The Conflict, Peacebuilding, and Governance Division in the USAID Africa Bureau (AFR/SD/CPG), through Digital Frontiers, is funding a social media analytics pilot program with small grants to five local grantees to explore the potential uses of Social Media Analytics (SMA) in programing and information resilience in sub-Saharan Africa.

Social Media Analytics is a rapidly growing field within data science that leverages social media platforms to extract valuable insights, trends, and patterns. It involves collecting and processing publicly available content from social media platforms, including text, videos, and images, to generate valuable insights that support evidence-driven decision making. SMA is an important emerging tool that can help USAID, other donors, and civil society identify and develop strategies to mitigate specific instances of digital threats to democracy in their countries of focus. By leveraging social media data, SMA provides valuable insights into the spread and impact of digital threats to democracy, especially social manipulation and disinformation, which enables informed decision-making and the development of effective mitigation strategies. In this way, SMA plays a pivotal role in safeguarding the integrity of the digital ecosystem.