By Staff Reporter
Harare — Magamba Network has launched UKWELI, a new African-led climate information integrity toolkit designed to help local media, Community-Based Organisations (CBOs), civil society groups, and community leaders counter the growing spread of climate misinformation and disinformation across the continent.
Launched on 10 December through a virtual event featuring climate activists, researchers and journalists, UKWELI has been described as Africa’s first comprehensive guide dedicated to confronting the “deliberate lies about climate change” that are worsening the crisis.
In its latest report, the International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) warned that climate falsehoods are accelerating global risk, “turning it into a catastrophe.”
A toolkit is a practical, ready-to-use package of methods, guidance notes, templates, and strategies designed to help users apply solutions to real-world problems.
In this case, UKWELI offers a structured set of tools that communities can adopt to detect manipulation, build credible narratives, and strengthen resilience against coordinated climate misinformation campaigns.
Magamba says UKWELI comes at a crucial moment, especially after COP30, where governments for the first time treated information integrity as central to climate justice.
The event produced the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change, signed by more than fifteen countries committing to protect the public sphere from climate lies.
UKWELI is rooted in African experiences and Indigenous knowledge, making it adaptable for grassroots application.
According to Magamba, it is not “a static report,” but a “dynamic, practical, user-ready toolbox” for journalists, policymakers, youth creators, grassroots leaders and frontline communicators.
The toolkit is designed to help users detect climate disinformation, debunk viral falsehoods, build truth-driven narratives, and protect communities from harmful climate lies.
Magamba Network creative director Samm Farai Monro said the toolkit equips Africans to challenge coordinated campaigns designed to delay climate action.
“Our African information ecosystem is being polluted by the same people polluting our air, our lands and our rivers.
“UKWELI gives us the tools to fight back against these disinformation strategies… and to inspire climate action on the African continent,” he said.
Information integrity expert Harriet Kingaby added that the toolkit is essential for informed public debate.
“Vested interests are polluting our information environments to confuse people and obscure the truth. This toolkit is a powerful way for people to skill up and fight back,” she said.
Lead researcher and award-winning climate journalist Mactilda Mbenywe emphasised that climate disinformation in Africa is organised, intentional and targeted.
“It is a weapon… designed to delay climate action in the communities that need it most.
This toolkit turns those weak points into strengths by giving journalists, educators and communities practical tools to defend truth and protect their futures,” she said.
Magamba stresses that UKWELI will be vital in shaping grassroots narratives, strengthening climate literacy, and supporting community-based research on the adverse impacts of climate change.
By equipping local actors with the means to identify and challenge falsehoods, the toolkit aims to ensure that African voices, lived experiences and Indigenous knowledge remain at the centre of climate discourse.
Developed under Magamba’s Climate x Indigenous Voices programme and supported by the Digital Democracy Initiative and European and Norwegian partners, the toolkit forms part of a broader effort to amplify Indigenous activists and counter climate disinformation across the continent.
Magamba Network is encouraging journalists, CBOs, civic organisations, community leaders, and youth movements to adopt the toolkit in their work to build a “climate-informed, truth-powered African future.”