African Publishing Innovation Fund Names Five 2021 Projects
The fishing village of Butre in Ghana, the type of rural community in which girls in particularly have faced challenges in accessing online learning because of a significant urban-rural digital divide. Girls are expected to take on childcare responsibilities and household chores. Image – iStockphoto: TG23
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘Scalable Digital Learning Innovations’
Publishing Perspectives readers will remember our interview with the Accra-based publisher Akoss Ofori-Mensah, a member of the Innovation Fund’s committee who told us, “The virus has dealt a disastrous blow to the book industry in Ghana,” but that the impact of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic has been such that “I believe practically all publishers in Africa are hurting.”
That committee also includes Brian Wafawarowa, Gbadega Adedapo, Lawrence Njagi, and Mohamed Saleh Maalej. And leading the team is Bodour Al Qasimi, the UAE-based publisher and president of the International Publishers Association (IPA).
As you’ll remember, Bodour led the formation of the fund in association with Tariq Al Gurg, CEO of the philanthropic program Dubai Cares, and the program is designed to operate for four years with an endowment of US$800,000. The program is administered by the IPA which has provided today’s news of the 2021 grants.
Because of school closures and the transition to online learning triggered by the pandemic, the fund this year has prioritized what the committee classifies as “scalable digital learning innovations to help millions of African students in under-resourced rural communities. Many of them are beyond the reach of national efforts to transition to remote learning and do not have access to libraries.”
It’s expected, organizers say, that the funding announced today will have some impact on as many as 11 million younger African citizens in five countries.
Programs Receiving 2021 Grants
Students inside the first of Book Aid International’s ‘Voyager’ shipping-container libraries, set up in 2019 in Kigali. One of the African Publishing Innovation Fund grants for 2021 will see three such libraries put into place by Book Aid International in Tanzania. Image: Book Aid International
The grants announced today are being described in the context of their markets’ conditions relative to the COVID-19 health emergency. The descriptive copy below comes to us from the fund.
The African Innovation Fund program estimates that as many as 250 million children are out of school in Africa because of the pandemic’s disruption. In addressing these challenges, the African Publishing Innovation Fund is working to help avoid a major setback in critical literacy, livelihood, and life skills.
Bodour Al Qasimi
In prepared comments for today’s announcement, Bodour, the IPA president, is quoted, saying, “The COVID-19 pandemic has set back the education of millions of learners around the world, but its effects are most acute where the infrastructure can’t support the connectivity required for distance learning.
“Having received far more applications than we could have imagined, we’re all very excited to have found five projects that we believe will deliver significant benefits for a great number of children and young people.”
Tarik Al Gurg
And Al Gurg, the Dubai Cares CEO, is quoted, saying, “While COVID-19’s effect on education has been devastating, it’s our responsibility now to look beyond the challenges and find and implement unique solutions that would mitigate the outbreak’s impact and enable children and youths to continue on their path to learning.
“Reading is an intrinsic element of education, and we’re optimistic that the five projects chosen by the Africa Publishing Innovation Fund will successfully facilitate the provision of the necessary resources that will contribute to children’s educational journeys.
“We wish everyone involved in these projects great success and look forward to seeing the positive outcomes in the form of more and more empowered students and youth.”
More from Publishing Perspectives on publishing in Africa is here, more on the International Publishers Association is here, and more on the African Publishing Innovation Fund is here.
More from us on the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on international book publishing is here.