Officials and journalists of West African news agencies, editorial staff of the Cameroon Daily newspaper , Mutations, and the Zambia News Agency, as well as officers of the West African Union of Journalists (WAUJ) met in Cotonou at the workshop jointly organised by WANAD, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and GTZ.
Following presentations and discussions, the participants acknowledged :
•  the importance of ICTs as tools for accelerating economic growth that are capable of contributing effectively to the millennium development goals and poverty reduction strategies;
•  the importance of ICT policies and strategies as the starting point for any process of ownership of these development tools;
•  the general situation of news agencies: lack of highly skilled personnel, functioning equipment and financial resources; as well as the weakness of their institutional framework within the media landscape of their countries;
•  the urgent need to pursue actions to strengthen institutional capacity and human resources of the media in view of their role in building an Information Society in Africa and the development process ;
•  the urgent need to improve the infrastructure and general logistics of news agencies.
The Workshop therefore addressed the following recommendations :
1.To WANAD
a. To seek partnerships to initiate and conduct an in-depth study on the situation of African news agencies and to develop a project for revitalizing the agencies, taking into account:
•  providing news agencies with modern basic equipment for collection, processing and diffusion, as well as supporting logistics;
•  strengthening the competences of the personnel of news agencies in the field of ICT, and initiating them into the challenges of an Information Society;
•  redefining the institutional framework of the agencies within the media landscape of their countries;
•  committing the State to support news agencies by increasing financial resources.
•  To seek partnerships for the proposed study and subsequent project;
•  To work closely with ECA in order to ensure adequate follow up of the present training activity;
•  To foster the creation of a network to exchange news stories and experiences among the agencies in order to promote cooperation
2. TO ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR AFRICA
•  To periodically provide the agencies information on the activities of the ECA for dissemination;
•  To support continuous capacity building for news agency journalists on their role in the Information Society;
•  To promote the participation of news agencies in various conferences and meetings of the ECA on the Information Society;
•  To initiate Awards for News Agencies to emphasise their role in the Information Society;
•  In conjunction with the WANAD Centre, to include the concerns of news agencies in ICT Policies and Strategies, in view of their major function in news processing in their countries;
•  To assist WANAD in identifying partners to support the project for the revitalization and the capacity building of the agencies within the Information Society;
•  To offer technical, institutional and financial support to the project of revitalizing the news agencies.
3. TO OTHER PARTNERS
To provide financial and institutional support for the capacity building of WANAD and the implementation of its Action Plan;
4. TO THE NEW AGENCIES THEMSELVES
•  With the technical support of WANAD, to establish a network for news and information exchange and for sharing experiences among agencies in order to promote cooperation;
•  To initiate coverage on the implementation of the African Information Society Initiative, AISI, and on related emerging issues. as follow up to this workshop
•  To participate in the process of developing ICT Policies and Strategies by working with the relevant authorities to undertake analytical reporting on their implementation, follow up and assessment.

Cotonou ,19 April 2006

WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS