The Media and Communication Advocacy Network (MCAN), in collaboration with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), has organised a capacity-building workshop to strengthen media reporting on reproductive health, adolescent girls and child marriage interventions in Ghana.
The one-day workshop, held on Thursday, November 5, 2026, at the Ministry of Finance in Accra, brought together journalists and implementing partners to improve reporting on the experiences and impact of UNFPA-supported programmes.
The training focused on development journalism, human-interest storytelling and the strategic use of social media to amplify stories from communities where interventions are being implemented.
Speaking at the workshop, Dela Bright Gle, Programme Specialist in Reproductive Health at the UNFPA Ghana Country Office, said the organisation’s mission was anchored on three priorities: ensuring every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
She explained that UNFPA works to improve access to reproductive health services, strengthen healthcare systems and empower young people to participate meaningfully in decisions affecting their lives.
“Our mission says that we ensure that every pregnancy is wanted,” she said, emphasising the importance of enabling individuals and couples to make informed decisions about when to have children.
She also highlighted UNFPA’s commitment to reducing maternal deaths through healthcare capacity-building and the provision of essential medicines, including those used to manage excessive bleeding during childbirth.
Ms Gle outlined the organisation’s three transformative results targeted for achievement by 2030: zero preventable maternal deaths, zero unmet need for family planning, and zero gender-based violence and harmful practices, including child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM).
She described unmet need for family planning as a situation where individuals wish to avoid pregnancy but are not using any contraceptive method.
Reverend Aku Xornam Adzraku-Kevi, Executive Director of the Purim African Youth Development Platform (PAYDP) shared experiences from the organisation’s work with adolescent girls and teenage mothers since 2017.
She said the organisation’s interventions combined sexual and reproductive health education, community engagement, protection against sexual and gender-based violence and livelihood empowerment.
PAYDP has supported initiatives including cassava and potato flour processing, basket weaving, animal rearing, farming and cosmetics production, with some cosmetics registered with the Food and Drugs Authority.
Rev. Adzraku-Kevi stressed that reproductive health education must be complemented by economic empowerment to enable girls to become self-reliant.
She also highlighted the Chief Justice Mentorship Programme, which exposes girls to the justice system and encourages leadership development and positive mindset changes.
She disclosed that the Global Programme and Adolescent Girls Programme, alongside other UNFPA interventions, had reached more than 100,000 women and girls across Greater Accra, Ashanti, Central, North East and Upper East regions.
The workshop included practical sessions on identifying human-interest story angles, interviewing beneficiaries, incorporating evidence and adapting development stories for digital platforms.
MCAN President Rosemary Ardayfio said the initiative was intended to strengthen journalists’ capacity to communicate the experiences and achievements of communities benefiting from development interventions.
The network is expected to work with implementing partners to document human-interest stories for UNFPA’s reporting, advocacy and communication materials, ensuring that development reporting goes beyond documenting activities to showing how interventions are changing lives.
