Article

Talented African science journalists win

Christina Scott

Talent Ng'andwe

Busy scientists in Africa are often highly aware of how much they need radio, television, internet and print media in order that their research influences policymaking and improves people's daily lives.

Actually finding some reporters who aren't frightened of or antagonistic to science is sometimes as rare as a high-speed internet connection. How to go about that task may be becoming slightly easier, due to a number of international initiatives.

For example, Catherine Yogo, a health and environmental reporter at
Cameroonian daily newspaper known as Mutations, and Talent Ng'andwe, a
Zambian science freelancer, have both won lucrative science journalism
awards which allow them to take half a year from their normal duties, travel
and learn more about reporting on science in the developing world.

Catherine Yogo studied for a journalism degree in Dakar, Sénégal, and has
been a journalist at Mutations, an independent newspaper in the  Cameroonian capital city of Yaoundé since 2001, where she mainly covers health and environmental subjects. She will be based at Agence-Science Presse in Montréal, Canada, for three months and work on a personal project - in her case to study and report on waste management practices in several African countries - for another three months.

Talent Ngandwe will work at the Science and Development Network news
website, based in London in the UK, as well as within the developing world.
"We are delighted that Talent Ng'andwe has been selected to receive the
award, which will allow him to work directly with our news team for several
months next year," said David Dickson, director of SciDev.Net. "He will be
bringing to us his insights and personal experience developed through his
work as a journalist in Zambia. In return, we will be able to provide him
with an opportunity to develop his practical skills as a science
journalist."

"I am delighted to receive the award and spend time with highly experiencedscience journalists," Ng'andwe said. "This is a step in the right direction to help build the capacity of science journalists in developing countries." 

The four winners - including Mélanie Robitaille, an independent Québec
journalist who will research scientific impact on socialist governments in
Latin America, and an English-speaking Canadian journalist yet to be named 
will share their practical experiences during the fifth World Conference of
Science Journalists in Melbourne, Australia, in April 2007.

The awards are each worth 60,000 Canadian dollars and were funded by the International Development Research Centre in Canada to "foster a vibrant culture of science journalism" and to "promote a field-based understanding of developing countries' scientific realities."

Meanwhile, the World Federation of Science Journalists held a week-long
mentoring programme for over 50 reporters from Africa and the Middle East at the United Nations climate change conference in Nairobi, Kenya, in November.

Participants included Michael Malakata from Zambia, Patrick Luganda and
Esther Nakkazi from Uganda, Charles Mkoka from Malawi, Niagia Santuah of
Ghana and Justus Wanzala from Kenya, among many others.

And a week later, the African Science Academy Development Initiative
(ASADI), funded by Microsoft computer money through the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation and administered by the US National Academies, recently
paid for each participating national science academy from Africa to bring
along a local reporter to their conference on food policy issues in Cameroon
in November.

More information:

  Christina Scott is based in Cape Town, South Africa, where she reports for the Science and Development Network website. She is a mentor to Frederick Baffour Opoku of Ghana, Kimani Chege of Kenya, Ansbert Ngurumo of Tanzania and Onche Odeh of Nigeria in the World Federation of Science Journalists peer-to-peer mentoring programme.

www.wfsj.org

www.SciDev.Net

www.IDRC.ca

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