Authors Dr. Joel Onyango & Christabel Mukubwa
When Data Speaks a Language Understood by All
Imagine this: You and your team complete a groundbreaking study on improving food security in rural Kenya. The data is solid, the findings are promising, and the conclusions could shift how we tackle hunger. Yet, despite all the effort, the people who inspired the research have no idea it exists. This is the paradox of research, brilliant knowledge that rarely makes its way back to the people it was meant to serve.
Across Africa, research holds enormous potential to shape solutions the world urgently needs, yet the gap between discovery and impact remains wide, and costly. As of 2022, the continent contributed less than 2% of global research output, 1.3% of worldwide research spending, and accounted for a mere 0.1% of all patents. Even in South Africa, where universities published 17,000 research outputs in 2019, only 145 innovations followed. This mismatch highlights a pressing question: how can a continent so rich in ideas and resilience remain so underrepresented in the global innovation landscape? Meanwhile over 744 innovation hubs and incubators thrive across Africa, many linked to universities, yet the bridge between research and impact remains fragile. The challenge is not unique to Africa, in 2023 a total of 3.3 million scientific and technical (S&E) journals were published worldwide which is a significant increase from 2.2 million in 2014, but without translation, they risk gathering dust instead of changing lives.
Encouragingly, a shift is underway. Globally, funders and institutions are pushing harder for research to deliver real world impact, shaping both policy and practice. Networks such as the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) and ACTS Pathways Academy are amplifying African voices, while innovation hubs connect scholars to industries and communities.
Yet translation demands more than networks; it demands storytelling. To bridge the divide, researchers must frame their discoveries in ways that resonate with people, policymakers, and practitioner, not just peers. Telling a research story is not oversimplifying; it is about inclusive engagement, research that includes local voices leads to better adoption and sustained impact, builds trust, and ensures that solutions are owned by communities not imposed upon them. Done well, it turns research from static paper into a living force: one that can shift policies, spark innovation, and deliver solutions far beyond Africa’s borders.
The Disconnect: When Research Misses Its Audience
Too often, researchers rely on a top-down model to collect data, publish, present, and hope the findings filter down to the communities that most need the solutions their research is meant to address. But publishing alone isn’t enough, especially when the language, tone, or format doesn’t resonate beyond academia. Communities don’t want to be mined for data; they want to be part of the story. Communication, therefore, isn’t a box to tick at the end. It’s a relationship that must be nurtured from the very beginning.
As Christabel Mukubwa recalls, during fieldwork one community refused to participate in the research, explaining that they had already contributed to another study but never heard back. “We’re tired of contributing without seeing results,” they said. Their frustration was valid; they were not simply asking for recognition but demanding genuine partnership. That experience reshaped her understanding of research not only as a pursuit of knowledge, but also as a shared journey toward solutions.
The ASK Approach: Changing How We Communicate Science
This is where the Alternative Science Communication (ASk) Initiative by the Africa Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS) through ACTS Pathways Academy steps in. Ask trains researchers, storytellers, and communicators across Africa to rethink how they share science moving beyond jargon to storytelling, beyond one-way dissemination to two-way dialogue. Its goal is simple yet transformative: make science something people can connect with, not something locked away in journals.
ASk challenges us to treat communication as part of the research process itself. It reminds us that when we speak in local languages, when we use poems, songs, proverbs, stories as strategy, and when we prioritize trust and feedback, we don’t just inform communities, we involve them, and involvement is what births sustainable solutions.
The EU-funded RETHINK Project has underscored the urgent need for transformational pathways in science communication, particularly in an era shaped by public distrust, digital misinformation, and widening gaps between researchers and society. Its lessons such as embracing diversity, fostering reflective practices, and co-creating with communities offer powerful tools for building trust and relevance.
Elizabeth Rasekoala, in her commentary Responsible Science Communication in Africa, argues that for these lessons to resonate on the continent, African science communicators must move beyond Eurocentric models and adopt a more radical, Afrocentric approach. This means decolonising language, frameworks, and practices while addressing systemic gaps in policy, resources, and capacity building that still constrain African research and its communication.
At the heart of her vision is a SMART framework for science communication in Africa: Sustainability through long-term, institutionalised engagement; Multidisciplinarity that integrates social and natural sciences; Arts and culture inclusion to embed communication in lived experiences; Respect for the public(s) by valuing indigenous knowledge and linguistic diversity; and Transformation that anchors communication in social justice and equity. Together, these principles challenge African researchers and communicators to not only tell better stories, but to tell them in ways that empower communities, build ownership, and bridge the long-standing disconnect between research and real-world impact, so as to ensure that knowledge from the lab, to the paper trickles down to communities, through the funnel of storytelling.
Now more than ever, researchers are stepping beyond the walls of academia to collaborate, co-create, and translate knowledge into solutions that matter. A growing field of Knowledge Translation (KT) defined by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as the “exchange, synthesis, and ethically-sound application of knowledge within a complex system” is reshaping how research connects to policy and practice. From health to climate resilience, funding bodies and researchers worldwide are recognizing that impact is no longer optional but essential. For African researchers, this shift offers both an invitation and a challenge: to tell their stories boldly, to partner inclusively, and to ensure that their work not only adds to the world’s library of knowledge but also transforms lives on the ground.
Lessons We Can’t Ignore
Language is power. Research shows that when science is taught and communicated in local, familiar languages, understanding and innovation soar. One effective model even uses a “do it, say it, read it, write it” approach grounded in local knowledge and cultural context.
Culture is strategy. Embedding science communication within cultural forms such as music, poem, storytelling, proverbs, and visual arts creates deeper resonance than charts ever can. Expands the possibility to decolonise, democratise, and foster participation in community-driven development and social change.
Trust is everything. Communities trust voices that include them. Research consistently finds that outreach rooted in genuine local engagement not just top-down presentations builds trust and effectiveness.
Your story is the bridge between data and transformation, we invite you to be part of this change.
