Africa Science Focus

In Africa, unsafe food causes illness, puts pressure on public health systems and hinders progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty and hunger by 2030. According to the World Health Organization, each year about 600 million people around the world become ill after eating contaminated food. 

This is the second episode of our new mini-series,AgriAfrica, where we’re digging into the continent’s agricultural infrastructure. This week, our reporter Charles Pensulo investigates food safety and finds out why aflatoxins — which can grow in soil, grasses and grains — are a major contributor to foodborne illness in Africa.

 Be sure to join us next week for the third and final episode of the AgriAfrica series, as we look at how blockchain is being used in agriculture in Africa. 

 Send us your questions from anywhere in the world — text or voice message via WhatsApp to +254799042513.  

Africa Science Focus, with Michael Kaloki. 

In Sub-Saharan Africa, on-farm losses of fruits and vegetables were the highest in the world before the pandemic hit, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. The United Nations estimates that an additional 45 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia became acutely food insecure last year. 

Over the next three episodes Africa Science Focus will be taking a closer look at food production, as part of a new mini-series,AgriAfrica. Join us as we dig into the continent’s agricultural infrastructure and find out about the local innovations that are helping to make food safer, and more accessible.

Our reporter Michael Kaloki begins our AgriAfricaseries with an investigation of food loss and food waste. 

Send us your questions from anywhere in the world — text or voice message via WhatsApp to +254799042513.  

Africa Science Focus, with Selly Amutabi. 

With the ability to develop knowledge on drugs, agriculture, health and the environment, microscope and imaging technologies could be the next big thing in Africa’s research landscape. But, funding and training are needed to magnify microscopy’s potential benefits.

 This week on Africa Science Focus, our reporter Michael Baruti meets the microscope specialists from the newly established African BioImaging Consortium, who are excited about the future of imaging on the continent. 

 And, Mathews Malata, president of the Association of Environmental Journalists in Malawi, answers this week’s question, which comes from a student in Kampala. 

 Send us your questions from anywhere in the world — text or voice message via WhatsApp to +254799042513.  

 Africa Science Focus, with Michael Kaloki. 

Climate change is already hitting Africa hard – from extreme weather events, to locust plagues, and failed harvests. But, international research and policy bodies, and ‘hot lists’ of influential climate scientists, rarely include African scientists.  

With United Nations climate talks set to take place in the United Kingdom in November, Africa Science Focus reporter Michael Kaloki asks whether African science can influence these critical international negotiations. We find out which climate scientists and activists the world should be watching, and why climate adaptation and mitigation depends on African science. 

Send us your questions from anywhere in the world — text or voice message via WhatsApp to +254799042513.  

Africa Science Focus, with Selly Amutabi. 

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, science and development are being brought together by our creative young thinkers, activists and researchers. At this year’s European Development Days, the #EDD21 Young Leaders — including nine from Africa — will share their ideas and ambitions for a sustainable future with the world. 

 From the continent’s national parks and major cities, three of these young leaders tell Africa Science Focus reporter Michael Kaloki how they are driving sustainable development in their communities — and how wild dogs, fish and bees are involved. 

This week on our question and answer segment, we hear from a student at Uganda’s Mariam High School, and cardiologist Ramon Moronkola. 

 Send us your questions from anywhere in the world — text or voice message via WhatsApp to +254799042513.  

 Africa Science Focus, with Selly Amutabi. 

Episode 44

In Sub-Saharan Africa, malaria is a leading cause of death for children under five and with an estimated 220 million cases worldwide every year, malaria remains a public health crisis. 

For some, genetically modified mosquitoes could be a game-changing tool in the fight against malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. But others say that genetic engineering threatens the delicate circle of life. 

The World Health Organization has just released an updated version of its ‘Guidance framework for testing of genetically modified mosquitoes’. Our reporter Michael Kaloki finds out what genetically modified mosquitoes are, why guidance has been developed around this research, and what it all means for Africa.

Send us your questions from anywhere in the world — text or voice message via WhatsApp to +254799042513.  

Africa Science Focus, with Selly Amutabi. 

Sub-Saharan Africa’s vibrant rainforests support communities, lives, and livelihoods. The drylands — which include grasslands, savannahs and scrublands — are just as important. But, many of these landscapes have become degraded, and are under threat.

Our reporter Michael Kaloki investigates what’s being done to rehabilitate and replenish Africa’s forests and drylands. Irene Ojuok, a champion of farmer managed natural regeneration, tells us about Africa’s sleeping underground forests, and we speak to the head of AFR100, Mamadou Diakhite, ahead of the Global Landscapes Forum’s digital conference Restoring Africa’s Drylands, on 2-3 June. 

 Send us your questions from anywhere in the world — text or voice message via WhatsApp to +254799042513.  

Africa Science Focus, with Selly Amutabi. 

This is the final episode in our mini-series ‘Energising Africa’, where we investigate progress towards electricity, infrastructure and network access on the continent. 

 The United Nations declared internet access a human right in 2016. But network disruptions remain an everyday part of life in Sub-Saharan Africa, and some analysts say there is an increasing trend of governments blocking internet access during elections or civil unrest. Reporting from Tanzania, Michael Baruti investigates the impact of unreliable internet access. He speaks with digital inclusion specialist Carol Ndosi, and chief web advocate at the World Wide Web Foundation, Nnenna Nwakanma.  

 In this week’s Q&A segment, Joseph Kauzi from Mpulungu Day Secondary School in Zambia has a question about climate injustices. Send us your questions from anywhere in the world — text or voice message via WhatsApp to +254799042513.  

 Africa Science Focus, with Selly Amutabi. 

Episode 41

 This week, we continue with the second episode in our mini-series ‘Energising Africa’, where we investigate progress towards electricity, infrastructure and network access on the continent. 

 Our reporter Halima Athumani has been mining for information about the East African Crude Oil Pipeline. What environmental, social and economic impacts could the world's longest heated crude oil pipeline have in Uganda and Tanzania? And with less than half of the countries’ populations connected to a power grid, where will the energy to heat the 1,500 kilometre pipeline come from? 

 In this week’s Q&A segment, Watipetsa Khawathali from Henry Henderson Institute in Malawi has a question about the future. Send us your questions from anywhere in the world — text or voice message via WhatsApp to +254799042513.  

 Africa Science Focus, with Selly Amutabi.