Today, education and literacy are primary concerns for the Sao Tome y Principe government. UNESCO and CFI are endeavouring to address these issues in the media sphere.

In order to fulfil its educational remit as part of the policy for development and fighting against poverty, the Sao Tome Television (TVS) filed a project for training on the production of educational programmes with UNESCO. As part of its International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), the UNESCO office, Libreville decided to support this initiative aiming to develop the skills of TVS journalists and technicians and to improve the quality of TVS’s educational audiovisual productions. The TV channel’s long-term aim is to set up a production unit to handle reports, which would need to call upon highly competent profiles: a TV journalist/reporter, a director and a chief editor.

CFI, working in collaboration with TVS since May 1996 within the framework of a cooperation agreement, naturally wished to contribute to the project. The Portuguese state television (RTP) and CFI thus designed three training courses addressing the media’s educational role.

This is the first time UNESCO, CFI and RTP have collaborated. The three players complemented each other well, resulting in an effective, pertinent project. In all, six experts from the French and Portuguese TV scenes were sent out to cater to TVS’s requirements. At each training session, an expert from CFI and one from RTP handed down their skills and savoir-faire via hands-on initiatives on the field tailored to TVS’s human and material resources.

Given the success of this cooperation, further initiatives can now be envisaged in the medium term, extending the scope to all Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa.