Code for Africa gets $4.7m boost from Bill and Melinda Gates foundation
Summary
According to a blog post written by Code for Africa head Justin Arenstein, the funding will be used to help the organisation’s civic technologists work with newsrooms around the continent. This latest initiative, Arenstein writes, grew out of a series of pilot projects by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). The organisation says that that the funding also sync with a separate new US$1 million innovation fund, that will replace the African News Innovation Challenge later this year, something which it hopes will “strengthen the continental network of 30 000+ enthusiasts in Hacks/Hackers Africa who bring together journalists and technologists to collaborate on media projects”. Journalism needs to tackle the issues that keep people awake at night: like how to keep your children safe, healthy, and educated,” says Arenstein. “To do that, media organizations have to discover what their audiences really care about and then develop journalism that gives the audience actionable information.” Arenstein founded Code for Africa as an ICFJ Knight Fellow back in 2012 along with the African Network of Centers for Investigative Reporting (ANCIR) and Hacks/Hackers Africa.