KPAC24 Session organized by Search for Common Ground
November 20, 2024 | 15:00-16:30
Session Language: French (English translation provided)
Session Description:
This interactive session will examine how the digital landscape in West Africa, particularly in the central Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger), acts both as a catalyst for peace and as a source/amplifier of conflicts. Our speakers and panelists, with diverse backgrounds, will address the challenges posed by digital technologies such as misinformation. They will showcase best practices to counter these challenges while highlighting the potential of digital platforms to promote peace. The session will also explore the role and responsibility of technology companies in a complex digital landscape like that of West Africa, where peace mechanisms are often fragile and trust between communities, governments, and institutions is precarious.
Speakers:
Habibou Bako (moderator) is a Policy and Outreach Officer for West Africa at Search for Common Ground. With deep expertise in digital peacebuilding, he focuses on combating misinformation and enhancing digital resilience. His role involves organizing the Forum de Bamako on Digital and Social Cohesion, which serves as a platform for inclusive Policy dialogue among civil society, government, and security actors on digital and social cohesion in West Africa.
Bilal Tairou is a Senior Facilitator and Chief Coordinator of the African Fact-Checking Alliance (AFCA) at Code for Africa. With more than ten years' experience in fact-checking, journalism and strategic communication, he supports more than 340 news bureaus in Africa. Formerly at PesaCheck and SciDev.Net. Bilal is an expert in data journalism and fact-checking.
Maud Bakirdjian is a Regional Program Manager for West Africa at Search for Common Ground, supports initiatives like Laafi-Kibaru and Tabalé Kunkan, which promote community resilience and address emerging digital threats in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. She will share in particular the latest recommendations from recent dialogues led on the topic in the three Central Sahelian countries.
Fatouma Harber is a member of the Bamako Forum on Digital and Social Cohesion. She is President of the pan-African organisation of African bloggers, fact-checkers and youtubers (TRAFIC). Co-founder of DONIBLOG, she has won awards for her civic commitment and is one of the 100 African influencers of 2023.
Lena Slachmuijlder is the Executive Director for Digital Peacebuilding at Search for Common Ground, and Co-Chair of the Council on Technology and Social Cohesion. She supports globally all active programming at Search to build trust online and mitigate digital harms, while also being at the forefront of one of the key digital harms’ root causes: the way technologies are designed and deployed.