There is a conversation happening across Africa’s NGO and social enterprise sector in WhatsApp groups, at community meetings, in the margins of grant reports and content calendars about what artificial intelligence means for the way organisations communicate. Whether it is a communications officer experimenting with ChatGPT to draft a donor update, a founder trying to figure out whether AI can help stretch a shrinking content budget, or a programme team wondering if there is a faster way to turn field data into compelling impact stories, the conversation is already happening.
What is missing is the data.
Today, Hexa Media Africa is proud to announce the launch of Signals from the Sector: AI and Digital Communications Across African Civil Society 2026, Africa’s first sector-wide research report dedicated to understanding how NGOs and social entrepreneurs across the continent are engaging with artificial intelligence and digital communications tools.
Why This Research Matters
For too long, the data shaping decisions about NGO communications capacity has come from elsewhere. Reports produced in the Global North, with samples drawn from organisations in Europe and North America, are routinely cited to justify programming, funding, and capacity-building decisions for African civil society as if the realities of an NGO operating in Lagos or Lusaka are interchangeable with one operating in London or New York.
They are not.
African NGOs and social entrepreneurs operate in a distinct context. Internet infrastructure varies dramatically between and within countries. Communications budgets are among the first line items cut when funding tightens. Teams are small, often working across multiple roles simultaneously. Donor expectations for polished, professional communications are rising at the same time that resources to produce them are shrinking. And into this environment, AI tools have arrived, promising to do more with less, faster, with very little guidance on what that actually looks like for an organisation based in Accra, Nairobi, or Kigali.
Signals from the Sector exist because African civil society deserves data that reflects its own reality.
What We Are Setting Out to Understand
This research is built around six core questions that we believe are at the heart of where the sector stands in 2026:
How aware are African NGOs and social entrepreneurs of AI tools for communications, and how many are actually using them? Which digital channels and tools are organisations relying on, and are they working? What are the real challenges communications teams are facing on the ground? What is preventing greater AI adoption is its cost, knowledge, infrastructure, or something else entirely? How are organisations communicating their impact to donors and stakeholders? And what does the sector actually need to build communications capacity in the next 12 months?
The answers to these questions will not just tell us where the sector is today. They will help funders understand where to direct capacity-building investment. They will help technology providers understand what accessibility barriers exist. They will help NGO leaders benchmark their own practice against peers across the continent. And they will give communicators working in African civil society something they have never had before: a mirror that reflects their own experience.
How We Are Conducting the Research
Signals from the Sector is a structured, sector-wide survey study. A 30-question online survey designed to take no more than 10 minutes has been distributed to NGOs, nonprofits, social enterprises, and civil society organisations operating across Africa. The survey covers organisational profile, digital communications practice, AI awareness and adoption, impact storytelling and donor communications, and training needs.
We are targeting a minimum of 150 completed responses from organisations across at least 10 African countries, with a target of 200 responses to allow for meaningful analysis by country, organisation size, and budget level. The survey is hosted on Google Forms; all responses are anonymous, and participation is entirely voluntary.
The survey opened in June 2026 and will close on 31 August 2026.
This research has been designed and is being led by Hexa Media Africa, drawing on its community of over 500 organisations across 25 African countries. It represents the most ambitious research initiative the organisation has undertaken to date. It reflects its commitment to positioning African civil society not just as a consumer of global knowledge but as a producer of it.
Who We Need to Hear From
This report will only be as useful as it is representative. We need responses from organisations of every size, from solo founders to established institutions. From every sector, health, education, environment, women’s rights, economic development, and beyond. From every corner of the continent, East Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa, Central Africa, and North Africa.
If you work in or alongside African civil society, your organisation’s experience belongs in this data.
We are particularly keen to hear from:
Organisations operating with annual budgets under $50,000, where communications constraints are most acute. Social enterprises navigate the dual challenge of communicating to both donors and customers simultaneously. Female-founded organisations whose communications realities are often underrepresented in sector research. Organisations in countries that are rarely included in African NGO research are not just the usual suspects.
The survey takes 8 minutes. It is anonymous. And every organisation that completes it and provides its email address will receive a free advance copy of the published report before it is presented publicly at SIMS Africa in November 2026.
What Happens to the Findings
Data collection closes on 31 August 2026. From September, the Hexa Media Africa research team will clean, analyse, and write up the findings, cross-tabulating results by country, organisation type, budget, and staff size to produce findings that are specific, useful, and honest.
The full report Signals from the Sector: AI and Digital Communications Across African Civil Society 2026 will be launched live at the Social Impact Marketing Summit (SIMS) Africa in November 2026, where key findings will be presented to an audience of NGO leaders, social entrepreneurs, funders, and communications professionals from across the continent.
The report will be published publicly and made freely available for download on the Hexa Media Africa website. An executive summary will be produced for wider distribution to media, funders, and partner organisations. Data visualisations will be made available for embedding and sharing.
These are not findings that will sit in a PDF and gather digital dust. The intention is for Signals from the Sector to become a living reference for the sector cited in funding applications, referenced in capacity-building programmes, and updated annually so that the picture it paints grows sharper over time.
A Note from Hexa Media Africa
We have spent years working alongside NGOs and social entrepreneurs across Africa, watching organisations try to communicate their impact with tools that were not built for their context, on platforms that were not designed with their audiences in mind, at a pace that no small team can sustain without burning out.
We started this agency because we believed African civil society deserved better communications support. We are launching this research because we believe it also deserves better data.
Signals from the Sector is our contribution to that. We hope you will be part of it.
Take the survey here: https://forms.gle/vXG41da5ekBgAQy48
The survey is open until 31 August 2026. The report will be presented at SIMS Africa in November 2026. For media enquiries, partnership opportunities, or questions about the research, please contact us at programs@hexamedia.africa.
About Hexa Media Africa
Hexa Media Africa is an AI-powered communications agency serving NGOs, social enterprises, and female founders across Africa. With a community of over 500 organisations across 25 African countries, Hexa Media Africa delivers communications strategy, content, and capacity building that help purpose-driven organisations be seen, trusted, and heard by the right people. Hexa Media Africa is the organiser of the Social Impact Marketing Summit (SIMS) Africa and the publisher of the Signals from the Sector research series.
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