Welcome to CENFACS’ Online Diary!
06 November 2024
Post No. 377
The Week’s Contents
• The Month of the Economics of Education and Skill Formation (Skills Development Month) 2024 with a 4-week Highlight on Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households
• Activity/Task 11 of the Transitions (‘t’) Year and Project: Motivate People to Learn Skills for Just Transition
• African Charities Investment Management Advice Project
… And much more!
Key Messages
• The Month of the Economics of Education and Skill Formation (Skills Development Month) 2024 with a 4-week Highlight on Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households
November is the Month of the Economics of Education and Skill Formation (or in short Skills Development Month) within CENFACS. It is the month that we recognise the economic value of education as well as of the non-economic benefits from education even though there could be a dispute about these values or benefits. It is also the month during which we pay a particular attention to the technology of skill formation; month during which we try to find out how skills are formed and how technologies relating to them can help us to further reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development.
So, our November work on economic issues relating to education has started today. This work will first be about the link between education economics and poverty reduction, then between education economics and sustainable development. This work will include the identification of causal relationships between African organisations’ work and outcomes in educational projects in 2024 and beyond.
In this identification, we shall refer to the human capital theory, which will be the theoretical and working paradigm to be used this month. In other words, all along this month we shall work on this assumption: the importance and capacity of education and training (skills development) to help reduce poverty and enhance sustainable development.
Skills formation and development will be about forming new skills (that is, any abilities to perform an activity in a competent way) to continue to fight poverty; for example poverty induced by the cost-of-living crisis or any other crisis. This month, Skills formation and development will include three types of skills: data storytelling and communications skills, skills for just transition and transitionary skills.
~ Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households (DST&CS4Hs) will be households’ expertness or dexterity to gather data, extract insights, and translate those insights into a story as well as to impart the information making this story. DST&CS4Hs will be covered throughout November 2024.
~ Loincloth Weaving Skills will be those needed by some of our users who may be interested in traditional skills of loincloth weaving, weaving techniques and raw materials used in the context of woven loincloth to run their families’ income-generating activities, to make ends meet and reduce their own poverty as well as others’ poverty.
~ Transitionary Skills to Progress from Ways of Tackling to Ending Crises, which will make up our Development Day 0n 19 November 2024, will be those that people can learn and develop in order to freshly start or manage Autumn 2024.
This above-mentioned variety of abilities or skills will make our human capital this month.
Under the Main Development section of this post, you will find further information about this first key message.
• Activity/Task 11 of the Transitions (‘t’) Year and Project: Motivate People to Learn Skills for Just Transition
Our Transitions (‘t’) Year and Project have now reached Activity/Task 11, which is ‘Motivate People to Learn Skills for Just Transition’. Perhaps, a good starting point to understanding these skills is to explain just transition.
• • What Is Just Transition?
There are many ways of defining just transition. One of its definitions comes from the African Development Bank Group (1). The latter defines Just Transition as
“A framework for facilitating equitable access to the benefits and sharing of the costs of sustainable development such that livelihoods of all people, including the most vulnerable, are supported and enhanced as societies make the transition to low carbon and resilient economies. A Just Transition affirms Africa’s right to development and industrialization based on the Paris Agreement-negotiated language of equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in the light of different national circumstances”.
There are skills that underpin this definition; skills that one can develop and or motivate others to acquire or develop.
• • What Are Skills for a Just Transition?
According to ‘wits.ac.za’ (2),
“Skills for just transition are those help to drive regime change and work against the lock-ins that hinder structural and systemic change”.
For the same ‘wits.ac.za’, just transitions require an approach to skills formation that is strongly place-based and which can play a transformative role in local communities.
For those members of our audiences who would like people to play their transformative role in local communities, they can work with them so that these people can learn or improve their skills for just transition. Working with people to learn or improve their skills for just transition is what Activity/Task 11 is about. Like any other activities/tasks of the ‘t’ Year/Project, Activity/Task 11 needs support.
• • Supporting This Activity/Task
Supporting Activity/Task 11 is about delivering in practice. In other words, it is about finding people who need skills for just transition and working with them so that they can acquire or be in the process of acquiring these skills.
Those who would like to proceed with this activity/task by themselves can go ahead.
Those who would to be part of a working group helping in the realisation of this activity/task can let CENFACS know.
For those who need some help themselves before embarking on this activity/task, they can speak to CENFACS. To speak to CENFACS, they are required to plan in advance or prepare themselves regarding the issues they would like to raise.
