This report shows the impact of the Female Reporters Leadership Programme (FRLP) by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) in Nigeria. Since the start of the project three years ago, WSCIJ trained 134 reporters across the country, produced 53 leadership projects, and enabled the production of 65 girl and women-focused stories.

Findings from the survey show that the programme has achieved its goal. It equipped the fellows with knowledge and capability for leadership with evidence of increased visibility for the fellows as leaders in their newsrooms. Among the women that followed the fellowship and took the survey, 59% have been promoted or given higher responsibilities in their organisations afterwards.

The programme opened opportunities for personal and professional development and changed news organisations’ perception about female leadership and the representation of the voice of women as leaders in news reports.78% of the respondents indicate that mainstreaming girls and women in reporting is the biggest change they saw taking place in their organisation after taking part in the fellowship. This is closely followed by the increase of the number of female sources used in reporting (71%).

Internal document.