African economists and journalists in unique collaboration

Finding the human stories behind big data.

It’s a dilemma at the heart of democracy in Africa, summed up by Professor Paul Collier, the eminent development economist from Oxford University.

“Economists are really bad at communicating,” he says. “Try reading some technical economics. It’s gobbledygook! Yet ordinary citizens have to get up to speed on these issues. The future depends on what citizens can understand.

“The job of communicating with ordinary people is second nature to journalists. So the journalists have to engage with economists – so they can get on top of the ideas.”

That is the founding principle of Africa Means Business, a unique collaboration between the media and academic economists led by the Thomson Foundation in Kenya and Ghana.

If we can get great economic ideas and take them to the streets, then that is going to change Africa.

Journalists learn how to decode data and find the human stories behind the numbers. Economists discover how to get their message into the media. Political leaders have a more open and informed public debate about planning and governing well. Voters benefit from greater understanding of their future economic choices and possibilities.

“We believe if we can get great economic ideas and take them to the streets, then that is going to change Africa and make Africa a better place,” says Dr X.N. Iraki, director of the MBA programme at Nairobi University.

That is exactly the challenge, believes Chaacha Mwita, director of Africa Means Business. “There’s a lot of talk around economics in Africa, but it does not percolate down to the common person or the policymakers.”

Africa Means Business is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Thomson Foundation’s partners are the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), the Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE) and the Wincott Foundation.