Africa CDC partners CcHUB to counter COVID-19 misinformation in rural areas

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) says it is collaborating with the Co-Creation Hub (CcHUB) to counter disbelief and misinformation on coronavirus in the continent’s semi-urban and rural areas.

It said it would be creating communication projects in African languages.

In a statement on Friday, Benjamin Djoudalbaye, head of policy, health diplomacy, and communication at Africa CDC, said the collaboration would work towards delivering “critical information using innovative and culturally sensitive messaging”.

Djoudalbaye said they would use means such as comics, animation, illustrations, infographics, interactive SMS and mobile apps among others to convey fact-based information.

He said the selected teams would be supported with grant funding of up to $5000 for research and design support, adding that the proposed projects could focus on one African country or multiple countries across the continent.

“[This would] enhance efforts of the Africa CDC towards educating the public and ensuring that the right information reaches even remote locations across the continent to avoid unnecessary panic and misinformation,” Djoudalbaye said.

“With a track record of collaborating with key players to explore the application of technology to solve Africa’s systemic problems in Public Health, Education, Governance in the continent, CcHUB through its internal research and development unit, CcHUB Design Lab, based in Kigali, Rwanda, will collaborate with innovators to provide technical support using innovative digital and non-digital methodologies to ensure the mass messaging on Coronavirus reaches the semi-urban and rural population across Africa.”

”Bosun Tijani, CcHUB’s co-founder and CEO, was quoted as saying that technology should be used to broaden the awareness and understanding of the virus.

“This is a critical time where tech in Africa should be used in smart ways to ensure broader citizen awareness and understanding of COVID-19 response strategies and precautions,” Tijani said.