For any other queries and enquiries about the ‘t‘ project and this year’s dedication, please contact CENFACS as well.
• African Charities Investment Management Advice Project (ACIMAP)
ACIMAP, which is a new initiative, is part of CENFACS’ International Advice-, Guidance- and Information-giving Service to Africa-based Sister Organisations. To explain this project, let us define it, present its aim, highlight its features, summarise the matters it covers, cover its helpfulness and cost-effectiveness.
• • What Is ACIMAP?
ACIMAP is an advisory management project designed by CENFACS to work together with Africa-based Sister Organisations (ASOs) looking to plan and manage their investments so that they can realise their mission with peace of mind without having to worry to much about investment issues. The project will help to avoid investment mistakes while tolerating risk at fairly acceptable and reasonable level.
• • What Is the Aim of ACIMAP?
The aim of ACIMAP is to reduce poverty by working with African charities so that they can find good charity investment solutions to reduce poverty amongst their users and beneficiaries. Through this project, organisations will build generational investment management capacity and wealth that will help them and their beneficiaries to escape from intergenerational poverty.
• • Features of ACIMAP
ACIMAP is designed to offer higher quality advisory service levels to Africa-based Sister Organisations. Our advice, which includes ethical and financial matters, is restricted to African charities’ specific investment needs. It means that there are limits on what we can offer and what African charities can access.
Our advice is not one-size-fits-all. Every African charity has its own investment needs and requirements which demands particular response. In this respect, the advice should suit their individual requirements.
• • Matters Covered by Advisory Service
They include the following:
√ setting up investment objectives and performance
√ improving attitude to risk or risk tolerance
√ undertaking changes to portfolios (especially for underperforming investments)
√ handling change of asset allocation
√ working on day-to-day trading of securities
√ finding out how to monitor portfolio and how to measure investment performance
√ reporting to African charities’ investment management boards
√ dealing with risk management
etc.
• • How Helpful Will Be This Advisory Service
ACIMAP will help ASOs become financially better off in the long term.
• • The Cost of Receiving Advice
Generally advice is free. There is no fee, no rate and no commission. However, those African charities that can afford can dedicate a percentage of the assets from their investment portfolios to a voluntary donation to CENFACS, provided that their giving is in their best interests.
To support ACIMAP or seek advice, please contact CENFACS.
For any further details about ACIMAP, please get in touch with CENFACS.
Extra Messages
• Goal of the Month: Reduction of Clothing Poverty
• “A la une” (Autumn Leaves of Action for the Upkeep of the Nature in Existence) Campaign – In Focus for Week Beginning Monday 04/11/2024: Safekeeping Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri
• CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum e-discusses Public Transport Subsidy to Reduce Transport Poverty or Poverty Due to Lack of Transport Facilities
• Goal of the Month: Reduction of Clothing Poverty
This goal is the continuation of our last month’s work on Making Memorable Positive Difference Project via the History of African Woven Loincloth. After dealing with the heritage, patrimony, legacies and gifts of the African woven loincloth, we are working on clothing poverty reduction in the current context and development landscape. Some of you may know that poverty can change its faces. Clothing poverty may be different in today’s life compared to century ago. Equally, the reduction of clothing poverty may also evolve.
Our work on clothing poverty reduction is on what ‘justfair.org.uk’ (3) explains in the following terms:
“To ensure people don’t slip below the poverty line, a minimum level of clothing is required for survival, hygiene and protection”.
Those who may be at risk of slipping below clothing poverty line may include the following groups:
√ Those with unwashed or damaged clothes
√ Those using clothes banks
√ Those unable to afford weather-appropriate clothing (like during the cold weather)
√ Those suffering or exposed to life-threatening heat disease and who do not have adaptive clothes to deal with this threat
√ Those without adequate clothing as a result of lack of means to afford it
√ Those failing to maintain their well-being, self-esteem and a place in society because of poor clothing
√ Those being denied the rights to clothes
√ Those suffering from deprivation of freedom of belief and expression because the lack of adequate clothing
√ Disabled people not having adaptable clothes to carry out their life as normal
etc.
All the above-mentioned groups of persons may suffer from clothing poverty.
The goal of this November 2024 is about working with them or help them to reduce and possibly end the type of clothing poverty they are experiencing.
Therefore, we are asking to our audiences and supporters to help or promote this goal.
For any enquiries and/or queries about this goal, please do not hesitate to contact CENFACS.
