Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has announced the selection of 45 journalists from West African countries including Nairametrics Senior Tech Analyst, Samson Akintaro for phase II of its Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Fellowship.
The DPI Journalism Fellowship is an initiative of the MFWA and Co-Develop aimed at increasing public awareness and access to information on Digital Public Goods (DPGs).
The fellowship also seeks to promote and ensure that the uptake and adoption of DPI in West Africa is inclusive, safe, and equitable.
Selection process
According to MFWA, the second phase builds on the foundation of the maiden edition and aims to enhance the knowledge and skills of the selected journalists in producing impactful stories on Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and Digital Public Goods (DPGs) in the four project countries, Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo and across the West Africa region.
“After a thorough selection process, the 45 fellows were selected from a pool of 291 applications received for the second phase of the prestigious Fellowship program.
“The Fellows comprise 28 (62%) males and 17 (37%) females from Benin, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo,” the organization stated.
- The Fellowship will run from November 6, 2024 to January 31, 2025, with post-fellowship activities running till April 2025.
- The selected journalists will engage in multiple training sessions on DPI/DPGs and receive editorial support to produce in-depth and well-researched stories for publication or broadcast.
- Additionally, the selected Fellows will have access to a dynamic dedicated DPI/DPGs website that provides more content on DPI/DPGs development in West Africa and Africa and also features impactful stories produced on DPI/DPGs from across the region.
- They will also have the opportunity to join an active national and regional network of DPI/DPG Journalism Fellowship Alumni.
Why it is important
Speaking on Wednesday during a virtual opening ceremony and official unveiling of the fellows, the Executive Director of MFWA, Mr. Sulemana Braimah, said the Fellowship is aimed at creating robust awareness around DPI and the huge investments being committed by governments in building this infrastructure.
“Across our countries, whether it is Nigeria or Ghana or Benin or Togo, governments are fast rolling out digital mechanisms whether it is digital IDs, digital passports, digital payment systems, digital birth certificates, data collections and big data storage and exchange and so on.
“Journalists have a responsibility to ensure that our people understand the stories around these digital movements and to give the people the opportunity to question our authorities and governments about the investments and the decisions that they are making on digital infrastructure,” he said.
- Sulemana, however, noted that African journalists have not been capacitated enough to be able to follow through with the processes and probe into the digital investments that the governments are making, which necessitated the Fellowship.
- Also speaking, Senior Investment Principal at Co-Develop, the not-for-profit organization and funding partner of the program, Desire Kachenje, said Co-Develop believes that media organizations play a crucial role in informing the public about digital transformation, highlighting important issues around the safety and inclusivity of DPI and also engaging the DPI policy and implementation players.
She said this understanding makes the DPI Fellowship a very important project for the organization as it seeks to provide journalists the support and knowledge needed to promote this discussion and advocate for safe and inclusive DPIs.
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