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Category: Data Governance

  • UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance to be held in Geneva this week

    UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance to be held in Geneva this week

    On 6 and 7 July 2026, Geneva will host a meeting without precedent in the short history of global technology governance. The Global Dialogue on AI Governance is the United Nations platform where all governments and stakeholders will convene to discuss international cooperation, share best practices and lessons learned, and facilitate open, transparent and inclusive discussions on artificial intelligence governance. For the first time, every member state, regardless of its level of technological development, will sit at the same table to shape how artificial intelligence is governed globally. For Africa, this is the first formal multilateral occasion where rules of the AI era will be negotiated jointly, rather than dictated by the handful of states and firms that currently control the technology’s frontier.

    Africa has witnessed successive waves of technological change, from telecommunications standards to digital trade rules, entered the conversation after the architecture was already fixed elsewhere, and negotiating from other blueprints. The Global Dialogue offers a rare opportunity to change the sequence for AI, as it will allow Africa to participate in agenda-setting. Whether the continent seizes that chance depends on how well it understands the policy space it is walking into, and what it intends to ask for once inside it.

    The programme, and why each component matters for Africa

    The Dialogue’s draft structure is built around thematic discussions on AI opportunities and implications across societal, cultural and economic dimensions, on bridging AI divides through capacity-building, access and digital foundations, on safe, secure and trustworthy AI, and on respecting, protecting and promoting human rights through transparent and accountable approaches. Each of these clusters carries direct and unequal weight for the African continent, and each demands a prepared African position rather than a reactive one.

    The Bridging AI Divides cluster is, according to Dr Sally Dzingwa, CAISD’s Advisor on Data Governance, Data Management and Ethical AI, “arguably the cluster of greatest consequence for Africa. The AI divide is not an abstract concept, it is a reflected one”, argues Dzingwa, “The infrastructure that underpins AI compute capacity, energy systems and trusted data, remains disproportionately concentrated outside Africa. Consequently, most African countries are still net consumers of foundational AI technologies rather than producers of the models and capabilities that will shape the future digital economy.”   she added.

    International responses to this gap already exist in embryonic form as witnessed by a G7-endorsed AI Hub for Sustainable Development now anchors itself in fourteen African partner countries, working precisely on the levers that determine who can access AI infrastructure, namely data, energy-aware compute, talent, trust and financing. That initiative rests on a demographic argument that Africa has a genuine opportunity to leapfrog traditional development pathways through AI-enabled solutions in healthcare, education, agriculture, finance and governance.

    The policy question for Geneva is whether such initiatives remain donor-led pilots or become the basis for continentally owned digital foundations. Capacity-building financed externally without African institutional ownership risks reproducing dependency in a new technological register, just as earlier waves of donor-funded infrastructure left ownership and maintenance capacity offshore. The continent’s negotiating position should insist that financing be matched by transferred ownership of data, infrastructure and governance capability, not merely access to tools built and controlled elsewhere.

    A lot to learn from global key players

    The Safe, secure and trustworthy AI cluster will be where the global conversation is most advanced, and where Africa risks being handed standards rather than helping to write them. The European Union’s AI Act, the G7 Hiroshima Process, and the OECD’s AI principles each reflect the regulatory instincts of jurisdictions with mature digital economies, dense technical regulatory capacity, and established enforcement infrastructure. Africa has neither the same enforcement capacity nor, in most cases, the same regulatory maturity, yet the continent is routinely expected to adopt frameworks built for entirely different starting conditions. South Africa’s own experience is instructive here. Its Draft National AI Policy was withdrawn from gazette in April 2026, evidence that even the continent’s most industrialised AI economy has not yet settled on a workable domestic governance model.

    The analytic point for Geneva should be stated without diplomatic softening. Safety and trustworthiness frameworks calibrated for high-compute, high-enforcement jurisdictions cannot simply be transplanted onto economies where regulatory bodies are under-resourced and AI adoption is still largely informal. What the continent needs is a tiered approach to trust and safety, proportionate to actual deployment risk and institutional capacity, rather than a single global standard borrowed wholesale.

    The Human rights, transparency and accountability cluster will be where the African narrative has the most distinctive evidence to contribute, because the human rights risks of AI in African contexts are frequently different in kind from those debated in Brussels or Washington. Misinformation amplification, biometric identification systems deployed without adequate legal safeguards, and labour displacement in informal economies are not peripheral concerns; they are central to how AI will be experienced by most Africans. The algorithmic amplification of xenophobic discourse on social platforms in South Africa, for instance, illustrates a category of harm that is more pronounced in societies with high informal migration and weak content moderation capacity than in the jurisdictions whose human rights frameworks currently dominate the debate. The policy implication is that human rights safeguards must be designed around the realities of informal economies and weak data protection enforcement, rather than retrofitted from frameworks built for formal, heavily regulated labour markets.

    The AI opportunities and societal, cultural and economic dimensions is the cluster that makes the leapfrogging argument explicit. Leapfrogging has a coherent policy logic where infrastructure is absent rather than legacy and entrenched, new technology can be adopted without the cost of dismantling old systems first, as happened when mobile money bypassed formal banking infrastructure across much of the continent. AI-driven precision agriculture follows the same logic. Rather than waiting for industrial-scale mechanised agriculture to arrive, smallholder systems can absorb AI-enabled tools, such as predictive irrigation, pest detection and market analysis, directly. The policy argument for Geneva is that leapfrogging requires deliberate public investment now, in digital public infrastructure, data governance and skills, rather than an assumption that markets alone will reproduce the same outcome that mobile money achieved organically. Where that investment has not been made, AI adoption risks widening inequality within African economies even as it narrows the gap with wealthier ones, by benefiting the formal, urban and already-connected segments of the population first.

    Relevant Key sessions during the Geneva conference

    This dialogue on AI Governance is critical for Africa because it offers a rare platform to shape international AI rules rather than merely adopting them. Key sessions include the Opening Ceremony featuring high-level remarks from Antonio Guterres (UN Secretary-General), Annalena Baerbock (President of the General Assembly), and Khaled El-Enany (UNESCO Director-General), which set the tone for inclusive global cooperation. On Day 1, Thematic Breakout Cluster 1 on AI opportunities and implications (social, economic, cultural, ethical, linguistic, and technical dimensions) directly addresses leapfrogging potential in African contexts like agriculture, healthcare, and education. These components matter because they allow African voices to push for continentally owned digital foundations, capacity-building, and context-specific solutions instead of imported frameworks that risk deepening dependency.

    The Dialogue’s thematic clusters further reinforce Africa’s priorities: bridging AI divides through infrastructure and access (Cluster 2), developing proportionate safe and trustworthy AI standards (Cluster 3), and advancing human rights protections tailored to informal economies and local risks (Cluster 4). By engaging actively in these sessions and the concluding multistakeholder plenaries, African states and stakeholders can advocate for ownership of data, skills, and governance rather than perpetual net consumption of AI tools. This preparatory engagement is essential to translate demographic advantages into genuine technological sovereignty and inclusive development.

     CAISD is committed to ensuring that Africa is not merely a consumer of artificial intelligence but an active contributor to its future. By strengthening AI governance, data stewardship, ethical innovation and institutional capacity, the Centre seeks to support sustainable AI development that reflects Africa’s priorities while advancing the vision of the UN AI Governance Dialogue for inclusive, trustworthy and equitable AI.

  • Global Micro-chips Race :

    Global Micro-chips Race :

    “Africa claims its rightful place at the Nairobi Semiconductor Investors Forum” By Dr Williams Makwinja and Taurai Chiraerae

    Nairobi, Kenya Africa took a decisive step toward reshaping its role in the global technology economy at the inaugural, “Africa Semiconductor Investors Forum”, held from April 20 to 22, 2026. Convened by AUDA‑NEPAD and the African Academy of Sciences (AAS), the gathering signaled a strategic shift: the continent intends to move from exporting raw minerals to participating meaningfully in the semiconductor value chain. Framed under the theme “From the Ground Up: Africa’s Minerals‑to‑Microchips Moment,” the Forum arrived at a time when global supply chains are being reconfigured. The COVID‑19 pandemic, the tariffs and the ongoing war in the Golfe exposed the fragility of concentrated chip manufacturing hubs, prompting governments and corporations to seek new, diversified production bases. Africa’s leaders believe the continent can fill part of that gap, if it builds the right capabilities.

    A New Institutional Architecture for a New Industrial Era. One of the Forum’s most significant outcomes was the establishment of the Africa Semiconductor Technical Advisory Group (ASTAG), a body tasked with steering the continent’s semiconductor roadmap. Although not finalized, ASTAG will be a diverse group from all the RECs with a gender balance. Already Dr. William Makwinja of CAISD is part of the developing group.  Delegates also launched the African Research and Technology Organizations Alliance (ARTOA) to coordinate applied research and technology localization under the African Union’s Agenda 2063. Momentum will continue with the next Africa Semiconductor Conference, scheduled for November/December 2026 in South Africa.

