Media

Media

African Media Leaders Will Gather in Nairobi in May

In response to pressing appeals from many media practitioners and stakeholders across Africa who believe a free, independent, professional and thriving media industry is essential to the continent’s future, AllAfrica Global Media has agreed to launch a new convening platform: the AllAfrica Media Leaders’ Summit (AMLS).

As with journalism institutions elsewhere in the world, African print and broadcast media have witnessed major changes in their industry. They need to address the challenges they face collectively.

On November 4th, 2008 – the same day the world witnessed the election of Barack Obama as the first African American president of the United States of America- AllAfrica Global Media was making its own history, three thousand miles across the Atlantic Ocean, in Dakar, Senegal. The company organized a continental media gathering of fifty of Africa’s most influential media leaders in Dakar with support from the World Bank, Ecobank, Coca-Cola and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to launch what would become known as the African Media Leaders Forum (AMLF). The Forum quickly emerged as the most important annual gathering for Media leaders and Media Stakeholders across the continent and ran annually in collaboration with AMI for 6 years, growing with each edition.

AMLF was held successfully from 2008 to 2013, bringing together media stakeholders including influential journalists, senior editors, civil society organizations, academics, business leaders as well as heads of state and leaders of Africa’s most prestigious institutions, such as the African Union, the African Development Bank and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. What began with fifty attendees grew to more than 500 participants.

After a 10-year hiatus, AllAfrica is launching a new annual initiative, the AllAfrica Media Leaders’ Summit (AMLS). This vital convening platform is re-established as part of a broader campaign to support media practitioners with the skills, enhanced contextual knowledge and structures to play appropriate and essential roles in driving regional integration and the transformation of African economies, whilst championing human development. AMLS 2024 will bring together over 250 top African media leaders, owners and operators (representing almost all African countries and territories), global media players and opinion leaders, government officials, corporate leaders, academics, civil society champions, and development partners to discuss the business of media and the critical role it must play in shaping Africa’s future. AMLS will be held from the 8th to the 10th of May this year in Nairobi, under the theme “Re-engineering African Media in Times of Critical Transformation”.

Why the need for a pan-African media leaders gathering? And why now?

The adoption of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is seen by many as a game changer, with immense potential to usher in an era of development and prosperity. In the media industry, increased digitization, the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI), widespread misinformation and disinformation campaigns, as well as the use of deep fakes, have created a new reality full of opportunities – but at the same time, threaten to exacerbate civil unrest and conflicts. In this context, a new annual convening of Africa’s media leaders can play a critical role in addressing critical issues that concern everyone.

The core objectives of the summit are:

1. To share an understanding of forces shaping Africa’s Integration and align on the role of Africa’s media in crafting the continent’s economic transformation and integration narrative.
2. To support media leaders and practitioners through an era of rapid change and constant technological disruption with the world as we knew it, pre-covid, morphing into a new reality in a context marked by AI, digitization, the scourge of disinformation and misinformation as well as economies responding to the post-pandemic recession.
3. To share and discuss new ideas to gain enhanced contextual knowledge in order to shape and support Africa’s future by strengthening the continent’s collective efforts towards African Integration and economic progress in line with the UN SDGs and Agenda 2063 ~ The Africa We Want

The Summit agenda revolves around 6 key pillars:

• African Economic Transformation
• AI, Technology and Digitization
• Regional Integration and Peacebuilding
• Misinformation and Disinformation
• Governance, Standards, and Capacity Building
• Creating Sustainable Business Models

In addition to the main Summit, AllAfrica is bringing forward great innovations to this edition taking into account the ever-changing media landscape in the face of digitization, emerging technologies and developmental progress. An annual gathering of key stakeholders to have these important conversations is more important today than ever before and AllAfrica is looking forward to heading up this continental initiative.

Media

AllAfrica To Present Excellence Awards At Upcoming Summit

The AllAfrica Media Leaders’ Summit is a conversation bringing together African media leaders (CEOs, Managing Directors & Editors-in-Chief), policy-makers, activists, academics and leaders of organizations championing Africa’s growth and development. The Summit will take place May 8-10, 2024 in Nairobi, Kenya under the theme: “Re-engineering African Media in Times of Critical Transformation”. 

As part of this year’s edition, AllAfrica will present the 2024 Media Excellence Awards. “We believe celebrating excellence in media and African development is of utmost importance to ensure the continuity of high-quality journalism and impactful contributions to the prosperity of our continent.” Said Amadou Mahtar Ba, Co-Founder & Executive Chairman of AllAfrica. He invited African leaders to elevate “Media’s critical role to advance African development across sectors through the dissemination of valuable information that serves to inform the public and hold leaders accountable.” 

AllAfrica will celebrate the winners at a gala dinner and awards ceremony on May 9, 2024, at the Glee Hotel.

