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28/02/14

SciDev.Net Podcast: Africa’s energy struggle, the data revolution, and more

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Copyright: Dieter Telemans / Panos

By: Chris Creese

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This month’s podcast explores how a data revolution can help push governments to be more accountable to meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Ndeye Fatu–Sesay of the Millenium Challenge Coordinating Unit talks about progress in Sierra Leone, and how more can be done to listen to the voices of the country’s citizens.

Next, we travel to Ethiopia for the second meeting of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership. The AEEP is struggling to meet their clean energy goals by 2020, according to Jacob Waslander, head of the Climate Change and Energy Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands (see infographic below). The solution must incorporate small-scale local energy to reach more Africans, according to Gianluca Cescon, who builds microgrids in Tanzania and is head of country operations at Devergy.

Then we hear from Anne Radl of the Humanitarian Centre about a unique event to tackle development challenges. The Innovation and Development Hackathon will team students, professionals and NGOs to develop projects that will improve transparency along the global food supply chain. Past innovations include the SimPrints mobile biometric scanner to help Medic Mobile keep track of patient medical records.

Finally, former director of field operations at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Andrew MacMillan, pays us a visit. He talks about a school building project in one of Kenya’s poorest districts that is also helping to build community resilience to health and farming crises. He calls for new food management programmes to curb obesity and eradicate hunger.