• “A la une” (Autumn Leaves of Action for the Upkeep of the Nature in Existence) Campaign – In Focus for Week Beginning Monday 04/11/2024: Safekeeping Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri
To keep safe Estuarine Pipefish, also known by its scientific name as Syngnathus Watermeyeri, we have composed our note around the following headings:
σ What is Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri?
σ The conservation status of Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri
σ What can be done to Keep Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri Safe.
In addition, we shall provide the themed activity we have planned for this week. This themed activity is a survey on Ethical Treatment of Fishes.
Let us look at each of the headings making this note.
• • What Is Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri?
According to ‘mongabay.com’ (4),
“The estuarine pipefish is the world’s only critically endangered pipefish species, among more than 200 species of pipefish within the Syngnathidae family”.
The same ‘moongabay.com’ explains that the critically endangered estuarine pipefish is known from only two estuaries (i.e., Bushmans and Kariega) on the eastern coast of South Africa.
• • The Conservation Status of Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri
As indicated above, Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri is critically endangered. Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri was assessed for the IUCN Red List (5) of Threatened Species in 2016. Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri was listed as Critically Endangered under criteria c2a(i)b.
• • What Can Be Done to Keep Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri Safe
There are many initiatives that have been taken and need to be undertaken to Keep Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri Safe. They include the following:
σ protection of its habitat
σ increase in the flow of freshwater into estuaries
σ combatting droughts
σ reducing over-extraction of water from river upstream home to Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri
σ maintaining nutrients in the estuary and keep river flow
σ keeping resources for Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri
σ developing projects that help freshwater inflow into the estuaries (the Bushmans and Kariega estuaries)
σ limiting extraction of water upstream for agriculture
σ providing a home to Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri
σ keeping estuaries healthy as conserving the Estuarine Pipefish Syngnathus Watermeyeri is tied up with preserving the health of estuaries
etc.
• • Add-on Activity of the Week’s Campaign: A Survey on Ethical Treatment of Fishes
The fish themed activity of this week is a Survey on Ethical Treatment of Fishes.
• • • What is this activity about?
We are trying to gather information using questions from a sample of people with the aim of understanding the ethical problems stemming from the use of genetic engineering technologies to alter fish and their effects on fish, as highlighted in the report of the Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology (6). These ethical issues include the use of fish in experiments, medical and spa treatments.
As part of this survey, we would like you to answer the following question:
How much do you know about the use of genetic engineering technology to alter living creatures like fish?
This is because there are some issues with this practice and other practices on human and animals health. For example, the use of antibiotics in animal production (like in intensive fish farming) can lead to negative effects on the health of both humans and animals.
Those who may be interested in responding to the above-mentioned survey question or fish themed activity, they can contact CENFACS.
To find out more about the entire “A la une” Campaign and Themed Activities, please communicate with CENFACS.
Before closing this note, we would like to remind every body that from the 11th to the 17th of November 2024, we shall carry out Impact Monitoring, Evaluation and Review of the “A la une” Campaign and Themed Activities conducted. For those who may be interested in this exercise of monitoring, evaluation and review; they should not hesitate to engage with this campaign and activities. Please do not miss the opportunity to affect this campaign.
• CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum e-discusses Public Transport Subsidy to Reduce Transport Poverty or Poverty Due to Lack of Transport Facilities
In developed countries, public transport, especially in large urban areas, is subsidized by the State. In Africa, governments do not have the means to subsidize public transport, except for some countries.
And yet, the urbanization of large African cities or towns means that there is a rise in the urban population in Africa. In addition, it is necessary to recognize the lack of resources of certain layers of the population, the majority of whom lack means of transport. The lack of means to pay for transport can only exacerbate the poverty linked to the lack of transport. What is poverty related to lack of transportation?
According to ‘europarl.europa.eu’ (7),
“Transport poverty refers to a lack of adequate transport services necessary to access general services and work, or to the inability to pay for those transport services”.
Due to this inability, CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum is wondering how to help African states so that they are able to subsidize their public transport systems.
In other words, CENFACS’ be.Africa Forum is questioning about the policies and strategies likely to mobilize resources for African States to become able to subsidize public transport, which is normally expensive if we take into account the cost of the market.
CENFACS would like to know your views on Public Transport Subsidy to Reduce Transport Poverty. CENFACS wants to know what can be done in terms of much-needed support to Public Transport Subsidy to Reduce Transport Poverty or Poverty Due to Lack of Transport Facilities.
