In November, PSAf partnered with the Mozambique National Aids Council (NAC) to train nine journalists on communicating HIV and AIDS, particularly issues around sexual minorities. The media training was conducted in the capital Maputo on 10 and 11 November. 

The PSAf Governance and Development programme has kicked off activities under a new project to foster accountability in the utilization of resources allocated for education development in Zambia. Dubbed the Notice Board Initiative (NBI), the new project was launched at the beginning of November, to foster accountability by increasing communities’ access to information on educational issues and processes, and this is expected to lead to their participation in dialogues on issues around school welfare. 

The 17th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) presented a great opportunity for southern Africa journalists to interact with policy makers and experts from across the world.

On 17 November, PSAf organised a half day consultative forum for Zambian Members of Parliament and implementing partners for the Governance and Transparency Fund (GTF)’s Atwaambe project.

The meeting was attended by five Members of the National Assembly of Zambia (NAZ) and representatives of organisations that are involved in the GTF activities in Zambia. Journalists from selected national and community media institutions across the country also participated in the consultations. 

 There is growing media interest in covering issues around sexual minorities and multiple concurrent partnerships following the training of journalists under the Communicating HIV and AIDS Prevention in Southern Africa project. 

At a PSAf media workshop on Communicating HIV and AIDS prevention, journalists in Swaziland resolved to take a stand against those who moralise prevention interventions and take a judgemental stance, saying this would slow down progress in tackline the pandemic.

The media practitioners said instead of being judgmental, the media should be more concerned with educating people on HIV and AIDS. The Kingdom of Swaziland has sone of the world’s highest prevalence rates.