The Delegation of the European Union to Liberia
(EU), in collaboration with the Government of Liberia through its National Authorizing Office (NAO)
of the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, announces the selection of eight young
media professionals from Europe and Liberia to participate in a month-long campaign. The
campaign, dubbed the “EU-Liberia Partnership Campaign” for young media professionals, aims
to create awareness about the EU-Liberia Partnership and show the impact of the European
Development Fund support provided to Liberia.
The selected four candidates from Liberia are Saywhar Nana Gbaa, Andia Varba Richardson,
Edward Blamo, and Augustine Bill Kollie. Their four European counterparts are Beatriz Rios
Yaguez from Spain, Christina Nordvang Jensen from Denmark, Fermin Torrano from Spain and
Sonia Wargacka from Poland. The selected candidates work with print, broadcast and online
media networks with strong development interest.
Program Manager for the European Union, Michelle Grundberg said, “We feel that the varied
experiences and complementarity of these eight candidates, not only well represents the diversity
and cohesion of the European Union, together with the dynamism of Liberia´s youth, but also that
they jointly will make an important contribution to raising awareness on the European Union
development work in Liberia.”
For two weeks, the participants will travel across Liberia documenting human interest stories from
EU funded interventions that are leading to positive changes in Liberia. Their reports will focus on
five thematic areas: Forestry, Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Agriculture,
Budget Support, and the Civil Society Initiative. In all these areas, the European Union is making
significant investments to improve industries, empower communities, ensure sustainable
livelihoods for Liberian citizens, support good governance and ensure civil society organisations are functioning optimally.
A total of 50 applications were received; out of these, 26 applications were fully compliant with
the announced procedures. A vetting committee evaluated the applications based on the quality
of contents submitted.
According to the National Authorizing Office’s Communications and Visibility Officer, Bernard
Abraham Waritay, the selection process was highly transparent and very competitive. He said, “It
was indeed a challenge to select the eight out of the 26 shortlisted for the fact that, all of the
candidates were very competent and met all of the basic requirements. We are confident that we
selected the best eight, and they will surely justify their selection.”
The eight young journalists will kick-start the campaign from February 24th, 2020, with a national
launch. The campaign runs till March 22, 2020.
End
Background
The EU has been supporting Liberia’s development since 1973. For the budget period 2014-2020,
the EU allocated 279 million Euros for Good Governance, Agriculture, Forestry, Education,
Energy and Transport sectors.
