The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and Code for Africa are partnering with the World Bank’s Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF) to present monthly online webinars for those interested in applying to our impactAFRICA challenge.
Educational achievement is an essential driver of development and one of the most effective tools for reducing poverty and narrowing the opportunity gap between men and women. Given the transformative effect of education on society, journalists have a strong interest in learning how to use proven case studies and data to expose education challenges and prompt meaningful change. According to the United Nations, enrollment in primary education in the developing world reached 91 percent in 2015, up from 83 percent in 2000. With increasing enrollment, attention is shifting toward improving the quality of education.
How can journalists identify the challenges that schools face in enhancing student learning? How can their investigations motivate the government and schools to take action and maintain accountability? Tune in to this webinar to hear experts from the World Bank discuss the major obstacles to student learning and how impact evaluation is testing new methods for journalists to assess their coverage of schools.
This webinar discussion will cover how journalists can investigate topics more directly correlated with student learning, such as whether teachers show up, what they do in the classroom and whether raising parental involvement can improve schools’ accountability.
When: November 10th at 10 am EST
Experts: Dave Evans, a Senior Economist in the Chief Economist's Office for the Africa Region of the World Bank
Moderator: Christopher Conte, Former ICFJ Knight International Journalism Fellow
Earlier this year, Code for Africa and ICFJ launched the first round of impactAFRICA, a $500,000 story contest to support data-driven investigative reporting that sheds light on neglected or under-reported development topics in Africa. The project will initially target six key countries: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia.
This series of webinars will inform journalists about key development issues, provide reporting resources, and give participants the opportunity to ask questions. The webinars will feature global development experts from the World Bank. The webinars will also give viewers the opportunity to ask questions about their own story ideas.
The Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund (SIEF), is a World Bank partnership program that promotes evidence-based policy making. The fund focuses on four areas critical to healthy human development: basic education; health systems and service delivery; early childhood development and nutrition; and water and sanitation. SIEF works around the world, primarily in low-income countries, bringing impact evaluation expertise and evidence to a range of programs and policymaking teams.
International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) is at the forefront of the news revolution. Its programs empower journalists and engage citizens with new technologies and best practices. ICFJ’s networks of reporters and media entrepreneurs are transforming the field. ICFJ believes that better journalism leads to better lives. Over the past 30 years, ICFJ has worked with more than 92,000 professional and citizen journalists and media managers from 180 countries. ICFJ works through strong local partners, such as Code for Africa, and a network of dedicated alumni. For more information, go to www.icfj.org.
Code for Africa (CfAfrica) is the custodian of impactAFRICA and is the continent’s largest independent open data and civic technology initiative. It operates as a federation of autonomous country-based digital innovation organisations that support ‘citizen labs’ in five countries and major projects in a further 15 countries. CfAfrica runs Africa’s OpenGov Fellowships and also embeds innovation fellows into newsrooms and social justice organisations to help liberate data of public interest, or to build tools that help empower citizens. In addition to fellowships and CitizenLabs, CfAfrica runs the $1 million per year innovateAFRICA fund and the $500,000 per year impactAFRICA fund, which both award seed grants to civic pioneers for experiments with everything from camera drones and environmental sensors, to encryption for whistleblowers and data-driven semantic analysis tools for investigative watchdogs. CfAfrica also curates continental resources such as the africanSPENDING portal of budget transparency resources, the openAFRICA data portal, the sourceAFRICA document repository and the connectedAFRICA transparency toolkit for tracking the often hidden social networks and economic interests in politics. CfAfrica is an initiative of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).