Paa Kwesi Plange, national PAIR coordinator in Ghana. Photo: Suzanne Moll/IMS

Meet Paa Kwesi Plange, journalist in Ghana. As newly appointed national coordinator in Ghana, Paa will be one of the pioneers in the PAIR programme for investigative reporting, which is to support professional strengthening of journalism in West Africa in the coming three years

By Suzanne Moll, IMS

Paa Kwesi Plange is always dressed for the occasion. He is very meticulous in his choosing of clothes, because no two days are ever alike. The same day he might need to talk to politicians and street dealers of fresh water. This is why Paa always dresses nicely but not too flamboyant.

Paa Kwesi Plange is one of five national coordinators of the IMS-PAIR Programme. PAIR was created to support and encourage investigative reporting in five West African countries: Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin and Cote d´Ivoire. PAIR was launched this spring and so far nearly 20 investigations have been initiated.

The program is a joint venture between IMS, Danish investigative reporters (FUJ) and Media Foundation West Africa based in Accra Ghana.

As the national coordinator from Ghana Paa will coach and talk to the Ghanaian journalists about their project. Every two weeks they have an editorial meeting. This way nobody feels alone with his investigation and can profit from ideas of their peers.

Him self a skilled investigative reporter, with a family and the father of two, Paa needs to plan his workdays very carefully.  He always has a couple of ongoing stories and is on the look out for more.

This is why he makes an effort to bond with the other 4 national coordinators of PAIR. Together they plan to do some transnational projects between them. This spring some of them met in Geneva for the global conference of investigative reporting. The conference also gave the coordinators and journalists from West Africa an opportunity to exchange ideas with other journalists.

So far the PAIR programme will run for 3 years, and during this period the plan is to produce around 100 investigations and participate in several meetings like the one in Geneva. This way Paa and his fellow reporters will create an informal network and hopefully help each other in creating quality journalism in West Africa.