The actors identified fall into the following categories: • Academic/training: These are initiatives that emerged from departments located within institutions of higher learning or from journalism or other media-related training institutes (e.g. Check Global, founded by Meedan in partnership with Birmingham City University). • Civil society: These are non-profit organizations that promote democracy or advocate some other social cause (e.g. the Center for Democracy and Development [CDD] in Nigeria). • Global development: This includes recognized global agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Some of their initiatives are designed specifically for Africa; others are generic programs or information platforms. • Health: This includes actors, such as the WHO or the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), that already have a health-related mandate and whose activities center on health-related misinformation. • Information/library services: This category includes, for example, the African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA), a non-profit organization established to advance the interests of the library and information sector in Africa. • Legal/human rights: These organizations include legal firms or coalitions as well as human rights organizations. They approach mis- and disinformation from a legal perspective and in terms of potential human rights violations (e.g. Amnesty International, Lawyers Hub Kenya). • Media: This includes traditional media houses/ newsrooms, news agencies, social media entities, journalism associations, and foundations. They include national, continental, and global actors (e.g. Bloggers of Zambia, African Center for Media Excellence, the BBC). • Military: These actors include military units such as Special Operations Command Africa. • National government: This category includes governments and their agencies. • Technology: This refers to technology developers or training organizations (such as Code for Africa). I N FO R M ATI O N D I SO R D ER IN THE GLOBA L SOUTH 3.3 TYPES OF MIS- OR DISINFORMATION TARGETED Politics, especially election-related, is one of the main areas of mis- or disinformation targeted by the actors surveyed in this study. Unsurprisingly, a large share of activity is also directed at Covid-19 and other health-related mis- and disinformation. A small number of initiatives focus on hate speech and stigmas faced by certain social groups (women, sexual minorities, children, and people with albinism). Overall, however, more than half (65 percent) of the identified organizations and initiatives have agendas that cover multiple types of mis- or disinformation. In a sense, this demonstrates that the phenomenon being targeted is information disorder generally, although this is done through addressing some of its specific manifestations. 3.4 GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS AND LANGUAGE The majority (43 percent) of initiatives are national in scope, followed by continental and regional initiatives (23 percent and 20 percent respectively). There are no noticeable trends in the distribution of national initiatives (they cut across subregions). Continental programs tend to indicate that their activities are geared generically towards the African continent, whilst regional programs either target a particular subregion of Africa (West, East, southern, central) or a number of specific countries. Despite the preponderance of domestically focused initiatives, most of them appear to be run or funded by global organizations based in Europe or North America. The implications of this are as yet unclear; however, the significant funding challenges faced by most initiatives is likely both a contributory factor and an outcome of this trend. The vast majority (over 73 percent) of actors work with content in a single language (primarily English and, to a lesser extent, French). TogoCheck, for instance, mainly monitors and fact checks content in French, and Africa Check fact checks content in both English and French. However, the fact that most online content related to sub-Saharan Africa is published in English or French does not mean that the actors only operate in those languages. Over 73 percent of actors work with content in a single language (primarily English and, to a lesser extent, French). Sub -Saharan Africa – 1 43