The Awards will be presented in the following categories:

• The AllAfrica Titan Leadership Award in recognition of exceptional service in economic transformation and human development in Africa;
• Ten Lifetime Achievement Awards to deserving media leaders from 7 African countries in recognition of their outstanding contributions to media development;
• The AllAfrica and University of Nairobi Wangarĩ Maathai Young Journalist Award in recognition of the best use of digital tools for youth engagement;
• The African Development Bank Journalism Award in recognition of excellence in development reporting;
• The African Export-Import Bank Journalism Award in recognition of excellence in reporting on regional integration;
• The African Capacity Building Foundation Award in recognition of excellence in reporting on capacity building;
• The AllAfrica and ONE Campaign Newsroom Innovation Youth Challenge top 3 Awards for excellence in developing new and innovative ways to enable newsrooms to engage the African youth.

About AllAfrica:

AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa – aggregating, producing, and distributing news and information in English and French from over 130 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public.  AllAfrica operates the largest online platform dedicated solely to Africa-related news and information and is the only news site with truly Pan-African reach. AllAfrica is the go-to one-stop digital platform for African and African-interested ‘influentials’ across the continent and throughout the world. AllAfrica’s multi-channel platform is the only independent, comprehensive pan-African news source, with unrivalled reach and reputation.

Media

Innovations at the AllAfrica Media Leaders’ Summit

AllAfrica Global Media is launching the AllAfrica Media Leaders’ Summit from May 8-10 in Nairobi, Kenya. The Summit will feature innovations to leverage the ever-changing media landscape revolutionized by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality.  Global media leaders, development experts, academics and corporate titans will share best practices to elevate ethics and combat information manipulation to advance Africa’s economic transformation and human development.

AllAfrica brings together luminary speakers who will offer invaluable contributions to the theme Re-engineering African Media in Times of Critical Transformation. They include Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank Group, Dr. Benedict Okey Oramah, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank, Dr. Sidi Ould Tah, President  of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA), Admassu Tadesse, Group President and Managing Director of Trade and Development Bank, Claver Gatete, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the ECA, Serah Makka, Executive Director for Engagement and Mobilization for Africa at ONE Campaign, Bineta Diop, Special Envoy of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission on Women and many more.

To complement the Summit, AllAfrica launched the Newsroom Innovation Youth Challenge for participants to discover new ways to engage Africa’s youth in traditional media to advance African-led solutions to continental and global challenges. Participants are encouraged to think outside the box and push the limits of their creativity to develop innovations that capture the attention of young people. Challenge participants must be between 18-30 years old. AllAfrica is receiving submissions from young leaders across the entire continent. The top three winners will be flown to the Summit where they will receive their awards and showcase their innovations.

Young people represent more than 70% of the continent’s population – Africa’s demographic dividend.  AllAfrica is listening and has launched the Digizens’ Circle to ensure the world hears Africa’s youth. The Digizens’ Circle will be held at the University of Nairobi on May 8th, 2024. The event’s theme, ‘What is the Youths’ Place in African Media?’, is built around the youth making space in African media for themselves. The event will engage young digital natives in a public debate on the state of media on the continent, their place in it, and how to use technology and their digital presence as a force for good governance and development. To leverage various digital tools, each participant will be required to bring a smartphone. African youth across the continent are encouraged to register and attend the 2024 AllAfrica Digizens’ Circle: Young Africa Speaks, the first event of its kind. 

The 2024 AllAfrica Media Leaders’ Summit promises to be an innovative and thought-provoking event that will yield impactful solutions to improve the current African media landscape.

The 2024 edition of the AllAfrica Media Leaders’ Summit is co-chaired by:

❖ Nduka Obaigbena – Chairman and Editor-in-chief of the THISDAY-ARISE Media Group

❖ Dr. Vera Songwe – Chair of the Board of Liquidity and Sustainability Facility

❖ Ziaad Suleman – Chief Commercial Officer and an Exco Member of EOH

❖ Mamadou Biteye – Executive Secretary For the African Capacity Building Foundation

Organized by AllAfrica Global Media, the Summit is convened by:

❖ Amadou Mahtar Ba – Chairman of AllAfrica Global Media

❖ Dr. Tendai Mhizha – Senior Advisor and Summit Director of AllAfrica Global Media

❖ Linus Gitahi – Chairman of the Boards of Home Afrika, Diamond Trust Bank Group, AIB Capital Ltd, Oxygene Communications Ltd and Tropical Brands (Africa) Limited

About AllAfrica Global Media:

AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa – aggregating, producing, and distributing news and information in English and French languages from over 130 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public.  AllAfrica operates the largest online platform dedicated solely to Africa-related news and information and is the only news site with truly Pan-African reach. AllAfrica is the go-to one-stop digital platform for African and African-interested ‘influentials’ across the continent and throughout the world. AllAfrica’s multi-channel platform is the only independent, comprehensive pan-African news source, with unrivaled reach and reputation.