Africa CDC joins forces with Co-Creation Hub to use smart ways to educate and sensitise the continent on COVID-19 |01 April 2020

In a latest press release issued by the African Union (AU) on Monday March 30, we learnt that Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is collaborating with the Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB), the leading technology innovation centre in Africa, to launch a call for innovative communication projects on COVID-19 based on indigenous African languages targeted at the semi-urban and rural population across Africa.

The communication projects are expected to help counter disbelief and misinformation, catalyse citizens actions and solidarity as well as combat stigmatisation. The collaboration will focus on projects delivering vetted critical information from Africa CDC to Africans in remote areas using innovative and culturally sensitive messaging.

This involves educating the public and ensuring fact-based information reaches even remote locations through such approaches like comics, animation, illustrations, infographics, interactive SMS, mobile apps etc.

The selected teams will be supported with grant funding of up to $5000 for research and design support. Proposed projects can be focused on one African country or multiple countries across the continent.

Dr Benjamin Djoudalbaye, head of policy, health diplomacy, and communication at the Africa CDC, stated that the collaboration is to “enhance efforts of the Africa CDC towards educating the public and ensuring that the right information reaches even remote locations across the continent to avoid unnecessary panic and misinformation.”

With a track record of collaborating with key players to explore the application of technology to solve Africa’s systemic problems in public health, education, governance in the continent, CcHUB through its internal research and development unit, CcHUB Design Lab, based in Kigali, Rwanda, will collaborate with innovators to provide technical support using innovative digital and non-digital methodologies to ensure the mass messaging on coronavirus reaches the semi-urban and rural population across Africa. Bosun Tijani, CcHUB’s co-founder and chief executive, said: “This is a critical time where tech in Africa should be used in smart ways to ensure broader citizen awareness and understanding of COVID-19 response strategies and precautions”.

This collaboration is supported by the Joint African Union – German Cooperation on Citizens Engagement and Innovative Data Use for Africa’s Development programme implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). A Call for Projects - Solve for coronavirus (COVID-19) for creative teams working on a project or have an idea, with the capability to build out the solution could be accessed through the link: bit.ly/solve-for-covid19

Source: African Union

5,255 COVID-19 cases reported in the African Union member states

African Union member states (47) reporting COVID-19 cases (5,255), deaths (173), and recoveries (371) by region:

Central (287 cases, 18 deaths, 9 recoveries): Cameroon (142, 8, 3), Central African Republic (6, 0, 3), Chad (7, 0, 0), Congo (19, 0, 2), DRC (83, 8, 1), Equatorial Guinea (14, 0, 0), Gabon (16, 2, 0).

Eastern (429, 7, 6): Djibouti (26, 0, 0), Eritrea (15, 0, 0), Ethiopia (23, 0, 4), Kenya (50, 1, 1), Madagascar (46, 0, 0), Mauritius (128, 3, 0), Rwanda (70, 0, 0), Seychelles (10, 0, 0), Somalia (3, 0, 0), Sudan (6, 2, 0), Tanzania (19, 1, 1), Uganda (33, 0, 0).

Northern (2,167, 118, 243): Algeria (582, 35, 77), Egypt (656, 41, 150), Libya (8, 0, 0), Mauritania (3, 0, 0), Morocco (556, 33, 15), Tunisia (362, 8, 1).

Southern (1,406, 5, 31): Angola (7, 2, 0), Botswana (3), Eswatini (9, 0, 0), Mozambique (8, 0, 0), Namibia (11, 0, 0), South Africa (1,326, 2, 31), Zambia (35, 0, 0), Zimbabwe (7, 1, 0).

Western (966, 25, 82): Benin (6, 0, 1), Burkina Faso (246, 12, 31), Cape Verde (6, 1, 0), Côte d'Ivoire (168, 1, 6), Gambia (4, 1, 0), Ghana (152, 5, 2), Guinea (16, 0, 1), Guinea-Bissau (2, 0, 0), Liberia (3, 0, 0), Mali (18, 1, 0), Niger (18, 1, 0), Nigeria (131, 2, 3), Senegal (162, 0, 28), Togo (34, 1, 10).

Compiled by Vidya Gappy