The African Digital Democracy Observatory (ADDO) is offering a series of seed grants and additional technical support for targeted research into how both state-affiliated and other lobbyist groups use influence/information operations and disinformation and targeted propaganda to subvert African democracies. The initial research grants focus on four countries: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal.

The Fellowships have been established because detailed evidence for active disinformation campaigns or actionable insights into the techniques or networks they use is scarce in Africa. This hampers traditional civil society watchdogs or investigative media from proactively exposing and debunking campaigns. ADDO Fellows’ research is therefore intended to help African media and CSOs better understand information disorder in their country/region.