The beneficiaries of the funds for this year have been declared by the Africa Online Safety Fund (AOSF). Four Ghanaian organizations including; the Ghana Internet Safety Foundation, iWatch Africa, My Power App, and Penplusbytes were among the winners. Impact Amplifier (IA), with its headquarters located in Cape Town, South Africa, announced the selection of the 22 winning organizations from seven different countries.
Nigeria had the greatest number of awards with six winning grantees, followed by South Africa with five, Ghana and Kenya with four. There was just one winner for Zimbabwe, Cameroon, and Somalia. The winning organizations’ internet safety initiatives encompass 15 African countries overall, despite representing only seven of those nations.
For the 2023 cohort, there were just over 350 applications received. Of those, 40 entries were shortlisted and moved on to the next round of selection. With the help of Google.org, awards ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 will be awarded to each of the eventual winners. “With over 500 million people in Africa having access to the internet, representing just under 40% of the continent’s population, online safety issues are of critical concern,” Impact Amplifier Director Tanner Methvin stated during the announcement.
“The winning innovative solutions range from unique ways of combating mis and disinformation, establishing investigative teams to track cyber criminals, supporting journalists targeted with hate speech and bullying, integrating online safety training into school curriculums, and much more.”
The AOSF offers grants to organisations throughout Africa that address one or more of the safety issues the internet facilitates. It is however focused on four primary countries: Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa in this funding round.
“The winning innovative solutions range from unique ways of combating mis and disinformation, establishing investigative teams to track cyber criminals, supporting journalists targeted with hate speech and bullying, integrating online safety training into school curriculums, and much more.”
The AOSF offers grants to organisations throughout Africa that address one or more of the safety issues the internet facilitates. It is however focused on four primary countries: Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa in this funding round.
Funding is divided into three categories: transformative, maturing, and catalytic. Larger-scale, scalable programs that address several regions and/or potentially a large number of beneficiaries are the hallmarks of transformative initiatives. The goals of the maturing projects are to try new concepts within ongoing initiatives, test concepts on a bigger scale, and reach new audiences. The smaller, more focused, and possibly limited to locally or culturally specific nature of the catalytic projects is their intended design.
A maximum grant of $50,000 is available for transformative projects, up to $25,000 for maturing projects, and $10,000 for catalyst projects.
Aside from declaring the AOSF award winners, Impact Amplifier is creating the first online safety research, education, and support platform specifically targeted at Africa, once more with the help of Google.org.
Impact Amplifier, which has been funding solutions for online safety since 2021, has come to the conclusion that developing an ecosystem approach is the only practical way to address the scope of this problem. One of the main tasks in creating this ecosystem is to centralize some of the essential support tools.
In order to achieve this, it is creating an online platform that compiles all of the research done on online safety in Africa. Policy makers, academics, businesses, civil society, and the general public will be able to access this vital information.
The platform will also provide educational resources to teach both adults and kids how to stay safe online.
This content will give anyone interested in learning how to protect themselves or others easy access to all the information they require. It will consist of curriculum, testing materials, evaluation tools, and general awareness content.
Finally, online violations happen even with our best efforts at prevention. Obtaining assistance after being a victim of an online crime or violation can be challenging.
In order to address this, the platform will centralize every support-seeking method available to anyone in Africa.
The launch of this new platform is scheduled for February 2024.
Source: Osman | Ghana360news.com
