Rebuilding Sudan's shattered economy after the 2019 uprising requires the country's journalists to understand and explain the key economic issues to their audiences.
To provide local media with the relevant skills, Thomson Foundation has delivered a 15 month programme to 24 journalists - initially in Khartoum but then via WhatsApp after Covid-19 struck.
Two journalists who set the standard were the prize winners in a competition to showcase how the participants had put into practice what they had learned.
Aya Alsabbagh, from Omdurman National Radio, topped her group with a broadcast aimed at proposing co-operative societies and collaboration by buyers and sellers as a way to reduce inflation.
Hanady Alnour, economics editor at Al-Intibaha newspaper, wrote her winning piece after travelling into the field to investigate farming projects where the harvest failed through lack of water.
Hanady Alnour - Al-Intibaha
Aya Alsabbagh - Omdurman National Radio
Promoted positive solutions Aya, a broadcaster for 10 years, said through the programme she learned that the economy is the backbone of life. It is the machinery that moves everyday life, politically and socially. The economy is responsible for the stability and security of livelihoods and it is the compass that steers countries and societies.
The judges praised her winning entry, a lively broadcast which used a variety of interviewees, explained the situation well for the audience and promoted positive solutions for citizens to help address their situation.
to reflect the real suffering of citizens
Hanady Alnbour, economics editor Al-Intibaha
Exceptional training opportunity Hanady, who has worked in print journalism for 12 years, said her investigation aimed to reflect the real suffering of citizens and to ensure the authorities got the message about irrigation projects needing to work.
She and a colleague travelled to the Fao region to investigate an irrigation project which had failed.
The judges were impressed by Hanady's determination to check the story out for herself and interview people on the ground to get her facts right.
She described the course as an exceptional training opportunity which taught her the importance of field work, how to select and question officials to tell economic stories and how to convey the issues in language understood by a wide audience.
The training was funded by the UK's Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, delivered in partnership with the British Council, Sudan and led by consultants James Gavin and Derek Ivens.
Related content
Messaging Apps: Tackling training in the pandemic
Covid-19 training in Sudan gets smart on WhatsApp
Sudan: Fair and accurate reporting in a time of crisis
Helen Scott Editorial Associate
About: Helen is an experienced trainer, consultant and project manager with a background in programme making and management. She is the Director of Thomson Foundation's Sudan programme.
Explore our projects across the globe
More from Thomson
07/05/2021
They're subjects central to the way we live our lives and the survival of the planet and increasingly there's a link to many journalists' investigat...
28/04/2021
It may be a well-worn adage, but to a photojournalist a picture is worth every one of a beautifully-crafted thousand words. And in a digital age where that pict...
13/04/2021
By Henry O. Maina Government is not a machine, but a living thing. It falls, not under the theory of the universe, but under the theory of organic life. It is a...
30/03/2021
Thomson Foundation has appointed Caro Kriel - a veteran journalist with more than 20 years' experience in international news - as its new chief executive.
...
29/03/2021
Thomson Foundation is unique: the place where the cut and thrust of the news industry meets the more strategic international media development sector.
Every ye...
08/03/2021
Rebuilding Sudan's shattered economy after the 2019 uprising requires the country's journalists to understand and explain the key economic issues to the...
07/03/2021
Rebuilding Sudan's shattered economy after the 2019 uprising requires the country's journalists to understand and explain the key economic issues to the...
05/03/2021
A unique research project in a remote district of north-west Pakistan has helped to empower women and give them a voice in local media.
Thomson was approached...
02/03/2021
Ask Spanish television reporter Leonor Su rez what role mobile journalism played during the first wave of the pandemic and she barely pauses for thought.
Moj...
02/03/2021
Nata a Kova ev is a reporter with the Balkans based 24 hour news channel N1. She is the instructor for our online learning course, Staying safe: Covering protes...
15/01/2021
Every journalist wants to go on a rescue mission. But hidden from view, the human trafficking story is one of the most challenging, complex and ethically testin...
23/12/2020
Maryam Anam is an aspiring young radio journalist in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a region in north-west Pakistan where women's voices are rarely heard. She is being...
12/12/2020
As the old newsroom clich has it, all news is local. And despite being a global pandemic, the Covid-19 crisis has been felt first in our families, on our doors...
11/12/2020
World Voices: Mart n Leandro Camacho, Peru
Secuestraron mi pais. Emblazoned on a protest placard and photographed by Peruvian journalist, Mart n Leandro C...
04/12/2020
A fellowship with Thomson Media didnt go quite as Hend Kheiralla expected in the pandemic.
At home in Sudan, I was used to working remotely for digital enterpr...
01/12/2020
You're in a queue. How likely is it that you'll check your messages on your mobile phone? Even the least digital amongst us is spending 30 minutes a day...
24/11/2020
PROFILE: Young Journalist Award 2020 winner
Mart n Leandro Camacho has always been passionate about being compassionate. The 27-year-old spent the formative...
