MIL experts from three continents gather in Namibia
Sunlight pours through the windows of DW Akademie’s Namibia office, mixing with the laughter and lively debate of over 30 Media and Information Literacy (MIL) practitioners from Southern Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Ukraine and Asia who have come together. The energy is both playful and purposeful.
For two weeks in February 2026, Windhoek became a laboratory for experimentation, a stage for comedy and, above all, the meeting ground for MIL peer-to-peer learning. Partners from Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Bolivia, Guatemala, Ukraine, Lebanon, Jordan and Myanmar sat together for the first time and shared best practices, designed games and shaped new MIL learning approaches in an AI-shaped world. Their goal: to bring home refreshed tools and perspectives to promote media competencies through playful learning methods and concrete training materials.
Driven by a network of experts
It’s not only about coming together to transfer knowledge, but mainly about creating tangible results together and building connections. Bringing together experienced MIL practitioners from around the world, in Windhoek, enabled real-time adaptation and testing of methods, targeting unique local challenges with working groups deliberately mixed from countries as varied as Malawi, Guatemala, Myanmar and Ukraine.
"In many countries, especially where media propaganda and polarization are strong, people are defensive, overwhelmed and afraid of doing it wrong. So, gamified learning reduces resistance", says Ana Babak, MIL trainer and participant from Ukraine.
More Similarities than Differences
The event unfolded in three major phases: training on the MIL Heroes and Villains Guidebook and its new AI supplement, a Gamification Idea Lab and a stand-up comedy workshop. Early on, participants could build on multiple commonalities: many regions share connectivity gaps, limited access to technology – especially in rural areas – and the challenge of making MIL engaging and relevant was familiar to all.
Namibia’s linguistic diversity – with 14 vernacular languages and widespread use of English in educational settings – found echoes in Latin America, a region with hundreds of local languages, where not even the predominance of Spanish integrates important cultural particularities.
The result was a co-creation process tuned to local and individual needs, but with tools flexible enough to transfer across contexts. "We can use board games and simulations to let participants make decisions without consequences, explore risky reactions and of course see the long-term impact of their decisions and actions," says Babak.
A Mirror of the AI Age
One centrepiece was piloting the new Supplement (a manual available in print and online), to the MIL Heroes and Villains Guidebook – a tool that brings essential MIL concepts to life through storytelling, vivid characters and relatable scenarios. The supplement is aimed at supporting MIL educators in facilitating Media and AI Literacy workshops. "The MIL Heroes and Villains brings it home: it personalizes what you experience online," shares Asmara Kaffer, MIL Trainer from Namibia.
Unlike traditional materials focused on risks and struggles, the supplement begins with participants’ personal experiences, inviting reflection on their own media habits in AI-altered environments. It’s structured around four "zones", mapping the challenges and opportunities of the modern information landscape.
Participants are then invited to turn inwards and activate their media competencies – framed around the five MIL heroes living within each media user. Role plays, puzzles, and "top secret missions" emerged as effective, playful tools to reinforce learning. The feedback from hands-on piloting will shape the supplement ahead of its official launch this year.
"Learning how to take in feedback to improve my trainings, knowing that my name is going to be in the publication and that this work is going to influence young people, is a big thing to me,” says Mathews Kambuze, MIL trainer of the MiLLi network in Namibia.
More Than Just a Game
The Gamification Idea Lab guided participants through a human-centered design process to build MIL games from scratch. Strong game design, they learned, means focusing on a specific challenge and a targeted solution. "The best games are easy to start but hard to 'win'", said Pablo Cruz, MIL trainer from Guatemala.
"Gamification is useful for MIL training, because it helps make skills and knowledge more relevant for the target audience. It helps to create something engaging and a safe space to explore. So, you learn through a fun activity", affirms Arminas Muse, game development expert and facilitator from Lithuania.
Teams produced analogue games for groups – from roulettes to board games – suited for audiences with no or limited access to the internet, such as youth in rural areas of Southern Africa or Latin America, where one smartphone may be shared among five people. In regions like the Middle East or Eastern Europe, where online infrastructure is more widely available, participants designed digital experiences that could be played using online tools of free access.
"Gamification is not only about fun, it's about safe experimentation and games creating a psychologically safe space to practice difficult decisions", adds Yana Babak. Participants felt satisfied with the results. "I liked this training very much, because it was very practical. We ended up producing games that resonate to our community and target audience," adds Abigirl Khupe from CITE in Zimbabwe.
Stand Up and Say it: Perform, laugh and learn
In the last program phase, participants turned personal everyday struggles of viral rumours, online hate, manipulative narratives, algorithms and information overload into stand-up comedy. Laughter became the learning tool, transforming complex concepts or experiences into memorable moments. An anecdote about a WhatsApp rumour did more to drive home media literacy lessons than a stack of slides ever could.
Stand-Up comedy expert and trainer Svitlana Nemonezhyna led the group in building public speaking confidence, using honest personal experience as the foundation. "When we talk about serious or hard topics through a game or humour, it's sounds lighter and people listen more," she explains.
The closing live show delivered a lasting message: navigating information critically isn’t a specialist skill, but an essential part of everyday life for everyone today. And playful, creative formats make those skills accessible.
A Serious Upgrade: Fun and Games as a Global Pedagogy
The event proved how sharing local wisdom across borders sparks practical, scalable approaches to shared global challenges. "This was a methodological upgrade. It brought up new narratives to explain MIL and AI through gamification and stand-up comedy, which proves that fun, humor and games are not soft tools. They are serious pedagogical strategies for critical thinking," concludes Taghrid Al Taki, MIL Trainer from Lebanon.
This event was an initiative of DW Akademie’s MIL Community of Practice to foster innovation and peer-to-peer learning among global partners.