If you have answer or argument to make about this matter, please do not hesitate to let CENFACS know.
Those who may be interested in this discussion can join our Poverty Reduction pundits and or contribute by contacting CENFACS’ be.Africa, which is a forum for discussion on matters of poverty reduction and sustainable development in Africa and which acts on behalf of its members in making proposals or ideas for actions for a better Africa.
To communicate with CENFACS regarding this discussion, please use our usual contact details on this website.
Message in French (Message en Français)
• Le Forum ‘Une Afrique Meilleure’ de CENFACS e-discute des subventions aux transports publics pour réduire la pauvreté des transports ou la pauvreté due au manque d’infrastructures de transport
Dans les pays développés, les transports publics, en particulier dans les grandes zones urbaines, sont subventionnés par l’État. En Afrique, les gouvernements n’ont pas les moyens de subventionner les transports en commun, à l’exception de certains pays.
Et pourtant, l’urbanisation des grandes villes africaines signifie qu’il y a une augmentation de la population urbaine en Afrique. De plus, il faut reconnaître le manque de ressources de certaines couches de la population, dont la majorité manque de moyens de transport. Le manque de moyens pour payer les transports ne fait qu’exacerber la pauvreté liée au manque de transport.
• • Qu’est-ce que la pauvreté liée au manque de transport?
Selon ‘europarl.europa.eu’ (7),
«La précarité des transports fait référence à l’absence de services de transport adéquats nécessaires pour accéder aux services généraux et au travail, ou à l’incapacité de payer ces services de transport».
En raison de cette incapacité, le Forum ‘Une Afrique Meilleure’ de CENFACS s’interroge sur la manière d’aider les Etats africains à pouvoir subventionner leurs systèmes de transport public.
En d’autres termes, le Forum s’interroge sur les politiques et stratégies susceptibles de mobiliser des ressources pour que les États africains deviennent en mesure de subventionner les transports en commun, qui sont normalement coûteux si l’on tient compte du coût du marché.
Le CENFACS aimerait connaître votre point de vue sur les subventions aux transports publics pour réduire la précarité des transports. Le CENFACS veut savoir ce qui peut être fait en termes de soutien indispensable aux subventions aux transports publics pour réduire la pauvreté des transports ou la pauvreté due au manque d’infrastructures de transport.
Si vous avez une réponse ou un argument à faire valoir à ce sujet, n’hésitez pas à le faire savoir au CENFACS.
Ceux ou celles qui pourraient être intéressé(e)s par cette discussion peuvent se joindre à nos experts en réduction de la pauvreté et/ou contribuer en contactant le me.Afrique du CENFACS (ou le Forum ‘Une Afrique Meilleure’ de CENFACS), qui est un forum de discussion sur les questions de réduction de la pauvreté et de développement durable en Afrique et qui agit au nom de ses membres en faisant des propositions ou des idées d’actions pour une Afrique meilleure.
Pour communiquer avec le CENFACS au sujet de cette discussion, veuillez utiliser nos coordonnées habituelles sur ce site Web.
Main Development
• The Month of the Economics of Education and Skill Formation (Skills Development Month) 2024 with a 4-week Highlight on Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households
The following items make up our Skills Development 2024:
∝ Month of November within CENFACS
∝ Poverty as a Lack of Skills and Knowledge
∝ CENFACS Community’s Skills Data Bank
∝ CENFACS and Its Work on Skills Formation and Development
∝ Data Storytelling and Communications for Households (as part of Data and Insight Advocacy and Skills Project)
∝ In Focus from Wednesday 06/11/2024: Data Science and Communications Skills for Households
∝ Homework for the End of the Week: Get Basic Health Assistance from Chatbots.
Let us summarise these items.
• • Month of November within CENFACS
November month has two features within CENFACS, which are: Skills evaluation (or audit) and training implementation.
• • • November as a month of skills evaluation or audit
November at CENFACS is the month of education and training, which revolves around the development of skills for life, for work, for poverty relief and sustainable development. It is the month during which we look into ourselves and try to assess, explore and learn the skills we need in order to further help reduce poverty in a sustainable way amongst ourselves and re-engage with the business of sustainable development.
• • • November as a training implementation month
November is also the training implementation month during which we pay attention to the following: educationally related projects or projects that involve training, skills development and acquisition of new knowledge to help our users and Africa-based Sister Organisations (ASOs) to empower themselves with the educational tools and training resources they need to further help reduce poverty.
