"The Zambia Digital Ecosystem Country Assessment report outlines the key aspects of the country's digital ecosystem and provides recommendations for the international development community to create a more inclusive, safe, and enabling environment to achieve development outcomes." (https://www.usaid
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.gov/digital-development)
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"The State of the Media-topical study is an in-depth presentation of selected issues affecting the media’s operating environment in a given period. This edition covers the period January-June and highlights various issues that had potential to affect the role of the media in the period under revie
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w. The rationale of the study is the nexus between a good operating environment for the media and the facilitation of democratic governance, access to information and freedom of expression." (Executive summary)
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"This report is intended to provide a broad review of the use and emerging governance of AI technology in Southern Africa. It aims at initiating public discussions and policy dialogue not only on the technological implications of the use of AI, but also on the social, political, and ethical signific
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ance and consequences of it. Through this report, UNESCO’s objective is also to provide the evidence that AI technologies are already being used in many domains and sectors in Southern Africa, thus countering the narrative that the ethics of AI is still premature to be discussed and taken seriously by the local actors in the region. The analysis comprises four parts that, read together, present a review of key policies, use cases, risks and opportunities for the design, development, governance and usage of responsible AI in the region. These are: (i) AI Regulatory and Policy Mapping; (ii) Analysis of Artificial Intelligence Applications; (iii) Ethical Risk of AI Use (derived from the findings in the policy mapping and use case analysis); and (iv) Key Opportunities and Recommendations." (Introduction)
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"It aims at providing a holistic view of digital transformation in the agriculture sector of 47 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The region’s digital agriculture landscape is assessed through six key themes, namely: infrastructure, digital penetration, policy and regulation, business environment,
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human capital and agro-innovation. Beyond the analysis of the region against the six focal themes, the report presents both the status-quo and challenges faced by countries in their digital transformation journeys, which can assist policymakers to identify possible areas of intervention to drive the process of agricultural digitalization in the region. It highlights the need to strengthen digital infrastructure for universal connectivity, to connect the unconnected in sub-Saharan Africa and to support the integration of digital technologies to advance digital agricultural transformation." (Foreword)
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"This book lays out the history of entertainment-education and discusses the boundaries of what counts as entertainment-education and narrative persuasion, includes both authors who work within academia and authors who are practitioners, and chapters focusing on developed and developing countries; d
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raws upon communication principles and theory but prioritizes actionable lessons for how entertainment-education actually works." (Publisher description)
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"The media in Zambia have been in a state of uncertainty since Zambia reinstated democratic governance in the early 1990s. Despite promising initial steps to deregulate the media that started under President Chiluba’s government in the mid-1990s, achieving these objectives in successive years has
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proved difficult. Successive governments have exhibited increasing aversion towards free and independent media, instead increasing efforts to regulate. This is significant, because comparisons with Kaunda’s autocratic era before 1991 cast the state in a friendlier light towards the media, defying normative theories. After both the Media Ethics Council of Zambia and Zambia Media Ethics Council (ZAMEC) failed as self-regulatory mechanisms in the mid to late 2000s, current state efforts have turned to create a hybrid statutory self-regulatory framework. This is a challenge because Zambia’s democracy has come under pressure from increasing political intolerance. Furthermore, while media professionals support the idea of regulation to strengthen professionalism, they often disagree on the value of statutory self-regulation and its implications. This study used the In-Depth Interview approach on 23 media professionals and documentary analysis to sketch the history and future implications of media regulation efforts in Zambia. Results show a checkered past but present an even more complicated future. The history of the Independent Broadcasting Authority shows that the proposed statutory self-regulatory framework presents more challenges to the media than ever before. This paper aims to contribute to global media studies and specifically the problems of regulation, the state, and media freedom in an African context." (Abstract)
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"The analysis is based on online media coverage in five languages throughout the year. CARE sees a concerning trend of crises being neglected year after year. Six out of the ten crises are located on the African continent. The Central African Republic has appeared in the ranking for five consecutive
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years. Both Madagascar and Burundi – the latter this year’s number 1 with the least media coverage – have made CARE’s list four times so far. This lack of attention adds to burdens such as the severe effects of COVID-19 restrictions and the growing impact of climate change in these countries." (https://reliefweb.int)
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"This book advances alternative approaches to understanding media, culture and technology in two vibrant regions of the Global South. Bringing together scholars from Africa and the Caribbean, it traverses the domains of communication theory, digital technology strategy, media practice reforms, and c
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orporate and cultural renewal. The first section tackles research and technology with new conceptual thinking from the South. The book then looks at emerging approaches to community digital networks, online diaspora entertainment, and video gaming strategies. The volume then explores reforms in policy and professional practice, including in broadcast television, online newspapers, media philanthropy, and business news reporting. Its final section examines the role of village-based folk media, the power of popular music in political opposition, and new approaches to overcoming neo-colonial propaganda and external corporate hegemony." (Publisher description)
