 has kick started a 12 million dollars project to support media in South Sudan.){kind=link}
A United States led organisation known as International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) has kick started a 12 million dollars project to support media in South Sudan.
The three year programmed funded by USAID will support national and local media in the country through Sustainable Independent Media Activities (SIMA)
The move is to improve access to credible, accurate, and reliable information for South Sudanese citizens and promote the role of Independent Media in enhancing communities’ engagement in civic spaces.
Linet Omwange, the Deputy Chief Party of IREX says the projects will build and enhancing the ability of local partners.
She says SIMA will work together with national technical partners such as Association for Media Development in South Sudan or AMDISS.
According to IREX, the project will provide contextualised high-quality capacity development to independent media organisations, Networks, and Radio stations.
“SIMA will continue to work with technical partners to enable them to provide high-quality capacity development for media,” Omwanga stated.
Linet says AMDISS will progressively take more responsibility in implementing activities that support independent radio stations during the project period.
SIMA’s technical partners will conduct a baseline towards gender equality in the media sector and customise the curriculum development to break barriers.
The USAID mission Director, Kate Crawford says millions of citizens will benefit through increasing the media and professional capacity of South Sudanese.
Crawford says communities that would have been otherwise cut off will be able to receive civic education, health, and hygiene and valid news in a variety of local languages.
The USAID mission Director also stresses that through the increased number of media organisations, people at the grassroots level will be able to learn about the peace process and their role in it.
SIMA will target more than a dozen counties in South Sudan, providing citizens with a platform to contribute to a more responsive government for South Sudanese citizens.