    In picture: CAISD’s Dr William Makwinja attending the Nairobi Forum

    Speakers emphasized that Africa already holds the essential ingredients for a semiconductor industry:  

    • Critical minerals used in chipmaking  
    • A rapidly expanding consumer and industrial market  
    • A young, trainable talent base.

    What is missing is a structured investment framework to connect these assets.

    AUDA‑NEPAD presented data showing that rising mobile penetration, IoT deployment, and automotive electronics are transforming Africa’s 1.5‑billion‑person population into a powerful demand‑pull market. One example is the continent’s $1‑billion‑a‑year smart‑meter market, currently dominated by imports. Panelists argued that targeted procurement policies such as local content requirements could shift this demand toward domestic manufacturers.

    The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)was repeatedly cited as a game‑changer. By harmonizing regulations and reducing tariffs across 54 countries, AfCFTA effectively creates a unified $3.4 trillion market, dramatically improving the commercial viability of local electronics manufacturing.

    Finding Africa’s Entry Points in the Semiconductor Value Chain

    Experts agreed that Africa’s most realistic starting point lies not in advanced wafer fabrication but in mineral processing and value addition. Egypt’s success in producing metallurgical‑grade silicon was highlighted as proof of feasibility. The Forum recommended negotiating offtake agreements with global semiconductor chemical companies to build joint ventures in mineral processing. This would allow African countries to move gradually up the value chain.

    Practical examples already exist. “Gearbox”, a Kenyan engineering firm, secured a partnership with Europlacer after demonstrating strong local SMT (surface mount technology) capabilities, showing that competence can reduce risk for international partners.

    Africa’s talent bottleneck is not simply a shortage of engineers but a systemic gap spanning technicians, process engineers, chip designers, and materials scientists. A critical weakness lies in foundational mathematics, especially numerical linear algebra, computational simulation, and high‑performance computing.

    To address this, the Forum endorsed several initiatives:

    • Leveraging  Washington Accord accreditation in South Africa and Kenya to enhance global mobility for engineering graduates.  
    • Expanding RISC‑V chip design training, including programs at Lund University (Sweden) and a new master’s program in Nairobi with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.  
    • Strengthening Africa‑to‑Africa academic collaboration to share laboratory infrastructure.  
    • Scaling training models like Semiconductor Technologies Limited (STL), which works directly with global chipmakers to define the exact skills required for employability.

    Financing: The Hardest Barrier

    Financial institutions, including the AfDB and AfreximBank, stressed that blended finance can only support projects that are already commercially sound. It cannot rescue weak business models. To attract investment, projects must demonstrate:

    • Clear market demand  
    • Credible cost structures  
    • Technically competent operators  

    The Forum concluded that Africa must first prove viability in mineral processing and chip design before attempting to raise capital for multi‑billion‑dollar fabrication plants. A major recommendation was the creation of a project preparation facility to transform 10–15 early‑stage concepts into bankable projects within 24 months.

    The Center of Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development CAISD argued that AI must be embedded at the core of Africa’s semiconductor strategy. AI is both a “demand driver”, powering applications in agriculture, health, and smart grids and a design tool, with generative AI lowering barriers to chip design and verification. This dual role could allow African firms to leapfrog into high‑value segments of the semiconductor industry.

    The Forum ended with a clear, ambitious target that, by 2034, Africa should have a commercially viable semiconductor sector integrated into its manufacturing value chain. With the establishment of ASTAG, new training pipelines, and early commercial agreements such as the MOU between Semiconductor Technologies Limited and ChipMango, the continent has laid the institutional groundwork for a new industrial chapter. Whether Africa can seize this moment will depend on sustained coordination, disciplined execution, and the ability to convert its mineral wealth into technological sovereignty.

  • A Development-First Critique of South Africa’s Withdrawn AI Policy

    A Development-First Critique of South Africa’s Withdrawn AI Policy

    “A Necessary Withdrawal, and an Unfinished Conversation”

    Authored by CAISD – Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development.

    On 26 April 2026, Minister Solly Malatsi announced the withdrawal of the Draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy published for public comment in Government Gazette No. 54477. The stated reason was unambiguous: the document contained fictitious sources in its reference list, the most plausible explanation being that AI-generated citations were incorporated without proper verification. The Minister was right to act decisively. A national AI policy whose own evidentiary foundation is compromised by precisely the kind of AI governance failure it was meant to address is not merely an embarrassment. It is a structural contradiction that would have undermined the document’s authority from the moment of its enactment. The Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development (CAISD) notes, with candour, that our own review of Gazette No. 54477 had flagged irregularities in portions of the reference architecture. We therefore welcome the withdrawal of the document draft policy and commend the ministry for urgent action.

    The withdrawal of this flawed draft should not silence this urgent national conversation. South Africa’s need for a credible, development-oriented AI governance framework should not be diminished by a single policy failure. If anything, the manner of that failure, a government document corrupted by unverified AI outputs in a policy designed to regulate AI, illustrates with painful precision why the governance imperatives identified in CAISD’s advisory submission remain pressing. We submit this analysis as a contribution to the redrafting process and direct it to the substantive policy architecture that the next draft must contain.

    The Developmental Imperative Cannot Wait

    The conceptual foundation of Gazette No. 54477, notwithstanding its referencing failures, contained genuine insight. Its philosophical grounding in Ubuntu, its insistence that AI must serve the community rather than merely maximise corporate efficiency, and its proposal for an AI Insurance Superfund modelled on the Road Accident Fund represented distinctive contributions to global AI governance discourse. These ideas deserve to be rescued from the wreckage of a poorly quality-assured drafting process and carried forward into the revised document with greater rigour and stronger enforcement architecture.

    The central argument of CAISD’s advisory position is structural rather than rhetorical. For South Africa, AI governance designed primarily as a risk-management exercise is a strategic error. The OECD AI Principles, updated by the OECD Ministerial Council in May 2024, are explicit on this point that governments must invest in AI for public benefit while building governance environments that ensure equitable distribution of AI’s gains and adequate protection of citizens from its harms (OECD, 2024). A development-first framework does not abandon governance risks but calibrates regulatory strictness to the nature and severity of potential harm rather than applying precautionary restrictions that impose compliance costs on local innovators without protecting the citizens most exposed to AI-driven disruption.

    The AI system that misdiagnoses a patient in a public hospital, the algorithm that denies a social grant application processed by SASSA, the automated credit-scoring model that reproduces apartheid-era spatial inequality in lending decisions are not abstract governance concerns. They are the specific harms that a development-first framework must anticipate and prevent, while simultaneously deploying AI in precisely these same domains to improve diagnostic accuracy, reduce administrative backlogs, and expand financial inclusion. The revised policy must be architecturally equipped to do both.

    CAISD identified ten discrete governance gaps in Gazette No. 54477 relative to the standards established by verified international frameworks. Each gap is referenced below against sources that have been confirmed as genuine.

    Robust Data Governance Mechanisms

    The Draft National AI Policy should place robust data governance at the centre of its implementation architecture, as trusted AI systems depend fundamentally on the quality, integrity, fairness, and lawful use of data. In this regard, the policy should expressly strengthen bias-mitigation mechanisms through sustained investment in locally relevant, representative datasets that reflect South Africa’s demographic, linguistic, and socio-economic realities. Equally, it should require explainability standards for high-risk AI applications to ensure that automated decisions affecting citizens can be understood, interrogated, and challenged where necessary. These measures must be firmly aligned with the Constitution, particularly the rights to equality, dignity, just administrative action, and privacy, while ensuring full compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). A strong data governance framework will not only protect the public interest but also enhance trust, legitimacy, and long-term adoption of AI across both the public and private sectors.

    The withdrawn draft treated all AI as a single regulatory category. Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority, in collaboration with the AI Verify Foundation, finalised the Model AI Governance Framework for Generative AI in May 2024, establishing nine governance dimensions specifically designed for large language models, deepfakes, and synthetic content (IMDA & AI Verify Foundation, 2024). The revised South African policy requires a dedicated generative AI chapter with mandatory transparency disclosures and content provenance requirements, particularly urgent given the country’s multilingual digital environment.

    Algorithmic Impact Assessments.

    The EU AI Act, formally adopted in 2024, requires fundamental rights impact assessments before high-risk AI systems are deployed (European Parliament, 2024). Canada’s Directive on Automated Decision-Making requires equivalent assessments for all federal government automated decision systems. South Africa’s revised policy must mandate pre-deployment assessments for public sector AI, beginning with SASSA’s grant administration and the South African Police Service’s use of predictive analytics.

