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03Dec

Towards Inclusive AI Policies in Africa’s Digital Transformation

Author CIPESA Posted on

By CIPESA Writer |

On November 13, 2025, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) took part in the global PILNET summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on the work of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). Over three days, the summit assembled stakeholders from across the world in Rome, Italy, to deliberate on various topics under the theme, “Amplifying Impact: Pro Bono & Public Interest Law in a Shifting World.”

CIPESA contributed to a session titled, “Pro bono for AI: Addressing legal risks and enhancing opportunities for CSOs”. The session focused on AI and its potential impacts on the work and operations of CSOs. CIPESA emphasised the need for a universally acceptable and adaptable framework to guide the increased application of AI in the fast-evolving technological era. Furthermore, CIPESA highlighted its efforts in developing a model policy on AI for CSOs in Africa, which is being undertaken with the support of the Thomson Reuters Foundation through its global pro bono network.

Edrine Wanyama, Programme Manager Legal at CIPESA, centered his discussions around ethical and rights-respecting AI adoption, and emphasised the necessity for CSOs to enhance their knowledge and measures of accountability while navigating the AI ecosystem.

Mara Puacz, the Head of Impact at Tech To The Rescue, Ana de la Cruz Cubeiro, a Legal Officer at PILnet, and Megan King, a Senior Associate at Norton Rose Fulbright, shared similar sentiments on the benefits of AI, which include expanding advocacy work and initiatives of CSOs.

They noted the increased demand for transparency and accountability in AI development and use, and the need to minimise harms that marginalised communities face from AI enabled analysis of data sets that often perpetuate bias, gaps in data, and limited or poorly digitalised language sets.

The session cited various benefits of AI for CSOs, such as enabling human rights monitoring, documenting and reporting at various fronts like the Universal Periodic Review, aiding democratic participation, and tracking and documenting trends. Others are facilitating and enhancing environmental protection, such as through monitoring pollution and providing real-time support to agri-business and the health sector by facilitating pest and disease identification and diagnosis for viable solutions.

However, funding constraints not only affect AI deployment but also capacity building to address the limited skills and expertise in AI deployment. In Africa, the inadequacy of relevant infrastructure, data sovereignty fears amongst states, and the irresponsible use of AI and related technologies present additional challenges.

Meanwhile, between October 23 and 24, 2025, CIPESA joined KTA Advocates and the Centre for Law, Policy and Innovation Initiative (CeLPII), to co-host the 8th Annual Symposium under the theme of “Digital Trade, AI and the Creative Economy as Drivers for Digital Transformation”.

The symposium explored the role of AI in misinformation and disinformation, as well as its potential to transform Uganda’s creative economy and digital trade. CIPESA emphasised the need to make AI central in all discussions of relevant sectors, including governments, innovators, CSOs and the private sector, among others, to identify strategies, such as policy formulation and adoption, to check potential excesses by AI.

Conversations at the PILNET summit and the KTA Symposium align with CIPESA’s ongoing initiatives across the continent, where countries and regional blocs are developing AI strategies and policies to inform national adoption and its application. At the continental level, in 2024, the African Union (AU) adopted the Continental AI Strategy, which provides a unified framework for using AI to drive digital transformation and socio-economic development of Africa.

Amongst the key recommendations from the discussions is the need for:

  • Wide adoption of policies guiding the use of AI by civil society organisations, firms, the private sector, and innovators.
  • Nationwide and global participation of individuals and stakeholders, including governments, CSOs, the private sector, and innovators, in AI processes and how it works to ensure that no one is left behind. This will ensure inclusive participation.
  • Awareness creation and continuous education of citizens, CSOs, innovators, firms, and the private sector on the application and value of AI in their work.
  • The adoption of policies and laws that specifically address the application of AI at national, regional and international levels and at organisational and institutional levels to mitigate the potential adverse impacts of AI rollout.
02Aug

Forum on Internet Freedom in East Africa

Author admin Posted on

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), under the OpenNet Africa initiative, is proud to announce the upcoming Forum on Internet Freedoms in East Africa. The two-day Forum is scheduled for  28 – 29 September 2015,  in Kampala, Uganda, to coincide with the International Right to Know Day.
During the Forum, we’ll discuss the current state of internet freedoms in Africa, including threats, emerging issues, and opportunities for action to promote access, privacy and security online. The Forum brings together human rights defenders, journalists, government officials, academia, bloggers, developers, the arts community, law enforcement agencies and communication regulators, all of whom have a role to play in advancing the rights of citizens to privacy and freedom of expression in the online sphere. At the inaugural 2014 forum, we hosted 85 participants from Burundi, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda.
Visit the Forum page for more information and application form.

