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The Project
While the North focuses on infection and mortality rates, the developing world is still struggling to understand how pre-existing health challenges (like endemic Tuberculosis) and underdeveloped healthcare infrastructure will compound coronavirus impacts in already fragile societies.
Outbreak.AFRICA seeks to improve data-driven decision making by providing a set of interactive tools and data journalism that provides actionable insights into epidemiological factors, healthcare system factors, demographic vulnerability and access to WASH and basic services.
The Team
Code for Africa (CfA) is Africa’s largest network of indigenous civic technology and open data laboratories, with affiliate members in 10 African countries and funded projects in a further 12 countries. CfA pioneered data journalism across Africa, starting in 2010, and includes the continent’s largest forensic data and digital investigations initiative, ANCIR.
Our programmes include fellowships, tool building, data digitisation, and knowledge development, with a strong emphasis on civic engagement. The federation also manages the innovateAFRICA.fund and impactAFRICA.fund initiatives, which have seed-funded trendsetting initiatives ranging from AfricaCheck.org and DataWrapper.de to Oxpeckers.org, and also incubates major digital journalism initiatives such as africanDRONE.org and PesaCheck.org.
The Partners
Founded in 2006, The Pulitzer Centre on Crisis Reporting is now the largest single source of money for global enterprise reporting – and the only one incorporating this reporting into comprehensive educational programs that extend the impact of the reporting and allow students and the public to engage directly on the issues. The result is sustained reporting and outreach on topics that range from land rights, climate change, global health, and fragile states to justice and women and children.
The Pulitzer Centre has funded the development of outbreak.AFRICA through the Coronavirus News Collaboration Challenge, a part of their Covid-19 response.
Africa Practice is a strategic advisory firm, operating at the nexus of industry and government. They supply insights and advocacy solutions to decision makers in Africa, enabling them to see more clearly, engage with confidence and unlock value to drive sustainable and equitable development. Primary authors of Takwimu. Takwimu was one of the data sources used by Outbreak.africa.
PesaCheck is a pioneering verification initiative that is helping kickstart fact-checking across East Africa. Initially focused on verifying the financial and other statistical numbers quoted by public figures in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, PesaCheck now also helps track political promises unpack budget and census data. PesaCheck also helps watchdog media and NGOs establish their own standalone fact-check teams. PesaCheck is outbreak.africa’s lead myth-busting partner, contributing to our database of debunked stories.
Takwimu was launched to provide African development champions and storytellers with the best analysis and data available, supporting their work to educate, influence and advocate for change in their communities. The content includes expert analysis of the key stakeholders, decision processes, policies, organisations and budgets that are driving development outcomes.
WanaData is a Pan-African network of female journalists, data scientists and technologists working to change the digital media landscape by producing and promoting data-driven news, while applying digital technologies in storytelling. A number of WanaData members across Africa co-produced data stories on Covid-19 that used Outbreak.africa data and CfA’s data and visual support.
How should Africa, with its fragile healthcare systems and large informal economies tailor global strategies for fighting Covid-19 to ensure they are feasible and effective locally? African policymakers and health agencies need evidence-based insights with strong local context to make informed decisions. Outbreak.AFRICA seeks to help by giving actionable data and expert insights.
This Code for Africa initiative was made possible with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
