Background information
EcoNews Africa (ENA) is an indigenous organisation, which was established by Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) workers from Kenya as a facility to meet the information requirements of NGOs in East Africa, in order to enhance their involvement in particular in international decision-making processes that impinge on sustainable development in East Africa.

The purpose of the Organisation is to enhance the role of East Africa's NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs) to influence policy-making on issues of sustainable development, in particular on environment, trade and information. In this regard, EcoNews Africa supports the policy implementation and experience sharing among NGOs and CBOs in order to influence policy formulation and review.

EcoNews Africa activities are undertaken in collaboration with established service-delivery and advocacy NGOs and CBOs. All of the activities are financed through grants and/or gifts provided by various donor agencies. EcoNews Africa is governed by a ten-member Board of Directors, drawn from individuals with expertise on the voluntary sector and/or areas of operation of the organisation. The Secretariat implements the decisions of the Board of Directors. The projects of the Organisation are implemented through four broad programme areas namely, Core (administration), Multilateral Development Initiatives, Community Media Programmme and environment programme.

Mission statement
Econews Africa enables African CBOs and NGOs to be actively involved in decision-making on sustainable development by promoting timely and strategic information flows at all levels.

Vision
EcoNews Africa envisions a society in which communities:

• Are at the center of decision making on issues affecting them
• Control their local enviroment

As an organisation, we believe in:

• The critical affirmation of African peoples, cultures and worldviews
• Social Justice and equity, including redress and compensation
• The freeedom of expression and information and the right of the people to a healthy environment
• Local people excirsing control over the use and management of local reasources in order for sustainable development to occur
• The power of information and the need for information flows between and among local, national, regional and global levels.

Over the years much has been done to make our vision a reality. but we have also met many challanges and obstacles. these however have not deterred us or dampened our spirits

Objective:
To Bridge the local-global information gap, paying particular attention to the international developments in the fields of environment, trade and developments

Specific objectives:
· Inform and provide the relevant policy makers, non-governmental organisations and community based organisations with information with International processes that are likely to impact on national policies

• Facilitate an interactive exchange of views between the policy-makers, NGOs and CBOs at the national and sub-regional levels in order to determine the most appropriate options
• Ensure mainstream media covers issues on sustainable development of relevance to the region
• Build mechanisms to foster collaboration and information exchange between the various development agents involved in activities related to sustainable development
• Engage in strategies to realise the interest of Africans within the emerging global environment.

Contact details
MbarukRoad, Off Mucai Drive
PO BOx 10332, 00100 GPO
Nairobi
Kenya
info@econewsafrica.org

Website: www.econewsafrica.org