Exploring East Africa - Expert Tips for Researchers
Jinfo Blog

By Sophie Alexander

Abstract

Africa's changing political landscape has been the focus of much news coverage over the past 20 years. We ask Colin Smith about his recent article which concentrates on five countries in the East African region that will be of most interest to researchers: Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania & Uganda.

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Researching emerging economies, such as those in Africa, can be a challenge. So we commissioned an expert to shed light on the subject as part of FreePint's Topic Series "News, and Other Commodities" (register for free updates). 

Colin Smith currently works as a consultant with Africa Alerts and has extensive experience in the online business information market.

A Complex Continent

As part of a series of pieces he's writing on Africa for FreePint, Colin's most recent article "Insider Knowledge - Researching East Africa" looks specifically at five countries in the East African region - Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania & Uganda (PDF map) with a particular focus on economic, business and trade. 

As he says, "Africa is comprised of a range of distinct destinations; each with its own attractions, challenges, cultural differences and business practices", so we have also commissioned four other articles, to cover Central, North, South and West Africa. 

The majority of sources listed in Colin's article are free and cover the economic performance of all five countries in East Africa, including links to government organisations, news and detailed statistical data.

Mining Local News & Media Sources

Also included are useful links to local news sources for these countries, which Colin explains "provide an alternative sources of news & also provide researchers with a wide variety of topical material to complement information supplied by the more official national agencies".

He lists the more popular media outlets for the five countries and also includes specialist titles and news aggregators, such as East African Business Week, a paper with five bureaux across East Africa, and All Africa, an "aggregator of 1,700 news and information items daily from over 140 African news organisations".

International sources, useful individuals and organisations on Twitter and Facebook are covered in the article, as well as non-media sources from banks, management consultancies, research agencies, law firms and academic institutions.

Find Out More

If you haven't already registered for FreePint's Topic Series "News, and Other Commodities", do so today - registration is free and you'll get regular updates as the series progresses as well as a free registants' report and, at series end, an index report of all content published in the series.

FreePint Subscribers can log in now to read the article "Insider Knowledge - Researching East Africa" where Colin's specialist knowledge of Africa highlights a myriad of useful resources to help you navigate this ever-changing and complex region.

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