ACME and SEATINI Uganda sign agreement to strengthen media coverage of trade and development issues

African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) Uganda to strengthen the capacity of journalists to cover development issues in ways that reflect social justice, question popular narratives, promote transparency and accountability, and influence policy decisions.

Through this partnership, the two organisations, which signed the MoU today at the ACME office in Bunga, Kampala, will co-create and undertake capacity-building initiatives to enhance media reporting on trade, fiscal, investment, and development issues.

ACME Executive Director, George Lugalambi, said: “This partnership is important because we can develop a home-grown agenda to respond to issues. We welcome this partnership and can’t wait for the opportunity as indigenous organisations to work and achieve our goals together.”

SEATINI Executive Director, Jane Nalunga, acknowledged the critical role that the media plays in raising public awareness and providing information that shapes attitudes and public opinion, which in turn can impact policymaking.

“We have been working with ACME on an ad-hoc basis and now we thought to concretise our collaboration so as to enable the media to look at issues holistically,” Nalunga said.

The three-year MoU covers five key areas of collaboration: information sharing, capacity building, support for networking, strategic advice, joint advocacy and campaigns, periodic meetings, and fundraising.

SEATINI Uganda is a pan-African non-governmental organisation that promotes pro-development trade, fiscal and investment-related policies and practices for sustained equitable development and improved livelihoods in Uganda and the East African Community.

ACME’s mission is to make the media a more effective platform for providing information on public affairs, a tool for monitoring official power, and a forum for vibrant public debate.