For example, one of the skills development projects to support ASOs is skills to hybrid work (that is, the flexibility to split time between working remotely and from the office), in particular when there is handicap for people to meet in-person and work.
• • Poverty as a Lack of Skills and Knowledge
It is known that poverty is not only material or the lack of monetary income; it is even more the lack of knowledge, skills, knowhow and technologies than anything else. Therefore, knowing and learning a skill can help to further reduce poverty, particularly but not exclusively poverty induced by the cost-of-living crisis, and can set one on the right course of the development process. In this respect, there could be relationships between economics of education and poverty reduction, between skill formation and poverty reduction.
• • • Relationship between the economics of education and poverty reduction
The economics of education is generally defined as the study of economic issues relating to education. According to ‘oxfordbibliographies.com’ (8),
“The economics of education is a rapidly growing and evolving field that applies a diverse array of economic theories, models, and quantitative methodologies to understand, analyse, and improve the performance of education systems”.
The paradigm used in the economics of education is human capital theory. This theory suggests that investment in education and training lead people to become productive.
However, education and training do not only lead to the improvement of productivity. They can also pave the way for poverty reduction. As people get more educated and trained, these further education and training can provide them with the means to overcome poverty. As a result of this, there could be relationship between the economics of education and poverty reduction.
There could be disagreement about this link between the two. However, despite this disagreement we are working on the assumption that education and training can lead to poverty reduction.
• • • Link between skill formation and poverty reduction
Let us briefly try to understand skill formation by highlighting its definitions. One of its definitions comes from an online dictionary at the website igi—global.com (9), which explains the following:
“Skill formation is the process by which individuals achieve and develop innate or acquired skills to cope with everyday life challenges. Besides heredity, it includes formal and informal training activities and life experience”.
From this definition, it is possible to deduct that individuals who are poor can use their innate or acquired skills to cope with the challenge of poverty by developing survival and coping strategies. If they continue to use their skills and those strategies, they can navigate their way out of poverty. When they reach the point at which their skills and strategies effectively enable them to reduce poverty, then one could argue about the link between skill formation and poverty reduction.
However, Kenneth King and Robert Palmer (10) think that
“The translation of skills development into skills utilisation, and therefore poverty reduction and/or growth, is dependant on many factors, including good quality education/training and the presence of a supportive environment” (p. 71)
The Skills Development Month provides us with the opportunity to learn these factors and find ways of turning them in favour of poverty reduction.
• • CENFACS Community’s Skills Data Bank
As part of our Skills Development Month, we would like to remind every member of our community that they can register their skills to our data bank, which is repository containing information about CENFACS and the data of the CENFACS’ Community. The register is free. Skills and information are stored on it in accordance with the latest regulations on data protection.
Knowing the skills that one possesses; it makes easy when opportunity arises to match them with registered skills. It also helps to point those in need of support to the right and relevant a skilful person and direction.
To register your skills to make up the CENFACS’ Community of skilled people, please contact CENFACS.
• • CENFACS and Its Work on Skills Formation and Development
As far as CENFACS is concerned, we strive to support those who want to learn a skill while we at CENFACS as an organisation plan our own training, learning and development programme from time to time when we can access both funding and training.
This month, Skills Formation and Development will include three types of skills: data storytelling and communications skills, skills for just transition and transitionary skills.
~ Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households (DST&CS4Hs) will be households’ expertness or dexterity to gather data, extract insights, and translate those insights into a story as well as to impart the information making this story. DST&CS4Hs will be covered throughout November 2024.
~ Loincloth Weaving Skills will be those needed by some of our users who may be interested in traditional skills of loincloth weaving, weaving techniques and raw materials used in the context of woven loincloth to run their families’ income-generating activities to make ends meet and reduce their own poverty as well as others’ poverty.
~ Transitionary Skills to Progress from Ways of Tackling to Ending Crises, which will make up our Development Day 0n 19 November 2024, will be those people can learn and develop in order to freshly start or manage Autumn 2024.
This above-mentioned variety of abilities or skills will make our human capital this month.
In brief, DST&CS4Hs are our every Wednesday’s focus, this November 2024. Loincloth Weaving Skills are the skills that contribute to our goal of the month. Transitionary Skills will be developed on our Development Day.
Let us kickstart the Skills Development Month 2024 with Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households.
• • Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households (as part of Data and Insight Advocacy and Skills Project)
Data are deeply embedded in households. Households need appropriate communications and storytelling skills about data to properly express by themselves what is behind data. To better communicate the story behind their data households, they do not need to be data scientists. But, they may need some of the skills that data scientists use. It is those skills that this note is about.