    Right to challenge AI decisions.

    The 2024 OECD update to Principle 1.3 on Transparency and Explainability reframed the governance standard from enabling individuals to understand AI decisions to enabling them to actively challenge those decisions (OECD, 2024). This shift is constitutionally grounded in South Africa in Sections 33 and 34 of the Constitution, covering just administrative action and access to courts, respectively. A statutory right to contest AI-driven decisions, routed through the proposed AI Ombudsperson, must appear in the revised draft.

    AI sovereignty and sovereign compute.

    The draft’s aspiration for regional AI factories requires structural enforcement. Without defined domestic ownership thresholds, minimum compute capacity targets, and prohibitions against foreign hyperscalers operating under local branding, these factories risk becoming another iteration of structural dependency dressed in developmental language. The revised policy requires a sovereign AI capability roadmap with measurable targets, including a strategy for accessing advanced semiconductors amid tightening global export controls.

    Green energy co-investment.

    OECD Principle 1.1, in its 2024 formulation, explicitly addresses environmental sustainability as a core dimension of trustworthy AI, acknowledging the significant and growing energy footprint of large-scale AI systems (OECD, 2024). The EU AI Act requires energy consumption disclosure for large AI models. South Africa’s revised policy must mandate binding green energy co-investment requirements for all AI factories and data centres, making AI infrastructure development a lever for renewable energy expansion rather than an additional burden on a coal-dependent grid during the Just Energy Transition.

    Remaining gaps.

    Five further governance deficits require attention: a mandatory AI incident reporting regime modelled on POPIA’s breach notification framework; a supply chain accountability map specifying minimum duties across the AI development and deployment chain; a SANAS-accredited conformity assessment pathway for high-risk AI systems; a National AI Procurement Policy governing government AI tenders; and a formal SME support regime with differential compliance timelines to prevent regulatory architecture from entrenching the market dominance of large foreign technology firms at the expense of local innovators.

    The Human Imperative: Building an AI-Productive Nation

    Beyond institutional architecture, the most consequential long-term investment South Africa can make is in the human capacity to produce, govern, and critically interrogate AI systems. The withdrawn draft’s treatment of talent development was its most substantively developed thematic area, and it is the dimension most worth preserving and strengthening in the revised document. The country has more than twenty million people under the age of thirty-five; an unemployment rate above thirty percent among youth; and a structural mismatch between the skills the economy currently rewards and those an AI-transformed economy will require. The distance between producing passive AI consumers and active AI producers is, in this context, a development variable of first-order importance.

    The revised policy must move beyond aspirational language on talent development to specify a National AI Skills Framework with competency standards by schooling phase, funded youth AI innovation programmes with measurable targets, and a legislated social dialogue mechanism, housed within NEDLAC, for managing AI-driven labour market disruption. The OECD (2024) is clear that fair labour market transitions require structured social dialogue, reskilling programmes, and social protection for displaced workers; these are not peripheral concerns in a country with South Africa’s employment structure. They are the conditions under which an AI governance framework can credibly claim to serve the people it governs.

    The withdrawal of Gazette No. 54477 is, in the final analysis, a moment of institutional accountability that South Africa should take seriously and move on from quickly.

    CAISD is an organisation that leverages artificial intelligence for development. It works with African universities, including AUDA-NEPAD, the UN and AI experts to advocate for AI that is development oriented.  Dr AD Essome is the Co-Chair of CAISD and can be reached at essome@caisd.co.za

  • First Africa Semiconductor Investors Forum in Nairobi – Kenya:

    First Africa Semiconductor Investors Forum in Nairobi – Kenya:

    AUDA – NEPAD leads the continental charge to forging AI Sovereignty from Minerals to Microchips

    PRETORIA, 15 April 2026. The Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development (CAISD), represented by Dr William Makwinja, will be attending the Africa Semiconductor Investors Forum in Nairobi, Kenya, from 20 to 22 April 2026. The organisation is attending to place AI-driven sustainable development at the very heart of Africa’s push to convert its vast critical mineral resources into locally manufactured microchips securing technological sovereignty, creating high-value jobs, and accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals across the continent.

    CAISD will join leading policymakers, investors, technologists, and industry leaders at the Africa Semiconductor Investors Forum organised under the theme From the Ground Up: Africa’s Minerals-To-Microchips Moment, the event hosted by AUDA-NEPAD, the African Academy of Sciences, and partners including CSIR and NINA JOJER. This marks a pivotal gathering to translate the continent’s vast mineral wealth into a self-reliant semiconductor ecosystem. For CAISD, we are dedicated to harnessing high-fidelity AI for sustainable economic and environmental progress. Our participation will not be merely attendance; it will be a strategic imperative to ensure that Africa’s emerging chip industry powers responsible, context-specific AI solutions that advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Agenda 2063.

    Africa’s Minerals-to-Microchips Opportunity

    The global semiconductor market is moving ahead. Projections indicate revenues could surpass US$1.3 trillion in 2026, driven largely by artificial intelligence infrastructure, with generative AI chips alone potentially accounting for nearly half of industry revenues. Memory and non-memory segments are surging amid what analysts’ term “memflation,” as demand for data centres, edge computing, and connected devices skyrockets. Yet Africa remains almost entirely dependent on imports. The continent consumes billions of dollars’ worth of chips annually for mobile phones, IoT devices, automotive systems, and emerging digital services but designs, fabricates, and manufactures virtually none. This import reliance exposes economies to supply-chain shocks, currency volatility, and geopolitical risks, while draining foreign exchange that could fund local innovation.

    Africa’s opportunity lies in its unparalleled endowment of critical minerals. The continent holds approximately 30% of the world’s reserves of materials essential for AI hardware and semiconductor production including cobalt (largely from the Democratic Republic of Congo), lithium, graphite, tantalum, and rare earth elements. These resources currently fuel global supply chains, yet Africa captures only about 10% of the downstream revenue. Raw exports dominate, with minimal value addition through processing, wafer fabrication, or chip assembly.

    The forum’s agenda directly confronts this gap. Day One (20 April) sets the stage with keynote addresses on Africa’s place in the global semiconductor surge, a continental market trend briefing on chip demand in mobile, IoT, and automotive sectors, and Panel 1 on financing industrial transformation from mineral wealth to semiconductor markets. Subsequent sessions map the full value chain, explore demand-side anchors from telecoms and data centres, and launch initiatives like the African Research and Technology Organisations Alliance (ARTOA).

    Africa’s Transformative Leap to Jobs, Sovereignty and Sustainable AI

    This “minerals-to-microchips” vision is transformative for Africa. First, it promises economic diversification beyond commodity exports. Integrated semiconductor production could generate high-skilled jobs, foster ancillary industries (packaging, testing, design), and create multiplier effects across manufacturing. Under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), a unified market of 1.4 billion people offers the scale needed to justify local fabs turning potential anchor customers in telecom, automotive, and government procurement into drivers of domestic supply. Second, it advances technological sovereignty. Reliance on foreign chips limits Africa’s ability to tailor digital infrastructure to local realities, whether for low-power edge devices in rural agriculture or secure data centres respecting data sovereignty. Third, and crucially for sustainable development, local production aligns with green and ethical imperatives.

    By embedding circular economy principles recycling e-waste, powering fabs with renewables, and minimising environmental footprints in mineral processing Africa can avoid the pitfalls of extractive models elsewhere. Finally, it supercharges the digital economy. Semiconductors are the bedrock of AI deployment: without affordable, reliable chips, initiatives in precision agriculture, predictive mining maintenance, climate-resilient healthcare, and fintech inclusion remain constrained by latency, cost, and import barriers.

    Positioning CAISD work on Sovereign AI as the Heart of Africa’s Semiconductor Strategy

    CAISD’s mission positions it uniquely to contribute to and benefit from this moment. Established to empower continental stakeholders through advanced R&D, ethical governance, and context-specific AI models, CAISD envisions Africa as a global leader in high-fidelity artificial intelligence for sustainable development. Our core objectives include harnessing AI for SDGs across high-impact sectors: precision farming using satellite imagery and IoT for yield prediction; computer vision for mining safety and predictive maintenance; alternative-data credit scoring in fintech to serve the unbanked; and climate resilience tools. Yet as CAISD, we recognise a fundamental truth that sophisticated AI cannot thrive on imported hardware alone. Our projects at CAISD rely heavily on IoT sensors, edge devices, and compute infrastructure, all semiconductor dependent.

