Major Africa-Regional Healthcare Portal Launches (4)
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Jephat Chifamba wrote and Kurt Weithaler fully agreed that: "In Af-
rica the major communication problem is access to the internet - and
my suggestion is members should consider making internet access
available......."
With all due respect, this appears to be an over-simplification of
the major problem of (health) communication in Africa.
Many would agree that Quality, Reliability, Culture-appropriateness,
Timely availability, Sourcing, Collating, Cataloguing, Easy re-
trieval, Effective reception and use, Evaluation and Measurement of
Impact, etc., of what is communicated are significantly bigger prob-
lems than Internet access in Africa as they are elsewhere. Capacity
to address them is simply not readily available in Africa. The Commu-
nication Initiative leads the process internationally.
Does any one entity including the WHO have answers to ALL these com-
plex issues as far as health communication in Africa is concerned?
Doubtful. The answer lies with many constituents in and out of Africa
and would evolve slowly but surely over time. This will happen
through coalescence of objectives and goal directed actions under-
taken by: governments, institutions and corporations (academic and
non-academic, for profit and non-profit ), producers, custodians and
disseminators of information as well as end-users - all working to-
wards a common purpose - Information and Communication for People Em-
powerment and Social Change.
Internet access is a relatively easy problem to solve and it is al-
ready growing in leaps and bound in Africa. It would even get better
when sooner than later, African leaders are held more accountable by
their respective people and the international community - for the
leadership of their various countries. At such a not too distant fu-
ture, there would probably be an 'Internet-enabled computer in almost
every homestead' (borrowing from late President Nixon's "A chicken in
every (American) pot" aphorism).
But alas, what would be the worth of Internet access when Quality,
Reliability, Effective use, etc., of communication is in doubt?
Therein lies the real challenge for (health) communication in Africa
A. Odutola
CHPSS, Lagos, Nigeria
mailto:chpss_abo@yahoo.com
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