Deadline: March 6, 2026
Applications are open for the Code for Africa (CfA) African Academy for Open Source Investigation Fellowships 2026. Code for Africa (CfA) is offering six African Academy for Open Source Investigation (AAOSI) Fellowships to mentor journalists in select African countries.
The programme aims to foster stronger democratic accountability, strengthen digital resilience and security of pro-democracy civil society actors, safeguard the use of digital technologies and online spaces, and enhance youth voices and youth civic engagement in a secure digital space. It will do this by equipping journalists from investigative media organisations and watchdog non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with open-source intelligence (OSINT) and social media intelligence (SOCMINT) forensic analysis skills to produce evidence-driven analyses.
The fellowship will further enhance information integrity in the target countries by tackling information manipulation and interference (IMI), coordinated inauthentic behaviour (CIB), disinformation campaigns, hate speech, online harassment, propaganda, and the weaponisation of artificial intelligence (AI) to pollute information ecosystems.
Benefits
The second cohort of the programme will span four months in 2026, and will consist of:
- Financial support: The chosen journalists will receive a monthly stipend to cover related activities and costs.
- Technical support: CfA will offer hands-on technical training, followed by one-on-one project mentorship and support from CfA’s data technologists, data analysts, multimedia producers, and editors.
- Publishing support: The journalists will publish content generated under the project on their respective media platforms and will receive support to publish internationally.
- Growing reach: CfA will offer amplification and growth support, including scaling/syndication support for the affiliated organisations.
Eligibility
Candidates must:
- Be based in one of the target African countries.
- Have a minimum of one year of experience in journalism, with a strong preference for investigative or data journalism.
- Provide evidence of reports produced and recently published.
- Be attached or affiliated to a media house, digital news outlet, or a relevant organisation where content produced during the project will be published. This also applies to freelance journalists.
- Commit to publishing/disseminating their work on an appropriate public platform. CfA will assist with partnerships and syndications where appropriate.
- Commit to agreed-on weekly online training and mentorship sessions.
- Be willing to share their new skills and knowledge within their organisation, by presenting their projects and techniques to their peers.
- Be fluent in either of the languages of tuition and mentorship (English or French).
Applications are welcome from journalists in the following regions/countries:
- The Sahel region: Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, and Senegal.
- West Africa: Benin, Cameroon, Guinea, and Togo.
- East Africa: Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan.
Application
If you are eligible, apply no later than Friday, 06 March 2026, by completing the online application form. Women and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
For more information, visit AAOSI Fellowships.
