GALE strategy in Africa kicked off

September 30, 2007 - Last week, a group of representatives from southern African organizations came together to discuss the creation of a GALE resource tool for media workers

From 23 until 28 September, a group of 10 representatives from southern African organizations came together in Centurion, South Africa to discuss the creation of a resource tool for journalists and other media workers. The publication will be the key tool of the GALE Strategy in Africa. The African Strategy Groups has 50% lesbian and gay members from LGBTI organizations and 50% heterosexual members from media organizations. Collaboration between these partners is an essential element in the (southern) African strategy.

Focus on the media

The meeting was organized by Ian Swartz and his organization The Rainbow Project (TRP). TRP is the main LGBTI organization in Namibia. Before the meeting was organized, a consultation was done among southern African organizations to explore which priorities might come up at the meeting, which was meant to create a fundament for a GALE African strategy group. From this consultation it became clear that a focus on working wit the media would be a priority. The mass media have a huge influence on public opinion in Africa, but reporters are often misinformed, prejudiced or force by their governments to report negatively on LGBTI issues.

Grass roots and mainstream collaboration

To organize the meeting, TRP thought it essential to create collaboration between grass roots organizations and mainstream organizations from the start. Thus, 4 LGBT organizations were invited and 4 mainstream organizations. The grass roots organizations were TRP itself, LeGaBiba from Botswana, GALZ from Zimbabwe and Behind the Mask from South Africa. The mainstream organizations were the Media Institute, CMS Productions and MMP from South Africa and MISA from Namibia.

Media resource tool

Most of the meeting was spend on developing concrete ideas on how one or several media tools would look like and how they would be used in local strategies. The meeting resulted in a general description of a format (a short paper media guide and a cd-rom) and a briefing for the content of the tools. Several participants in the meeting said they would be ready to invest some own resources in the tool and the implementation plans, in addition to the international funding GALE want to raise.