The Communications Department of the IMF, in partnership with the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF), organized a 3-day training seminar for economic and financial journalists from July 23-25, 2024. The seminar, which included topics such as Understanding Economic Indicators, Debt Management & Restructuring, Visualizing Data, and AI-Assisted Journalism, was held at the World Bank building in Accra, and saw participating journalists from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Liberia.

The facilitators for the training were Tabelo Tsolo (South Africa) and Sara El-Khalili (Greece/Egypt), two experienced journalism and media trainers. They led sessions full of exercises that kept the training interactive and full of practical insights.

In addition to the training sessions, there was an introduction to the IMF presented by Leandro Medina, the resident representative of the IMF in Ghana. There was also an introduction to IMF communications by Kwabena Akuamoah-Boateng, a communications officer at the fund; and a presentation on communications at Ghana’s Finance Ministry by Ruth Botsio, head of strategic communications at the ministry.

Ahead of the training, the IMF Deputy Chief of Media and Social Outreach, Andrew Kanyegirire, disclosed that “the seminar’s aim is to support journalists in their efforts to strengthen the quality of reporting on global and regional macroeconomic and financial issues. As such, the training is also aimed at contributing to the capacity development of journalists that cover economics and financial issues.”

At the end of the training, the journalists highlighted takeaways such as the use of AI tools in research, how to apply data visualizations to simplify and contextualize figures, and ethical considerations in sourcing, publishing, and disclosing conflicts of interest. The journalists also had an opportunity to network for future collaboration on cross-border reporting.