    Mining safety AI, for instance, demands rugged, low-power chips for real-time computer vision in harsh environments. Precision agriculture IoT requires affordable, energy-efficient processors for off-grid deployment. Data sovereignty initiatives call for local data centres powered by home-grown chips rather than foreign cloud dependency. By attending the forum, CAISD will champion the integration of AI requirements into Africa’s semiconductor roadmap. This includes advocating for chip designs optimised for African use cases which is characterised by low-energy, resilient to power fluctuations, and supportive of “Human-in-the-Loop” ethical oversight.

    Participation also aligns with CAISD’s policy advocacy pillar by contributing to discussions on local content requirements, preferential procurement, and tax incentives that accelerate local supply. For CAISD, the forum represents more than networking it is an opportunity to embed sustainable, AI-centric principles at the foundation of Africa’s semiconductor journey. Expected outcomes include strengthened alliances for pilot chip applications in CAISD focus sectors, contributions to the proposed Africa Semiconductor Advisory Group, and actionable commitments on talent and policy that accelerate responsible AI scaling. As the continent moves from mineral exporter to microchip innovator, CAISD stands ready to ensure this transition delivers not just economic growth, but equitable, ethical, and environmentally sound progress.

    Strategic Engagements

    The forum’s programme offers rich entry points for CAISD expertise. On 21 April, the Ministerial Panel “Sovereign by Design” will examine how governments shape innovation ecosystems exactly where CAISD’s work on AI ethics, risk assessment and regulatory frameworks can help shape national strategies. The launch of the African Research and Technology Organisations Alliance (ARTOA) and the Panel on Global Partnerships for Integration will open doors for tech-transfer and joint-venture alliances with multinational chipmakers. CAISD’s talent-development focus aligns closely with the 22 April Roundtable “Building Africa’s Semiconductor Talent Pipeline, from Classroom to Cleanroom.” Drawing on its academic engagements with institutions such as BIUST in Botswana, CUT of Free state and NUST Namibia, CAISD will help map critical workforce gaps in AI-chip co-design, materials science and cleanroom operations while proposing ready-to-launch university-industry compacts. Financing roundtables and investment matchmaking sessions will give CAISD the platform to spotlight blended-finance models that de-risk AI-aligned semiconductor projects.

    Dr Thulani Dlamini, CEO of the CSIR, and AUDA-NEPAD leadership already central to the keynote programme represent natural collaborators that CAISD can established ties with. Through active participation in value-chain mapping and demand-side panels, CAISD will demonstrate how organised procurement commitments from AI end-users (governments and enterprises) can anchor investor confidence and accelerate local fabrication.

    Expected Outcomes and the Road Ahead

    In Nairobi this April, CAISD’s presence will send a clear message that, Africa’s AI future must be built on African silicon. The minerals-to-microchips moment has arrived and through strategic collaboration it will power a sustainable, sovereign digital transformation for generations to come. Participation is expected to deliver concrete results of strengthened alliances for pilot AI-chip applications in precision agriculture and mining safety; direct contributions to the newly announced Africa Semiconductor Advisory Group; and firm commitments on local-content requirements and talent pipelines that will speed up responsible scaling.

    As Dr William Makwinja prepares to depart from Pretoria for the forum, CAISD’s message is unambiguous: Africa can leapfrog legacy models and create a sovereign, sustainable digital economy that truly serves its people first. The minerals are already in the ground, the talent is rising, the policy momentum is building. With CAISD’s voice and Dr William Makwinja’s leadership at the table, Africa is ready to turn its minerals-to-microchips moment into a lasting platform for inclusive, AI-powered prosperity.

  • CAISD’s Lessons from the 10th Anniversary AWS Imagine for Nonprofits Conference

    CAISD’s Lessons from the 10th Anniversary AWS Imagine for Nonprofits Conference

    By Dr Alexandre D, Essome

    On March 19, 2026, over 1,000 nonprofit executives, technologists, development practitioners, and social innovators gathered at the MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland just outside Washington, DC for the 10th anniversary of the AWS Imagine for Nonprofits Conference. The atmosphere was electric, reflecting a decade of growing recognition that cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) are no longer peripheral tools but core enablers of humanitarian and sustainable development outcomes. Global changemakers examined how emerging technologies particularly the shift toward agentic AI, robust data foundations, ethical frameworks and fundraising effectiveness can be harnessed to address systemic challenges in resource-constrained settings.

    For African organizations and their peers across the Global South, this milestone event offered more than inspiration; it provided a critical platform to reposition the continent from a passive recipient of technological solutions to an active co-creator. Keynote insights, technical sessions, and networking with organizations and musical legend such as John Legend, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the American Red Cross, Save the Children, the Jane Goodall Institute, and Fair-Trade USA, distilled actionable strategic lessons. For the artist John legend, the Amazon Web Services Imagine conference should inspire collaboration, localized innovation, and responsible AI deployment to ensure technology truly amplifies human dignity and development impact.

    The Evolution of AI: From Generative Response to Agentic Agency

    Lessons drawn from various sessions of the conference clearly gave the opportunity to NGO executives and employees present to learn the practicality of achieving success while managing a non-for-profit organization. Participants got to learn the transition of generative AI tools that primarily respond to user to agentic AI, systems capable of proactively planning, executing multi-step tasks, and adapting to dynamic environments. This shift holds profound implications for international development, where operational efficiency can determine whether life-saving interventions reach remote communities in time. In sub-Saharan Africa, where humanitarian and healthcare systems often operate with severe workforce shortages and limited infrastructure, agentic AI could function as a reliable “digital colleague.” For instance, AI agents might autonomously triage patient data, schedule follow-ups, analyze supply chain disruptions for essential medicines, or draft context-aware grant proposals tailored to local realities. For the Centre of Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development CAISD present in Washington DC for the conference, these systems must be designed with cultural sensitivity, low-bandwidth resilience, and minimal hallucination risks to avoid exacerbating existing inequalities.

     Invest in Intelligent Data Foundations as a Prerequisite for AI Impact

    Another lesson learned from the AWS Imagine in Washington DC was the effective AI deployment that begins with high-quality, accessible data. Many African nonprofits remain trapped in “legacy” paper-based or fragmented digital systems, creating a bottleneck between raw information and actionable insight. The conference showcased powerful examples, such as the Jane Goodall Institute’s use of intelligent document processing on AWS to digitize and translate 65 years of handwritten field notes from African conservation sites. This initiative unlocked historical biodiversity data for climate resilience modelling and community-led conservation strategies. Another standout case came from the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), which leveraged cloud-based predictive analytics to improve donor matching, achieving a 20% increase in successful transplants and greater equity for ethnically diverse populations. Such outcomes demonstrate how modernizing data foundations can accelerate “time to impact” in sectors like public health, agriculture, and disaster response.

    For African organizations, the strategic priority should be systematic digitization combined with Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) tools. By converting historical records, community surveys, and program evaluations into structured, searchable datasets, nonprofits can move from reactive reporting to proactive decision-making. CAISD holds the view that starting with low-cost pilots focused on high-value domains such as cholera outbreak prediction in vulnerable regions or epilepsy care awareness in rural clinics while ensuring data governance respects local consent and privacy norms.

    Building Global Coalitions: Technology Through the Lens of Ubuntu

    The conference repeatedly echoed the African philosophy of **Ubuntu** “I am because we are” through its emphasis on coalition-building. John Legend, in a compelling live event with AWS Vice President Dave Levy, reflected on his activism via Free America and HUMANLEVEL, stressing that meaningful systems change requires creativity, sustained partnerships, and strategic investment. His presence underscored the power of blending artistic influence with technological leverage to address issues like criminal justice reform and community well-being.

    African and global south nonprofits should pursue membership in the AWS Partner Network (APN), a global ecosystem spanning nearly 200 countries. Participation provides access to technical mentorship, co-innovation opportunities, and funding mechanisms that enable organizations to develop context-specific solutions rather than importing generic tools.

    Benefits include direct cloud credits, expert consultations, and collaborative projects where African partners can contribute “localized insights” on linguistic diversity, low-connectivity environments, and culturally attuned use cases.

    Localized Innovation and Ethical, Inclusive AI

    Responsible AI was another cornerstone of the AWS 2026 program. Discussions stressed human-centered design, ethical frameworks, and the avoidance of one-size-fits-all models that marginalize non-Western contexts. For Africa and many other countries in the global south, this translates to AI systems that function reliably in low-bandwidth settings, support multiple regional dialects, and incorporate diverse training data to reduce bias.

