AYV News, September 15, 2023

One of Africa Young Voices’ (AYV) smart faces on television, Joseph Johnson, has been selected as one of the fellows for the maiden Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Journalism Fellowship by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA).

Joseph, a senior reporter, producer and presenter, is amongst the 20 selected journalists from 10 countries in Africa and the only one from Sierra Leone.

After a rigorous selection process from a pool of 300 applicants, 20 journalists have been selected for the maiden Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Journalism Fellowship by the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA).

The Fellows, comprising 13 males and seven females, are from 10 countries, namely, Benin, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Togo.

The DPI Journalism Fellowship seeks to enhance public access to information on DPI issues through in-depth, compelling and impactful journalistic reporting. It is being implemented in partnership with and funding support from Co-Develop, a global not-for-profit fund to achieve the catalytic possibilities of digital public infrastructure.

The Fellowship will run from September 18 to December 18, 2023. It will feature a series of trainings, both virtual and in-person. The Fellows will participate in several training sessions on DPI and DPI reporting.

In the first and second weeks of November, the Fellows will be hosted in Accra, Ghana for two weeks and will undergo in-person trainings, experience-sharing sessions and institutional and field visits.

Fellows will receive a monthly stipend of USD500 while their respective media organisations will be supported with USD700 each month to support editorial productions of DPI stories. Fellows will receive a Certificate of Honour upon completion of the Fellowship.

Fellows were recruited through a competitive selection process including interviews with applicants and their editors.