WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Code for Africa, the continent's largest federation of civic technology and data journalism labs, and Radiant.Earth, a non-profit advocating for open geospatial data for positive global impact, announced their partnership to harness open Earth imagery and tools for improved decision-making, as well as better insight and transparency. Their combined efforts will focus on research for new and innovative applications of Earth observation data to support investigative journalism and storytelling, as well as capacity development.
Both organizations aim to transform the way data are consumed by civil society to empower informed decision-making, efficient service delivery, and location-based analytics to solve social, economic, and environmental challenges. However, while Radiant.Earth has a global focus, Code for Africa directs its attention to affiliate labs in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Code for Africa's integrated approach to civic technology development in Africa is breaking new ground every day. Their method is to empower ordinary citizens by creating technological capacity within civil society and the media, to enable them to produce extensive knowledge that will help them shape governments and improve their services to citizens.
“Media organizations are constantly evolving, worldwide. Journalists, as well as citizens, now have access to an immense volume of data. It is essential to build their capacities and equip them with the knowledge and tools to research, refine, visualize and interpret the data,” says Jacopo Ottaviani, CCO of Code for Africa. “We are thrilled about our new partnership with Radiant.Earth, because we believe that geospatial data and open Earth imagery can be turned into a crucial tool for storytelling. Radiant.Earth’s team of experts can lead us to new, groundbreaking discoveries in Africa and beyond.”
Radiant.Earth is well-positioned to support Code for Africa's efforts, as the two organizations share a desire for transparency to enact change. Radiant.Earth offers an open technology platform that facilitates innovation and solutions by combining the best in discovery and dissemination with the latest trends in image processing and analysis. Radiant.Earth strives to identify and connect new users interested in serving citizens facing socio-economic and environmental challenges using geospatial technology.
"We are looking forward to working with Code for Africa," says Anne Hale Miglarese, Founder and CEO of Radiant.Earth. "They are changing the way information is disseminated and consumed in Africa, leading the charge for transformative impact locally. Together, we can strengthen our capabilities and cultivate a community of practitioners dedicated to transparency and accountability on the ground."
The sharing of tools and ideas will augment each organization's mission through capitalizing on the unique resources and knowledge-base that they bring to this partnership. The identified thematic areas for cooperation include humanitarian disaster management, conflict monitoring, urbanization and population growth, health, climate change, sustainability, land rights, agriculture, conservation, and the environment.
About Radiant.Earth
Radiant.Earth is a non-profit organization committed to aggregating the world’s open Earth imagery and providing access and education on its use to the global development community.
About Code for Africa
Code for Africa is Africa's largest data journalism and civic technology initiative, operating citizen labs across the continent to help fast-track digital experimentation and transformation in other social justice organizations and newsrooms.
Media Contact
Louisa Nakanuku-Diggs
Marketing and Communications Manager
Radiant.Earth
Louisa@radiant.earth
+1.202.596.3603