MSP FY2015 Quarterly Report : October-December 2014

AID-656-A-12-00001, with a total life of project funding of $9,978,124. The program's overall objective is to establish a free, open, diverse, and self-sustaining Mozambican media sector that provides high-quality information to citizens, promoting debate, accountability, and development. The program focuses on five key result areas: Professional Capacity of Journalists, Business Operations and Sustainability of Media Outlets, Journalism Education, Community Radio, and Advocacy. The program's implementation is divided into four main areas: coaching and mentoring, professional development, foundational skills, and digital media. The coaching and mentoring component continues to develop, with a growing number of mentees, while the foundational skills trainings are relatively new and the digital media trainings have not yet scaled up to the intended level. During the first quarter of FY 2015, the program achieved several notable milestones. Ten interns and twenty Media Lab TV trainees graduated from their respective programs and are being sought after by prospective employers. A one-week international training on financial transparency and reporting took place, reinforcing the knowledge and skills base of journalists in a core area. The program trained fifteen members of TV Surdo (Deaf TV) in TV production and helped establish a solid platform for continued expansion of TV for the deaf. The program also sponsored the participation of Mozambican journalists in the Power Reporting conference, providing international exposure, networking, and learning opportunities. A long-distance online learning portal with web-based courses was launched, aiming to provide flexible learning modalities that facilitate remote studies. The program co-sponsored the 2nd annual Best Media Design awards, stimulating creativity in media design and recognizing the best practitioners. IREX and the Brazilian association of investigative journalists (ABAJI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to share materials, experiences, and other resources. Monitoring visits to ten community radio stations took place in December, reinforcing an ongoing process of station development. The program received ten international journalists from the International Reporting Project, a visit that provided a useful international networking opportunity for journalists. A Media Specialist for gender was hired and started working on Gender/GBV issues, supported by a part-time gender advisor. The program briefed the Commonwealth Observer Group (COG) on the media environment in Mozambique, focusing on the operating environment and parameters of the media, as well as typical challenges faced by media outlets and individual journalists. IREX convened a panel to score the Media Sustainability Index (MSI) for 2014, observing that while there were fewer legal proceedings against journalists in the past year, the number of cases of physical violence increased. USAID Mission Director Dr. Alex Dickie launched the Media Incubator, a multipurpose training facility designed to provide basic infrastructure and practical support to emerging media businesses and journalists. The program hosted a delegation of international reporters from the International Reporting Project, who visited Mozambique to learn about important health issues facing the country. The program's regional sub-office in Nampula moved to an enhanced facility, providing more working space, training rooms, and secure parking space for program vehicles. Overall, the program continues to make progress in strengthening the professional capacity of journalists, improving business operations and sustainability of media outlets, enhancing journalism education, increasing the ability of community radio stations to provide more and better information to listeners, and promoting advocacy for press freedom and an improved legal enabling environment for media.