19/11/2020
Grounded by Covid-19, our trainers have been learning new skills to be able to impart their expertise to their journalist trainees with promising results.
Th...
18/11/2020
Covid-19 may have forced our workshops online but by innovation and experimentation our trainers have continued to teach and mentor often on less conventional p...
14/11/2020
Khalida Niaz is a journalist with the Tribal News Network based in Peshawar, Pakistan. She was amongst a group of editors and managers taking part in a course r...
10/11/2020
Thomson Foundation has announced that Nigel Baker, chief executive since 2012, will retire from the role in July 2021.
Nigel has led a significant growth in ac...
07/11/2020
As journalists today, we are operating in a toxic digital environment where it can often be difficult to distinguish a fact from a lie.
The media environment,...
27/10/2020
Announcing the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award finalists #TFYoungJournalist
If we don't come, hunger kills us, says a Venezuelan merchant as h...
29/09/2020
The media situation in the Western Balkans is deteriorating as a result of repeated attacks on media freedom and systematic undermining of the profession. The c...
28/09/2020
On World News Day, we reveal the 12 shortlisted entrants for the #TFYoungJournalist Award, highlighting just why #JournalismMatters.
From Brazil's record y...
17/09/2020
Trying something new can be a daunting experience, especially when nobody has done it before.
The residents of Mardan district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) prov...
15/09/2020
In his beloved city of Damascus, Syrian photojournalist, Hasan Belal, captures daily domestic scenes, confronts the challenges wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic ...
11/09/2020
There has seldom been a greater force of nature than Bettina Peters in the world of international media development.
A steely mind and no-nonsense cheerfulness...
11/09/2020
Progress in bringing womens voices into media has been slow and has been further reduced by local traditional structures that often favour men. Pakistani enumer...
04/09/2020
The passing of Patsy Robertson at 86 has deprived the Thomson Foundation of a loyal supporter and devoted advocate in the Commonwealth.
Patsy resigned as a lon...
26/08/2020
Thomson Foundation trainer and award winning photojournalist Glenn Edwards shares his experience of covering events for national and international publications ...
19/08/2020
Can journalism build a better world? Thomson Foundation has the privilege of training and working with journalists around the globe who are at the forefront of ...
14/08/2020
Photojournalists remain crucial to our understanding of world events, providing us with front-row views that would otherwise be inaccessible. Of the most univer...
14/07/2020
One thing has been constant; since its inception in 2013, our Young Journalist Award has been cheering new arrivals in the media industry, introducing some of t...
09/07/2020
A massive wave of solidarity protests against racial injustice have been staged across the United States and worldwide following a series of killings in the US,...
08/07/2020
An innovative online learning course to support the reporting of Covid-19 in Sudan has reached nearly 2000 people across all sectors of media.
The course, desi...
23/06/2020
This article by Savannah Dodd, founder of the Photography Ethics Centre, uses the key principles introduced in her Journalism Now e-learning course The Photogra...
11/06/2020
Weve pooled advice from our international alumni to help journalists navigate their way through the Covid-19 pandemic.
From what went wrong in the medias early...
05/06/2020
Rwandan journalist Christophe Hitayezu first met the editorial team from The Guardian newspaper in London as part of a study tour in a programme to support medi...
01/06/2020
A unique training course tailored specifically for Sudanese journalists has been devised to help them navigate the challenges of reporting the Covid-19 pandemic...
21/05/2020
Lebanese-based Nisrine Ajab has won the Thomson Foundation mobile journalism challenge and five others have been commended.
Nisrine, who is from Beirut, along...
07/05/2020
The coronavirus pandemic has brought a temporary halt to face-to-face training programmes during lockdown - but prompted experiments with different types of vir...
05/05/2020
The Western Balkans region remains beset by political instability, corruption and a chronic lack of transparency. The national media are often captured by veste...
23/04/2020
Award-winning documentary photographer and Thomson Foundation alumnus Marco Panzetti, achieved international recognition for his coverage of the global refugee ...
07/04/2020
Journalists across the globe face unprecedented challenges to report the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak accurately and safely.
The fast-moving story is presen...
17/03/2020
Hundreds of frontline journalists have passed through the Thomson Foundation's prestigious summer course which aims to sharpen reporting skills and teach th...
17/03/2020
Thomson Foundation has announced the dates for its mobile multimedia journalism programme 2020.
August 10 to September 11, 2020 In this intensive five-week ...
09/03/2020
Patrick Obumselu, the winner of Thomson Foundations 2019 Commonwealth Digital Challenge, has been in London meeting mentors and receiving advice on progressing ...
06/03/2020
At just 26, Robin-Lee Francke is no stranger to violence against women, having been pistol-whipped, beaten and shot at in the course of her work as a crime repo...
04/03/2020
When Waad Al Kateab began filming in an Aleppo hospital being destroyed by government forces, little could she imagine that her work would one day be nominated ...
Rebuilding Sudan's shattered economy after the 2019 uprising requires the country's journalists to understand and explain the key economic issues to their audiences. 
