MESHA hosts the African Science Journalists Conference, launches the inaugural State of Environment Report in Africa

By Odhiambo David | odhisdavid59@gmail.com

The sixth African Conference of Science Journalists, which was held in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital ended with a resounding success.

The 3-day conference closed its doors on Friday October 13^th, 2023 with a call from scientists for the media to keep aflame reporting on climate change, environmental degradation and pandemic preparedness.

This year’s edition was supported by funding from the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) based in Nairobi.

Hosted by Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture (MESHA), the event provided a platform to discuss current status and future of science and environmental journalism in Africa including the preparedness of the continent to deal with future pandemics.

The major highlight of the conference was the launch of the CSE’s State of Africa’s Environment (S0E) 2023 report by Kenya’s National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), Mamo Boru Mamo.

The report reveals how the continent’s progress is being held back by a confluence of factors that include poor leadership, bad governance and unethical practices by big business interests.

It details the environmental situation in the context of climate change, energy access, air pollution, biodiversity, land and agriculture, mobility, water and waste management, among other development issues on the continent.

According to the report, Africa continues to bear the brunt of the repercussions of climate change even though African countries contribute less to the triggers of the phenomenon.

The report also examines Africa’s potential to feed itself and the role poor governance policies play in frustrating efforts towards food security. Despite having 65 percent of arable land, for instance, Africa still imports foods, the authors of the report note.

Mamo further said that the contents of the report will be domesticated to help the continent with strategies to deal with climate change.

He noted that despite Kenya having a pro-conservation constitution supported by eight other regulations, the biggest challenge to dealing with conservation issues has been enforcement.

“This report is very timely and will build into NEMA report and policies,” said Mamo.

He announced that from January 2024 all vehicles in Kenya will undergo emission testing.

Jabes Okumu, Programs and Advocacy Manager, East African Wild Life Society while speaking on Central Kenya’s lakes and wetlands and how to protect them and their biodiversity said that there is need for a single authority to govern the wetlands in Kenya.

“We need to equip our communities with skills to prevent human-wildlife conflicts and discourage wetland encroachment,” he said.

Lack of biodiversity data was also noted as a challenge in the fight towards keeping our wetlands safe.

Senior editors attending the conference spoke on the emerging trends in environment and science reporting in Africa and India. Editors Hellen Miseda formerly of Standard Group; Richard Mahapatra, Managing Editor, Down To Earth, India; Godfrey Ombogo, Editor, Sayansi Magazine, Kenya; and Francis Kagolo, Senior Producer-News, New Vision, Uganda were part of this panel that concurred that media houses need to introduce climate desk for effective and regular reportage of climate change issues.

“Unless there’s a global event like COP or Africa Climate Summit, it is rare to find climate stories in the media. After that, it is just politics after politics,” said Ms Miseda.

Two health related science cafes were also held within the conference. The first one was about the triple threat.

A media science café dedicated to “Triple Threat” and its implications looked into the insights into the challenges, opportunities and innovative approaches for addressing the issues. Ms Caro Kinoti, Head of County Support Division, National Syndemic Diseases Control Council, Nairobi said that the gender based violence continues to contribute immensely to the spread of HIV.

On their part, Kenya Medical Practitioners Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU) warned of an imminent failure of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

The union claims that despite the government doing a lot ahead of the launch of the program, the government seems not to have learnt a lesson from its failures in the past two attempts to roll out the program.

“In Kenya today, we have one doctor to 16,000 Kenyans. This is against World Health Organisation’s (WHO) requirement of one doctor to 1,000 people,” said Dr Dennis Miskellah, KMPDU Deputy Secretary General during his presentation.

Dr Miskellah challenged journalists to continue shining light on health issues in the country, so as to help stakeholders understand the situation. He noted that poor management of the health sector could hamper the implementation of critical programs such as the Universal Health Coverage.

Francis Angirah from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI), Kisumu urged journalists to interrogate lessons learnt during the COVID-19 pandemic and report on them so as to ensure that the masses are prepared for the next pandemic.

With the partnership with MESHA, CSE and Down To Earth (DTE) have committed to release the State of Environment (SOE) in Africa annually.

Journalists who attended the conference observed that it was a dynamic networking and training event, leaving them reinvigorated and motivated to continue doing science stories.

In the words of Teresia Gitau, who covers climate change issues from a religion perspective, the conference was amazing because of the information shared, opportunity to network with people from other mainstream media houses and the challenges ‘new opportunities’ the journalists faced while working and partnering with other organizations.

“It was a pleasant surprise to meet another journalist of faith and could relate to some of the issues journalist of faith experience,” she added.

While giving the closing remarks, Aghan Daniel, Secretary MESHA urged the journalists to be always ready to learn and tell African science stories that impact lives of the people.

“One untold story is a life lost,” he said.