Strengthening Information Integrity and Convening Strategic Partnerships in the Global South
In the coming months, the Centre for Information Integrity in Africa (CINIA) at Stellenbosch University will be hosting fifteen organisations from across Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East to collaboratively develop a research agenda for an interdisciplinary, three-year project to strengthen information integrity in the global South. The convening, funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), offers a critical opportunity to learn, connect priorities, bridge endeavours and surface possibilities for strategic collaboration across diverse actors working from multiple facets of information integrity research and practice.
Since its inception, CINIA has been spearheading our understanding of information integrity, framing the field as an intersection of complex, multi-faceted and multi-layered interests and issues, including freedom of expression, communication rights, media literacy, feminist internet, AI ethics and data governance and sovereignty. Its establishment and leadership in the field has been acute and timely given the rapid changes in the creation and dissemination of media content we are witnessing in the last decade.
These changes, influenced by the global rise of populism, the invisibilisation and censorship of marginalised voices and the pervasiveness of mis- and disinformation, has led to what is increasingly becoming known as ‘the information disorder.’ Information integrity research and practices aim to directly challenge its implications, which include the political polarisation of societies, tech-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), escalations of conflicts and wars, attacks on journalists and activists, and declining trust in and dependence on independent media.
Research findings located in the global South show that the effects of information disorder is experienced in unique ways due to weak and non-independent regulatory frameworks, pronounced socioeconomic inequalities, systemised gender-based violence and highly varying media literacy levels. Yet even in the face of these challenges, the global discourse on information disorder disproportionately emphasises global North concerns, perpetuating colonial imaginations of solutions and creating significant gaps in understanding the complexity of information disorder in diverse contexts across the global South.
At the same time, there are researchers, think tanks, academics, journalists, policy makers, fact checkers and human rights activists working across the global South to strengthen democratic resilience and counter information disorder. Previous research led by CINIA comprehensively mapped the constellation of actors, organisations and practices, and the associated economic, social, and political drivers of information integrity across Sub-Saharan Africa, the MENA region, Latin America, and Asia. What this research revealed was that the efforts of these diverse actors, while essential for preserving and strengthening information integrity, are nevertheless occurring in silos, and with limited cross-sector, cross-disciplinary and cross-regional support and spaces for knowledge sharing and collaboration.
It is for this reason that our new three-year project, with the goal of channelling diverse strengths and priorities into a learning-based and shared research agenda, presents an important opportunity for CINIA to establish a knowledge and partnership hub in the region for organisations and individuals working on information integrity in the global South. CINIA’s pioneering research in the field, network expansion, and geographical location makes it well-situated to facilitate such a space, to strengthen learning and strategic partnerships across actors, encourage interdisciplinary intervention, and bring attention to the expertise in the field of information integrity coming from the African continent and across the global South.
The convening hosted by CINIA, which will take place over five days in January 2026, is the first step in supporting cross-regional and cross-disciplinary collaboration for learning and strengthening information integrity in the global South. Invited organisations will work together to share knowledge and outcomes, identify gaps and strengths in current research, design collaborative and interdisciplinary research methodologies, and map new anticipated outcomes for the three-year partnership.
The sessions will centre the expertise and priorities of invited organisations, who bring with them the lived experiences of partners and allies from their regions. Through this convening, CINIA aims to engage with experts working in multiple facets of the field, from different regions, to learn from their experiences and achievements, and to shape a shared research agenda moving forward. The outcomes of current research investments will be mapped during the convening and support a framework for how the three-year project can contribute responsively to gaps in knowledge and discourse, research capacity needs, and policy design and implementation, and foster a global community of information integrity practice.
