In Senegal, a platform to promote the expertise of women in the media

Yaye Fatou Sarr (left), head of the Experts project for "Social Change Factory", and Ndèye Biteye, "expert", director of the Simpson company, in Dakar, on March 7.

© Charlotte Idrac / RFI

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Even if many of them occupy positions of responsibility, women lack visibility in the media, and more generally in the public arena.

To promote their skills, the new internet platform "Senegal Experts", aims to identify these professionals, in all areas: business, law, education, health, sport.

A free directory, especially for journalists.

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With our correspondent in Dakar,

Charlotte Idrac

She is one of the first to have created a file on the "

Senegal Experts

" platform : Ndèye Biteye is the director of Simplon, a company that offers training in digital professions: "

when you watch major broadcasts, out of five men, maybe there will be a woman.

So we are really under-represented in the media sphere and today, I think it's up to us to impose ourselves, why not go to the media ourselves and not actually wait for the media to solicit. 

»

According to a study by the Global Media Monitoring Project, women represent only 13% of those invited to speak in the traditional media in Senegal.

This poses a problem of identification, explains Yaye Fatou Sarr, head of the "Experts" project at the "Social Change Factory" association: "

Traditionally, Senegalese women do not like to put themselves in the spotlight through the media.

the second blockage is due to the fact that journalists are more likely to turn to men than to women. 

»

A directory of Experts already exists in France, Tunisia and Algeria.

But there is no “standard profile”: “

our targets are indeed intellectual women but also uneducated women.

You can meet a woman inside the country who sells fruits after growing them.

Well, this woman has entrepreneurial expertise.

 »

The platform will be officially launched this Thursday, March 10.

Its officials hope for the registration of at least 200 “Experts” during the first year.

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  • Senegal

  • Women

  • Media