The meeting was attended by 20 participants from Finland, Ghana, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Namibia, Nigeria and South Africa. They observed that the Audit revealed significant gaps in curriculum development, institutional policies and capacity building needs of media trainers, as well as in the development of resource materials and networking.

The Audit showed that very few institutions had policies to achieve gender equality. Only 28 % of them had gender policies and 44% had sexual harassment policies. Another finding is that men comprise the majority of staff, while 61% of students are women.

Concerning the curriculum development, only 28% of the sample did consider gender in development processes but that was not evident in the curriculum. Very few institutions had institutionalised gender courses.

The Audit of Gender in Media Education in Southern Africa (GIME) was the most comprehensive ever undertaken study of the gender dimensions of journalism and media education and training in tertiary institutions in Southern Africa. It was conducted between October 2009 and April 2010 in 25 institutions of 13 countries: Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

For more information about the findings of the Audit please download the Report on the GIME Consultative Meeting (PDF file below).