Jason Braganza, executive director of the African Forum on Debt and Development (AFRODAD), expresses concern that challenges by African countries from debt services to international monetary facilities have not been reported among other challenges due to lack of information and statistics.
Braganza was speaking at the official opening of the fifth edition of the Afrodad Media Initiative (Afromemedi) recently held in Sandon, Johannesburg, South Africa.
With half the continent currently in debt difficulties, Braganza said the media needs to be capacity-equipped for the responsibility of the public and authorities.
“Despite these very significant economic challenges, the role of media reporting these challenges and the conversion of necessary resources into debt services has been reported very little.
“The lack of information with inaccessible debt statistics and public reports is undermining the public’s ability to take on and hold the government in terms of its role.
“Africa, as of today, more than half of the continent faces a high risk of debt or becoming debt difficult,” he said.
The four countries are already in debt. These are Zambia, Chad, Ethiopia and, more recently, Ghana.
Nearly half of the continental countries pay more in repayment of debt services profits than in investments in public services such as education, health, water and sanitation.
The fifth edition of Aphromedy featured 45 journalists from 31 African countries.
Afrodad is a pan-African civil society organisation founded over 25 years ago and has a single purpose to advance Africa’s voice on the issue of public debt and development financing. Currently headquartered in Zimbabwe.
Through this year’s Afromedi V, journalists were approved to tie compensation into a global development process and prioritize detailed reporting that promotes Africa’s position on compensatory justice, focusing on related issues such as taxation, trade, labour, climate finance and legal elements of debt.
The executive director of Afrodad urged journalists to keep in mind that this situation undermines Africa’s sovereignty, the liberation from the neoliberal civil interest-based world order, putting Africans in a permanent state of poverty, inequality and debt.
“Therefore, it is appropriate that the theme of the African Union for 2025 is continental reparation and reparative justice,” he said.
Speaking at the same event, Christian Ike, a South Africa-based Afrodad trustee and Ghanaian economic analyst, reflects Braganza’s sentiment that the current debt crisis could reverse long-standing development benefits and historic debt relief efforts.
“From African debt risk maps, Sudan, Somalia, Somalia, Ghana, Sao Tome & Principe, Republic of Congo, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Angola, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Chad, Eritrea, Gambia, Gambia, Gambia, Gambia, Gambia, and Kenya are struggling with the heavy burden of debt.
“The role of media in this campaign is important as it is empowered to set agendas working for the people of the continent,” he said.
Afrodad and its partners through Afrodad are working with the media to set issues linked to public debt on the agenda as a priority.
Sign up for the AllAfrica newsletter for free
Get the latest African news
success!
Almost finished…
You need to check your email address.
Follow the instructions in the email you sent to complete the process.
error!
There was a problem processing the submission. Please try again later.
This also plays an important role in democratizing debt discourse, which empowered citizens to influence debt policy through election choices.
“The media plays an important role in shaping public discourse, influencing policy decisions and paying attention to socioeconomic issues.
“It remains important, therefore, to enable journalists to be accountable and set an agenda that aims to inform people about key processes.
“It is important to involve journalists in this process to ensure that citizens are informed and involved.
“In a nutshell, Aphromedy provides an increased ability to report debt compensation justice by humanizing problems, focusing on data-driven reporting, providing a historical context for fraud, and providing policy solutions from interviews with engineers in the field of civil society.”
