Seye Joseph
With the interest to strengthen the research and reporting capacity of journalists covering health in the country, journalists from different media houses in Lagos had been trained on how to use the tacit and explicit knowledge management for effective health reporting.
The program that is a two-day training on the Knowledge Management and Communications Subcommittee of Lagos State Accountability Mechanism comprises mainly the journalists and officials of Lagos State Ministry of Health organised by MamaYe Nigeria (Evidence for Action)
According to Lagos State Coordinator for), Adenike Badiora said that the intention of the initiative is to support the Lagos State Government to improve its maternal and child health indices.
She said that bringing the journalists and officials of Ministry of Health together will help to foster knowledge driven capacity between the staff of Ministry of health and the participating journalists.
She explained further that the organisation have established a State Level Accountability Mechanism for Maternal and Newborn Health (LASAM). – a forum that brings together, the government, civil society organisations, the community and the Media together to discuss Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) Issues.
Participated journalists are expected to use the knowledge gained at the workshop to gather relevant information to reporting the health system for people to take informed decision.
Also explaining why knowledge management is key to effective health reporting for journalists, the Communication Manager for MamaYe Nigeria (Evidence for Action) Moroof Babaranti said that putting knowledge management systems in place facilitate the flow of information and result in better, more-informed decisions for people when taking action in the health system.
He stressed further that it helps to improving organizational outcomes and organizational learning by introducing into an organization a rage of specific processes and practices for identifying and capturing knowledge, know-how expertise and other intellectual capital within the organization and for making such knowledge assets available for transfer and reuse across organization.
Each participant at the workshop was given task to work on for further engagement and for improvement of the health sector.