FEMNET SRHR Media Training Manual
Comprehensive and accurate media reporting on sexual and reproductive health and
rights (SRHR) has not been easy as it has been shrouded by pernicious myths and
misconceptions. Yet, media’s role in advancing SRHR and particularly the bodily autonomy
and bodily integrity of African women and girls is fundamental to respecting and fulfilling
women’s human rights.
This FEMNET Media Training Manual on SRHR helps to unpack terms and definitions
within SRHR, giving journalists the much needed direction on how to write stories that are
informative and educative whilst leveraging on existing laws and policies on women’s rights.
It actually speaks to the core of what African women want in line with the visionary 2030
Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action
and the African Union Agenda 2063 as well as the legally binding AU Protocol to the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (popular known as
the Maputo Protocol).
Through Media and SRHR training workshops organized by FEMNET in 2018 and 2019, the
media practitioners will be able to produce articles in news and features from an informed
point and with a gender and intersectional lens. Media will also be equipped with requisite
knowledge and tools to be consistent in amplifying women’s voices, choices and perspectives
around key SRHR issues. They will also be able to cover SRHR related stories using gender
data that articulates women’s SRHR agenda and contribute to the collective efforts of holding
governments accountable to honoring women’s SRHR commitments.
Uniquely, this Manual uses solution journalism to address critical SRHR issues such as access
to safe and legal abortion and the urgency of comprehensive sexuality education. Indeed,
FEMNET recognizes the importance of media advocacy in transforming social norms and
attitudes and we hope this Manual will be a useful resource in shifting narratives on women’s
bodily integrity and autonomy and advancing their dignity.
