A campaign to promote good news for Africa

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is not alone when it comes to expressing concern that media coverage of Africa focuses on war, famine and poverty almost to the exclusion of everything else. We wanted to check our assumptions and assess whether western humanitarian donors share this view and – without trying to distort the news agenda – would support efforts to promote more positive images and success stories from Africa. Through Dalberg consultants and GlobeScan, we surveyed the views of ministers and senior officials from Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, the US and the European Commission (EC). The interviews were carried out throughout 2008.

Nineteen respondents said they were "optimistic" about Africa's future but none was "very optimistic". Seven were neutral. Only two were "pessimistic".

The greatest concerns for Africa's future centre on economics and governance, followed by conflict and external relations, then food security, climate change, HIV/AIDS and slow progress toward the UN's Millennium Development Goals.

"Economic development is still too slow in Africa," according to one EC policymaker. "It is not reaching all parts of society."

A Swedish official said: "Without peace and stability, there is little prospect of development and poverty reduction. Linked [to] and aggravating this is climate change, which…has the potential to fuel conflicts."  …

…Policymakers perceived a strong degree of bias in media portrayals of Africa. The media "are branding Africa in a negative way", said a Netherlands respondent. According to a Norwegian official: "We talk about South America as full of politics and Africa as full of suffering. [But] Africa is as replete with politics as South America."

Some policymakers observed that the western media's coverage of Africa is exclusively concerned with problems; successes and normal activities are not portrayed. And almost all agreed that humanitarian actors such as the International Federation must do more to publicize success stories from Africa to help restore hope. …