CheckDesks Fellowships in West Africa 2025 – YOA

Deadline: March 4, 2025

Applications are open for the CheckDesks Fellowships in West Africa 2025. The Code for Africa (CfA), via its flagship community, the African Fact-Checking Alliance (AFCA), is providing a seven-month incubation programme to established media organisations or watchdog civil society organisations (CSOs) based mostly in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal to assist them arrange or broaden CheckDesks.

A CheckDesk is a devoted truth-checking/verification unit inside a information organisation or CSO that makes use of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN)-compliant strategies to analysis and debunk deceptive or dangerous info.

The fellowships are part of the challenge ‘Strengthening Resilient Information Ecosystems in Africa,’ an initiative co-financed by the European Union, commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and carried out by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) in cooperation with numerous companions, together with Code for Africa (CfA) and DW Akademie.

The initiative seeks to strengthen the capability of native media and watchdog organisations to show, dismantle, and destabilise disinformation networks. It may also promote info integrity via the digitisation of credible sources and supporting influencers to counter on-line manipulation.

Benefits

The programme will encompass:

• Financial help: The chosen organisations will obtain a grant to cowl eligible actions and prices.
• Publishing help: The newsrooms will publish the very fact-checking merchandise generated below the challenge on their respective media platforms. The newsrooms may also be supported to publish internationally.
• Organisation constructing: The chosen organisations will obtain on-line consultations with CfA to raised perceive their viewers, refining truth-checks and growing potential income fashions.
• Growing attain: CfA will supply amplification/progress help, together with scaling/syndication help.

Eligibility

• The organisation should not work for any paramilitary or safety organisation.
• The organisation should be based mostly in one of many following nations: Côte d’ivoire and Senegal.
• The organisation will need to have an current on-line presence, together with an actively maintained web site and/or social media profiles, or a dedication to establishing a digital footprint at the start of the programme.
• The organisation will need to have web entry to allow collaborating journalists/trainees/researchers to entry challenge assets and undertake their truth-checking assignments.
• The media organisation or newsroom should be a member of the AFCA community. If not a member on the time of application, fill out this form to turn out to be an AFCA member, earlier than making use of.
• The organisation will need to have managerial and editorial employees dedicated to collaborating in the programme in the course of the agreed-upon interval.
• The organisation should decide to well timed and open communication from the administration and seconded workforce members.
• The seconded trainees should decide to agreed-upon weekly on-line coaching and job-based mostly class assignments.
• The organisation should decide to broadcasting or publishing content material produced via the programme in the desired cadence and driving engagement on an acceptable public platform.
• The seconded trainees should be fluent in the language of tuition and mentorship: French.

Application

If your organisation is eligible, it’s essential to apply no later than March 4, 2025.

Click here to apply

For extra info, go to CheckDesks Fellowships in West Africa.