In Sub-Saharan Africa, Knight Fellow Joseph Warungu is giving reporters the skills to cover key development issues, such as agriculture and rural education, and helping to launch news products that showcase the content.

Joseph Warungu is working with Rhodes University to form a vibrant pan-African network of journalists who regularly cover poverty and development issues. He is linking journalists and top experts through an online forum and regional training workshops and conferences. Experts will help journalists to better report on agriculture, rural development, health services, water resources and microfinance.

Warungu will train journalists on how to use advanced data-gathering and data-visualization techniques. The network builds on Rhodes University’s extensive work over the past 15 years in bringing together journalists from across the continent for the annual Highway Africa conference, which introduces new media tools for improving journalism.

Warungu is also building on the successes of Knight Fellowships in Tanzania, Ghana and other countries, which have created media products such as newspaper supplements and broadcast shows that highlight development issues.