The
Executive Director, Local Development Research Institute (LDRI) Mr. Muchiri
Nyaggah has urged African media practitioners to explore some headstarts on
open data to encourage improvement in agriculture produce of the continent,
reports NaijaAgroNet.
Speaking at
the round-up session at the week-long training for the Comprehensive Africa
Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Journalists Network which ended
recently in Nairobi, Kenyan capital, Mr. Nyaggah suggested some five headstarts
which he believes will motivate the discuss on open data from the African
perspective among practitioners.
He listed
the potentials to include the possibility of African media practitioners focusing
on progress in agricultural productivity, stunting in children under five,
domestic food prices, possible advances in agricultural produce and improving
capacity to generate agriculture data cum statistics.
Nyaggah also
said these outlines are doable and could be explored before the end of this
year, mostly working in collaboration with members of the network.
He expressed
optimism that the outcome will be memorable as LDRI and partners are on queue
to technically support participants in order to improve their deployment of
open data in daily newsroom activities.
“LDRI and
its partners will provide technical support in finding datasets, identifying
visualization options,” he assured.
In addition,
Nyaggah said, some of the suggestions will be exposed on TransformAgriculture.org
and selected for the CTA magazine.
NaijaAgroNet gathered that within this project, CTA in partnership with the New Partnership
for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency as facilitated by Local Development
Research Institute (LDRI) tend to improve the lots of African media, using open
data.
Further, NaijaAgroNet recollects that the training was part of the Global Open Data for
Impact and Capacity Development on Agriculture and Nutrition (GODIVAN) scheme,
a Department for International Development (DFID) project, implemented under a
joint venture of international partners with the aim to increase production of
the agricultural sector, improved nutrition for consumers and more
evidence-based policy making, in which these desired changes are based on
enabling communities practically engage with open data.
Pix: Muchiri Nyaggah, Executive Director, LDRI Kenya