Governance & Organisation
Dubawa in Brief
DUBAWA is Nigeria’s first indigenous independent verification and fact-checking project, initiated by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) and supported by the most influential newsrooms and civic organisations in West Africa to help amplify the culture of truth in public discourse, public policy, and journalistic practice. It has now become a transnational Fact-Checking Project spanning across the West African Sub-region with offices in Ghana and Sierra Leone.
Because it is a “distinct project”, Dubawa obtains its legal and operational powers through its parent non-profit organization, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID). CJID is headquartered in Nigeria with registration number CAC/IT/NO 69519 by the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria (CAC). CJID was founded in 2014, to promote a truly independent media landscape that advances fundamental human rights, good governance and accountability in West Africa through investigative journalism, open data and civic technology.
Dubawa operates under a non-partisan policy, accepting only to uphold the values of accuracy, balance, transparency, verification, independence, and accountability in all its operations. We are guided, in all our practice, by the five principles of the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN).
Dubawa’s mission statement is to institute a culture of truth and verification in public discourse and journalism through strategic partnerships between the media, government, civil society organizations, technology giants and the public.
The basic assumptions (which are integral to our theory of change) are that factual information enables people to make more informed choices in a democratic society and on other public interest issues. Therefore, providing verified information will likely promote good governance and accountability.
We also believe that truth and trust have been eroded in journalism owing largely to thinner investments and the competing forces of social media. If an independent media project provides factual information and builds the capacity of newsrooms through collaboration, the eroding trust in the media will be restored.
Dubawa expanded its programme to Ghana and Sierra Leone in 2020 in a bid to promote accountability and democracy across the West African region.
Project Objectives
- Through media literacy articles, fact-checks, analysis, fact sheets and online/offline engagement, encourage a more engaged and information-literate citizenry who are capable of making informed decisions about issues that affect their development
- Equip newsrooms with the skills and environment to make fact-checking and truth a norm in media houses through training and fellowships, so that eroding trust in media will be restored
- Conduct research and build technological tools that adequately identify, analyse and counter information disorder, while building a body of knowledge around misinformation in Nigeria and Ghana
- Partner newsrooms and data-driven agencies to obtain and digitalise factual information on politics, economy/statistics and health so that Dubawa becomes the #1 hub for verified information in West Africa
Governance
Our governance and organizational structure is transparent and made up of some of the most ethically sound and respected professionals in the community. Their profiles are openly documented in this page.
DUBAWA is supervised by an advisory board which includes professionals from diverse backgrounds who are the finest in their field. They help to hold the management of the platform focused on its core mission of amplifying the culture of truth in public discourse, public policy, and journalistic practice in the country. Their responsibilities include scrutinizing the performance of management in meeting DUBAWA’s agreed goals and objectives and monitoring performance.
The board is supported by a panel of editorial experts (also known as the editorial board) who are drawn from the media and have proven strong ethical backgrounds. They review the operations of the platform, promote and extend its footprints in the media. They also ensure that its day-to-day professional outputs conform to the principles of the IFCN.
DUBAWA’s day to day operations is undertaken by CJID.
Organization
DUBAWA operates with a clear workflow that properly defines the roles, responsibilities and deadlines that each team member must adhere to. The DUBAWA fact-checking team is set up solely for fact-checking and its related activities and is composed of a handful of experts who develop fact-checked stories in a structured way, reflecting the basic tenets of fact-checking. Our team members are selected based on their ability to conduct comprehensive research on a wide range of topics, use data to provide information, their knowledge of key fact-checking principles, and their ability to apply these principles appropriately to all produced stories.
The head of this team is the editor who approves all stories before publication and commissions any accompanying graphics and visualizations to the story. The editor also doubles as the programme officer and is responsible for directing the overall project and ensuring that fact-checked stories are produced in a timely, cost-efficient and excellent manner.
The assistant editor is responsible for providing the first-level editorial support required for the platform. On a regular basis, the editor reviews and edits all draft fact-checks/articles, checking for quality of evidence, grammatical and evidential errors.
The researchers consist of internal and external men and women who provide quality content for the Dubawa website, following the laid down rules to facilitate the editing process. They go the extra mile by creating awareness for the Dubawa and encouraging the citizenry to participate in fact-check to alter the prevalence and focus of fake news in the country.
To see the full profile of our team, see this page.