Liberian Journalist Named on Global Agricultural Journalists Network ‘Vision 2025’ Committee

Monrovia – The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists (IFAJ) which is the leading global network of agricultural journalists and communicators based in Canada has named Liberian journalist and development communications practitioner, Jefferson Massah to its visioning committee.

The committee comprising 5 five outstanding agricultural and development journalists is tasked to develop 5 years of strategic vision and action plan for the IFAJ covering (2020-2025).

The committee scope of work includes; reviewing the purpose of the IFAJ and aligning the vision to suit the needs of nations and individual members, addressing the key challenges and delivering to the needs of existing and new member countries.

According to IFAJ President, Owen Roberts, the vision committee takes the pulse of IFAJ and helps guide where it’s headed, and It creates a roadmap outlining how, in a practical fashion, to move IFAJ forward. ‘’ We’ve revisited the plan, checked in to see where we’re at and how much we have accomplished, and now it’s time to reset our sights on what is important to IFAJ as we look toward to 2025,” Mr. Roberts emphasized.

IFAJ visioning committee is chaired by British journalist Jane Craigie and other members include; Pulack Ghatack ( Bangladesh), Kurt Lawton (USA) and Jacqueline Wijbenga (The Netherlands). The committee work is already in progress and final work will present at the IFAJ Congress in Minneapolis, USA, in July 2019.

“It is a real privilege and an honour to be appointed by the IFAJ Executive Committee as a member of its “Vision 2025” committee especially being the lone African representation on the committee’’ journalist Jefferson Massah indicated.

The Liberian journalist promised to make a full representation of the African constituency of IFAJ by sharing with other committee members challenges confronting agricultural journalism in Africa and how the IFAJ can be supportive to professional development activities of African journalists reporting on the agriculture sector.

In 2018, Jefferson Massah was the first Liberian journalist to attend the International Federation of Agricultural Journalist (IFAJ) Master Class program in the Netherlands. The Master Class program provides an opportunity for journalists to share experiences and thoughts on the critical role of the media in promoting agriculture development—particularly in developing countries where the media not only reports the successes of small-scale farmers but also serves as a tool for educating farmers on best farming practices.

Journalist Massah is a 2015 recipient of the prestigious George Atkins Communications Award provided to African radio producer that exceptionally perform in meeting the information needs of smallholder farmers to alleviate poverty run by Farm Radio International based in Ottowa, Canada

Jefferson currently works with Internews Liberia as Senior Community Radio Advisor under the Liberia Media Development program.