Overview

Media in Afghanistan (Nai) is the country’s leading media advocacy and vocational education agency.  Since its establishment in 2005, Nai has delivered media training to over 11,000 participants from the media sector, both students and practicing professionals.  USAID’s support to Nai through the Afghanistan Media Development and Empowerment Project (AMDEP) helps build and promote a strong independent media sector in Afghanistan, which in turn increases freedom of speech and to enhances citizen access to information.  Nai achieves these outcomes by providing training, organizing conferences and professional networking initiatives, and promoting media law policy development and advocacy.

Activities

• Training for Media Professionals: Nai offers a range of media and journalism courses to media across the country, with a focus on practical, industry-relevant training, particularly in broadcast media. 
• Establishment of Nai Media Institute: In March 2012 Nai launched Afghanistan’s first commercial vocational education institute, which was registered and endorsed by the Afghan Government.  The two-year media diploma course, which is delivered at a first-rate training facility in Kabul, has over 90 students attending classes daily.  
• National Network of Training Hubs: To ensure that provincial media receives access to training, Nai operates a network of training hubs in Jalalabad, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Kandahar, and Kabul.   
• Media Institutions and Advocacy: Nai conducts a range of media industry support activities, such as: organizing regional forums that bring together media practitioners to exchange ideas and increase advocacy; training media lawyers to increase legal support for journalists and media outlets; awarding journalists for their work to increase access to information and promote freedom of expression; and, providing a platform for networking and media industry development.
• Protection of Journalists: Nai’s Media Watch unit, which has been tracking and publishing threats against media workers across the country since 2005, publishes a Violation Reference Book that aids media outlets when faced with similar threats.  Nai has launched an interactive data mapping tool available at www.data.nai.org.
• Public Education on Media: Nai has developed innovative radio dramas that relay the importance of media in the development of a free and fair society.

Accomplishments

• Under AMDEP, Nai has trained over 3,000 media professionals (2,300 men, 700 women).
• Nai trained 1,260 Afghan youth (882 men, 378 women) during the Afghan Youth Voices Festival.
• Nai delivered media law trainings for Afghan lawyers in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. 
• Nai established a fund supporting families of journalists who have been killed in the line of duty.
• The Nai Graduate Club (NGC) has over 500 alumni members who benefit from peer education opportunities offered at monthly meetings at Nai hubs in five provinces.  These opportunities include professional networking, informative presentations, and discussion of critical social and media issues.