17Oct

What does the future hold for the Internet Governance Forum?

Author admin Posted on

By Juliet N. Nanfuka
As the dust settles following the ninth Internet Governance Forum (IGF) which was held in Istanbul, Turkey between 2 and 5 September, many questions remain lurking. The biggest being whether the IGF has made a strong enough case for its continued existence. The IGF currently has a mandate that takes it until 2015. The United Nations (UN) General Assembly is due to take a decision about its renewal at the beginning of December 2014.

Lillian Nalwoga (third from left), Policy Officer at CIPESA makes a comment during a panel session at the 9th IGF in Istanbul, Turkey.
Lillian Nalwoga (third from left), Policy Officer at CIPESA makes a comment during a panel session at the 9th IGF in Istanbul, Turkey.

In keeping with the IGF’s core principle of multi-stakeholder engagement, the 9th Internet Governance Forum brought together an assortment of internet policy stakeholders including multinational organisations, state representatives, civil society and internet enthusiasts. The theme of this year’s IGF was “Connecting Continents for Enhanced Multi stakeholder Internet Governance” and was explored through the lens of net neutrality, multilingualism, youth and social media, gender, policy development, stakeholder roles and other related issues.
In a series of workshops, book launches and open sessions, internet policies were discussed and how they relate and impact upon society, development, business, governance and democracy. While there was agreement on some issues, divergence remained when it came to discussions on where monetising the internet clashed with big data, privacy, surveillance, intermediary liability and net neutrality.
This year’s meeting saw over 3,000 delegates from across the world convene in a country currently battling with some of the controversial internet related issues such as surveillance, censorship, privacy and data protection under discussion at the IGF. According to the 2013 Freedom on the Net report, nearly 30,000 websites and social media accounts are blocked in Turkey for social or political reasons. But Turkish bureaucrats deftly skirted these issues in their opening and closing speeches. While mention was made of the state of Turkish internet freedom by delegates, it mostly remained a rumbling in the underbelly of the meeting. However, some light on Turkey’s internet freedom status was heavily discussed at the Internet Ungovernance Forum organised by Turkish civil society organisations to protest the country’s hosting of the meeting given their government’s internet rights violations record.
For many participants, NetMundial was still a key talking point and formed the basis of some of the IGF’s discussions including promoting multilingualism, collaborative multi-stakeholder models, gender and internet rights, minority rights online, child online protection, privacy and surveillance and developing relevant local content. NetMundial demonstrated that multi-stakeholderism is possible and consensus can be drawn even on the most contentious internet governance topics (see NetMundial statement).

NetMundial sought to deliberate on the Future of Internet Governance by crafting Internet governance principles and proposing a roadmap for the further evolution of the Internet governance ecosystem.

Even though the IGF has for the past nine years provided a platform for the debate and deliberation on the very issues that NetMundial dealt with, there have been limited discernible outcomes and impact measurements due to the nature and complexity of internet governance and its actors.
However, much like the constantly transforming internet, the IGF will have to re-asses its financial sustainability model to ensure its survival and position itself as a driver of best practices on internet governance. Part of this includes the production of outcome documents such as policy recommendations for voluntary adoption – a suggestion put forward by the European Commission – a key funder of the IGF. Such actions could help shake off the ‘talk shop’ cloak that has shadowed the IGF and position it as a platform for deliberation on global internet governance concerns with more discernible outcomes.
The Tenth IGF is scheduled to take place in João Pessoa, Brazil on 10 to 13 November 2015.