    The conference highlighted tools like Amazon Bedrock for building custom large language models. While specific African-adapted models such as hypothetical “VIBRIO” variants were referenced by CAISD’s delegation as aspirational examples for health applications (e.g., cholera detection or epilepsy support), the broader lesson is clear: nonprofits must demand and contribute to inclusive datasets and models. To that end, Bernice Martin Lee, CEO of the Epilepsy Foundation, shared insights (drawn from her prominent role in prior Imagine events and ongoing AWS collaborations) on using generative AI to analyze organizational data, create empathetic beneficiary tools, and identify new growth pathways. Her organization’s AI assistant, developed with AWS and Anthropic’s Claude, exemplifies how technology can deliver reliable, compassionate support while strengthening internal capabilities.

    African and global south organizations are encouraged to develop robust, mission-aligned proposals that clearly articulate how cloud and AI technologies will amplify local impact. Applications should emphasize scalability, sustainability, ethical considerations, and measurable outcomes.

  • Africa’s Science Technology and Innovation (STI) week in Addis Ababa:

    Africa’s Science Technology and Innovation (STI) week in Addis Ababa:

    “AUDA-NEPAD and global organizations want to change the narrative and drive the continental transformation”

    By  Dr Alexandre D, Essome

    The African Union (AU) and the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD), in collaboration with the African Union Commission (AUC), demonstrated strong leadership in advancing science, technology, and innovation (STI) as a central driver of continental transformation. The Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) Week, held February 10–12, 2026, in Addis Ababa alongside the 39th AU Summit, served as a high-level platform that brought together policymakers, researchers, innovators, development partners, and youth to accelerate the operationalization of the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2034).

    The event delivered tangible milestones, including the official launch of the STISA-2034 Implementation Plan, the unveiling of AUDA-NEPAD’s EdTech Vision & Plan 2030, and commitments to mobilize resources for scalable, inclusive innovation. In a world of geopolitical tensions, AUDA-NEPAD seamlessly teamed up with academia, governments, international bodies, and private investors from the Global South, Europe, and America creating a multi-stakeholder ecosystem that functions as a unified front. Scholars, policymakers, and investors converged to align on STISA priorities, including science communication to combat misinformation. These partnerships amplify African agency, with participants from Asia sharing best practices that mirror Africa’s challenges and turning potential rivals into collaborators.

    The STISA-2034 Implementation Plan

    The STISA-2034 Implementation Plan serves as Africa’s roadmap for the next decade, shifting decisively from vision to action. It operationalizes five sectoral priorities agriculture, health, ICT and digital skills, energy, and environment alongside six cross-cutting enablers such as infrastructure, human capital, and partnerships. This framework rejects reliance on raw material exports and imported solutions, instead prioritizing indigenous industrialization, knowledge-to-wealth creation on African soil, and shared prosperity. A key highlight was AUDA-NEPAD’s ambitious target to mobilize up to $6 billion (with the full estimated cost of STISA-2034 at $6.8 billion) over the next 12 months.

    This funding push addresses urgent challenges like food insecurity, climate vulnerability, and technological competition by scaling solutions in areas such as Health Tech, EdTech, Space Tech, microchips, and infrastructure. AUDA-NEPAD’s leadership and CEO Nardos Bekele-Thomas emphasized in her address at the high-level diner gala that, “moving beyond pilot projects to concrete deeds, underscoring that Africa’s brain drain stems from underinvestment and can be reversed through targeted resources and political commitment” .

    Complementing this momentum, a landmark $42 million (CAD 57 million) commitment was announced for Phase 3 of the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI), running from 2026 to 2030. AUDA-NEPAD will coordinate with national science councils to leverage domestic STI financing and public-private partnerships, promoting African ownership and sustainability. As South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Prof. Blade Nzimande, highlighted, increased domestic investment is crucial to reduce dependency and align resources with continental goals.

    Partnerships That Break Silos: The Hidden Power of Global Alliances

    This buy-in is evident: policymakers are on board, investors have expressed keen interest, and academia and private sectors are mobilized, as demonstrated by initial pledges such as the $42 million from the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI).

    This collaboration challenges the narrative of Africa as a passive recipient, showing how cross-continental ties can mobilize resources, heighten the visibility of innovation’s urgency, and commit leaders to real change. The $42 million boost, announced during the STI Week, comes from a mix of international funders including Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Norway’s government, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Wellcome Trust, Germany’s DFG, and South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF). This funding directly backs STISA-2034 priorities, specifically the SGCI’s third phase, explicitly supporting STISA-2034’s focus on sectors like agriculture, health, ICT, energy, and environment. Participants called for more African domestic investment to avoid dependency as highlighted by South Africa’s science minister Blade Nzimande. This represents tangible progress in resource mobilization, underscoring that international commitments are kickstarting the journey toward the full $6.8 billion needed.

    The CJED side event in a nutshell

    The Calestous Juma Executive Dialogue (CJED), co-organized by AUDA-NEPAD and Michigan State University, took place on February 12–13, 2026, at the Skylight Hotel in Addis Ababa. On Day 1 (moderated by Dr. Callista Rakhmatov), the program opened with welcoming remarks from senior AUDA-NEPAD and MSU representatives, followed by an overview and a keynote that l, Dr. Alexandre Essome, Co-Chair of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development (CAISD), addressed titled “The Future of Science Communication in Africa and the Global South”. The presentation framed science communication as essential infrastructure for building trust, shaping policy, and scaling innovation across the continent and beyond. In emphasis was the urgent need to transition from passive consumption of knowledge to active ownership, aligning communication strategies with STISA-2034 priorities.

    The talk highlighted mobile-first approaches, integration of indigenous knowledge into African-centric data systems, and the value chain of knowledge from mineral beneficiation to public trust in “Made in Africa” technologies. The other important call of CAISD was for institutional reforms to make science communication a core academic metric and stressed gender equity as a prerequisite for inclusive progress. My address concluded with a powerful call to action: “The world is listening. It is time to speak,” setting the tone for the dialogue’s focus on combating misinformation and strengthening capacity in health, agriculture, and environment sectors.

    Other morning sessions featured panels on science communication practices in Africa and Asia, while the afternoon included presentations of regional success stories (Africa, Asia, United States), open discussions, and interactive breakout groups focused on building capacity in health, agriculture, and climate/environment sectors. The day closed with theme-lead reports and reflections on progress and the agenda ahead. Day 2 began with a recap and moved into panels addressing misinformation in African and Asian contexts and exploring science communication tools and resources, with active youth involvement. Discussions followed, leading into lunch and breakout sessions on program and tool development. The afternoon featured a dedicated panel and workshop on the role of higher education institutions in science communication, health breaks, collective feedback, recommendations, and a way-forward presentation. The dialogue concluded with closing remarks from MSU and AUDA-NEPAD representatives, officially ending the 12th CJED and reinforcing science communication as a vital enabler for STISA-2034 implementation.

    Other key Events at the STI week

    Youth emerged as a central force, with initiatives like the Presidential Youth in AI & Robotics Competition challenging outdated stereotypes. The EdTech Vision & Plan 2030 reimagines digital learning as a systemic tool for equity and resilience, integrated with STISA’s enablers to empower learners and teachers through localized, interoperable solutions. Policy dialogues, including those under the Calestous Juma Executive Dialogue (CJED), emphasized reforms in higher education institutions for science communication and curriculum integration such as online agricultural science courses. These efforts tie directly into broader calls for domestic R&D investment and governance changes to embed STI across sectors.

    In summary, the 2026 STI Week marked a decisive shift from aspiration to implementation. With initial funding secured, partnerships solidified, and a clear roadmap in place, Africa is positioned to own its innovation narrative. The urgency is clear: by seizing this moment through collective action and sustained investment, the continent can reverse the brain drain, drive inclusive growth, and secure a self-sustaining future. The choice and the time are now.

    • Dr Alexandre D, Essome is a journalist the with 25 years of experience managing communication challenges and organizations for the United Nations. He is currently the Co-Chairs CAISD, a network connecting universities, civil society, government and private entities working to address Africa’s development issues through the leverage of technology and AI across the continent.

  • West Africa’s Digital Renaissance: Navigating Continental Blueprints and Regional Realities for Sustainable Development

    Compiled and Published by CAISD

    The West African sub-region stands at a pivotal juncture in the global artificial intelligence (AI) landscape. Digital innovation, particularly AI, is transitioning from an ancillary tool to a foundational element of macroeconomic resilience, sectoral productivity, and inclusive social progress. Amid the accelerating Fourth Industrial Revolution, Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) members are progressively aligning national priorities with continental frameworks to secure meaningful participation in AI-driven global value chains. This analysis, prepared by the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development (CAISD), examines the implementation of African Union (AU) strategies, regional coordination mechanisms, and national trajectories, while highlighting persistent structural challenges and pathways to greater technological self-reliance (African Union, 2024a; Oxford Insights, 2025).