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"Media Laws on the African continent have been amended, revised and rewritten since the first edition of the SADC Media Law Handbook was first published nearly a decade ago. The reasons for new media laws range from the advent of social media to the realisation of the powers-that-be that, with new t
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echnologies, they cannot control the narrative and discussion in the way they used to do. How does one balance the need to prevent hate speech with the necessity to question and control those in power publicly as well as those opposing them? Our legal expert, Justine Limpitlaw, has taken up the challenge of analysing and scrutinising the media laws of 13 southern African countries over the past four years. We present the results to you in this three-volume-edition. The work will, in the next few years, make its way into legal offices, newsrooms and courtrooms on the continent, just as the first edition did." (Foreword)
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"Almost half of women respondents had been sexually harassed at work (47%). Women were twice as likely to experience sexual harassment at work than men. For one in two women, the harassment was verbal (56%), and for one in three, it was physical (38%). Only 30% of cases of sexual harassment were eve
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r reported to management. Fear of reprisals is the most common driver behind non-reporting. But lack of faith in the organisation’s management and awareness of reporting systems also plays a part. When they did receive formal complaints, news organisations took action in 42% of cases. Persons in authority are the perpetrators of sexual harassment in four out of ten cases, either as a direct supervisor (21.5%) or person from higher management (19.5%). Sexual harassment is often taking place openly: 46% had witnessed at least one incident, with 16.5% stating they had seen five or more cases. Non-conforming individuals experienced sexual harassment almost as often as women. One in two (50%) had been verbally harassed, and 36% had been physically harassed. Of the 32 managers interviewed, more than half had been sexually harassed. Only three reported this. Some 47% said their organisations had no sexual harassment policy, and then, of those where a policy existed, just 17% knew its contents." (Main findings, page 5)
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"The study aims to gather information and develop a better understanding of the community radio landscapes in different parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, in order to identify needs, opportunities and potential partners for developing a programme of support for community radio on the continent. The envisa
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ged programme of support should be based on a productive model that takes into account the range of circumstances in Sub-Saharan Africa, its subregions as well as the selected countries. This report presents a descriptive analysis of the community radio landscape in 11 francophone, lusophone and anglophone countries from West, East and Southern Africa." (Purpose of the study, page 12)
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"This paper presents results from a three-arm randomized controlled trial in Zambia with a sample of nearly 1200 adolescent girls enrolled in Grade 7. Selected primary schools (N=36) were randomly assigned within each of three districts to one of three arms: 1) e-readers, which girls could take home
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, provided within a safe space group platform plus community engagement activities; 2) safe space groups plus community engagement activities; and 3) control. The intent-to-treat estimates indicate that girls in the e-reader arm scored significantly better on two basic literacy assessments as well as non-verbal reasoning compared with girls in the control arm." (Abstract)
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"Das Werk bietet, nach Ländern bzw. Regionen aufgeschlüsselt, einen kompakten und aktuellen Überblick über geschichtliche Herkunft, weitere Entwicklungen und aktuelle Herausforderungen der afrikanischen Kirche aus katholischer Sicht. Dabei liegt ein Akzent auf den Beziehungen der Ortskirche zu a
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nderen Konfessionen und Religionen. Experten aus den jeweiligen Ländern bzw. Kenner der jeweiligen Situation vor Ort ermöglichen einen raschen und gründlichen Zugang zu den Besonderheiten der Kirchen und ihrer jeweiligen Rolle in den afrikanischen Gesellschaften heute. Dabei werden die Komplexität und die Vielfalt der verschiedenen Situationen innerhalb Afrikas deutlich." (Klappentext)
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"For the first time, a complete mapping of the film and audiovisual industry in 54 States of the African continent is available, including quantitative and qualitative data and an analysis of their strengths and weaknesses at the continental and regional levels. The report proposes strategic recomme
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ndations for the development of the film and audiovisual sectors in Africa and invites policymakers, professional organizations, firms, filmmakers and artists to implement them in a concerted manner. The film and audiovisual industry in Africa has the potential to create over 20 million jobs and generate US$20 billion in revenues per year." (Short summary, page 2)
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"Deriving from innovative new work by six researchers, this book questions what the new media's role is in contemporary Africa. The chapters are diverse - covering different areas of sociality in different countries - but they unite in their methodological and analytical foundation. The focus is on
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media-related practices, which require engagement with different perspectives and concerns while situating these in a wider analytical context. The contributions to this collection provide fresh ethnographic descriptions of how new media practices can affect socialities in significant but unpredictable ways." (Publisher description)
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"This article examines what drives audience participation in interactive broadcast shows, with implications for the democratic potential of these shows as spaces of citizen engagement and public discussion. It makes three contributions, the first two to audience and media studies and the last to pol
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itical communication. First, it provides evidence to fill a gap in empirical knowledge on what drives audience participation in interactive broadcasts in Africa. “Mediated sociability”—the ways in which audience members are socialized into thinking about interactive broadcast shows as a space in which people like them have a voice— emerges as a strong determinant of audience participation. Second, it then uses this evidence from a non-Western perspective to reinforce the importance of conceptualizing the interactive broadcast show as a convened social space that can enable active citizenship. Third, by advancing scholarship on audiences and publics, the article deepens our understanding on the democratic significance of interactive broadcast in Africa and beyond." (Abstract)
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