So, DST&CS4Hs aims at empowering user households with skills to tell and visualise data (i.e., words and numbers) as well as get explained information that run their life. It will help them to have control over their data and life.
We are going to look at these skills via DST&CS4Hs, which will make our Data and Insight Advocacy and Skills Project this Autumn 2024. This project is amongst those making our 2024 Starting XI Campaign.
In order to understand DST&CS4Hs, we are going to define data storytelling as well as provide the types of skills it may contain. Before that, let us briefly explain data, information and insight.
• • • What is data, what is information, what is insight?
Data, information and insight can be explained in many ways. Amongst these explanations is what Carolyn Sansom (11) argues about them, which is
“Data, which can be quantitative and qualitative, is raw, unorganised and unprocessed facts… Information – which can be in the form of graphs, reports and visualisations – is processed and organised data… Insight is analysed information”.
Like businesses, households use data, information and insight to run their lives. Households making the CENFACS Community do the same.
Knowing what is data, what is information and what is insight; it is possible to explain Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households.
• • • What are Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households?
To explain them let us start with data story.
• • • • What is data story?
The website ‘thoughtspot.com’ (12) states that
“Data story is a narrative constructed around a set of data that puts it into context and frames the broader implications”.
The same website goes further in arguing that
“Telling a story with data is important because it allows the narrator to put the data into context of a broader objective and use tools such as visual aids to help break down the results so that the audience, regardless of their background, domain expertise, or technical sophistication, can easily understand them and their implications”.
Knowing what is data story, it is possible to explain data storytelling.
• • • • What is data storytelling?
There are various definitions or explanations of data story.
For instance, ‘elearning.adobe.com’ (13) argues that
“Data storytelling is the general term we use to describe the full act of gathering data, extracting insights, and translating those insights into a story. It’s a compelling narrative crafted around and anchored by compelling data, used to guide decision-making, reveal an interesting trend, or provide valuable information to your audience”.
Another view of data storytelling comes from ‘lazarinastoy.com’ (14) which describes it as
“The ability to tell stories behind the raw data through a methodology that presents information, tailored to a specific audience with a compelling narrative”.
Data storytelling involves the use of skills. There are key skills for data storytellers. They include hard and soft ones. These are the skills we are dealing with this November 2024.
Furthermore, inside Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households, there are also data story communications skills.
• • • • What are data story communications skills?
They are the dexterities to transfer or move stories with data from one place to another one. This November, we are also working on these communications skills. We are doing it despite the fact that ‘peopleresults.com’ (15) distinguishes communication and storytelling by arguing that
“Communicating is static and single-use. Storytelling is dynamic and continuous. Communicating is focusing on what you need your audience to know and do. Storytelling is about how you want your audience to feel”.
Knowing what is data storytelling and what are communications skills, it is possible explain Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households.
• • • • What are Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households?
They are the naturally acquired or developed talents and accomplishments that will allow our project beneficiaries (here households) to tell the stories of their households with data. They are the abilities to craft their narrative by leveraging, contextualising and presenting data to various audiences that are involved in their lives.
The project, which is also an advocacy one, will help families/households to improve their data storytelling and communication skills in the following ways:
∝ to gain sufficient skills and knowledge to tell their stories with data making their lives
∝ to attach value to data storytelling and communications
∝ to tell and communicate their stories behind their data
∝ to capture household data and turn them into storying values and numbers
∝ to create trust in data systems they use to tell stories of their lives
∝ to support both technical skills building and efforts to enhance a culture of data storytelling and communications within and outside household systems
∝ to improve family/household limited data communication skills
∝ to keep learning data storytelling and communications skills at family/household level
∝ to empower and inform household data storytellers and communicators
∝ to build the skills of household decision-makers in relation to data storytelling and communications
etc.
From these various ways of enhancing households’ lives through data storytelling and communications, it is possible to have customised types skills to match each household’s specific data needs. Amongst these skills, we can mention hard skills and soft skills.
Key hard skills for data storytellers will include mathematics, statistics, data analysis, essential programming skills, data wrangling and pre-processing skills, data visualization skills, etc.
Key soft skills for data story tellers will consist of communication, creativity, lifelong learning, business acumen, etc.
The households making CENFACS Community would need some of these skills in order to successfully tell and communicate their stories with data. They can choose a data storytelling and communication model that is suitable for them.
