Johannesburg, South Africa, 26 September 2019 –The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in collaboration with the European Union (EU) will host a media workshop on the AfCFTA to unpack Africa's Free Trade story from 2-3 October in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The AfCFTA provides the opportunity for Africa to create the world's largest free trade area, with the potential to unite 1.3 billion people, in a $2.5 trillion economic bloc and usher in a new era of development. Moreover, the African media can help the public better understand the opportunities as well as the challenges involved in the implementation of the AfCFTA. The press can make trade reporting more humanised by integrating trade themes into other major news stories and developing new frames for telling trade stories to unpack Africa's Free Trade Story. This helps a variety of stakeholders better understand how the AfCFTA can practically grow intra-African trade, enhance competitiveness and ensure a better reallocation of resources in a way that practically impacts their own lives.
Therefore, this workshop will support journalists in their impactful storytelling of trade news. It will be bringing together journalists from all corners of the continent and expose them to the essentials of trade economics; national and regional trade policy analysis, and global political economy. It will also focus on new strategies to gather and report African trade news and economic issues. As well as support participants in tackling news assignments that involve economics and business data with an emphasis on how to ensure media content is exciting and relevant to their audiences.
This workshop is part of a more extensive project aimed at deepening Africa's trade integration through effective implementation of the AfCFTA. Financially supported by the European Union, ECA has been working with its partners including the African Union Commission (AUC), International Trade Centre (ITC), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and a selection of independent trade experts to ensure effective AfCFTA implementation strategies.
For more information Contact
Communications Section
Economic Commission for Africa
PO Box 3001
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia
Tel: +251 11 551 5826
E-mail: eca-info@un.org or madu@un.org