executive Director of COLANDEF; Mr. Patrick Amoah, Deputy Administrator of Stool Lands; Dr. Benjamin Quaye, National Project Coordinator of the Land Administration Project; and Dr. Stanislaus Adiaba, of the Policy and Research Division of the Lands Commission Corporate Head Office.
At the workshop, the speakers and media practitioners agreed that land issues are scarcely discussed by the media in Ghana. It was pointed out by those in the media industry that this scarce discussion of land related issues was because of the limited understanding of the sector which makes it difficult for them anytime they attempted to do a report on land related issues. Examples of the problems cited at the workshop included seemingly endless litigations, the risk of getting sued, technicalities which are not properly understood by the media houses, among others.
To a large extent, this training exercise undertaken by COLANDEF allayed their worries with regards to reporting on land issues. Many misconceptions on land rights, large scale acquisitions, and land ownership were clarified by the speakers.
That said, all parties present agreed that this workshop was the first stage towards a sustained national discourse on land issues. More conversations on land need to be had with experts in the field in order to bring attention to the issues surrounding land rights in Ghana.
Watch a recorded version of this workshop on our Facebook page at https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=167234054168932&id=100026470149732