African Women in Media (AWiM) holds 8th Annual 2024 conference in Dakar, Senegal

The long-awaited  AWiM24 , “Media and Sustainability” conference kick-started in Dakar , Senegal on thursday 5th December 2024. The flurry of activities started on Wednesday 4th December with the UNESCO Pre-Conference Session, with focus on advancing media development and sustainability.

The Pre-conference sponsored by UNESCO  was organised to set the stage for advancing media development and sustainability, sparking vital conversations on safety, resilience, and innovation in the AI era.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is an important facet of the United Nations that has been supportive of media initiatives and innovations around the world. With the rising global issues around media convergence due to the rise in technology and sustainability, this is why the AWIM conference for 2024 is themed around efforts towards ensuring sustainability, especially for women-owned media.

The event opened proper with opening remarks on December 5th 2024, by  Dr. Yemisi Akinbobola and Ms. Bamidele Ogunleye Co-Founders of AWIM, alongside others,  who welcomed all the guests from countries around the world for the event.

They said the conference will surely lead to fruitful deliberations that will equip media managers with solutions for sustainable media practices and collaboration opportunities, which is very key to advancing women-owned media in developing countries.

Delivering the keynote session, Oluwadara Ajala, Nolwazi Tusini, Lebogang Maphada, and Sebenzile Nkambule discussed two topics: the Media Development Investment Fund and approaches to media sustainability. Together the team ex-rayed the many opportunities that are available to secure funds for media organizations which is very important for sustainability. They also highlighted how approaches to ensuring the sustainability efforts are instilled and maintained in media organizations. Such mentioned include staff retraining and succession planning.

Dr. Yemisi Akinbobola, the CEO of AWIM, moderated the panel on ‘Empowering Success: Case Studies in Implementing Effective Business Models for Media Organisations.’ Wonderful insights were provided by Shirley Nirmala Govender, Karen Thorne, Dorcas Taiwo, and Angela Agowaike, experienced media managers and practitioners in Africa.

The speakers explored options on how the women-owned media organisations can implement business models and strategies that will increase their funds in addition to other viable funding options. They admitted that it is very important for managers to understand strategies that will best suit the kind of services they offer alongside promoting their values and supporting their communities.

Other panels during the session include ‘Gender and The Media in Senegal’ and ‘AI and Technology Facilitated Gender-Based Violence.’ There were workshops also on developing a business model & product strategy, a panel & workshop by the Media Development Investment Fund, and a workshop by AWIM.

Here is a video of how it went down on Day 1