Washing your hands is the most important defense against COVID-19. But what happens to millions of Africans without reliable access to water?
While the North focuses on infection and mortality rates, the developing world is still struggling to understand how pre-existing health challenges, like endemic tuberculosis, and underdeveloped healthcare infrastructure will compound coronavirus impacts in already fragile societies.
Code for Africa's coalition of mainstream African newsrooms and scientists work to improve data-driven decision-making by developing interactive tools and data journalism on the factors of health and social vulnerability, mobility between communities, and access to health infrastructure and water. This reporting will also look into the effects of prolonged lockdowns on employment and society, while also spotlighting the disproportionate impact on African women.
Code for Africa's partners on this project include: The Guardian (Nigeria), PesaCheck - a fact-checking initiative (Pan-African), News24 (South Africa), Arxiv Africa (Pan-African), New Vision (Uganda), Star (Kenya), and WanaData Africa - a network of African women data scientists and data journalists (Pan-African).
