Funded by the Bertha Foundation, the project addresses the disinformation surrounding the claim that “Fossil Fuels will develop Africa.” It will produce 12 podcast episodes covering three African countries: Botswana, South Africa, and Mozambique. The project investigates and highlights disinformation practices by governments and private entities, contrasting them with the actual impact of “fossil fuels for development” on the lives of ordinary citizens. It aims to reveal who benefits the most from this disinformation and its subsequent results, and who is most disadvantaged.
The goal is to:
- Expose assertions that fossil fuels will develop Africa are disinformation
- Show that those in power are abusing the trust of communities
- Educate and raise awareness among communities who can thereafter push back against this disinformation.
- Highlight how “fossil fuels for development” projects contribute to the global climate crisis, increasing the vulnerabilities of affected and host communities and perpetuating injustice.
The project’s target audience is mining communities who have been victims of the disinformation regarding “Fossil Fuels will Develop Africa” and wish to address this issue. The secondary audience is the general public, who have also received the same disinformation, even though these projects are not happening in their communities but rather in their countries.
Bertha Challenge Fellow 2024: Pato Kelesitse
The Disinformation around “Fossil Fuels will develop Africa” project will be undertaken by Pato Kelesitse. Kelesitse is a climate justice advocate who sees the world around her through a gendered lens. With nearly a decade of experience, she is the founder of Sustain267 and the host of the Sustain267 Podcast, a platform for amplifying African voices in climate action. She serves as a climate justice, advocacy, and sustainability consultant for civil society and the private sector and previously served as the coordinator of the Pan-African Network, Resilient40. She has expertise in project coordination, climate advocacy, community engagement, workshop facilitation, panel moderation, and workshop facilitation. Pato Kelesitse holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Accounting and Finance. Kelesitse is an official party delegate with the Government of Botswana to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
She is the Curator of Global Shapers Community Gaborone Hub. She serves as a board member for the Climate Justice Resilience Fund, an advisor for Urgent Action Fund- Africa and is a FuturElect Fellow. During the Bertha Fellowship Pato will produce 12 episodes of the Sustain267 Podcast that are dedicated to the disinformation of “Africa needs more fossil fuels for development”. Through this 12-part series, she will look at the impact that fossil fuel mining has had on individuals living in the communities where the mines are, the impacts on national GDP and how it has translated to people’s lived experiences. Her work will be distributed among the communities with whom she will be collaborating.
Below are links to the Podcasts:
Development and Disinformation Series Intro
Episode Description
This is the introductory episode of the 12-part Development and Disinformation Series. This series explores the realities behind the promises of fossil fuel mining for human development.
Disinformation, Fossil Fuels and Development in Africa: Ep 1
Episode Description
Welcome to the first episode of our 12-part series, “Disinformation, Fossil Fuels, and Development in Africa,” on the Sustain267 Podcast. In this episode, we are in Medie, Botswana looking to shed light on agreements between Minergy Coal and Medie village. to bring Masama Coal Mine to life in their community. We are in conversation with community leaders, as they take us right to the beginning of how Masama Coal Mine mine came to exist.
Political Leadership, Power and Agendas: Ep2
Episode Description
In the second episode of the “Disinformation, Fossil Fuels, and Development in Africa,” on the Sustain267 Podcast. We are still in Medie village, this time we look at power relations, political leadership, and who sets the agenda for disinformation and what those in power are doing to protect Medie.
This series is part of the hosts’s work as a Bertha Foundation Fellow, in partnership with her host organization, the Botswana Society for Human Development.
