co
First, concerning access to information,
members of the press usually rely on local
NGO to provide local sources and basic
information. Western journalists, for
example, tend to be far too trusting of aid
o ffi cials. Pushed and pulled by slashed
budgets and increased demands,
journalists are growing increasingly reliant
on aid groups. But … demonstrated that
these NGOs prefer bad news portraying
Africa as a continent of unending horrors:
“AID organizations are businesses dressed
up like Mother Theresa”. Journalists should
therefore view their interactions with NGO
and local residents with healthy skepticism.
Another worrisome trend in poverty
coverage is the first-person travel narrative,
in which journalists claim to understand
poverty by experiencing it for themselves.
But their stories overshadow the voices of
those who understand poverty through
living it every day. They speak of poverty in
monetary values, such as living on US$1 or
US$2 a day. But they should understand
that poverty is relational and contextual –
US$1 a day in London is not the same as
US$1 a day in the Cameroonian township,
Mambanda. People may have homes with
substandard quality but the cost of living
suited their lifestyles.
This is where the importance of research-
based information come in. To avoid
journalists relying too much on aid
organizations, we need to increase the
production of quality information on Africa.
Someone else can’t tell our story better
than us. There are a lot of untold success
stories in Africa that the world need to
know. There is a lot of good work being
done by Africans for Africa and our hope is
08
not only
to celebrate those who are giving
back but to also encourage the spirit of
Ubuntu in others.
African countries in
lack the
infrastructure to in
support
investment in
R&D.
But currently, to be blunt, African
countries lack the infrastructure to
support investment in R&D, and they
lack the investment in research and
development (R&D) to build up the
infrastructure and career development,
both at universities and other research
organizations. Africa is home to 15% of
the world’s population and 5% of the
world’s gross domestic product (GDP)
but accounts for just 1.3% of global
investment in R&D. The proportion of
researchers in the African population is
25 and 28 times lower than the
proportion in the United Kingdom and
the United States, respectively. The
percentage of Africans pursuing
graduate study is three times lower
than the global average. To achieve
even the world average for the number
of researchers per head of population,
we will need to rapidly train one million
new PhDs. Our future depends on the
rate at which we are able to solve some
of the hardest health and development
problems anyone has ever faced. To
succeed, we need to accelerate
scientific breakthroughs in Africa so
that we can help more Africans lead
better lives sooner.
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