In the context of this note, we have selected the definition of ‘lazarinastoy.com’ (op. cit.) to organise our 4-week Highlight on Data Storytelling and Communications Skills for Households. This selection of definition comes with a choice of four types of data storytelling skills, which are:
a) Data Science Skills (DSS)
DSS are the abilities to extract knowledge and insight from data, to combine different data sources and to manipulate them.
b) Data Visualization Skills (DVS)
DVS are the dexterities to best form a clear mental image of data based on the data type, to promote change and experiment different visualization platforms and tools.
c) Data Narrative Skills (DNS)
DNS are the competences to convey insights and communicate wins.
d) Stakeholder Relationship Skills (SRS)
SRS are expertness to build connections with stakeholders and extract the most important aspects of these relationships and put that in the context of data storytelling and communications.
The above four-mentioned skills make up our Wednesdays’ Skills Focus or Outlook. To each of these skills of our Skills Focus or Outlook, communication skills will be added. It is important to add them for households.
To explain this importance, the website ‘progmaticinstitute.com’ (16) makes this remark for data analysts:
“Beyond the numbers and algorithms lies a skill equally critical but less discussed: communication”.
For ‘progmaticinstute.com’, communication is a skill…
σ to effectively convey your findings
σ to diverse audiences not only have an advantage in the job market but also to shape the future of business with data-driven decision-making
σ to explain your analysis, data models and findings to others
σ and to share justifications for your conclusions.
Therefore, a clear communication will help to align project goals, timelines and deliverables. Households can also use communication to align goals, timelines and deliverables whether it is within or without households.
• • • Wednesdays’ Skills Focus
The following table (table no. 1) summarises our plan (Wednesdays’ Skills Focus) for approaching the above pulled-out skills this month. It highlights a set of skills to focus on from every Wednesday of each week of November 2024 starting from 06/11/2024.
Besides that, there will a weekend homework for those households wanting to indulge in the study of their data storytelling and communications.
After delivering the key notes to DST&CS4Hs, there will be impact monitoring and evaluation of the same DST&CS4Hs.
Let us start with the first area of our Wednesdays’ Skills Focus or Outlook, which is Data Science and Communications Skills for Households.
• • In Focus from Wednesday 06/11/2024: Data Science and Communications Skills for Households
To deal with Data Science and Communications Skills for Households, we are going to briefly explain data science, data science skills in the context of households or families as well as the types of communications skills that can involve when households or families are undertaking data science.
• • • What is Data Science?
To explain data science, let us refer to what ‘ibm.com’ (17) argues about it, which is:
“Data science combines mathematics and statistics, specialised programming, advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning with specific subject matter expertise to uncover actionable insights hidden in an organisation’s data. These insights can be used to guide decision making and strategic planning”.
The same website ‘ibm.com’ states that a data science project typically undergoes the following stages: data ingestion, data storage and data processing, data analysis and data communication. There are skills that can be associated to each stage. In other words, we can have data ingestion skills, data storage skills, data processing skills, data analysis skills and data communication skills.
• • • Data Science Skills in the context of households/families
As argued above, households do not need to be data scientists to handle data science. But, they may be required to have some basic skills in data science to handle their lives. They need to have the skills to extract knowledge and insight from data, to combine different data sources and to manipulate them. In this respect, they need both hard and soft skills.
In the context of data science and communications skills, they need data ingestion skills, data storage skills, data processing skills, data analysis skills and data communication skills.
For example, one can interpret data of their household and come out with actionable recommendations to improve their household wellbeing.
• • • Data Communication Skills in the context of households/families
Communication skills are critical for data science. They can help in the following ways:
σ to communicate data science results and knowledge
σ to work with others effectively
σ to present data and findings
etc.
Sensible households would like to tell and communicate the findings or stories from their data. The households making the CENFACS Community too want to describe the findings or stories from their data.
• • • CENFACS Working with the Community Members through Data Science and Communications Skills for Households
We would like to emphasise that the purpose of working with the community members on data science and communication skills is to help them as follows:
√ To create trust in data systems
√ To learn and build technical skills like data science skills
√ To enhance a culture of data use and insight generation within household
√ To improve household/family the overall data science and communication skills
√ To attach value to data science and communications
√ To empower and inform household data scientists and communicators
√ To encourage the community members to register their skills on CENFACS Skills Data Bank
√ Above all, to reduce poverty linked to poor data science and communications skills; yet data science and communications skills are necessary to deal with life-saving household/family matters.
