Executive Director, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA).
The Accra-based Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is now accepting entries for the 6th edition of the West Africa Media Excellence Conference and Awards (WAMECA), which is scheduled to take place from October 20 to 22, 2022 in Accra, Ghana.
WAMECA 2022, which will focus on the theme: Media and Women Empowerment in Africa, will dedicate the first two days of the event to discussing various topics under the theme while the last day will be for the annual awards, which honours the best journalistic works in West Africa.
Participants in this year’s event will explore the role of the media and journalism in addressing the challenges women face in African societies including difficulties related to access to education, finance, health, and technologies; abuses such as domestic violence and child marriages; inequalities in visibility, voice, and participation; among others.
The Awards are opened to journalists from print, electronic and online media in Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusophone countries of West Africa. An applicant must be West African, working with and for a media organisation(s) based in the sub-region.
An entry for the Awards must have been published or broadcasted between January 1 to December 31, 2021.
WAMECA 2022 will honour outstanding works of journalism in West Africa in the following categories: Telecoms and ICTs Reporting, Oil and Gas Reporting, Business and SMEs Reporting, Anti-Corruption Reporting, Health Reporting, Environmental Reporting, Investigative Reporting, and Human Rights Reporting.
In line with the theme for WAMECA this year, a new category, Women Empowerment Reporting, has been introduced. The category seeks to recognise and honour journalists in West Africa who have produced analytical and high-quality reports aimed at promoting women and gender equality, amplifying women voices and highlighting women who are breaking the gendered stereotypes in the region.
An eligible entry should be an original work published through a media outlet in West Africa and must show the date of publication/broadcast and the medium in which the work was published. Applicants may submit entries to a maximum of two categories. For each category, a maximum of two entries is permitted.
The deadline for the submission of the entries is June 30, 2022, at 17.00 GMT. Finalists for WAMECA 2022 Awards will be announced on October 1, 2022.
Interested applicants should upload published works via the entry form on the website: www.mfwa.org/wameca.
