FactSpace West Africa, on June 10, 2025, held a co-design and co-creation workshop with various stakeholders in the information integrity chain, ahead of the implementation of its Interactive Voice Response (IVR-based) mis/disinformation response system.
The workshop, which took place at the Miklin Hotel in Kumasi was targeted at participants in the Ashanti, Bono, Bono East and regions that lie in Ghana’s Middle Belt.
The FactWide project will rely on IVR technology to enable citizens to access verified information through their mobile phones using local languages and intuitive audio prompts, which require no internet connectivity.
“It is dangerous for us as journalists to presume that social media is the only place when we are fighting mis/disinformation. There is that element where we must fight it off social media. What we see online, some of it plays out offline,” said Alfa Shaban, editor at FactSpace West Africa, during his presentation.
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The IVR system seeks to bridge this gap between online and offline access to fact-checked information and media literacy content, and the ultimate goal is to empower persons in underserved communities (who make up more than 30% of Ghana’s offline population) against information disorder.
“In all of that, what the IVR is seeking to do is to give one channel where people who are offline can, on their own volition, seek to get information which is credible, seek to get information that is orderly,” Shaban stressed.
For many of the stakeholders, it was their first time learning that IVR technology could be used in the line of fact-checking work, describing the project as a necessary endeavour in the fight against information disorder.
“Those in the offline community need the IVR to get the right information, information which has not been mixed with falsehood. Disinformation is now a big problem that we all need to consider and be mindful of,” said Rachel Owusu Poku from non-profit outfit, Curious Minds.
Participants included representatives from the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the Ghana Health Service (GHS), youth groups, journalists from across the focus regions who are members of the Ghana Fact-checking Network and students in Media and Information Literacy (MIL) clubs in selected universities.
The IVR platform is currently in its pilot stage until FactSpace West Africa rolls out full implementation later this year.
Nonetheless, the workshop attendees were able to access the trial platform by calling a dedicated number to understand the work done so far and to help shape the project with inputs relevant to local communities.
About FactSpace West Africa
FactSpace West Africa is an independent, non-partisan organisation working to tackle mis/disinformation and propaganda across West Africa. Theorganisation is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) Code of Principles.
