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| US Ambassador Eric Schultz (in suit) during the grant signing ceremony last week |
By Staff Writter
The Unites States Government has provided $20,000 to PAMOS
Media Consultancy, a private company to conduct capacity building trainings to
100 Zambian journalists.
The funding is for one year and is aimed at training the
journalists in budget tracking and investigative journalism skills.
Speaking when he hosted 11 organisations and companies which
were granted about $300,000 in combined funding last week, US Ambassador to
Zambia Eric Schultz said the grants are aimed at helping Zambian grassroots
organisations work.
“These grants go to the grassroots organisations that are at
the core of development in Zambia. The United States government has a long term
commitment to help organisations which are making a difference,” said Mr
Schultz.
PAMOS Media Consultancy was funded under the Accountability
and Transparency theme to build the capacity of journalists to report on the
utilisation of public funds.
“Under this project, we will train journalists to understand
the budget formulation process, the utilisation of public funds and the role
other relevant government institutions make in checking how public funds are
utilised,” said PAMOS Media Consultancy founder and Managing Director Paul
Shalala.
Mr Shalala, who is a 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow, said
the project will start in November 2017 and is expected to be concluded in
August 2018.
He added that the organisation will not restrict itself to
the 100 budgeted journalist but may go beyond the number to ensure as many
journalists are trained in the next one year.
In this project, Mr Shalala partnered with 2016 Mandela
Washington Fellow Christabel Mwango to apply for the grant.
The two are expected to commence their trainings next month
in Lusaka before going to other provinces.
“Tentatively, we have set November 3 as the date of the
launch of the project in Lusaka and the subsequent holding of the Lusaka
Province training. Three weeks later we will be in Southern Province and
Eastern Province in early December,” said Miss Mwango.
She revealed that the remaining seven provinces will host
their trainings in 2018.
Under the project, PAMOS Media Consultancy is also expected
to produce a 25 minutes documentary to show how Zambian journalists will
benefit from the project.
The documentary will be aired on a number of Television
stations.