25 Ghanaians receive training on the development and educational use of French radio

Since November 2020, the ‘French by Radio’ training project has been utilised to improve Francophonie in the public sphere in Ghana by equipping media personnel with knowledge on how to develop radio programs in French and enhance the educational use of radio in French classes.

On Monday, Institut Français Ghana and Radio France Internationale (RFI), with the support of the West African Regional Representation of “La Francophonie” and the French Embassy, commenced a five-day training workshop at Alliance Française Accra to enhance and promote the usage of the French language in the Ghanaian media space. The opening ceremony of the training which concludes on July 2, in the presence of Steve SYME, personal adviser for Francophonie to the President of the Republic of Ghana, Tchitchi KONDO-AYIGA, Director of the Secretariat for Francophone Affairs of the Ghanaian Ministry of Education, Samuel JACQUIN, Deputy Ambassador of the Embassy of France in Ghana, and Thi Hoang Mai TRAN, Representative of La Francophonie in West Africa.

The first part of the ‘French by Radio’ training project began remotely in November 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, 25 individuals from Tamale, Cape Coast, Ho, Sunyani, Kumasi, Accra, Wa, and Tarkwa have been working in synergy on the creation of Francophone programmes for university and local community radios. At the end of the in-person training being held at Alliance Française Accra, the participants are expected to have recorded a pilot project of the programme they have been working on for the past eight months. The finished production will be aired on their respective radios and will approach topics spanning across theatre, music, literature and news. The trainees will also follow workshops on editing materials, as well as researching sponsorships and sustainable practices to ensure project longevity.

Since the signing of a Linguistic Pact between the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) and the Republic of Ghana in May 2018, the promotion of the French language in the media has been a focus for partners. Primarily, the objective has been to promote Francophonie in the Ghanaian public sphere. To achieve this, the Embassy of France to Ghana and RFI initiated the ‘French by Radio’ training project. With the contribution, the project will:

• Create synergies between universities and local community and university radios
• Create a network of radios that offer programmes in French in Ghana to boost educational use of radio in French classes.

The project is co-financed by the Institut Français Ghana, the French Embassy in Ghana, France Médias Monde and the West African Regional Representation of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, to which Ghana has been an associate member since 2006.

For more information, please contact: elise.blaizot@diplomatie.gouv.fr (Embassy of France to Ghana) or lidwien.vandixhoorn@rfi.fr (Radio France Internationale)