Crisis Communication

No doubt, there are tons of causes that deserve a platform, but selecting one also needs to make sense for the well-being of the company.

As a brand with influence and reach on social media, some believe you have a responsibility to help during times of crisis, amplifying messages for good. More than half of Americans get their news via social media, immediate and direct, often breaking on social media before the traditional channels of TV, radio, and print. However, amplifying a message that is important to an individual using a branded platform can also backfire.

A perfect example is that of the Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom, who used his audience with the press during a professional meeting to discuss his feeling about Ethiopia’s current situation. “My country, Ethiopia, is in trouble. And the devastating war is actually in my home region” Dr. Tedros Adhanom on Today News Africa. …

Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s resilience is being tested, again.

Ethiopia has historically held an open-door policy for refugees from other countries, despite its own internally displaced citizens, so they know all too well what Sudan faces caring for Ethiopian refugees now. Sudan has reopened the Um Rakuba camp, as one example, a refugee camp used in the 80s during Ethiopia and Eritrea’s conflicts. The camp will accommodate more than 10,000 people but initially lacked shelter, water supplies, and food.

Conflict, drought, and seasonal flooding are plagues of disaster that have kept too many Ethiopians displaced for too long. Will we see a resilient Ethiopia where the past can be replaced by climate innovation and a collective effort to work toward a bigger goal? …

Ethiopia

Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), once the most powerful armed liberation movement in Ethiopia, led a coalition of movements named the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) from 1989 to 2018. In November 2019, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front Chairman unified the coalition’s parties into the Prosperity Party. The TPLF viewed this merger as illegal, and the conflict escalated.

September 2020: There was a political rift between the two parties, which had been building, and although the timeline starts here there are events past which mark tipping points that led to war, fighting, killing, and terror. …

Marketing

When small businesses see the reach of larger corporations, they buy into the myth that “everyone” must be marketed to, and their target audience is “the whole world.” This is a fantasy created by the glossy images and high-cost video production continually pumped out over the web and on broadcast television, which become the bar that must be reached in some minds.

The more a small business can understand who they need to get in front of, to buy their services or products, and gain their loyalty, the better returns they’re going to get in their engagement and marketing efforts.

Do you have a consumer value proposition that strictly reinforces your objectives? …

UnitedUnited Nations

“There is no African agenda, other than there is a global agenda,” explains Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the 74th session and Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, during an interview with Simon Ateba, Founder of Today News Africa at the start of his term.

Watch Interview Here: https://youtu.be/YcH4HqlST4c

How did Muhammad-Bande live up to this statement? Reflecting on his one-year term, there are successes and challenges that shaped his legacy at the United Nations and lessons learned.

The United Nations’ agenda as global agenda is the idea that individual country members will remember that parallel to the advocacy they’re charged with, in support of their own countries, they must remember cooperation and unifying goals is a stronger way forward for all. …

Nigeria

Originally published in Today News Africa 12/14

Last Friday, December 11th, the consequences of national insecurity played out in a vulnerable northern Nigerian town where hundreds of children are still missing. Gunmen attacked a secondary school in the country’s northwestern Katsina state, armed with AK-47s overrunning the all-boys Government Science Secondary School.

The story, picking up throughout international headlines, is a blaring reminder of the multiple security challenges Nigeria faces across the country, layered in economic, political, religious, and personal issues that complicate and block solutions.

Nigeria’s national insecurity is not isolated to Boko Haram or ISIS in the northeast. It includes the Niger Delta Militants in the south, kidnappers, bandits, and gangs operating in smaller pockets across the country, and pirates near the ports and at sea. …

Ghana

Voice of America’s web series, Straight Talk Africa, featured Dr Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah, Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States, in a 2019 episode. His interview reminded viewers that the Year of Return was a way to bridge the distance between Ghanaian’s all over the world and their original or inherited home country, Ghana.

Folding them back into the resurgence of efforts to keep Ghana economically advancing both supported the connectedness of Ghanaians living as part of the African Diaspora and the “Ghana Beyond Aid” strategy.

Adjei-Barwuah described the areas near the southernmost coast at Cape Three Points as being approximately 4-degrees [30'] north of the equator to express the uniqueness of a beautiful and special country. “If someone stood at the juncture between the two points, whichever direction they move, Ghana would be the first country they hit. So, when God was doing his business, he was probably standing on Ghanaian soil.”

As one of Ghana’s biggest supporters of the diaspora community, H.E. Adjei-Barwuah continued these conversations from the Washington, D.C. Ghana Embassy, November 2020. H.E. …

Video Conferencing Technology

Balancing security and ease-of-use is no small task for video conferencing companies, and not as easy or cheap to develop as consumers think.

Video conferences are happening on a handful of platforms, not hundreds, so it’s easy to narrow and isolate how these apps compare. Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Google Meet, Adobe Connect, Cisco’s WebEx, GoToMeeting, Slack for business, and tools like WhatsApp, Signal, and FaceTime are familiar, but now there’s Tauria. The first business video conferencing program with end-to-end encryption and no-knowledge encryption for business.

Since video conferencing has increased with the number of people working virtually, and cyber crime up 330% as of March of 2020, you’d think there would be more attention on balancing security, cost, and ease-of-use. …