The African Data Drive
Reports and Proceedings
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 18-Oct-2025 23:11 ET (19-Oct-2025 03:11 GMT/UTC)
New interactive tool to bridge Africa's critical data gap for sustainable development.
Widespread mortality of warm-water coral reefs underway, as world reaches first tipping point
Stellenbosch University (SU) has launched a new transdisciplinary centre to advance drug discovery and therapeutic innovation to address Africa’s unique healthcare challenges.
Early bird registrations - with savings of up to 53% - are closing on 20 October 2025 for delegates wanting to attend the 13th World Conference of Science (WCSJ 2025). The Conference takes place from 1 to 5 December 2025 in Pretoria, South Africa.
The WCSJ is a biennial gathering of the world’s science journalists — a space to sharpen their skills, exchange ideas, and explore how best to tell the stories that shape our shared future. Science journalists play a vital role in keeping the public informed about the issues that matter most, from climate change and health crises to the challenges of misinformation, shrinking funding, and reporting amid global conflict.
Dr Bianca Moffett at the SAMRC/Wits-Agincourt Unit leads the AfriCAT project, which entails building a first-of-its-kind adaptive testing tool to inform measurement-based mental healthcare for depression and anxiety among adolescents in Africa.
The AfriCAT tool is based on Computerised Adaptive Testing, a novel approach to mental health assessment. Unlike most traditional assessments, which ask a standard set of questions to all users, Computerised Adaptive Tests are based on advanced statistical and machine learning methods, which use a person’s initial responses to select the next best questions. The goal of adaptive testing is to use as few questions as possible while still making an exact assessment, tailored to the individual.
Health funders would likely have a better return on investment and a stronger position in the global funding crisis if Africans had greater decision-making influence and voting power in global health institutions.
This is an assertion in an article published on 15 September 2025 in the prestigious BMJ Global Health journal.
Registration for the World Conference of Science Journalists 2025 (WCSJ2025), to be held from 1-5 December at the CSIR International Convention Centre in Pretoria, South Africa, is now open. Its overarching theme is “Science journalism and social justice: journalism that builds understanding and resilience”.
This is an unmissable event for science journalists, science communicators and scientists wanting to publicise their work. The international biennial conference is taking place for the first time ever on African soil and presents a unique opportunity for everyone interested in communicating science to hone their craft, to network with their peers, and to find stories about groundbreaking African science.