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The virtual United Nations World Data Forum ended Wednesday with the Economic Commission for Africa’s (ECA) Director for the Africa Statistics Centre, Oliver Chinganya, stressing the importance of current, reliable and trusted data to ensure Africa leaves no one behind as it implements the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Agenda 2063, the continent’s blueprint for development.

Speaking on a panel discussing the theme; Balancing Data and Data Protection: Learning from African Experiences, Chinganya said building trust in a field littered with many players is difficult but critical if it is to be used to unlock Africa’s full potential through evidence-based policymaking that will change people’s lives at the grassroots level.

He emphasized the importance of protecting data security, investing in quality data infrastructure, and practicing good governance to ensure laws and regulations are in place in member States to regulate collection, management and use of the numbers.

“Everyone agrees that data is important and has value. It is like a currency. It is gold. Others have even called it the new oil. It is simply an asset,” said Chinganya. “Everyone is interested in data and therefore we must have rules on how it is managed and used by everyone for everyone.”

He said this is why the UN Fundamental Principles on Official Statistics are in place, along with statistical laws or Statistics Acts and Statistics Code of Ethics, and in Africa in particular, the African Charter on Statistics to avoid abuse.

Chinganya underscored that the statistics landscape is one of the most populated areas with many actors but, he stressed, the national statistical office remained the authority on official statistics.

He said it was encouraging that most African countries now have data protection laws.

Africa Travel Week sounds the call for feel-good stories to #UnlockAfrica

Arts and Culture

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October 26, 2020

Africa Travel Week sounds the call for feel-good stories to #UnlockAfrica

Africa Travel Week is calling on all tourism and travel professionals to send in their feel-good stories as part of their #UnlockAfrica campaign to showcase the best of the continent.

“The goal is 50 positive news stories shared across our platforms over a period of 50 days from 01 November 2020,” says Megan Oberholzer, Portfolio Director: Travel, Tourism and Creative Industries at Reed Exhibitions.

“We’re leveraging the global reach of Reed Exhibitions to keep marketing Africa to the rest of the world – especially to our top source market countries still considered high risk,” she adds.

The stories will be curated on ATWConnect.com, Africa Travel Week’s digital platform offering industry news and insights, along with archived webinars and digital events. Through the launch of their insightful Meetings & Masterclasses over September and October, the Africa Travel Week team rallied together just over 800 members of the travel and tourism industry.

“This campaign ties into our common goal of #MakingTravelHappenAgain and nurturing a culture of ‘us’ within the industry,” she adds. “Over the past few months, we have found ourselves in awe of our community – marvelling at everyone’s spirit, grit and tenacity and we also want to ensure that those small wins worth celebrating aren’t lost in the online noise.”

From a successful first guest stay, a funny staff story, a stellar review or a recent product launch, the team at Africa Travel Week is looking for anything uplifting and positive from tour guides, operators, travel agents, airlines, hotels, lodges and accommodation groups.

“Good things happen all around us, every day, and it’s important not to lose sight of that, especially at a time when the world needs more good news,” Oberholzer concludes.

Seeds of Africa raises over $100K and celebrates Ten Years of Empowering the African Vision!

Arts and Culture

October 26, 2020

Over $100,000 was raised on Thursday, October 15 at the 2020 Seeds of Africa Virtual Annual Benefit streamed live on Facebook with over 1.8K views, where supporters joined online for an hour in celebration of Seeds of Africa’s Tenth Year of Empowering the African Vision. The funds raised during the event will go towards supporting the nonprofit’s education and community development programs in Adama, Ethiopia. Seeds of Africa is an education and microfinancing institution that provides small business loans to mothers to escape the cycle of poverty, while providing a free, multi-pronged school for their children.

This year’s benefit spotlighted the critical work of Seeds of Africa over the course of a decade, from humble beginnings as an after school program to a powerful education and economic development organization transforming thousands of lives in Ethiopia.

The evening livestream event featured an hour full of uplifting stories, a fireside chat with Seeds founder Atti Worku, and exclusive performances by world renowned artists Lucky Daye (US), Zeritu Kebede (ET), Langa Mavuso (ZA) and Jelani Blackman (UK) with music by DJ mOma. Sotheby’s auctioneer Michael Macaulay led a spirited Paddle Raise for sponsorship levels starting from $5,000.

In Founder and CEO Atti Worku’s fireside chat, she reminiscenced with Shawna Hamilton and Shamm Petros on how Seeds emerged and grew from serving 15 students in her mother’s backyard into the prominent NGO that serves over 350 people in Adama, Ethiopia today. Now, the work has never been more vital, yet Seeds’ existence has never been more endangered.

“Resiliency and the ability to quickly adapt and pivot with limited resources is important, but so is listening to the people you serve,” Worku remarked when speaking on Seeds of Africa’s pandemic emergency response programs this year. “Most families needed the basics; food, PPE and tools to educate their kids at home. These are things people in the US have gone through and can understand their complexities.”