Washington, DC — AllAfrica today announced plans to open an online international news processing center in Monrovia. The office will also be used by the AllAfrica Foundation as a hub for healthafrica.org, an ambitious project to provide a broad range of information and services, as well as a pioneering facility to track and monitor funding for health in Africa.
"As a global disseminator of news and information, our decision to set up operations in Liberia was a carefully considered corporate choice," said CEO Reed Kramer, "It was based on our analysis that the government's commitment to transparent, democratic processes and to rebuilding infrastructure provides an environment where growing, technology-dependent enterprises can thrive."
AllAfrica Global Media, a multi-media content service provider and the largest electronic distributor of African news and information worldwide, operates the most popular Africa destination on the Internet, allAfrica.com, serving over 12 million monthly page views. The site was nominated in two successive years by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences as Best News Site, alongside the news sites of the BBC, MSNBC and Google. In 2005 AllAfrica was awarded the African Economic Developer award by Nepad, the New Partnership for African Development.
AllAfrica has become widely regarded as the source-of-record for news and information about Africa, distributing more than 1000 articles on an average day. Along with stories from leading African newspapers, the prize-winning AllAfrica news team provides additional reporting and analysis and selects newsworthy documents from more than 200 other sources. The AllAfrica News Wire supplies institutional, corporate, and financial clients through such services as Factiva (Reuters and Dow Jones) LexisNexis, Bloomberg, Comtex News Network and Financial Times, which collectively reach tens of millions of end users worldwide.
"We are proud to have created a global voice and a revenue stream for over 100 African news organizations," said Amadou Mahtar Ba, the company president. "An expanding presence across Africa is central to our long-term growth."
The company's innovative technology knits together its global operations. AllAfrica's Cape Town office manages the web site, supervising news processing in Washington, DC and Dakar, while a Lagos-based team produces and broadcasts news, culture and health programs. Technology development and architecture is coordinated from AllAfrica's Copenhagen office.
The AllAfrica Foundation, a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization registered in Mauritius and the District of Columbia, was founded for three purposes: to focus global public and policy attention on critical issues for African development; to support the growth of independent African media; and to provide skills and training for African journalists. The Foundation maintains SustainableAfrica.org and PeaceAfrica.net as "digital commons" on development and peace issues, providing information and connecting groups and individuals with shared concerns and activities.
The foundation's health project, scheduled to launch later this year, will provide current news, extensive research and data, educational materials, institutional linkages and a forum for discussion. "HealthAfrica will use the reach and influence of allAfrica.com to highlight Africa's health emergency – and the opportunities for effectively confronting it," said Tamela Hultman, AllAfrica's chief strategy and content officer, who is the company's liaison with the foundation. "Policy makers and health professionals need a constant stream of easily accessible information and a neutral platform for interaction and dialogue," she said. "Governments and NGOs, as well as international organizations, have told us that this effort is a missing piece of the puzzle for making their work successful."
Central to HealthAfrica is a path-breaking online tool-set to map and track funding for health, providing the first integrated database of donors, recipients, projects, goals and outcomes. Because the government of Liberia places a priority on public health, on the transparency of public institutions and the use of public resources, and on collaborative partnerships with policymakers and funders, the AllAfrica Foundation plans to inaugurate the initiative in Liberia, as a prototype for a subsequent country-by-country rollout.
