ANCE-TOGO is building the capacity of journalists to contribute to the fight against green corruption
The Alliance Nationale des Consommateurs et de l'Environnement (ANCE-TOGO) brought together journalists from Togo's private media for a capacity-building session on green corruption at the Hôtel La Concorde in Lomé on May 30 and 31, 2024.
ANCE-TOGO, which coordinates Transparency International's West Africa Hub, provided the fifteen of participants with the opportunity to learn about green corruption and the international, regional and national legal instruments used to combat climate change and illegal wildlife trade.
This activity, which is part of the implementation of the project “Climate change mitigation through the fight against corruption in the wildlife sector” carried out by ANCE-TOGO, with financial support from the Waverley Street Foundation and Transparency International, aims primarily to improve the transparency, inclusiveness and accountability of climate policy and governance frameworks, so that climate efforts are protected from corruption with a view to reaching the most vulnerable groups.
The proceedings also provided an opportunity to inform these online and audiovisual media about the concept of whistleblowing, including reporting procedures, the persons and areas covered by reporting under international law, in line with the 2019 European Union Directive on the protection of whistleblowers, as well as regional and national texts in force concerning witness protection. Journalists were clearly reminded to use only the whistleblowing procedure in force under article 3 of the 2015 law establishing HAPLUCIA and article 48 of the new law on public procurement.
Also, a module was developed on investigative techniques in the fight against environmental crime to enable media men to effectively investigate topics related to green corruption with a view to increasing evidence and exposure of corruption.
It should be noted that the existing links between green corruption and human rights, between green corruption and gender, as well as sexual corruption, were also addressed during the two days of work. The aim was to engage the media's responsibility to raise public awareness of all forms of environmental crime.