GISA INC

Media Development: Objective: To guarantee access for Sudanese to important information and journalism in order to hold the powerful to account. The media development program at Gisa is dedicated to empowering individuals and communities in Sudan and East Africa through the transformative power of media. Our program aims to foster independent journalism, promote freedom of expression, and enhance media literacy in the region. Through a variety of partnerships, Gisa has provided training, resources, and support to local journalists, citizen reporters, and civil society organizations. In addition to capacity building efforts, Gisa is home to Ayin Network, which is Sudan's premiere visual and investigative journalism outlet. Starting in 2013 Ayin has covered Sudan's trials and tribulations, with a focus on being the leading primary source of the conditions that have faced the Sudanese peoples. Recognizing the importance of community engagement in shaping narratives and promoting social change, our program encourages citizen participation by covering community initiatives and responses, as well as grassroots social and cultural initiatives. We strive to amplify marginalized voices and ensure diverse perspectives are represented in the media landscape.In 2022, Ayin started to work more collaboratively with Gisas Sudanese Archive project and Sudan Protest Monitor on reports and investigations, cross-publishing and cross team trainings on reporting and content development. For example, Ayin published a collaborative report with the Sudan Protest Monitor. The report takes an in-depth look at the protest movement outside the capital area, focusing on protests that took place since the coup in three strategic towns - Damazin, Gedaref, and El Geneina located in the south, east, and west sides of the country, respectively. The report uses the data collected by Sudan Protest Monitor and analyzes this content to reveal trends in the levels and nature of the pro-democracy protests taking place in these three areas, including factors that have affected participation levels. The report includes maps, images and graphs to outline these findings. Training on digital literacy: Led by our external partner Rift Digital Lab, and closely supported by our Ayin team, a digital literacy module was developed and added to the digital rights and security curriculum developed by the same teams in 2021. We held a ToT training on the full curriculum for 11 (8 male, 3 female) tech coordinators from 10 Civic Labs across ten states or cities in Sudan: Kassala (1), Port Sudan (1), Al Gadarif (1), Al Damazin (1), Al Daen (1), Al Fasher (1), Al Dilinj (1), Khartoum (2), Bahri (1) and Omdurman (1). 8 of the ToTs went on to train a total of 93 people from Civic Lab communities around Sudan - Bahri (had 11 participants 1 female), Al Damazin (13 participants), Kassala (had 16 participants 7 were females), Al-Rusairis (had 15 participants 9 were females), Alfashir (12 participants 8 were females), Port Sudan (6 participant all males) and Al Daen (20 participants in the two workshops 8 were females). Sudan Protest Monitor was launched, the aim of which was to map all large-scale protests in Sudan and violence against civilians using open-source data and a field network. This data will be used by civil society in Sudan for media and advocacy work, as well as international media and actors to better understand the context and the movement.

Collaborative Futures: Objective: To incubate new ideas, and build tools and technology to support Gisa Group and our partners around the world. In 2022, the SHOUT APP was completed and tested in different countries between September and October. SHOUT is a simple mobile phone application that can transfer data files using voice telephony during a shutdown. The 1st version of APP is operational but privately available. We are redesigning the APP and making a completely different version of the APP. Via our Al Kashif project, we provide pro-democracy groups with access to resources so they can preempt and fight back against disinformation targeting the pro-democracy movement in Sudan. The team finalized an online course to train Civil Society Organizations to counter disinformation and uploaded it to the newly developed learning management system. The link to the LMS is here: https://alkashif.net/lms/login/index.php. The team also finalized an online collaborative space, named the Al-Kashif community (https://community.alkashif.net/login/), and is designed to facilitate collaboration and network-building activities among CSOs and other members of civil society. Initiated development of a pilot of a WhatsApp Bot that can be used to archive important documentation with the Sudanese Archive, while also receiving tip sheets, and informative material related to documentation, human rights, and dis-information.