Combat Mis/Disinfo in Francophone Africa!
Get all the details of the Africa Incubator programme
Code for Africa (CfA), through its African Fact-Checking Alliance (AFCA), in partnership with Meta (which operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) has launched the African Fact-Checking Incubator. This year-long initiative will support the growth of local media to debunk mis — and disinformation in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Niger.
The initiative offers training, mentorship and other support in three distinct tracks: journalists, editors and newsroom managers. Under the initiative, all three tracks will undergo intensive training in the basics of mis/disinformation and fact checking before being separated out into career specific training modules and mentorship. Participants who excelled in the earlier portions of the programme will be invited to apply to the final phase where they will be assisted to ‘co-create’ a fact-checking project/product and they will be eligible for $15,000 seed grants to assist with project launch.
In addition, core activities of the initiative also include public webinars that will target a larger number of participants.
The programme is expected to run until September 2023.
Are you interested in participating in the training? Register here!
AFCA Team
The AFCA team that will be involved in this programme are:
Bilal TAIROU
Bilal has over twelve years of professional experience, with more than half of that spent working in journalism and communications. He is a savvy fact-checker and science journalist, with strong skills in data journalism and storytelling. He has worked with several newsrooms and international charities of various sizes. He joined PesaCheck, CfA’s fact-checking initiative, in 2019, helping it to launch the French desk, covering several francophone countries in Africa. He is currently spearheading several special projects at PesaCheck, such as AFCA. Find him on Twitter.
Nadia LAWSON
Nadia is a seasoned journalist and a data analyst with xxx years of experience. Having served in several newsrooms in West Africa as freelancer and editor, she has a thorough understanding of the sub-region’s media ecosystem. She joined CfA’s Knowledge Team in 2019 where she helped establish the WanaData chapter in Senegal. She is currently Special Project Assistant in CfA’s PesaCheck Team, a position that enables her to draw on her strong skills in data journalism, fact-checking and storytelling. Find her on Twitter.
Cathy WAMAITHA
Cathy is an assistant editor at PesaCheck, with a special focus on the training programme, where she develops training curricula and facilitates training sessions across the continent, drawing on her 14 years experience working as a copy editor and journalist.. Cathy has professional training in various fields including Communication, e-Learning, Early Childhood Education and Project Management. Cathy is a firm believer in people, loves strengthening capacity and looks out for opportunities to use media for good. She has strong interests in policy and communication for development. Find her on LinkedIn, Twitter and Muck Rack.
Mardochée Ani BOLI
Mardochée is a science journalist and fact-checker, with over six years of professional experience in investigative journalism. He trained at Lille School of Journalism and has worked in several newsrooms in his native Côte d’Ivoire and in Mali where he currently lives as well as internationally. Since April 2020, he has been Mali correspondent for PesaCheck. He has a keen interest in science and sustainable development, economics and finance, general culture, and politics. Find him on Twitter.
Minyem Nicole RICCI
A Cameroon native, Minime Nicole is a skilled journalist graduated from Siantou Superior Institute of Yaoundé. She has seven years of professional experience in investigative journalism. She joined PesaCheck, as a copy editor and has been helping to debunk fake news on social media for about three years now. She has a strong sense of teamwork and promotes capacity building. Find her on Twitter.
Edouard Kamboissoa SAMBOE
Edouard holds a Master’s degree in journalism and has specialised in fact-checking for five years. He has worked in several areas of journalism including print, TV and radio. He is able to develop new projects to use media for good, especially in a context of crisis. He is the Burkina Faso in-country fact-checker for PesaCheck. He is also a researcher in armed conflict, with a Master’s degree in Political Science, Option Extremism, which he is currently preparing for a future PhD thesis. Find him on Twitter.
Souleymane Oumarou BRAH
Souleymane is PesaCheck’s Niger-based fact-checker. He has a degree in sociology, and another one in business communication and communication for development. Before joining PesaCheck in 2020, he worked at Niger 24, a private radio and TV press group. He also collaborated with local media like Le Matinal. Promoter of the newspaper La Voix du Peuple, his areas of focus are migration, violent extremism and radicalisation. Souleymane has a good knowledge of the local context, especially of rural populations, in Niger and surrounding countries. Find him on Twitter.
