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The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has trained the media on how to use Data Journalism for Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis (VAA) data in their work.
Alfred Hermida contends that data journalism draws on fields such as information visualization, computer science, and statistics to convey news through the analysis and representation of quantitative, computer-processed data.
In his keynote speech yesterday at the Virtual Workshop on Data Journalism titled “How Media can use Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis (VAA) data in their work” Mr. Alex Banda, the Senior Advisor at the Disaster Risk Management Unit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said vulnerability assessment and analysis information require to be disseminated, which highlights the need and importance of the media in disseminating accurate information to the various users and stakeholders.
“I wish to call upon all of us to take this Webinar seriously so that we can appreciate and understand how as media, we can use Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis (VAA) data in our work to benefit the various stakeholders that need it. The Secretariat is committed to working with all Journalists and media houses in the region in the noble endeavour to strengthen capacities for dissemination of information on the various vulnerabilities and efforts being undertaken by the Member States to enhance the region’s resilience to shocks,” Mr Banda said.
The webinar took place at a time when the SADC region is only beginning to recover from the low productivity 2020/21 season where according to the updated Synthesis Report on the State of Food and Nutrition Security and Vulnerability in Southern Africa, close to 51.3 million people in both urban and rural areas of Southern Africa were categorised as food insecure, the highest number ever recorded by the SADC Regional Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis (RVAA) Programme.
Mr Banda said this has to a large extent been due to the prolonged El Nino induced drought that has ravaged the region since the 2015/16 cropping season. During the period, the region has also experienced a number of disasters that among others included cyclones, Idai, Kenneth, Chalane and more recently Eloise, which resulted in torrential rains and floods that affected countries like Madagascar and Mozambique.
The impacts were also felt in Botswana, Eswatini, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa. These led to the loss of lives, damage to infrastructure and displaced many people. More recently the Democratic Republic of Congo experienced a volcanic eruption on Mount Nyiragongo that led to the loss of over 30 lives, destroyed property and infrastructure and ultimately disrupted livelihoods, as many people were displaced apart from losing their livelihood assets. All these compound the already existing vulnerabilities of the people in the region.
Since December 2019, the global community has been grappling with the impacts of the COVID 19 pandemic that has led to the loss of lives and aggravated the socio-economic situation of individuals, communities and entire countries.
These have largely been due to policies and measures implemented to slow the spread of the virus. Such measures have led to the loss of employment and other sources of income thereby plunging many into deeper socio-economic hardships. The measures have also brought about other unintended consequences such as gender-based violence and child abuse that all contribute to the different vulnerabilities that individuals and communities face. The impacts are likely to be felt for years to come with dire consequences for those with already high levels of vulnerabilities.
The 4th Assessment report of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change projects that the frequency and severity of climate-induced impacts are likely to increase in Sub-Saharan African Africa, with dire consequences on the livelihoods of the vulnerabilities of the people in the region.
Of late it has been highlighted that the region is experiencing higher increases in temperatures than had been projected, an indication that the region might experience more detrimental climate change impacts than earlier predicted.
“This emphasizes the need for more accurate data and information that can be used to inform policy to guide targeted interventions to support and help to build the resilience of those that require support to cope with the various levels of shocks. In this regard, in 1999, SADC established the Regional Vulnerability Assessment Committee (RVAC) with International Cooperating Partners and other stakeholders.
“This committee has spearheaded critical improvements in vulnerability analysis and food security at both regional and country level. At the national level, National Vulnerability Assessment Committees (NVACs) coordinate the annual vulnerability assessment and analysis. Activities of these Committees have been supported by the Regional Vulnerability Assessment and Analysis Programme that has been implemented for the past 13 years. The Programme provides important information to inform humanitarian response policies for targeted support and longer-term programmes to build resilience,” Mr Banda added.
Getting access to information is only part of the job for journalists. Research shows data-driven news production practices have made external actors instrumental in news production (e.g Africa Check, Code for Africa, Open Parly)
Outsourcing skills, the operations of non-journalistic actors today, lie at the heart of journalistic discourse as non-profits and civic technologists ‘encroach/interlope’ into journalism.
Ranga Mberi, a Harare-based journalist said data journalism is useful to journalists in many ways.
” There is a useful old cliché that says images tell more than words. Data journalism helps us tell complex stories in simple formats. It allows readers to see real places, and real people they can relate to. People share images more than text. Many just don’t read. Figures are often taken at face value. Data journalism puts them into context. On the other hand, people hate numbers so data journalism helps them understand data better. More often than not, officials and influential people sometimes use numbers to mislead but data journalism finds the facts,” Mberi said.
Neto Nengomasha, a Senior Researcher at the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) alluded to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 that recognizes the media as a key stakeholder in disaster risk reduction whose role is to: take an active and inclusive role at all levels in contributing to the raising of public awareness and understanding, and disseminating accurate and non-sensitive disaster risk information in a simple, transparent, easy-to-understand and accessible manner.
“The media provides a direct link between the emergency organizations, the policymakers and the at-risk communities. Policy makers rely on the media to get reliable information to inform policy interventions…Trust in the media is very important in disaster risk reduction. At every stage of the Disaster Cycle, the media has a critical role to play,” Nengomasha said.
According to the SADC RVAA Guidelines of 2015, it is Imperative for any user of vulnerability data to fully understand the meaning and accuracy of the data before it can be intelligently used.
