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Successfully Harnessing AI in Africa

December 2 - December 4 2024 I WP3458

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In partnership with The UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Google

In association with The African Leadership University and The African Observatory on Responsible AI

Executive Summary

This report covers the event “Successfully Harnessing AI in Africa” held on 2-4 December 2024 at Wiston House, Wilton Park, UK in partnership with the UK Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Google and in association with the African Leadership University and the African Observatory on Responsible AI.

Bringing together global and African leaders from the government, academia, civil society, development partners, AI practitioners and the private sector, the event focused on ways to harness artificial intelligence (AI) as a driver of sustainable development in Africa. The participants worked to identify concrete initiatives to promote AI adoption, use, and innovation in Africa, building on ongoing strategies and initiatives such as the African Union’s 2024 Continental AI Strategy; the AI for Development program led by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and FCDO that promotes AI use in Africa; Google’s AI Sprinters report; and the Google-commissioned AI Policy Blueprint for Africa delivered by Nextrade Group that stresses digital infrastructures, AI skills, investment in innovation, and enabling policy environment as key drivers of AI in Africa.

The discussions were based on a shared understanding that promoting AI development in Africa needs to be contextualized to Africa’s socio-economic circumstances, leverage African data, and respond to Africa’s development needs.

The first day centred on ways to harness AI’s transformative potential for solving the most pressing challenges to Africa’s development. Concrete examples of the uses of AI for maternal healthcare, agricultural productivity, and disaster management demonstrated how AI-driven innovations already improve and even save lives in Africa. However, catalysing further AI innovations and scaling the use of AI in Africa will require larger sets of local data, including open government data, the development of local AI expertise, and improved digital infrastructures and computing capabilities.

“With decisive action, Africa can make AI into a catalyst of inclusive and sustainable development.”

The second day turned to responsible uses of AI, including in the government. Trust-building emerged as a central theme, with calls for localized AI models and an African Charter on Ethical AI. There is also a need to develop AI systems that account for socio-economic inequalities and innovate new inclusive solutions and promote “diversity by design”. Further recommendations included establishing an African AI Safety Summit and embedding ethics experts in African AI projects. Promoting open data while protecting sensitive information was deemed essential to promoting trust in AI systems.

The stakeholders also explored how African governments could use AI to improve public service delivery. Case studies from Rwanda, the UK, and South Africa illustrated AI applications in government, from AI-powered chatbots in healthcare to AI-driven document processing systems in public administration. However, challenges such as data availability, algorithmic bias, and workforce displacement remain. African governments could follow the lead of the UK in adopting and scaling low-risk AI deployments in public service delivery, while experimenting and iterating with higher-risk, high-touch applications.

Sessions during the third day centred on scaling existing AI initiatives through partnerships. Public-private partnerships and collaboration models involving governments, technology companies, and universities are critical for promoting AI innovation and adoption at scale. These can include, for example, targeted training programs to help small businesses use AI, AI-driven scientific research initiatives, and pro-AI policy initiatives such as the promotion of data governance frameworks and privacy-enhancing technologies. Work does not have to start from scratch; rather, stakeholders can “turbocharge” existing, promising initiatives and AI capabilities.

The event concluded with a call to action: Africa must lead its AI development agenda by crafting bold strategies contextualized to local socio-economic realities and needs, promoting enabling policy environments, and forming international partnerships. Africa should drive the AI revolution its way – meeting local needs through local AI innovation and local data. This takes leadership from the very top of African countries: heads of state and senior policymakers such as finance ministers must be sensitized to AI’s transformative potential and commit to national and regional AI strategies. With decisive action, Africa can make AI into a catalyst of inclusive and sustainable development.
The proposed priority actions emerging from the event include:

  • Developing national strategies aligned with the African Union’s Continental AI Strategy and global AI governance frameworks to ensure policy coherence and promote African-led AI innovations.
  • Investing in digital infrastructures, including cloud services, data centres, and connectivity, to support the scaling of AI-driven solutions across the continent.
  • Creating national AI education and training programs in collaboration with universities, tech companies, and research institutions to build a workforce able to apply AI, and crafting a blueprint for national AI upskilling plans with Google’s leadership.
  • Establishing clear data governance frameworks that promote open government data while ensuring data privacy, protection, and equitable cross-border data flows, and developing plans for promoting the availability of African data for AI development.
  • Ensuring African AI models and innovation scale – for example by accelerating the adoption of interoperable AI standards in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
  • Developing an African framework for ethical and responsible development and deployment.
  • Promoting African governments’ use of AI for public service delivery while ensuring responsible AI use in the government.
  • Promoting Africa’s AI innovation through venture capital, public-private partnerships, and targeted research funding.
  • Creating a plan for enhancing scientific research with AI in Africa, with FCDO’s leadership.
  • Building on what exists and turbocharging initiatives that work, including through partnerships with Google’s initiatives and technologies, from the Hustle Academy training to SMEs to DeepMind use cases with African scientists.
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