African science journalists have been urged to promote research that empowers communities in fighting poverty, health, climate change and environmental challenges.
Science for Africa Foundation head of corporate & science communication Juliette Mutheu said non-communicable diseases are on the rise with cancer causing more mortality than malaria in some areas.
‘‘Our priority aims at helping policy measures to safeguard gender equity to achieve the continent scientific agenda. This can be achieved through understanding and scaling up known mental health evidence-based interventions in order to narrow down the treatment gap while also preventing mental disorders in Africa. Non communicable diseases are on the rise including cancer,’’ she said.
Mutheu made the remarks at Stellenbosch University during training for science journalists in Africa.
Science for Africa Foundation promotes local researchers and science journalists to help communities in attaining sustainable development goals.
‘‘We support African scientists in addressing the continent’s most pressing challenges including developmental needs through quality science that solves problems, making use of data, knowledge and evidence that inform decision-making. It will enable scientists to collaborate effectively and nurture interdisciplinary expertise,’’ she noted.
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Mutheu added that they are focused at strengthening the entire research ecosystem by creating major Science Technology Innovation programs with emphasis on intra-Africa collaborations, and with global partnerships.
‘‘Africa is a very large continent measuring 30million square km and covers at least 20% of the earth’s total land area and has 16% of global population,’’ she said.
‘‘Unfortunately, Africa has 25% disease burden with 2% world research output where 2.6% researchers. It faces climate change, food insecurity where 124 million people in 51 African countries experienced high levels of food insecurity, according to the Food Agriculture Organization.
At least 390 million are living in extreme poverty. We look forward to better research and policy priorities that enhance the role of the fourth industrial revolution in accelerating achievement of Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2024), SDGs and Agenda 2063,’’ Mutheu said.
Zimbabwe media trainer Cris Chinaka welcomed the Science for Africa Foundation program saying it provides important contribution to the development of media skills on the continent.
‘‘Science is one of those areas that most of our media have not been covering well. Part of the problem is that very few journalism training institutions offer any specialized training in science,’’ said Chinaka.
‘‘The failure to train science journalists and in covering developments on science and technology are critical elements in growing economies and resolving some of our challenges including health, environment and climate change. We hope the program will help fill up a big skills gap in our media,’’ said Chinaka.