The Solutions Journalism Africa Initiative
By: Mikhael Simmonds
Tags: Equity, Kenya, Solutions Journalism, Nigeria, Africa

In a recent Guardian article, veteran journalist Afua Hirsch asked why Africa’s coronavirus successes are being overlooked despite the continent’s “stellar history of innovating [its] way out of problems”?

Why, indeed? Many Western outlets rehashed the racialized story of the “inevitable failures of the continent’s governmental and health systems” — when effective and noteworthy responses have emerged across the continent.

The reasons for this gap are many and complex, stemming from racism, colonialism, and ingrained narratives of helplessness. Not least is traditional journalism’s persistent deficit bias, the longstanding problem-oriented focus that reporters bring to stories about Africa.

This persistent deficit bias has caused many international and local journalists to fall into default narratives anchored in desperate poverty, corruption, mismanagement and disease, even when economic and health indicators tell a much more complex story. While we as journalists exhaustively (and effectively) detect, highlight and dissect these problems, we’re less practiced at applying our skills to reporting on the corresponding responses.

This is where we think incorporating solutions journalism — rigorous, evidence-based reporting about systemic responses to social problems — can play an important role.

That’s why we’re proud to announce the launch of the Solutions Journalism Africa Initiative with our partners Nigeria Health Watch and Science Africa.

This partnership is focused on working with journalists across Nigeria and Kenya to continue to create high quality solutions journalism reporting that helps tell a fuller, more nuanced story about what’s working and not working across Africa.

In the course of this three-year initiative we will be localizing and expanding our curriculum, engaging at least 60 newsrooms, training journalists/trainers, facilitating knowledge exchange sessions across countries, and supporting reporting projects. This push will expand on previous work in the region and add to the more than 859 Africa-related stories in our solutions journalism database, The Tracker.

Solutions journalism isn’t about feel-good, fluffy reporting meant to distract from everyday issues or geared towards making someone “look good.” No! It’s about answering important questions with the evidence and insight that can help others respond to similar issues while removing excuses for inaction or misaction by authorities.

Great solutions journalism tells fully reported stories about resilience, innovation and problem-solving through the lens of rigorous reporting — acknowledging the many challenges faced but also exploring the innovations that have driven dramatic improvements in health, economic, and social outcomes. Journalists doing this work explore questions such as:

SJN will be hiring an Africa Initiative Manager, a skilled journalist-entrepreneur to co-lead this work in Nigeria and Kenya over the next 2.5 years. This is a full-time role based in Abuja, Nigeria. You can find more information and the application form here. If you have any questions about this role please email Mikhael Simmonds at mikhael @ solutionsjournalism. org with the headline: SoJo Africa Initiative [YOUR NAME].

This type of reporting can truly help us all define peoples, communities, organizations, institutions or whole societies by their assets not just their deficits. If you would like to participate or learn more about the project please reach out to the email above.