U.S. Embassy Kinshasa Grant: Empowering Congolese Journalists Against Misinformation

The U.S. Embassy Kinshasa / Africa Bureau of the U.S. Department of State announces an open competition for organizations to submit applications to carry out a program for not-for-profit organizations to submit proposals that seek to support both state and private media in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Curbing Misinformation and Disinformation through Information Literacy and Fact Checking. This funding opportunity seeks to train tech-savvy journalists from all provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and will also be open to those from the Republic of Congo.

Project Goal:

The U.S. Mission Kinshasa supports a more stable, democratic nation through improved governance, greater respect for human rights, and credible local, provincial, and national elections. The goal of this project is to educate journalists (and through them, the public) so that they can identify and debunk dis/misinformation and make informed choices.

Priority Region: Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Congo

Program Objectives:  

The selected partner is required to design a series of comprehensive media trainings for tech-savvy journalists from both state and private media throughout the country, up to 20 trainings in total. There should be at least 15-20 participants at each training with at least 50% female media practitioners in attendance. The training should cover techniques to detect misinformation and disinformation, identifying and fact-checking information. Based on feedback from and in close collaboration with the U.S. Embassy, the partner will implement these trainings nation-wide for hundreds of public and private media actors. The goal is to help journalists cultivate tools to identify and debunk misinformation and disinformation so they can better inform the Congolese public on issues related to health, democracy, economics, security, and climate change. In turn, this strengthens the democratic foundations of the DRC. The project should use a combination of in-person and/or virtual workshops, trainings, video messaging, a targeted social media strategy and radio programs to engage young citizens throughout the DRC.

Participants and Audiences:

The primary project audience is 50-70 tech-savvy journalists from all provinces of the DRC. At least 50% of the participants should be female. While the initial beneficiaries should be the tech-savvy journalists listed above, the secondary audience should be young voters from across the DRC who are consuming and producing information through traditional and social media platform.