Joyce Chimbi, Journalist/Sub-editor, Africa/Kenya

What water-themed work have you been working on (reporting, editing research)? Water and agriculture/food security
Water and green economy
Water and sanitation
Gender and water
Water and policy
Water and climate change
Water and Environment
Water scarcity
Water and biodiversity
Water and natural resource management

What areas of your work in water have generated the most significant public response? Water and agriculture/Food security
Water and climate change
Water and Environment
Water and green economy
Water and biodiversity

What barriers are there to reporting on environment and sustainable development issues in your region (eg. lack of public interest, censorship, pressure from advertisers etc)?
A perceived lack of public interest. I live and work in a country that lives/eats/ and talks politics. There is a perception that politics is the only topic that matters to ordinary Kenyans, where four in every ten of them live below the poverty line.
But as communicators and journalists continue to break this barrier, it is emerging that since this is an agri-economy, many Kenyans, even those in urban areas, are interested in environment and sustainable development issues particularly as the concept of green economy begins to gain momentum. Organic farming for instance is becoming a major area of interest.

What is tough to sell to editors in water/sustainable development/environment?
Why do you think this is the case? Please detail with specific examples from your experience As a journalist, selling an environment and or water story to the editor is often a challenge. Unless there is a scandal touching on the environment or water sector, editors tend to overlook environment, water and sustainable development stories. Often, these issues are covered as news and not in depth feature stories that are more analytical and more explanatory.
Further, a lack of understanding over the distinction between environment and sustainable development vis a vis climate change and sustainable development and how water fits into these two areas, often leads to stories on these issues being merged. I have encountered this challenge severally. There are times when I will pitch a story on water/environment and the editor will refer to a water/climate change that I had earlier pitched and suggest that I merge them. This means that there is limited space to explore each of these topics in depth.

What do you feel has been successful and unsuccessful in your work in this area? Please detail with specific examples from your experience
Being opportunistic when pitching works. Since this area is often overlooked, I am very keen on any new developments in this area, whenever an issue arises, I pitch the article as a feature story.
For example, when on Sept. 11, last year the government in partnership with UNESCO announced that Turkana is home to an estimated 250 billion cubic meters of freshwater reserves, I quickly pitched a story on water scarcity in an arid region which it turns out has it-water-in excess. The story was accepted.
When the government moved in to crack down on urban farmers who are using sewer water to grow vegetables, I quickly rode on the moment and pitched a story on urban farmers who are practicing sack farming which requires very little water.
On the International Day of biodiversity, I pitched a story on the need for farmers to explore crop varieties that require little water to grow.
When global legislators were meeting over climate change legislation, I pitched a story on climate change, water (irrigation) and sustainable development. These are just a few successful pitches in a long list.

Please present your proposals for communications and media projects. This is your chance to pitch the UN.
Fredrick Mugira (also a participant at the conference), myself and several other journalists in East Africa founded a blog , ‘WaterSpan Perspective’, https://waterjournalistsafrica.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/ where we publish content on water, sanitation, hygiene, environment, climate change and development. The network has since grown to include members from across Africa.
My project is anchored in this network.
I am therefore proposing a project on content development and information dissemination on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) issues. Together with the group, we shall work within the theme Water, Green Economy and Sustainable Development in East and Southern Africa just to make the scope more manageable, and because these regions face similar WASH challenges.
The project will be dubbed ‘Going Green With Every Drop’.
The blog will be the primary outlet for content generated but journalists will be encouraged to file their stories with their respective media agencies, and even then, the stories will still run on the blog. The blog is sustained by journalists who use diverse platforms. We shall therefore embrace innovative use of multimedia tools, a story can be told as a feature with a picture, or a slideshow of several pictures, a podcast or short videos, citizen voices, first person blogs from the field among other diverse and exciting platforms.
This means that the members of the network will pitch, the pitch will be discussed for approval. Successful proposals will receive travel grants towards the coverage of these stories.

You are expected to produce some work at the conference. What do you plan to do?
A series of analytical feature stories, particularly around emerging discussions on the green economy, water and sustainable development. I will file the stories with the agency I work for, the blog we run as a group of journalists at https://waterjournalistsafrica.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/. I will also send the stories to other media outlets including Inter Press Service where I am a regular contributor.