The Africa Infodemic Response Alliance (AIRA) is a collaborative initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO) that was launched in 2020. It brings together inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations working in public health, as well as fact-checking and media organizations, to tackle the problem of infodemics. As WHO states, an infodemic occurs when there is an overwhelming amount of information, including false or misleading details, during a public health emergency. AIRA works to combat the spread of false information and provides accurate and timely health data to its members, partners, and communities across Africa. AIRA's key activities include listening to narratives online and offline, providing technical support to African countries to strengthen their information ecosystems, producing health literacy, debunks and prebunks social media content, and continuously monitoring the impact of its work in combating health information. AIRA utilizes AI for monitoring and analyzing vast amounts of data from online sources (news articles, social media including WhatsApp) and from community-based sources to identify misinformation trends and public concerns.