As ‘cambridgehealth.edu’ (18) puts it,
“Data is one of the most important assets for any organisation”.
For households and families, data is an asset like other assets.
• • Homework for the End of the Week: Get Basic Health Assistance from Chatbots
The exercise below is a real-world application that comes from ‘coursera.org’ (19). This is the exercise:
“Use AI-powered mobile applications, such as chatbots to get basic health assistance. You can describe your health concerns or ask any health-related questions, and you’ll receive critical information on your health status based on a large network of clinical symptoms and signs. Apps can remind you to take your prescription on time and, if necessary, make a doctor’s appointment”.
This exercise is all part of data science.
Those who have any queries about this homework, they can submit their queries to CENFACS.
For those community members of our community who will be interested in Data Science and Communications Skills for Households, they can contact CENFACS.
Additionally, for those who would like to register their skills on CENFACS Skills Data Bank, they are welcome to do so. This registration will help in matching the support in terms of skills and the needs in the community.
To get further insight into Skills Development Month at CENFACS, please continue to read our weekly posts.
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• References
(1) https://www.afdb.org/en/topics-and-sectors/initiatives-partnerships/climate-investment-funds-cif/just-transition-initiative# (accessed in November 2024)
(2) https://www.wits.ac.za/real/events/just-transition (accessed in November 2024)
(3) https://justfair.org.uk/home/blog/guest-blog/this-is-a-human-rights-issue-the-hidden-truth-about-clothing-poverty (accessed in November 2024)
(4) https://www.mongabay.com/2022/05/saving-the-near-extinct-estuarine-pipefish-means-protecting-estuary-health (accessed in November 2024)
(5) https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/41030/67621860 (accessed in November 2024)
(6) https://www.ekah.admin.ch/inhalte/ekah-dateien/dokumentation/publikationen/e-Broschuere_Ethischer_Umgang_mit_Fischer_pdf (accessed in November 2024)
(7) https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document/EPRS_ATA(2022) 738181 (accessed in November 2024)
(8) https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199756810/obo-9780195756810-0055 (accessed in October 2023)
(9) https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/is-entrepreneurship-a-bio–social-phenomenon/92105 (accessed in November 2021)
(10) King, K. & Palmer, R. (2006), Skills Development and Poverty Reduction: The State of the Art, Post-basic Education and Training Work Paper Series – No. 9, Centre of African Studies< University of Edinburgh at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/ (accessed in October 2023)
(11) Carolyn Sansom at https://www.grantthornton.co.uk/insights/six-key-skills-for-turning-data-into-insight/ (accessed in November 2022)
(12) https://www.thoughtspot.com/data-trends/best-practices/data-storytelling (accessed in November 2024)
(13) https://elearning.adobe.com/2022/11/how-to-become-a-data-storyteller-key-skills-career-tips/ (accessed in November 2024)
(14) https://www.lazarinastoy.com/ultimate-guide-to-data-storytelling-for-marketing-and-data-consultants/ (accessed in November 2024)
(15) https://peopleresults.com/why-telling-a-story-matters-most-in-effective-communications/# (accessed in November 2024)
(16) https://www.progmaticinstitute.com/resources/articles/data/5-effective-communication-techniques-for-data-analysts/ (accessed in November 2024)
(17) https://www.ibm.com/topics/data-science (accessed in November 2024)
(18) https://www.cambridgehealth.edu/data-management/become-a-data-manager/what-are-data-management-skills/ (accessed in October 2023)
(19) https://www.coursera.org/gb/articles/what-is-data-science (accessed in November 2024)
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• Help CENFACS Keep the Poverty Relief Work Going This Year
We do our work on a very small budget and on a voluntary basis. Making a donation will show us you value our work and support CENFACS’ work, which is currently offered as a free service.
One could also consider a recurring donation to CENFACS in the future.
Additionally, we would like to inform you that planned gifting is always an option for giving at CENFACS. Likewise, CENFACS accepts matching gifts from companies running a gift-matching programme.
Donate to support CENFACS!
FOR ONLY £1, YOU CAN SUPPORT CENFACS AND CENFACS’ NOBLE AND BEAUTIFUL CAUSES OF POVERTY REDUCTION.
JUST GO TO: Support Causes – (cenfacs.org.uk)
Thank you for visiting CENFACS website and reading this post.
Thank you as well to those who made or make comments about our weekly posts.
We look forward to receiving your regular visits and continuing support throughout 2024 and beyond.
With many thanks.
