Impact Amplifier (IA) has sent out a call for applications ( https://www.impactamplifier.co.za/africa-online-safety-fund) for the award of grants under its $1,000,000 Africa Online Safety Fund (AOSF). This project is made possible with the support of Google.org.
Africa’s internet access has increased dramatically over the last 10 years with over 520 million people, or 40% of the population, now with access to the web. This has opened up many new opportunities for socioeconomic development, including the potential for the internet economy to contribute nearly $180 billion to Africa’s economy by 2025.
However, this rapid growth has also brought new challenges, including privacy and security concerns, bullying and harassment, hate crimes, fake news, political targeting and manipulation, terrorist recruitment and promotion, and financial scams. The COVID-19 pandemic has only made these issues worse, with a 30% increase in cyberattacks.
To address these issues, the Africa Online Safety Fund, with financial support from Google.org, has been established to finance innovative existing and new solutions to these challenges.
The Fund will be awarding grants to organizations throughout Africa, but will be focused on four primary countries, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa, that address one or more of the safety issues the internet facilitates.
There are three categories of funding: Transformative, Maturing, and Catalytic. The Transformative projects are intended to be larger in scale, reach multiple geographies and/ or potentially large numbers of beneficiaries, and be scalable as a solution. The Maturing projects are intended to test ideas at a larger scale, try new ideas within existing projects, and reach new audiences. The Catalytic projects are intended to be smaller, targeted, and potentially only locally or culturally specific.
Transformative projects will attract a maximum grant of $50,000, Maturing projects up to $25,000, and Catalytic projects $10,000.
Applications opened on 1 March and will be received until 30 April 2023. The shortlisted applicants will be announced by 31 May and taken through the second stage of the application process. The finalists will be known by 15 July 2023.
This is the second call for applications for AOSF, the first one having been last year. In the first set of awards, a total of 26 organizations received grants through the program. The successful applicants in that first cohort came from a wide range of countries – including the Ivory Coast, Uganda, South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania.
