ARTICLE 19, Deutsche Welle Akademie, Fondation Hirondelle, Free Press Unlimited, International Media Support, Reporters Without Borders and UNESCO have joined forces for the project COVID-19 Response in Africa: Together for Reliable Information, funded by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO). This consortium, led by Free Press Unlimited, is implementing this 18-month project as of 1 August 2020. The project’s objective is facilitating the provision of reliable and critical information about the coronavirus that currently does not reach populations at risk as operations of a number of independent media outlets in Sub-Saharan countries are being hampered by the pandemic. To achieve that, this project provides support to media stakeholders in Sub-Saharan Africa who are left with little income-generating options due to COVID-19. Many activities undertaken will provide these media stakeholders time to adapt and survive the crisis caused by COVID-19 while enabling them to provide relevant and life-saving information on the pandemic to their audiences.
Are you a media professional or media organisation in distress as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic? See our page on emergency support.
Who: ARTICLE 19, Deutsche Welle Akademie, Fondation Hirondelle, Free Press Unlimited, International Media Support, Reporters Without Borders, UNESCO
When: 1 August 2020 – 31 March 2022
Where: across Sub-Saharan Africa with an emphasis on the following 17 countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, South Africa, Zimbabwe
Donor: European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development (DG DEVCO)
Overall objective: to contribute to better informed populations that are aware of how to protect themselves against COVID-19, to mitigate risks and to limit the number of casualties
Specific objective: to provide the essential, timely support and materials to independent media and journalists in Sub-Saharan Africa to fulfil their role of providing quality and reliable information and to help them overcome the risks they are facing during the crisis