Four Ghanaian organisations operating in online safety have been awarded grant funding of $10,000 to $50,000 after being named winners of the Africa Online Safety Fund (AOSF) project in Cape Town, South Africa.
The organisations namely: Ghana Internet Safety Foundation, iWatch Africa, My Power App, and Penplusbytes were among the 22 winning organisations from seven countries being announced by Impact Amplifier.
The AOSF project, is an initiative by Impact Amplifier with support from Google.org which sought to address online safety issues in Africa.
In a statement issued and copied to the Ghanaian Times in Accra yesterday, it said over 350 applications were received in the 2023 cohort, from which a shortlist of 40 entries made it for the final selection process.
It said Ghana and Kenya had four winners, South Africa five, and Nigeria with six winning grantees, had the highest number of awards. Cameroon, Somalia and Zimbabwe each had one winner. Although the winning organisations reflect seven countries, their internet safety interventions span across 15 African countries in total.
Making the announcement, Impact Amplifier Director, Tanner Methvin said, “with over 500 million people having access to the internet in Africa, reflecting just under 40 per cent of the continent’s population, online safety issues are of critical concern.”
He urged for the support of innovative approaches to addressing the complex safety issues the internet presents.
“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,” Mr Methvin added.
In addition to announcing the winners of the AOSF awards, Impact Amplifier, again with the support from Google.org, is developing the first Africa focused online safety research, education and support platform.
Funding solutions to online safety since 2021, Impact Amplifier has realised that the only way to combat the scale of this challenge is by creating an ecosystem approach, part of developing this ecosystem involves centralising some of the key tools needed for support.
To this end, it is developing an online platform, which aggregates all the research which has been done regarding online safety in Africa, making this key knowledge available to policy makers, civil society, academics, business and the general public.
Additionally, the platform will be hosting education materials to teach children and adults alike how to protect themselves online. This content will include curriculum, testing materials, evaluation tools, and general awareness content, enabling anyone interested in learning how to protect themselves or others with easy access to all the content they need.
“Finally, despite our best protection efforts, online violations occur. Once someone has been the victim of an online crime or violation getting help is hard to navigate. To address this, the platform will centralise all the ways that people can seek support no matter where they are in Africa,” it added.
This new platform will be launched in February 2024.
BY TIMES REPORTER
