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Showing posts with label Nyaggah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nyaggah. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Nyaggah calls on African media to adopt open data journalism

The Executive Director, Local Development Research Institute (LDRI), Mr. Muchiri Nyaggah has called on African media to adopt open data to enable more evidence-based story delivery, NaijaAgroNet reports.

Nyaggah made this call at the opening session of the 4-day open data training for members of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Journalists Network which commenced in Nairobi, Kenya on Monday.

He highlighted the essence of the training as building the capacity of media practitioners to enable monitoring of progress and report on the implementation of the CAADP through the use of agriculture data and research.

He told NaijaAgroNet that the objectives of the training include enthroning innovative ways to disseminate news and advocacy content to increased awareness on the agricultural transformation agenda in Africa.

The LDRI boss further said that the session would enable them to keep an eye on and provide technological support to the participants in implementing what they learn within their organistions and becoming greater champions.


As such, participants, Nyaggah said, would be trained on how to find, present and visualise data suitable to journalists’ needs, such as creating charts, maps or galleries, whereas providing the essential concepts, techniques and skills to effectively work with data and produce compelling data stories.

Remmy Nweke in Nairobi/ED, Ops
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Pix: Muchiri Nyaggah speaking on Open Data at the Nairobi training 

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

African media must take charge of African narratives – Nyaggah

African media practitioners have been tasked to take charge of narratives coming from the continent, says the Executive Director, Local Development Research Institute (LDRI), Mr. Muchiri Nyaggah, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This, he said, must be done specifically in the coverage of agriculture sector whilst enmeshing the narratives with relevant data in order to tell the stories more explicitly.

Nyaggah gave this charge in a presentation he made at a three-day Reporting Agriculture workshop in Abidjan, the Cote D’Iviore capital organised by the Africa Media Initiative (AMI) in conjunction with the World Bank.

Dwelling on “Using Data in Reporting on Agriculture in Africa” Nyaggah cited an instance with the recent report on Kibera’s people which was largely exaggerated to be between 800,00 and 1million people; purportedly living in the shanty town in an area of only 255 hectares, meaning that population density is so high that people have only about 1 meter space per three persons each.

The report, he noted however, added that over 100,000 children were believed to be orphans due to the high incidence, but according to him, this story was very far away from the truth because it was being reported from the eyes of foreign media elements in collusion with some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who did not do their home-works well.

To take charge of the narrative, Nyaggah said Africa needs evidence to fix it’s challenges, because, “He who has the data controls the narrative.”

African media practitioners, he said, could only hold their governments accountable when their stories or narratives are backed with evidences based on relevant data, giving another instance that the World Health Organisation (WHO) otherwise known as the World Health Assembly (WHA) has target on nutrition that there would be about 40 per cent reduction in the number of children under 5 who are stunted by 2025.

He pointed out that story on nutrition for instance has data from WHO to back it up, such narrative would make a better sense both in understanding and seriousness by the authorities, mostly in a developing economies like Africa.

Nyaggah recalled that in 2014, the African Union Heads of State and Government recommitted themselves to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) principles and objectives in Malabo.

He emphasised that 65 per cent of Africa’s labour force is employed in the agriculture sector and contributes just over 30 per cent of the continent’s GDP, coupled with the increasing need to achieve food sufficiency for 1.5 billion people by 2020 makes agricultural transformation pivotal to achieving the Health Policy Initiative (HPI) objectives.


The LDRI boss, insisted that African media practitioners have not been very philanthropic with the power of narratives due to lack of supporting data and enjoined them to explore the use of data in their editorial contents.

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Monday, June 20, 2016

LDRI supports AU efforts to end hunger, poverty, reduce inequality – Nyaggah

The Local Development Research Institute (LDRI) has asserted support for the African Union (AU) member states in their efforts to end hunger, poverty and reduce inequality, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Executive Director, LDRI, Mr. Muchiri Nyaggah made this known in Abidjan, Cote D’Iviore in a chat with NaijaAgroNet during a three-day workshop hosted by the Africa Media Initiative (AMI) in collaboration with World Bank.

He said that LDRI, which commenced operation in 2015, is an action-oriented think-tank whose work contributes to the efforts of African governments to end extreme poverty, end hunger and reduce inequalities.  

According to him, with 65 per cent of Africa’s labour force employed in the agriculture sector with estimation of contributing approximately 30 per cent of the continent’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), coupled with the increasing need to achieve food sufficiency for some 1.5 billion people by 2020, it is certain that agriculture will be pivotal to achieving these objectives.

LDRI, he said, focuses on the role of agricultural transformation in ending hunger, poverty and inequality especially the capability of states to have and use data/statistics in decision-making on the continent.

The strategic objectives of LDRI for the next four years, Nyaggah said, strengthening the Africa data ecosystem for planning, monitoring and review of interventions to drive agriculture transformation in Africa.


Also, he said, LDRI supports inclusive processes for evidence-driven policy on agriculture transformation in Africa and tend to build capacity of stakeholders to make their data openly accessible to others.

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