Winner of ONE Africa Award 2008 is Development Communications Network of Nigeria

Accra – The ONE Campaign is delighted to announce that Development Communications Network is the winner of the 2008 ONE Africa Award.

Devcoms Network was awarded the prize of $100,000 for their work with the media in Nigeria, training and sensitizing journalists and editors to public health care issues, especially for women and children.

This is the first annual ONE Africa Award, which has been created to honour outstanding contributions by Africans towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Reducing child and maternal mortality are the fourth and fifth Millennium Development Goals, but are the ones where least progress has been made, especially in Africa.

Devcoms’ work, sensitising and immersing reporters in public health issues has seen a 15% rise in media coverage of maternal and child health in Nigeria. They also provide media support to advocacy efforts for free maternal and child health care across the country.

“This was a very difficult decision”, said Oliver Buston from ONE. “Devcoms was selected because they are innovative, have demonstrated a strong positive effect in working towards improved health care for women and children, and also to ensure MDG funding in Nigeria is properly monitored. We were also impressed by their plans to scale up their programmes.”

The award was announced at the CSO Parallel Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, where transparency has been a recurring theme.

“There are very strong links between transparency, good information, and development,” said Buston. “Greater transparency is the first step to more effective aid.  Transparency allows donors to coordinate, it allows African governments to plan properly and it empowers citizens to hold their governments to account. Devcoms’ work with the media is making impressive headway in this critical part of the development picture. We are delighted that they are the first winners of the ONE Africa Award.”

Devcoms Network Programme Director Akin Jimoh received the award in Accra.  “This is a great opportunity to expand our scope of service to the women and children of Africa,” said Jimoh. “We believe the silent sighs of our women and children have to stop. We will equip our media to track the huge resources budgeted for MDGs 4 and 5, as well as other issues, from allocation to implementation.”

“We particularly appreciate the recognition given to media work by our NGO partners, especially the Core Technical Committee and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in Nigeria.”