Yesterday marked a major step toward a safer, more informed digital Ethiopia. We officially launched Zega Digital (ዜጋ ዲጂታል), a scalable digital literacy initiative, at our policy breakfast and campaign launch event at Sheraton Addis.
A national conversation, brought to one room
The event brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, including international donors, government representatives, local civil society organisations, and academic experts. Together, we discussed why digital literacy and online safety have moved from the margins of media policy to the centre of Ethiopia’s national conversation about information, trust, and citizenship.
What Zega Digital is
Zega Digital is developed by OMNI Ethiopia and powered by Meta’s My Digital World curriculum. By leveraging the omnipresence of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, the initiative delivers structured, deep-learning modules alongside broad awareness campaigns — meeting people on the platforms where they already spend their time, rather than asking them to come to us.
The approach is deliberately two-layered. Deep learning modules for those who want structured, paced instruction in critical digital skills — recognising disinformation, protecting personal data, navigating online harassment, and using social platforms responsibly. And broad awareness campaigns that reach audiences who may never enrol in a course but need exposure to the same core ideas through short, accessible content distributed at scale.
Why this matters now
Ethiopia’s digital landscape is expanding rapidly. With that growth comes urgent need: misinformation spreads faster than institutional responses can keep up, online harms disproportionately affect young people and women, and the gap between digital access and digital safety continues to widen. Zega Digital is designed to close that gap — not through one-off campaigns, but through sustained, curriculum-anchored learning that scales.
Thank you
Thank you to everyone who joined us at Sheraton Addis and contributed to this important milestone — to our partners at Meta, to the donor community supporting digital safety in Ethiopia, to the government and civil society colleagues whose collaboration this work depends on, and to the academic experts whose research keeps us grounded.
This is the start, not the destination. We’ll be sharing more on Zega Digital’s modules, partner organisations, and rollout schedule in the coming weeks. If your organisation works in digital literacy, online safety, or youth media engagement, we’d be glad to talk about how Zega Digital can support what you’re building.