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DINNAH ONDARI: Media key player in driving SDGs

Only institution with the capacity to converge debate around all the 17 SDGs.

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by DINNAH ONDARI

Africa09 January 2022 - 13:39
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In Summary


  • By their own admission, a good number of journalists can barely link the impact of their work to Kenya’s Vision 2030 and the global debate.
  • For journalists to be experts in their area of reporting, they need continuous capacity building and training.

The media’s capacity to set the agenda on any issue of public interest makes them a formidable partner in development.

In regard to the SDGs, the media are both a beneficiary and a driver of a progressive SDGs agenda. Only a strong, independent and freed media can objectively advocate the SDGs and provide oversight

From time to time, the media space gets threatened and this jeopardises its independence and capacity to canvass the SDGs agenda. The media are the only institution with the capacity to converge debate around all the 17 SDGs but that can only be effective if their independence and freedom are guaranteed.

The Media Council of Kenya has been keen on leveraging on strategic partnership with other institutions to mainstream SDGs in its core programmes and those of journalism training institutions.

Key among these are development and roll-out of curricula on the SDGs on health, safety and protection of journalists, access to information, climate change and gender equality.

There is a significant potential for institutions involved in the implementation and monitoring of SDGs to partner with the media at all levels through information sharing and capacity building in the interest of promoting the SDGs agenda.

The Covid-19 pandemic has posed serious threats that could plough back major gains in the march towards attainment of SDGs in many sectors. The media industry has not been spared. The council has taken the lead in ensuring media sustainability amidst these challenges through interventions such as travel grants for journalists and direct support to media houses as we chart the way forward on the possibility of setting up a media sustainability fund to ensure the stability of the industry going forward.


The council, through its strategic plan, has also dedicated significant resources to the implementation of SDGs. These include various curricular and training on topical areas key, among them the safety and protection of journalists (SDG 16), reporting on climate change (SDG 13) health reporting and gender reporting (Goals 3 and 5).

The cross-cutting nature of the SDGs is such that impact on one of them has a ripple effect in several others. Take for instance Covid 19: While it is a health issue, the pandemic has led to increased inequalities and reduced economic opportunities.

As a result children have dropped out of school and one can go on and on. The framers of the SDGs envisaged a partnership framework (SDG17) as the only way to ensure effective rollouts of the goals among players.

The media no doubt have an upper hand in converging the 17 issues in the SDGs agenda through providing a scorecard on the progress, challenges and proposing solutions.

However there are gaps: On one hand, we do not see many published stories that are deliberately aimed at impacting the progress of the SDGs agenda. Even by their own admission, a good number of journalists and practitioners can barely link the impact of their work to Kenya’s Vision 2030 and the global debate.

On the other hand, the various players in the SDGs spectrum fail to appreciate the capacity of the media to set the age on SDG s only choosing to selectively involve the media as a way of communicating decisions, already made or implemented.

As a result the media are accused of being disinterested in development stories while in the real sense the problem is the unavailability of the right information to inform reporting, and lack of participation by the media in all stages of the SDGs debate, including planning.

For journalists to be experts in their area of reporting, they need continuous capacity building and training. There is therefore the need for continued capacity building and other stakeholders involved in the implementation of SDGs through strategic partnerships to ensure that the journalist and media practitioners acquire the right skills to set the agenda and drive debate on SDG s and the world navigates the decade of action (2020-2030) on the same.

Manager, press freedom, safety and advocacy at the Media Council of Kenya

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