📋 Tender Overview
PROJECT ID
110482
TOTAL FUNDING
CAD 800,900.00
IDRC OFFICER
Martha Mutisi
PROJECT STATUS
Active
DURATION
36 months
Summary
Globally, the world has embraced the promising impact of digital and online technologies, acknowledging how these technologies have played a huge role towards enhancing access to information, strengthening democracy and protecting human rights. Nonetheless, the same digital technologies have also been mired by concerns of the ethics of their usage, particularly the expanding trends and patterns of disinformation, which risk eroding peoples’ trust in democratic processes and institutions. Increasingly, disinformation has become gendered, with women bearing a disproportionate impact of this challenge. Women in politics have been identified as one such group that is gravely targeted by the many faces of information disorder.
This project will undertake a comparative analysis to examine the drivers, actors and impacts of gendered disinformation campaigns, focusing on Kenya, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The project will outline the diverse political landscapes in which gendered disinformation campaigns occur in addition to highlighting the responses. This will inform the development of tailored policy and advocacy responses.
Using policy dialogues and debates, public outreach and community engagement, researchers will engage with policymakers, including electoral management bodies, communication authorities, media regulatory authorities, human rights and gender commissions, legislative institutions and political parties, as well as national and regional parliaments. Policy engagement strategies will seek to strengthen media oversight and protect and promote online freedoms while addressing the gendered impact of increasing digital freedoms.
Other initiatives include both in-person and online training and capacity building activities focusing on cyber education, media literacy and information integrity, which will be key towards developing a critical mass of informed citizens, with skills and knowledge to prevent and respond to gendered disinformation.
Emerging knowledge products include policy briefs, journal articles, research reports, training manuals and how-to guides, which will be used for the teaching of masterclasses on information integrity.
