At least five young South Sudanese women have been selected for the continental leadership programme after seeing off a competition of more than 500 applicants to participate in a nine-month-long women’s leadership accelerator program.

The program is the brainchild of the Women in News Organization. It is a nine-month-long intensive programme for journalists and editors from Africa.

They join more than 100 other women drawn from the media in Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. They will take part in a program designed to accelerate the leadership and management skills of women in the media.

Speaking at the virtual launch of the accelerator program, Melaine Walker, the Executive Director of Media Development and Women in News, WAN-IFRA, said the programme aims to promote women in leadership and voices in the news.

She described the women’s leadership accelerator programme as highly impactful.

“From last year alone, 36 per cent of the 84 women that participated received a promotion, and 22 per cent received a salary raise,” said Melaine. “40 per cent have made a lateral move, and this speaks to the potential of this programme to increase their impact on the media industry,” she told the women.

The program funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and Norway kicks off with an intensive week of mentoring, discussing, and learning from some of the top coaches in Africa.  

“Change your media, change your narrative and unlock your career,” Melaine said.

The Minister of Information, Publicity, and Broadcasting, Monica Mutsvangwa urged the participants to guard against the “pull her down syndrome.”  

“The pull her down syndrome” is used to describe a situation where women degrade fellow women.

“You are the change,” said the minister. “We need those voices, and we need the contributions.”

The minister also called on leaders to commit to the cause of stopping sexual harassment, especially in the media.

In collaboration with the University of London, WAN-IFRA Women in News released worldwide research last month detailing the extent of sexual harassment in newsrooms.

According to the findings, 41 per cent of female journalists had encountered verbal and or physical sexual harassment at work. Despite this, only 1 in 5 people reported the occurrence. 

Although it is less common, men have not been spared, with an average of 12 per cent reporting verbal and or physical harassment.

On average, 30 per cent of all journalists polled said they had been harassed verbally or physically.