NSJ is Southern Africa's most important regional mid-career training institution for journalists and media managers and one of the very few to provide significant scholarship opportunities.
The roots of the Southern African Media Training Trust - NSJ - date back to 1993 when the bilateral agreement was signed between the Governments of Mozambique and Denmark on behalf of SADC and the Nordic countries to form the Nordic-SADC Journalism Centre (NSJ). Established as a training institution, its goal was to support the further development of free and independent quality press in the SADC region.
In Phase I (1993-1996) NSJ aimed at improving the competence and confidence of the professional journalists. This included establishing a training institution from scratch, developing methodological approaches, designing curricula, establishing administrative routines - in addition to training media practitioners from the region. This effort was consolidated in phases II (1996-2000) and III (2001-2003). Throughout, NSJ has enjoyed significant interaction with Nordic media training institutions which influenced the training methodologies and techniques.
It was expected that NSJ would become gradually less dependent on donor funds and instead become a foundation under SADC. However, lack of financial resources in SADC member countries, combined with the institutional obstacles of establishing a foundation with an independent decision making mechanism under the SADC Council of Ministers eventually resulted in the Centre deciding to invite the media institutions in the SADC region (MISA, SABA, FAMW-SADC, AMARC-Africa) to convert the Centre into an independent trust and assume ownership of it.
As a result, the Southern African Media Training Trust (which maintains the acronym "NSJ") was formed in 2001.