NAMA4PD in Senegal: A Week of Action Against Disinformation
Dakar | May 6–10, 2024 – Five intensive days, one shared mission: strengthening resilience against disinformation and destabilizing narratives in West Africa.
As part of NAMA4PD (Narrative Management for Peace Through Dialogue), teams from Freie Universität Berlin, AHDIS, Project Lighthouse Africa, and Université Gaston Berger worked alongside leading West African experts from academia, journalism, civil society, and faith communities to co-develop practical solutions.
Co-Creating Tools for Peaceful Development
The workshops focused on one central question:
How can communities be empowered to recognize and counter harmful narratives before they escalate into social division or instability?
Across five thematic days, participants:
- Translated scientific research into locally applicable strategies
- Developed citizen-based training approaches
- Designed practical tools for media literacy and narrative resilience
- Identified key stakeholder groups and future trainers
This was not a theoretical exchange, it was hands-on development of implementable solutions tailored to Senegal’s social and media landscape.
We sincerely thank our partners and contributors, including Polaris Asso, Africa Check, DW Akademie, Fasocheck, Global Investigative Journalism Network, ARTICLE 19, GIZ Senegal/Gambia/Cabo Verde, Plateforme des Femmes pour la Paix en Casamance, East Bavarian Technical University of Regensburg, and the Bavarian State Chancellery for their engagement and support.
Focus on Prebunking – Building Immunity Before Harm Spreads
A core emphasis was placed on “prebunking” and inoculation strategies, proactive approaches that equip individuals to recognize manipulation techniques before false information takes hold.
Unlike purely reactive fact-checking, prebunking strengthens long-term societal resilience by:
- Teaching how manipulation works
- Encouraging critical media reflection
- Enabling responsible information sharing
- Empowering local actors to become knowledge multipliers
The sessions built upon previous workshops in Ziguinchor (Senegal) and Berlin (Germany), ensuring strong scientific grounding combined with local contextual relevance.
What Comes Next: Train-the-Trainer & Scaling
The outcomes from Dakar now feed directly into the development of a comprehensive Train-the-Trainer program, designed to equip future knowledge carriers with the skills to independently implement NAMA4PD trainings across communities.
This marks a key step toward scalable, locally anchored resilience structures across Senegal.
