Theme: The rights of the child in the digital environment
Every year on June 16, the world observes the International Day of the African Child. This day was established in 1991 by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to commemorate the 1976 Soweto uprising, when thousands of black students in South Africa protested against the apartheid regime and its education policies. Ever since then this special day aims to raise awareness about the challenges and opportunities that African children face, especially in the areas of health, education, and protection.
According to UNICEF, more than half of the world's child deaths occur in Africa, mostly due to preventable causes such as malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhea[1]. The Africa Research, Implementation Science, and Education (ARISE) Network was established in 2014 with the aim of building and sustaining public health capacity in Africa. The network supports the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3), which seeks to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages[2]. The network contributes to these targets by conducting research, providing education, and facilitating collaboration among African health professionals and institutions. It consists of 21 institutions in nine sub-Saharan African countries that collaborate on health systems and implementation science, and the Africa Academy for Public Health (AAPH) a centre of excellence in this field, serves as the Network's convener.
The number of mobile phone and internet users worldwide reached 4.95 billion in early 2022, an increase of 192 million (4%) from the previous year, and young people are the most frequent users [3]. ARISE has started innovative designing and piloting digital technologies for surveillance and remote interventions for adolescents. In one of the projects in Tanga region, Tanzania involving about 1300 in and out of school adolescents employed the use of mobile phone technology to collect data and deliver digital nutrition programs to enhance nutrition literacy and dietary quality among adolescents. The findings from the baseline and endline surveys of these studies showed some positive outcomes of this intervention. These findings exhibit one of the opportunities that digital technologies pose for the African Child’s well-being.
Aligning with this year’s theme “The rights of the child in the digital environment” it is important to understand that the internet and other digital technologies offer many benefits for children, such as learning, entertainment and socialization. However, they also pose some risks, such as cyberbullying, online predators and misinformation. To ensure that children can enjoy the advantages of the digital world while avoiding the dangers, it is important to raise awareness about the opportunities and challenges that these technologies present for their well-being, development and protection as we celebrate the International Day of the African Child this year, For Better Public Health.
[1] Child and youth mortality data ages 5-24 - UNICEF DATA
[2] THE 17 GOALS | Sustainable Development (un.org)
[3] Digital 2022: Global Overview Report — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights