Promoting Effective and Inclusive ICT Policy in Africa

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  HomeCollaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA)  /  Social Media
29Dec

Ahouty Kouakou

Author CIPESA Posted on

Who is Ahouty Kouakou?

I am Ahouty Kouakou, an Ivorian living in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. I am a wheelchair user. I contracted this mobility impairment due to poliomyelitis when I was 4 years old. My disability did not, however, prevent me from attending school and pursuing higher university studies. Today, I hold two bachelor’s degrees in Communication and Anthropology from the University Felix Houphouet Boigny of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. I have also attended several short courses and earned certificates. In 2013, my ambition to transform the lives of marginalised communities drove me to establish a disability rights organisation called Action et Humanisme, to give persons with disabilities a chance to reach their full potential and thrive, utilising various factors, including digital technology. My work has been recognised internationally. For example, I am a 2022 D30 Disability Impact List Honoree of Diversability, an international organisation dedicated to empowering persons with disabilities.

My motivation came from the realisation that while the Internet and other emerging technologies offered great opportunities online, access was not guaranteed to persons with disabilities. The lack of Internet infrastructure in remote areas and the high cost of Internet data and technology devices meant that persons with disabilities, the majority of whom do not have the necessary resources, were excluded from the digital world. Most of the local cyber cafes were, and still are, inaccessible to persons with disabilities due to the lack of ramps and elevators. Digital illiteracy is also a significant barrier. Additionally, there is a lack of political will and strong digital enforcement by African governments. Persons with disabilities, therefore, miss out on several opportunities, including education, access to quality information, entertainment, and job opportunities, that are offered online. These issues drove me to become a frontline defender of digital rights for persons with disabilities. I believe in our mantra of leaving no one behind.

Calls are being made for harmonised legal frameworks and more consistent accessibility standards in both public and private sectors.

The African Union Protocol on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has entered into force, strengthening their rights to barrier-free access to the physical environment, transportation, and information.

Access to digital services can transform the lives of persons with disabilities in Africa, opening doors to education, employment, and civic participation.

There are several emerging threats to achieving digital rights and inclusion for persons with disabilities in Africa, such as

  • Some of the policies are not disability friendly and offer lip service to the digital rights of persons with disabilities.
  • The lack of accessibility: progress in digital accessibility for persons with disabilities is slow, uneven, and inequitable.
  •  High rates of illiteracy and poverty hinder access to technologies such as smartphones and computers.
  •  The high cost of internet data.
  •  The risk associated with Artificial Intelligence for persons with disabilities.
  •  The lack of knowledge about digital citizenship and the associated risks of the internet.

To cope with these issues, we can:

  • Strengthen the sensitisation and education of persons with disabilities on digital citizenship and online threats.
  • Partner with governments and enterprises to make technology and websites accessible to persons with disabilities.
  • Support under-resourced human rights and organisations of persons with disabilities through grants and capacity building so that they can effectively advocate for the rights of persons with disabilities.
  • Mitigate the digital divide by enhancing access to technology and offering training to individuals with disabilities.

  • Establish multi-stakeholder partnerships and work in synergy to achieve the goals of disability rights and inclusion.
  • African governments must take concrete action to implement digital laws that promote the digital inclusion of persons with disabilities.
  • Promote international cooperation to pool efforts.
  • Encourage collaboration across human rights movements.

Strengthen policy and regulatory frameworks to enable women, young people, older persons, and persons with disabilities to access digital technology effectively.

Promote access to education and digital skills in schools and within communities.

Develop inclusive digital social protection systems to meet the needs of marginalised communities in Africa, including women, youth, and persons with disabilities.

Support organisations and initiatives that defend and promote the interests of persons with disabilities in Africa. Most organisations lack funding to develop solutions that contribute to improving the quality of life for persons with disabilities.

Put in place mechanisms that include persons with disabilities in the decision-making process when it directly affects them. Nothing about us without us!

15Dec

Inform Africa Expands OSINT Training and DISARM-Based Research With CIPESA

Author CIPESA Posted on

ADRF |

Information integrity work is only as strong as the methods behind it. In Ethiopia’s fast-changing information environment, fact-checkers and researchers are expected to move quickly while maintaining accuracy, transparency, and ethical care. Inform Africa has expanded two practical capabilities to address this reality: advanced OSINT-based fact-checking training and structured disinformation research using the DISARM framework, in collaboration with the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA).

This work was advanced with support from the Africa Digital Rights Fund (ADRF), administered by CIPESA. At a time when many civic actors face uncertainty, the fund’s adaptable support helped Inform Africa sustain day-to-day operations and protect continuity, while still investing in verification and research methods designed to endure beyond a single project cycle.

The collaboration with CIPESA was not only administrative. It was anchored in shared priorities around digital rights, information integrity, and capacity building. Through structured coordination and learning exchange, CIPESA provided a partnership channel that strengthened the work’s clarity and relevance, and helped position the outputs as reusable methods that can be applied beyond a single team. The collaboration also reinforced a regional ecosystem approach: improving practice in one context while keeping the methods legible for peer learning, adaptation, and future joint work.

The implementation followed a phased timetable across the project activity period from April through November 2025. Early work focused on scoping and method design, aligning the training and research approaches with practical realities in newsrooms and civil society. Mid-phase work concentrated on developing the OSINT module and applying DISARM as a structured research lens, with iterative refinement as materials matured. The final phase focused on consolidation, documentation discipline, and packaging the outputs to support repeatable use, including onboarding, internal training, and incident review workflows.

A central focus has been an advanced OSINT training module built to move beyond tool familiarity into a complete verification workflow. Verification is treated as a chain of decisions that must be consistent and auditable: how to intake a claim, determine whether it is fact-checkable, plan the evidence, trace sources, verify images and videos, confirm the place and time, and document each step clearly enough for an editor or peer to reproduce the work. The aim is not only to reach accurate conclusions but also to show the route taken, including which evidence was prioritized and how uncertainty was handled.

This documentation discipline is not bureaucracy. It is a trust technology. In high-risk information environments, preserved sources, verification logs, and clear decision trails protect credibility, strengthen editorial oversight, and reduce avoidable errors. The module prioritizes hands-on, production-style assignments that mirror real newsroom constraints and trains participants to avoid overclaiming, communicate uncertainty responsibly, and present evidence in ways that non-expert audiences can follow.

In parallel, Inform Africa has applied the DISARM framework to disinformation research. DISARM provides a shared language for describing influence activity through observable behaviors and techniques, without drifting into assumptions. The priority has been to remain evidence-bound: collecting and preserving artifacts responsibly, maintaining a structured evidence log, reducing harm by avoiding unnecessary reproduction of inflammatory content, and avoiding claims of attribution beyond what the evidence supports. This DISARM-informed approach has improved internal briefs, strengthened consistency, and made incidents easier to compare over time and across partners.

Three lessons stand out from this work with CIPESA and ADRF. First, quality scales through workflow, not only through talent. Second, evidence discipline is a strategic choice that protects credibility and reduces harm in both fact-checking and research. Third, shared frameworks reduce friction by improving clarity and consistency across teams. Looking ahead, Inform Africa will integrate the OSINT module into routine training and onboarding and continue to apply DISARM-informed analysis in future incident reviews and deeper studies, reinforcing information integrity as a public good.

This article was first published by Informa Africa on December 15, 2025

02Dec

#BeSafeByDesign: A Call To Platforms To Ensure Women’s Online Safety

Author CIPESA Posted on

By CIPESA Writer |

Across Eastern and Southern Africa, activists, journalists, and women human rights defenders (WHRDs) are leveraging online spaces to mobilise for justice, equality, and accountability.  However, the growth of online harms such as Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV), disinformation, digital surveillance, and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven discrimination and attacks has outpaced the development of robust protections.

Notably, human rights defenders, journalists, and activists face unique and disproportionate digital security threats, including harassment, doxxing, and data breaches, that limit their participation and silence dissent.

It is against this background that the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), in partnership with Irene M. Staehelin Foundation, is implementing a project aimed at combating online harms so as to advance digital rights. Through upskilling, advocacy, research, and movement building, the initiative addresses the growing threats in digital spaces, particularly affecting women journalists and human rights defenders.

The first of the upskilling engagements kicked off in Nairobi, Kenya, at the start of December 2025, with 25 women human rights defenders and activists in a three-day digital resilience skills share workshop hosted by CIPESA and the Digital Society Africa. Participants came from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It coincides with the December 16 Days Of Activism campaign, which this year is themed “Unite to End Digital Violence against All Women and Girls”.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), TFGBV is “an act of violence perpetrated by one or more individuals that is committed, assisted, aggravated, and amplified in part or fully by the use of information and communication technologies or digital media against a person based on their gender.” It includes cyberstalking, doxing, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, cyberbullying, and other forms of online harassment.

Women in Sub-Saharan Africa are 32% less likely than men to use the internet, with the key impediments being literacy and digital skills, affordability, safety, and security. On top of this gender digital divide, more women than men face various forms of digital violence. Accordingly, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) Resolution 522 of 2022 has underscored the urgent need for African states to address online violence against women and girls.

Women who advocate for gender equality, feminism, and sexual minority rights face higher levels of online violence. Indeed, women human rights defenders, journalists and politicians are the most affected by TFGBV, and many of them have withdrawn from the digital public sphere due to gendered disinformation, trolling, cyber harassment, and other forms of digital violence. The online trolling of women is growing exponentially and often takes the form of gendered and sexualised attacks and body shaming.

Several specific challenges must be considered when designing interventions to combat TFGBV. These challenges are shaped by legal, social, technological, and cultural factors, which affect both the prevalence of digital harms and violence and the ability to respond effectively. They include weak and inadequate legal frameworks; a lack of awareness about TFGBV among policymakers, law enforcement officers, and the general public; the gender digital divide; and normalised online abuse against women, with victims often blamed rather than supported.

Moreover, there is a shortage of comprehensive response mechanisms and support services for survivors of online harassment, such as digital security helplines, psychosocial support, and legal aid. On the other hand, there is limited regional and cross-sector collaboration between CSOs, government agencies, and the private sector (including tech companies).

A guiding strand for these efforts will be the #BeSafeByDesign campaign that highlights the necessity of safe platforms for women as well as the consequences when safety is missing. The #BeSafeByDesign obligation shifts the burden of responsibility of ensuring safety in online spaces away from women and places it on platforms where more efforts on risk assessments, accessible and stronger reporting pathways, proactive detection of abuse, and transparent accountability mechanisms are required. The initiative will also involve the practical upskilling of at-risk women in practical cybersecurity.

14Nov

Advancing African-Centred AI is a Priority for Development in Africa

Author CIPESA Posted on

By Patricia Ainembabazi |

The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) participated in the annual DataFest Africa event held on 30-31 October, 2025. Hosted by Pollicy, the event serves to celebrate data use in Africa by bringing together various stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, such as government, civil society, donors, academics, students, and private industry experts, under one roof and theme.  The event provided a timely platform to advance discussions on how Africa can harness AI and data-driven systems in ways that centre human rights, accountability, and social impact.

CIPESA featured in various sessions at the event, one of which was the launch of the ‘Made in Africa AI for Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL)’ Landscape Study by the MERL Tech Initiative. At the session, CIPESA provided reflections on the role of AI in development across several humanitarian sectors in Africa.

CIPESA’s contributions complemented insights from the study that explored African approaches to AI in data-driven evidence systems and which emphasised responsive and inclusive design, contextual relevance, and ethical deployment. The Study resonated with insights from the CIPESA 2025 State of Internet Freedom in Africa report, which highlights the role of AI as  Africa navigates digital democracy.

According to the CIPESA report, AI technologies hold significant potential to improve civic engagement, extend access to public services, scale multilingual communication tools, and support fact-checking and content moderation. On the flip side, the MERL study also underscores the risks posed by AI systems that lack robust governance frameworks, including increased surveillance capacity, algorithmic bias, the spread of misinformation, and deepening digital exclusion. The aforementioned risks and challenges pose major concerns regarding readiness, accountability, and institutional capacity, given the nascent and fragmented legal and regulatory landscape for AI in the majority of African countries..

Sam Kuuku, Head of the GIZ-African Union AI Made in Africa Project, noted that it is important for countries and stakeholders to reflect on how well Africa can measure the impact of AI and evaluate the role and potential of AI use in improving livelihoods across the continent. He further reiterated the value of various European Union (EU) frameworks in providing useful guidance for African countries seeking to develop AI policies that promote both innovation and safety, to ensure that technological developments align with public interest, legal safeguards, and global standards.

The session was underscored by the need for African governments and stakeholders to benchmark global regulatory practices that are grounded in human rights principles for progressive adoption and deployment of AI.  CIPESA pointed out the EU AI Act of 2024, which offers a structured and risk-based model that categorises AI systems according to the level of potential harm and establishes controls for transparency, safety, and non-discrimination.

Key considerations for labour rights, economic justice, and the future of work were highlighted, particularly in relation to the growing role of African data annotators and platform workers within global AI supply chains. Investigations into outsourced data labelling, such as the case of Kenyan workers contracted by tech platforms to train AI models under precarious economic conditions, underlie the need for stronger labour protections and ethical AI sourcing practices. Through platforms such as DataFest Africa, there is a growing community dedicated towards shaping a forward-looking narrative in which AI is not only applied to solve African problems but is also developed, regulated, and critiqued by African actors. The pathway to an inclusive and rights-respecting digital future will rely on working collectively to embed accountability, transparency, and local expertise within emerging AI and data governance frameworks.

12Nov

Commentary: Africa’s Endless Struggle for Internet Freedom Is Always in Motion, But Rarely Forward

Author CIPESA Posted on

By Jimmy Kainja |

In September 2025, the Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) hosted the 12th edition of the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica) in Windhoek, Namibia. I have attended six of these Forums over the years, with my first being in 2017, when the event was held in Johannesburg, South Africa. I have also contributed to several editions of FIFAfrica’s flagship report, the State of Internet Freedom in Africa and thus through these activities, have been witness to CIPESA’s role in contributing to and shaping the continent’s digital policy conversations.

Each year, FIFAfrica provides a platform for governments, civil society, private sector actors, and researchers to reflect on emerging challenges and opportunities around digital rights and internet governance in Africa. Over time, the Forum has engaged with various themes which have mirrored global technological and policy shifts including internet shutdowns, data privacy and surveillance concerns, digital inclusion, disinformation and more recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). This adaptability demonstrates how FIFAfrica continues to engage with the evolving digital ecosystem and the continent’s responses to emerging digital and internet governance shifts. Yet, beneath this progress lies a paradox: Africa keeps moving on with the latest trends in internet freedom and internet governance concerns, but the foundational problems remain unresolved. 

When FIFAfrica began over a decade ago, Africa’s internet freedom challenges were clear and urgent: limited access, prohibitive data costs, state surveillance, weak legal protections, and rampant censorship. Governments often justified internet restrictions in the name of “national security” or “public order”. The term “fake news” soon emerged as another pretext for silencing critics and regulating online speech. Fast forward to 2025, and while the vocabulary of digital repression has evolved, the logic remains the same. Several African states continue to shut down internet access, particularly during times of public protest and elections, with Ethiopia, Sudan, Senegal, Uganda, and most recently Tanzania being prominent examples. Across the continent, privacy and data protection laws exist on paper but are inconsistently enforced or manipulated to align with political interests.

In essence, Africa has not yet achieved the baseline of internet freedom that would allow citizens to safely express themselves, access information, and participate fully in digital spaces. Instead, the continent’s policy agenda has become increasingly aspirational, focused on AI ethics, big data, and digital transformation, while the fundamental guarantees of access, security, and expression remain precarious.

Moving on Without Fixing the Old

The evolution of FIFAfrica’s agenda, from internet shutdowns to AI governance and digital identity, is both natural and necessary and might signal thought leadership, but it can also obscure the persistence of unresolved injustices. Take, for example, personal data and identity systems, which were popular topics of discussion at FIFAfrica. Across Africa, governments have introduced biometric ID programmes to modernise administration and improve service delivery. Yet, these systems are deeply entangled with long-standing concerns, surveillance, exclusion, and control, issues that FIFAfrica has grappled with since its inception. The technology has changed, but the regulatory dynamics have remained the same.

Similarly, AI ethics and data governance frameworks are now fashionable discussion points. However, how meaningful are these debates in countries where citizens still lack affordable, reliable internet access or where independent journalists risk arrest for their online commentary? Can we genuinely talk about algorithmic bias when freedom of expression itself is under threat? The danger, then, lies in what might be called “thematic displacement”, which is the tendency to move on to emerging global trends without consolidating progress on foundational freedoms. This displacement risks turning digital rights discourse into a treadmill: always in motion but not moving forward.

The persistence of old internet freedom problems is not accidental. It reflects deeper structural continuities in African digital governance and political economy. States continue to see the internet as both a tool of modernisation and a threat to political interests. Digital technologies are embraced for economic growth, service delivery, and image-building, but their democratic potential remains tightly controlled. This is especially true of authoritarian states. This duality produces a familiar pattern: governments invest in connectivity infrastructure while simultaneously tightening control over civic engagement and digital expression. Regulatory authorities are strengthened, but often in ways that expand state power rather than protect citizens’ rights. Surveillance capacities grow, but transparency and accountability shrink. The internet, once hailed as a space of liberation, increasingly mirrors the offline hierarchies of control, privilege, and exclusion.

In this sense, the continuity of control outweighs the rhetoric of freedom. The instruments may change, from content filtering to biometric registration and AI-enabled surveillance, but the underlying power relations remain largely intact.

Towards a More Grounded Internet Freedom Agenda

As FIFAfrica continues to play a role in convening a diverse spectrum of stakeholders with vested interests in a progressive internet freedom landscape in Africa, perhaps the most urgent task is to reconnect Africa’s digital policy discourse to its unresolved foundations. The continent does not need to reject new topics like AI or digital identity, but rather to approach them through the lens of continuity, recognising how they reproduce or intensify older struggles for rights, accountability, and inclusion. An agenda for the next decade of internet freedom in Africa must therefore balance innovation with introspection. It must ask: Who still lacks meaningful access to the internet, and why? How are digital laws being weaponised against journalists and citizens? Who benefits from datafication and AI, and who is being left out or surveilled? How can the African Union and sub-regional bodies ensure genuine enforcement of digital rights commitments?

Africa’s journey with internet freedom mirrors its broader democratic trajectory, marked by aspiration, innovation, and resilience, yet haunted by persistent constraints. The Forum has provided a vital mirror to this journey, reflecting both progress and contradiction. But as the themes evolve, one truth endures: Africa cannot truly move forward without resolving its unfinished struggles for internet freedom. Until access becomes equitable, laws become just, and expression becomes truly free, the continent’s digital future will remain suspended between promise and paradox.

About the author:

Jimmy Kainja is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Malawi and a PhD candidate at the Wits Centre for Journalism, University of the Witwatersrand. He researches media and communications policy, journalism, digital rights, freedom of expression, and the intersection of telecommunications, democracy, and development.

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