    The Continental Compass: Implementing AU Strategies

    West African governments actively engage with the Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy (endorsed July 2024) and the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2034) (launched 2025). These instruments provide harmonized guidance on ethical AI governance, risk mitigation, and sectoral applications, allowing resource-constrained states to adopt established best practices rather than developing them independently (African Union, 2024a; African Union, 2025). STISA-2034 prioritizes a shift toward a knowledge-based, innovation-driven economy, with emphasis on high-impact domains such as agriculture, health, and energy. The Continental AI Strategy advocates “Vertical AI” context-specific solutions addressing local realities, including predictive tools for agriculture and health systems. Data sovereignty remains central, reinforced by the Malabo Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection, which counters risks of external exploitation and supports sovereign data governance (African Union, 2024a).

    Regional Realities and the ECOWAS Collaborative Landscape

    The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is advancing AI policy through its long-term ECOWAS Vision 2050, which identifies digital transformation and the digital economy as foundational pillars for regional integration, peace, security, and sustainable development (ECOWAS, 2021). A pivotal step forward occurred during the Thematic Dialogue on Digital Transformation, held in Lagos from 20 to 22 January 2026, where high-level stakeholders adopted a communiqué committing the region to the development of a Regional AI Governance Framework under Vision 2050 (Biometric Update, 2026; The Point, 2026). This framework aims to establish harmonized approaches to AI adoption, data management, ethical standards, cybersecurity, and risk mitigation including algorithmic bias, labour displacement, and the spread of misinformation (“information disorder”) while supporting the creation of a Regional Digital Single Market to reduce fragmentation and enable cross-border digital trade and innovation (ECOWAS, 2026; Businessday NG, 2026).

    Building on the Supplementary Act on Personal Data Protection (2010) one of Africa’s earliest comprehensive regional data protection instruments, the proposed framework seeks to maximise AI’s potential in high-impact sectors such as agriculture, health, education, governance, and public service delivery, while effectively addressing associated risks (ECOWAS, 2010). Complementary efforts include linguistic inclusion for French and indigenous languages (e.g., Wolof, Fongbe), pooled data resources, emerging infrastructure sharing (e.g., data centers in key hubs), and exploratory regulatory sandboxes for cross-border testing in fintech, health, and agriculture. By aligning closely with the African Union’s Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy, and promoting linguistic inclusion, sovereign data management, and regulatory sandboxes, ECOWAS is positioning West Africa to transition from a technology consumer to an active participant and co-creator in the global AI ecosystem. The AU continues to provide the overarching strategic vision, while ECOWAS operationalizes localized integration through these concrete initiatives (African Union, 2024a; Biometric Update, 2026).

    West Africa ICT and AI Readiness Profile (2025–2026)

    CountryInternet Penetration (2026 Est.)AI Policy Status (2026)Govt AI Readiness Rank (2025)Technical Integration & Developmental Commentary
    Benin32.2%YES (SNIAM 2023–2027)90thDesignated the “Model Student” of AI policy; successfully deployed “JaimeMaLangue” for Fongbe NLP and automated land titles via GovTech AI.
    Burkina Faso17.0%NO (Aligning existing ICT laws)127thFocused on foundational digital infrastructure; currently identifying “Vertical AI” opportunities for agriculture.
    Cabo Verde73.5%Foundational Stage122ndHigh adoption coastal hub focusing on building data sovereignty and aligning with the AU Continental Strategy.
    Côte d’Ivoire40.7%YES (Strategy launched March 2025)95thLeading governance actor; established a regional AI Laboratory in Abidjan and mandated 40% female participation in AI research.
    Gambia, The45.9%Foundational Stage153rdAligning existing data protection laws with AU cybersecurity standards.
    Ghana69.9%YES (Ethics and educational focus)78th“Resource-Constraint Innovator” using satellite-linked AI to predict cocoa yields and detect crop diseases via COCOBOD.
    Guinea26.5%Foundational Stage183rdUtilizing regional collaboration by storing sovereign government data in neighboring Senegal’s cloud infrastructure.
    Guinea-Bissau32.5%High-Constraint State195thAI remains in academic/NGO pilot phases; prioritizing basic connectivity and power infrastructure.
    Liberia23.5%High-Constraint State189thInfrastructure deficits limit AI adoption to academic research.
    Mali35.1%Foundational Stage152ndParticipating in the “Francophone Data Ring” to store government records in regional data centers.
    Mauritania58.8%Foundational Stage138thAligning national ICT policy with AU Malabo Convention standards.
    Niger23.2%High-Constraint State184thFocusing on building basic internet and power layers.
    Nigeria44.9%YES (National AI Strategy 2024/25)70thDesignated Regional West African Compute Hub; leads the continent in NLP for Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa and hosts 120+ active startups.
    Senegal60.6%YES (Plan Sénégal Émergent)96thRegional “Compute Hub” hosting sovereign clouds for neighbors; uses a national supercomputer for predictive climate modeling in Sahelian agriculture.
    Sierra Leone20.6%Foundational Stage175thPrioritizing data sovereignty and drafting an overarching national data strategy.
    Togo37.0%Foundational Stage124th“GovTech Innovator” using AI to digitize land titles to prevent property fraud and increase investment security.

    National AI Progress: Emerging Hubs and Policy Advances

    AI maturity remains heterogeneous, with coastal and resource-endowed states advancing faster amid widespread infrastructure and talent constraints.

    • Nigeria (Talent and Startup Hub): The 2025 National AI Strategy prioritizes ethical, inclusive adoption across finance, agriculture, and public services, supported by initiatives like 3 million Technical Talent upskilling (Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, 2025).
    • Senegal (Infrastructure Focus): Advances in digital sovereignty through Diamniadio facilities enable sovereign data hosting and applications in climate-resilient agriculture.
    • Benin (Policy Pioneer): SNIAM 2023–2027 outlines comprehensive actions for ethical AI in key sectors (Ministry of Digital and Digitalization, Benin, 2023).
    • Côte d’Ivoire (Governance Emphasis): SNIA 2030 emphasizes investment, inclusion, and governance, including ethical labelling and rural connectivity (Ministry of Digital Transition and Digitalisation, Côte d’Ivoire, 2025).
    • Ghana (Sectoral Innovation): Focuses on resource-constrained applications, particularly agriculture, despite persistent challenges like cocoa swollen shoot disease.

    Strategic Recommendations: Bridging Gaps in Key Indicators (CAISD Perspective)

    West Africa exhibits low-to-mid readiness in global benchmarks, with strengths in policy emergence but pronounced gaps in infrastructure (compute/energy), talent retention, research output, investment, and enabling environments (Oxford Insights, 2025). CAISD recommends:

    1. Prioritize green compute by linking data centers to renewables, aligning with AU “Green Power for Compute” to build resilient infrastructure without grid strain (African Union, 2024a).
    2. Accelerate talent development through integrated curricula, national bootcamps, and retention incentives (e.g., startup grants, tech visas) to reach critical mass and counter brain drain.
    3. Deploy edge AI models on low-end devices for rural inclusion in low-connectivity contexts.
    4. Establish multi-stakeholder national AI ethics boards and regulatory sandboxes compliant with the Malabo Convention.
    5. Foster regional sovereign clouds and data-sharing mechanisms to enhance independence, reduce foreign biases, and support localized models.

    Conclusion

    West Africa possesses demographic and entrepreneurial advantages to leapfrog legacy systems toward AI-enabled sustainable development. Harmonizing Nigeria’s ecosystem dynamism, Senegal’s infrastructure progress, Benin’s policy rigor, and Côte d’Ivoire’s governance focus with AU and ECOWAS frameworks is essential. CAISD underscores that long-term success requires sustained investment in localized talent pipelines, inclusive policies, and foundational infrastructure to ensure AI delivers equitable benefits, particularly for vulnerable rural and agricultural communities (African Union, 2024a; Oxford Insights, 2025).

    References

    African Union. (2024a). Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy: Harnessing AI for Africa’s Development and Prosperity. African Union Commission. https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/44004-doc-EN-_Continental_AI_Strategy_July_2024.pdf 

    African Union. (2025). Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2034). African Union Commission. https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/45087-doc-AU_STISA_2025-2034_Strategy_ENGLISH.pdf 

    Biometric Update. (2026, January 27). ECOWAS reflects on common approach to AI adoption, governance. https://www.biometricupdate.com/202601/ecowas-reflects-on-common-approach-to-ai-adoption-governance 

    Businessday NG. (2026, January 23). ECOWAS bets on AI, fintech to unlock growth for 400m West Africans. https://businessday.ng/news/article/ecowas-bets-on-ai-fintech-to-unlock-growth-for-400m-west-africans/ 

    ECOWAS. (2010). Supplementary Act A/SA.1/01/10 on Personal Data Protection within ECOWAS. https://www.ecowas.int/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Supplementary-Act-on-Personal-Data-Protection.pdf 

    ECOWAS. (2021). ECOWAS Vision 2050: Towards a community of peoples. https://ecowap.ecowas.int/media/ecowap/file_document/2021_ECOWAS_2050_Vision_EN.pdf 

    ECOWAS. (2026). Thematic Dialogue on Digital Transformation Communiqué (January 2026). Economic Community of West African States. (Summarized in reports from Biometric Update, PRNigeria, and others; official ECOWAS sources pending full publication).

    Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy. (2025). National Artificial Intelligence Strategy. Nigeria. https://ncair.nitda.gov.ng/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/National-Artificial-Intelligence-Strategy-19092025.pdf 

    Ministry of Digital and Digitalization, Benin. (2023). Stratégie Nationale d’Intelligence Artificielle et des Mégadonnées (SNIAM) 2023–2027. https://numerique.gouv.bj/assets/documents/strategie-nationale-d’intelligence-artificielle-et-des-megadonnees-2023-2027.pdf 

    Ministry of Digital Transition and Digitalisation, Côte d’Ivoire. (2025). Stratégie Nationale de l’Intelligence Artificielle – SNIA 2030. https://www.telecom.gouv.ci/new/uploads/publications/174196670372.pdf 

    Oxford Insights. (2025). Government AI Readiness Index 2025. https://oxfordinsights.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-Government-AI-Readiness-Index-2.pdf 

    The Point. (2026, January 30). ECOWAS adopts landmark digital roadmap at Lagos summit. https://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/headlines/ecowas-adopts-landmark-digital-roadmap-at-lagos-summit 

  • The Science Communication Policy in Africa and the Global South  “AUDA – NEPAD teams up the Michigan University ‘s Calestous Juma Executive Dialogue to bridge the gap” 

    The Science Communication Policy in Africa and the Global South  “AUDA – NEPAD teams up the Michigan University ‘s Calestous Juma Executive Dialogue to bridge the gap” 

    By Taurai Chiraerae 

    The Global South faces a persistent challenge in translating scientific innovations into socio-economic benefits. Despite advances in genetics, biotechnology, and agricultural techniques by public and private institutions, a “communication deficit” hinders widespread adoption. This gap arises from information asymmetries, miscommunication, and disinformation, creating barriers to evidence-based policymaking. It is against this backdrop that the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development (CAISD) will take an active role in the 12th Calestous Juma Executive Dialogue (CJED) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 12–13, 2026. 

    Organized by the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) in collaboration with Michigan State University (MSU), the CJED serves as a platform to address these issues. CAISD’s Co-Chair, Dr. Alexandre D. Essome, a 25-year communication expert with the United Nations will deliver the opening keynote, on “The Future of Science Communication in Africa and the Global South,” positioning our organization as a leader in bridging science and policy through digital tools and intellectual frameworks. 

    The Strategic Imperative: Science Communication as Infrastructure 

    Effective science communication is not a luxury but essential infrastructure for development. The CJED targets the “information pandemic ” of misinformation that undermines technology uptake. Rather than a mere data shortage, the core issue is the absence of an enabling environment for informed decision-making. This “shadow pandemic” of myths derails initiatives in health, agriculture, and climate action before they gain traction. 

    CAISD views science communication as “precision communication,” replacing noise with clear, standardized messaging across regional blocs like SADC and ECOWAS. This builds an “infrastructure of trust,” combating cross-border disinformation and fostering public acceptance of innovations. 

    Addressing the Communication Deficit and the Knowledge Value Chain 

    Africa’s scientific landscape often resembles raw mineral extraction: we export unprocessed data and import refined analyses and policies from abroad. This “resource-to-rectifier” model cedes value to external actors, limiting local beneficiation in the global digital economy. 

    Innovations in biotechnology and crop varieties fail to reach smallholder farmers due to pervasive disinformation. The CJED aims to reverse this by integrating mobile-first strategies and AI with indigenous knowledge systems (IKS). Mobile penetration in Africa stands at 85%, far outpacing traditional academic reach (estimated at 15%). Platforms like WhatsApp and TikTok can democratize complex data, while AI models trained on IKS reduce bias and ensure culturally relevant outputs. 

    This strategic shift aligns with CAISD’s vision of leveraging Africa’s mineral resources, key to global microchips to communicate their value domestically. By meeting people where they are, we transform communication from a soft skill into a driver of sovereignty. 

    The CJED Agenda: A Laboratory for South-South Collaboration 

    The two-day dialogue at the African Union’s side event at this year summit  emphasizes cross-continental knowledge exchange, drawing lessons from Africa and Asia to build institutional capacity. 

    Day 1: Institutional Capacity and Success Stories. Following Dr. Essome’s keynote, panels explore science communication frameworks in Africa and Asia, featuring insights from the Science for Africa Foundation and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Success stories from the Alliance for Science (AFS) and Bayer Corporation highlight mitigation strategies against public resistance to technology. Breakout sessions strengthen resilience in health, agriculture, and climate/environment, offering CAISD opportunities to embed data-driven tools in policies. 

    Day 2: Combatting Misinformation and Tool Development. Sessions dissect the psychological and digital drivers of disinformation, with experts from MSU and the Society of Medical Arthropodology. A focus on “Science Communication Tools and Resources” includes perspectives from the Malawi Embassy and African youth, ensuring inclusivity for digital natives. 

    This structure positions the CJED as a collaborative roadmap, identifying common barriers and scalable solutions. 

    CAISD’s Role: Leading Technical Advocacy 

    CAISD’s participation underscores our commitment to academic advocacy, the “midstream” phase of our strategy. Dr. Essome’s keynote will advocate for integrating AI and IKS into communication curricula, empowering scientists to engage media, religious leaders, and communities. CAISD sees the CJED as a catalyst for human capacity building, turning raw scientific output into trusted, implementable policies. “Our expertise in AI-driven platforms aligns with AUDA-NEPAD and MSU’s goals, enhancing Africa’s digital transformation” Essome’s said. 

    Deliverables: A Comprehensive Science Communication Curriculum 

    A key outcome is a dynamic curriculum on agricultural science communication, evolving into an on-demand online course for scientists, educators, and regulators. This “software update” for Africa’s scientific community will be updated annually to adapt to technological and social changes. For CAISD, this curriculum bridges the skills gap, enabling local processing of resources and fostering technology adoption. It represents a step toward full ownership in the knowledge value chain. 

    Measuring Success: Short- and Long-Term Impacts 

    Success at the CJED is multifaceted: 

    Short-term: Training stakeholders with networks and resources, empowering them to communicate effectively with diverse audiences. 

    Long-term: Increased adoption of modern agricultural technologies and enactment of supportive policies, improving food security and livelihoods. 

    CAISD measures progress through alignment with frameworks like the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA-2034), establishing AI pipelines, and achieving scientific sovereignty. 

    CAISD’s engagement in the 12th CJED advances our Path to 2030, defined by three phases: alignment with regional partners, infrastructure development integrating IKS, and sovereignty in global science architecture. As Dr. Essome leads our delegation to Addis Ababa, CAISD’s message resonates: Africa possesses the minerals, talent, and knowledge. Through masterful communication, we must own the narrative to drive sustainable development. 

  • Data governance Implementation Strategy

    Data governance Implementation Strategy

  • Riding the Algorithmic Wave: South Africa’s Academic and Governmental Engagement with Artificial Intelligence

    Riding the Algorithmic Wave: South Africa’s Academic and Governmental Engagement with Artificial Intelligence

    By Alexandre Essome and Taurai Chiraerae

    Pretoria April 12, 2025: South Africa, a nation grappling with intricate developmental challenges, stands at a pivotal juncture in its technological evolution. The transformative potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly recognized across its academic institutions and within governmental spheres, albeit with varying degrees of maturity and integration. As international relations experts and scholars, this analysis will delve into the current landscape of AI adoption within South African academia and government, contextualize it within the broader regional response, identify key voices shaping the discourse, and propose practical recommendations for both prospective students and policymakers.

     Furthermore, it will illuminate how the newly established Centre for AI in Sustainable Development (CAISD), in collaboration with esteemed institutions like the Central University of Technology (CUT) of Free State, Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), and Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), aims to catalyze AI capacity building across the region.

    Academic Institutions: Seeds of AI Innovation

    South African universities are increasingly acknowledging the imperative of equipping the next generation with AI-related skills. While a comprehensive, centralized database of all AI-integrated programs remains elusive, a discernible trend indicates a growing number of institutions incorporating AI into their curricula. Universities such as the University of Cape Town (UCT), the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), the University of Pretoria (UP), and the University of Stellenbosch (SU) have been at the forefront, offering specialized postgraduate programs in areas like machine learning, data science, and robotics, often with applications in various fields including finance, healthcare, and engineering.

