Journalists from international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) are helping to train up to 100 African women sports journalists from 21 countries in a programme sponsored by FIFA.

The AFP Foundation is providing the training in the lead up to the FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany on June 26.

The journalists, all members of the African Women Sports Reporters Union, have been invited to take part in a four day theoretical workshop before the end of the year which will then be followed by a four day practical session early next year.

"Courses will be given in English, French, Arabic, Spanish or Portuguese, by sports journalists from AFP’s African bureaux or its Paris headquarters," according to an AFP press release.

"The programme builds on the FIFA's "Win in Africa with Africa" initiative, launched before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, when almost 250 African reporters and photographers were trained by the AFP Foundation."

"Several of the women who took part in the courses which we ran before the 2010 World Cup said they now felt stronger working alongside their male counterparts," AFP chairman Emmanuel Hoog added in the release.

"This new programme is designed not only to enhance the skills of women journalists but also to raise their status in the African media – a noble goal which corresponds to the mission of our Foundation."