At the Global India AI Summit held on February 16-21, 2026, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) endorsed the call for ReGenAI: A New Deal for the AI Economy. Led by IT for Change, the initiative emerged out of the Towards Regenerative AI conference, which was held as a pre-summit event last year.
The endorsement followed the Roundtable on AI Governance: Redlines to Baselines discussion held on February 18, 2026. The roundtable convened more than 40 leading civil society organisations, researchers, and policy practitioners from across the Global South, alongside various institutions from the North, to rethink and reshape current debates on AI governance.
The roundtable was organised by the Global Digital Justice Forum (Data Privacy Brasil, Derechos Digitales, EngageMedia, ETC Group, IT for Change, Research ICT Africa, Tech Global Institute) Ada Lovelace Institute, Centre for Communication Governance – National Law University Delhi, Planetary AI Network – University of Edinburgh, and The Future Society.
The discussion built on the framework outlined in ReGenAI: A New Deal for the AI Economy, which calls for a shift in the AI paradigm toward meaningful and dignified work, diversified economies, pluralistic knowledge societies, and planetary flourishing.
The meeting highlighted the need for a New Deal that advances an agenda that challenges the dominance of today’s prevailing AI models and calls for systems built upon justice, dignity, inclusion, and sustainability. It argues that the current AI paradigm is defined by the invisibility of workers, the concentration of data value in the hands of a few powerful actors, the extraction of knowledge from communities without recognition or reciprocity, and ecological harm driven by economic interests.
Meanwhile, the New Deal aligns closely with the ambitions of the Africa Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and reflects CIPESA’s call for more participatory and inclusive AI governance.
By endorsing the New Deal for AI at the summit, CIPESA adds its voice to a growing movement demanding a more democratic and accountable AI future. It also serves as a reminder that Africa’s role in the global AI conversation should expand beyond supplying data, labour, or markets for technologies developed elsewhere.
Endorse the New Deal for AI here.