By CIPESA Staff |
On October 13-15, 2025, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), in partnership with Co-Develop hosted 20 journalists in a workshop as part of the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Journalism Fellowship for Eastern Africa. This is a regional initiative aimed at strengthening journalists’ capacity to report knowledgeably and critically on DPI and Digital Public Goods (DPGs) in the region.
The workshop took place in Nairobi, Kenya and brought together journalists from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, who are receiving both knowledge-and skills-based training alongside a reporting grant to produce in-depth DPI stories.
At an inaugural virtual workshop held in August 2025, the Fellows examined among others, Digitalisation and digital rights in Eastern Africa; UN and African Union frameworks on DPI; the DPI ecosystem in Eastern Africa; and Media coverage of DPI across nine countries, based on CIPESA’s ongoing research. The workshop also provided practical training in journalism skills, including technology beat reporting, conceptualising story ideas, writing effective pitches, data storytelling, and the use of AI in storytelling.
Report Launch
Following the workshop, a regional public event was hosted on October 16, 2025, and served to showcase findings from a multi-country media monitoring study on DPI coverage conducted y CIPESA.
The report presents the findings of a baseline study on media coverage of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and Digital Public Goods (DPGs) across seven Eastern African countries in 2024: Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. Using a mixed-methods approach that combined quantitative content analysis and key informant interviews, the study analysed 680 DPI- and DPG-related stories published in 28 major print and online outlets between January and December 2024.
The study assessed the volume, prominence, themes, sourcing patterns, and framing of stories and complemented the findings with interviews and focus group discussions involving journalists, editors, and experts. The study reveals that while media in the region are actively reporting on digital transformation, the coverage is largely event-driven, government-centric, and male-dominated. It focuses primarily on the functional benefits of DPI—such as service delivery and innovation—while giving limited attention to critical issues of governance, data privacy, equity, and citizen inclusion.
Find the report summary here