Do you want to help counter falsehoods in Mali?
Code for Africa (CfA), through its flagship network, the African Fact-checking Alliance (AFCA), is offering stipend-based fellowships to a new cohort of journalists and fact-checkers based in Mali. The fellowship aims to increase resilience to manipulative information within the Malian ecosystem.
As part of a joint initiative between CfA and Pact funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), these part-time fellowships support journalists and fact-checkers in Mali in strengthening information integrity and demystifying unreliable/inaccurate information in their communities.
The fellowship
For this second cohort, CfA will award six-month stipend-based fellowships to pioneering journalists and fact-checkers in Mali to produce fact-checking articles and spotlight the most egregious or toxic disinformation.
Through webinars and workshops, the fellows will receive intensive editorial training and mentoring from CfA’s PesaCheck, iLAB, and AFCA teams. They will be required to implement and share these skills with their colleagues and peers within their organisations and newsrooms.
The fellows will use their skills and preferred platforms to share and amplify the resulting debunks. The fact-checks can be in written, visual, or audio form, primarily in local languages, with a particular focus on targeting young people.
The details of the fellowship are outlined as follows:
- Duration: 6 months
- Award amount: Each Fellow will receive an appropriate monthly stipend.
- Additional support: Fellows will receive hands-on technical training and one-on-one mentorship from the fact-checking team at PesaCheck, investigative analysts at iLAB, and CfA’s staff technologists, data analysts, multimedia producers, and editors. They will also receive support to strengthen their existing CheckDesks or initiate flagship CheckDesks within their newsrooms to spotlight the most egregious or toxic disinformation.
- Publishing support: Fellows will publish their projects on their respective media platforms but will also receive support to publish internationally.
Candidates must meet the following criteria:
- Must be established journalists or digital storytellers with at least one year of media experience and a portfolio of published work to share.
- Preferred experience in fact-checking.
- Must be affiliated with a media partner and publish or broadcast their work in mainstream media.
- Must be fluent in French and preferably Bambara.
- Must have access to a reliable computer with stable internet connectivity to participate in programme activities and online courses/mentoring.
- Must be based in Mali.
- Must commit to publishing/disseminating work on an appropriate public platform. CfA will assist with partnerships/syndications where appropriate.
- Must commit to sharing new skills and knowledge within their organisation, by sharing projects and techniques with peers.
- Must be available for virtual meetings.
The deadline for applications is 28/08/2024.
To apply, please fill out this form.
About the Partners:
Code for Africa (CfA) is the continent’s largest network of digital democracy laboratories, with over 100 full-time data scientists, forensic researchers, technologists, and digital storytellers working in support of investigative media and watchdog CSO partners in 26 African countries. CfA builds digital solutions that provide actionable information to citizens to encourage informed decisions while also
amplifying voices to strengthen civic engagement for improved public governance and evidence-driven accountability. CfA will give fellows access to support from its openAFRICA data ‘liberation’ team, the commons.AFRICA open source team, the source.AFRICA evidence research team, and a string of wider communities that CfA manages, including the africanDRONE community of civic drone/mapping pioneers, the sensor.AFRICA community that uses remote sensors to monitor air/water/radiation and other environmental information, the PesaCheck fact-checking team that debunks misinformation, the iLAB forensic investigation team that tracks and exposes hate speech or other toxic content, the CivicSignal media monitoring and content analysis team, and the WanaData network of women data scientists/storytellers who liberate and amplify feminist data.
African Fact-checking Alliance (AFCA) is Africa’s largest Indigenous fact-checking network, comprising over 300 members from newsrooms, civil society organisations, and universities. Together, they pool efforts and resources to effectively combat mis/disinformation across the continent. AFCA provides seed funding for fact-checking initiatives, tech support, and peer mentoring for collaborative projects.Pact is an international non-profit organization working in nearly 40 countries to develop solutions for human development that are evidence-based, data-driven and owned by the communities we serve. Founded in 1971 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., in the United States, Pact works with partners to build resilience, enhance accountability and build knowledge and skills for sustainable social impact.