Who We Are – Africa Media Development Foundation

The Africa Media Development Foundation (AMDF) is a Nigeria-registered media development non-governmental organization dedicated to strengthening the frontline of African journalism. Headquartered in Kaduna, Nigeria, we operate with a continent-wide mandate. We bridge the critical gaps between press freedom, professional excellence, and sustainable democratic development.

For over a decade, AMDF has served as an essential pillar of support for journalists, media executives, and civil society actors across Africa. We transform regional media landscapes through specialized capacity building, direct safety tracking, and high-level collaborative platforms to foster transparent governance and social equity.

Our Strategic Foundation

Our Vision

An equitable Africa where thriving media ecosystems and empowered journalists drive accountability and informed societies.

Our Mission

To strengthen African media institutions and empower journalists through advanced capacity building, press freedom advocacy, and collaborative platforms that drive democratic accountability and sustainable development.

What We Do

We divide our institutional resources and field operations into four measurable intervention pathways to drive systemic change across the continent:

- Press Freedom & Journalist Security: Tracking, verifying, and documenting violations across Africa via our dedicated regional Africa Press Freedom Tracker.
- Professional Capacity Building: Up-skilling active journalists, editors, and digital creators through our Journalism Skills Advancement Programme.
- Development Journalism: Equipping media practitioners to expertly frame and report on critical sustainable development goals (SDGs), including public health, climate justice, gender equity, and transparent public budgeting.
- Countering Misinformation: Designing robust institutional and community training mechanisms to identify, mitigate, and actively debunk digital disinformation pipelines.

Our Institutional Pillars & Ongoing Work

Beyond our targeted yearly projects, AMDF maintains continuous, active infrastructure and high-profile annual gatherings that shape the African media landscape:

- Africa Press Freedom Tracker (Ongoing Desk): Providing real-time, continuous monitoring, incident verification, and documentation of press freedom violations across the continent.
- Journalism Skills Advancement Programme (Ongoing Academy): Running permanent capacity-building modules and professional mentorship tracks to up-skill journalists and digital content creators.
- Africa Conference on Development Journalism (Annual Platform): Convening our signature multi-stakeholder continental gathering to exchange actionable insights on national growth.
- AMDF Journalist of the Year Award (Annual Excellence): Recognizing, validating, and celebrating exceptional, courageous, solutions-driven investigative journalism across Africa.
- Bagauda Kaltho Memorial Lecture (Annual Forum): Hosting our high-level annual human rights assembly to advocate for the safety and protection of field journalists.
- The Media Clinic Series (Annual Roundtables): Bringing media executives and civil society leaders together to evaluate shifting digital news structures, ethical considerations, and evolving professional codes.

Our Evolutionary Journey

How we scaled from an empirical, data-driven foundation into a pan-African media development anchor:

- 2023–Present: Pan-African Scaling & Digital Resilience
  Upgrading tracking technology, expanding cross-border journalism networks, and launching community-level literacy tracks to actively counter rising digital misinformation.
- 2020–2022: Pandemic Response & Coalition Building
  Pivoting to hybrid training models, mobilizing newsroom networks for transparent public health reporting, and monitoring regional public budget implementations.
- 2017–2019: Policy Impact & Platform Launch
  Inaugurating the first annual Africa Conference on Development Journalism (ACDJ) gathering and successfully leveraging our media footprint to advocate for landmark policies, including free, compulsory girls’ education and gender-based violence reforms.
- 2015–2016: Local Media Empowerment & Infrastructure Deployment
  Deploying direct working-tool resources to under-funded local newsrooms and establishing our core journalist security protocols.
- 2014: Official CAC Registration & Baseline Empirical Research
  Achieving formal legal incorporation with Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and conducting foundational media audience research alongside extensive baseline studies to strategically map out our long-term continental interventions.