    Furthermore, departments within computer science, electrical engineering, and statistics across numerous universities are embedding AI-related modules into their undergraduate and postgraduate offerings. This includes courses on neural networks, computer vision, natural language processing, and intelligent systems. The establishment of research centers and initiatives focused on AI within these institutions further underscores the growing academic interest and investment in this domain. It is estimated, based on publicly available information and university prospectuses, that at least a dozen major universities in South Africa currently offer dedicated postgraduate programs or significant specializations within existing programs that heavily integrate AI concepts and methodologies. This number is likely to grow as the demand for AI expertise continues to surge.

    However, the integration of AI across all academic disciplines and the development of programs specifically tailored to sustainable development applications remain areas with significant growth potential. This is where the collaborative initiative led by CAISD, partnering with CUT of Free State, Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), and Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), presents a crucial intervention. By offering specialized postgraduate diplomas and Master’s degrees in areas like “AI for Sustainable Development,” “AI and Data Science for Agriculture & Mining,” and “AI and Digital Transformation,” CAISD aims to directly address the need for AI expertise focused on solving real-world challenges within the Southern African context. The PhD programs further aim to cultivate a new generation of researchers capable of pushing the boundaries of AI innovation for the region’s unique needs.

    Governmental Embrace of AI: Policy and Practice

    The South African government has demonstrated an increasing awareness of AI’s strategic importance. The Presidential Commission on the Fourth Industrial Revolution (PC4IR), established in 2019, played a pivotal role in articulating a national strategy for embracing emerging technologies, including AI. The commission’s recommendations spanned areas such as infrastructure development, skills development, regulatory frameworks, and ethical considerations. In terms of policy, the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT) has been instrumental in driving the national AI strategy. While a comprehensive, overarching national AI policy document is still under development, various governmental initiatives and policy statements reflect an increasing focus on AI. These include discussions around data governance, the ethical implications of AI, and the potential for AI to enhance public service delivery.

    In practical application, the government’s adoption of AI has been more nascent but is gaining momentum. Examples include the use of AI-powered tools for crime analysis by the South African Police Service (SAPS), the exploration of AI in healthcare for diagnostics and resource allocation, and the potential application of AI in optimizing energy consumption and managing natural resources. However, large-scale, integrated AI deployments across government remain limited, often hindered by infrastructural constraints, data silos, and a shortage of specialized skills within the public sector.

    Regional Responses to AI: A Comparative Glance

    Across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, governments are also beginning to explore the potential of AI. Countries like Botswana and Namibia, through institutions like BIUST and NUST (partners of CAISD), are investing in building foundational AI capacity within their academic systems. Other nations like Kenya and Rwanda have been more proactive in formulating national AI strategies and piloting AI applications in areas like mobile money, agriculture, and public services. These regional efforts highlight a growing recognition of AI’s transformative power, although the pace and focus of adoption vary significantly based on national priorities and resource availability. The collaborative approach of CAISD, bringing together expertise and resources from multiple countries, offers a promising model for accelerating regional AI capacity building and knowledge sharing.

    Key Voices Shaping the AI Discourse in South Africa

    The conversation around AI in South Africa is being shaped by a diverse group of stakeholders. Academics from leading universities, such as Professor Benjamin Rosman at Wits (robotics and AI), Professor Vukosi Marivate at UP (data science and AI for social impact), and various researchers within specialized AI centers, are crucial in driving research and thought leadership. Industry players in the fintech, telecommunications, and mining sectors are increasingly vocal about the potential and challenges of AI adoption. Furthermore, organizations like the Artificial Intelligence Institute of South Africa (AIISA) are playing a vital role in fostering collaboration, raising awareness, and advocating for responsible AI development and deployment. Public intellectuals and commentators are also contributing to the broader societal understanding and ethical considerations surrounding AI. AI technologies are advancing rapidly worldwide, necessitating

    • South Africa to adopt these innovations to stay competitive and relevant. The nation must keep pace with global advancements to avoid falling behind in technological capabilities.
    • Economic Necessity: AI offers significant potential for economic growth by enhancing productivity, creating new industries, and fostering innovation. Embracing AI can drive South Africa’s economic development, create job opportunities, and improve overall economic resilience.
    • Social Demands: There is an increasing demand for AI-driven solutions in critical sectors in the economy (healthcare, agriculture, education, and public safety, etc). AI can provide innovative solutions to social challenges, improving service delivery and enhancing quality of life.
    • Policy Momentum: Global trends in AI governance and the need to harmonize with international standards are pushing South Africa to develop its own AI policies. The country needs to align with international norms and standards to ensure ethical and effective AI deployment

    Pull of the Future

     This refers to the captivating visions of the future that are so irresistible that one cannot resist focusing on them. The National Development Plan (NDP) was aimed to envision South Africa’s future where poverty, unemployment and equality are overcome.

    • Economic Transformation: The vision is to use AI to transform South Africa’s economy, reduce unemployment, and foster innovation. This involves creating a dynamic and competitive economic environment that can adapt to global changes and leverage AI for sustainable growth.
    • Social Equity: Ensuring that AI contributes to social equity by addressing disparities and improving access to services is a key goal. AI can help bridge gaps in areas like healthcare, education, and economic opportunities, promoting inclusiveness and reducing inequalities.
    • Sustainable Development: AI can drive sustainable practices in agriculture, energy management, and urban planning. Utilizing AI for sustainability aligns with global environmental goals and helps South Africa address its environmental challenges as well as Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s).
    • Global Leadership: South Africa aims to be a leader in AI within the African continent and a significant player on the global stage. This involves not only technological advancements but also influencing global AI ethics and governance frameworks

    CAISD: A Catalyst for AI-Driven Sustainable Development

    CAISD’s strategic collaboration with CUT, BIUST, and NUST positions it as a pivotal player in advancing AI expertise and application within the region. By offering specialized postgraduate programs tailored to the unique challenges and opportunities of sustainable development in Africa, CAISD directly addresses the identified skills gap. The focus on areas like agriculture and mining, critical sectors for many Southern African economies, demonstrates a practical and needs-driven approach. The emphasis on AI ethics and policy within the PhD programs further underscores CAISD’s commitment to responsible innovation.

    Practical Recommendations

    For Prospective Students:

    • Explore Interdisciplinary Programs: Consider programs that combine strong foundational AI knowledge with domain-specific expertise (e.g., agriculture, finance, environmental science). CAISD’s offerings directly cater to this need.
    • Seek Practical Experience: Look for programs that offer opportunities for internships, research projects, and collaborations with industry or government partners.
    • Network and Engage: Attend AI-related workshops, seminars, and conferences to connect with researchers, practitioners, and potential employers.
    • Consider Regional Opportunities: Explore programs offered by institutions like CUT, BIUST, and NUST through CAISD, which are specifically tailored to the African context.
    • Focus on Ethical Considerations: Develop a strong understanding of the ethical and societal implications of AI, as this will be increasingly crucial in your future career.

    For the South African Government:

    • Finalize and implement a comprehensive national AI strategy that should clearly outline national priorities, ethical guidelines, investment in infrastructure and skills development, and regulatory frameworks.
    • Invest in AI education and research by increasing funding for AI-related programs in universities and supporting the establishment of dedicated AI research centers. Collaborate with initiatives like CAISD.
    • Promote data accessibility and interoperability by addressing data silos within government and creating frameworks for secure and ethical data sharing to facilitate AI development and deployment.
    • Foster Public-Private Partnerships, encouraging collaboration between government, academia, and industry to drive AI innovation and adoption in key sectors.
    • Develop AI literacy programs for the public sector, equipping public sector employees with the foundational knowledge and skills to understand and leverage AI effectively.
    • Engage in Regional Collaboration by working with neighbouring countries to share best practices, develop joint AI initiatives, and address cross-border challenges using AI solutions. Support initiatives like CAISD that foster regional collaboration.

    Conclusion

    South Africa is on a promising trajectory in embracing the potential of AI. While academic institutions are increasingly integrating AI into their offerings, and the government is acknowledging its strategic importance, significant opportunities remain for deeper integration and more impactful application. The establishment of CAISD, with its focus on sustainable development and its collaborative partnerships with universities across the region, represents a crucial step towards building the necessary human capital and driving AI-led innovation. By fostering a strong academic foundation, implementing enabling policies, and fostering regional collaboration, South Africa and its neighbours can harness the transformative power of AI to address their unique developmental challenges and build a more prosperous and sustainable future. The algorithmic wave is here; the key lies in riding it strategically and inclusively.