Our Core Values

Our daily operations, field decisions, and institutional partnerships are anchored by four fundamental values:

Editorial Independence: We fiercely defend the right of journalists to investigate and report without political, corporate, or state interference.
Institutional Integrity: We uphold the highest ethical standards of transparency, accuracy, and accountability within our own operations and the newsrooms we support.
Resilience: We remain deeply committed to supporting media practitioners working under restrictive or hazardous environments across the African continent.
Inclusivity: We promote diverse voices, gender equity, and grassroots community representation in all facets of media and reporting.

AMDF Milestone

Date	Milestone & Description
May 2014	AMDF was founded in May 2014 in Kaduna, Nigeria, by Iliya Kure, a passionate journalist committed to advancing press freedom, ethical journalism, and media’s role in Africa’s sustainable development. From the start, AMDF aimed to empower journalists to be changemakers who hold power accountable and amplify marginalized voices.
2015	Launch of the Media Clinic, one of AMDF’s annual event offering hands-on training, mentoring, and practical skills development to journalists across Nigeria and beyond. The Clinic became a safe space where emerging and veteran journalists could sharpen their craft, exchange ideas, and build networks crucial for career growth.
2016	Establishment of the African Journalists Network (AJN), a dynamic virtual community connecting journalists across Africa. AJN broke geographical barriers, enabling members to collaborate, share resources, and advocate collectively for media rights and professionalism in a rapidly evolving media landscape.
2016	Introduction of the AMDF Journalist of the Year Award — a prestigious recognition celebrating journalists whose work demonstrates courage, professionalism, and impact. This award shines a spotlight on reporters who bring critical development issues to the forefront, often under difficult circumstances, inspiring peers across the continent.
2017	The 1st annual journalism development conference was held under the name MediaAfrica, creating a dedicated forum to explore how journalism can drive development goals. The conference attracts policymakers, media experts, and civil society, fostering dialogue on challenges such as misinformation, media freedom, and capacity building.
2018	Partnership forged with Rise Up/Johns Hopkins University to support advocacy around girls’ education policies in Kaduna State. This collaboration with government, religious leaders, traditional rulers, CSOs and media led to the development of a policy document on free education for secondary school girls in Kaduna state.
2018	Introduction of the Courage in Journalism Awards, uniquely non-contested and awarded by the AMDF Board to journalists and media organizations who persist despite facing harassment, imprisonment, confiscation of equipment, office demolitions, and other forms of intimidation. These awards honor the bravery and resilience essential to safeguarding press freedom across Africa’s often hostile environments.
2019	Launched the annual Bagauda Kaltho Media Lecture Series. Currently held on September 19, the birthdate of Bagauda Kaltho—a Nigerian investigative journalist who disappeared in 1996 while pursuing a story. The lecture series honors his sacrifice by inspiring journalists to uphold integrity, pursue investigative excellence, and confront the risks inherent in the profession.
2019	Rebranding of the annual conference as the Africa Conference on Development Journalism (ACDJ), reflecting AMDF’s expanded pan-African reach and alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The ACDJ has grown into a flagship event shaping development journalism discourse and practice.
2020	Launch of the Press Freedom Tracker, a pioneering digital tool for monitoring and documenting violations against press freedom throughout Africa. By providing real-time data and analysis, the Tracker empowers journalists, media houses, and advocates to respond effectively to threats and hold perpetrators accountable.
August 2021	Initiation of community advocacy for the enforcement of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Law in 12 Kaduna State communities. Through media campaigns, public sensitization, and policy engagement, AMDF sought to reduce sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), highlighting the role of journalism in advancing social justice and human rights.
February 2022	Signing of a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Kaduna Council, aimed at bolstering journalist leadership, ethics, and capacity building. This strategic partnership strengthened AMDF’s efforts to cultivate a more professional, ethical, and resilient media workforce.
Ongoing	AMDF continues to evolve and expand its portfolio, focusing on ethical journalism, media advocacy, capacity building, press freedom protection, and development communication. Its sustained commitment ensures that African media remains a powerful tool for democracy, transparency, and social progress.