In November, the Research ICT Africa teams from Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Nairobi came together for a strategic session to consider what the future might hold for an organisation once defined by an emergent ICT sector and now shaped by frontier technologies, operating in a data-driven landscape marked by both innovation and inequity. We asked ourselves how we can carry the lessons of the past into the promises we are making for the future—sustainably, thoughtfully, and with purpose.
As we mapped our trajectory for growth, we reflected on the “newness” that has defined this moment for RIA. With new leadership, new programmatic areas, new projects, and a new framework grounding our work, we enter a phase that invites experimentation, collaboration, and co-development.
At a time of immense opportunity, marked most notably by the first G20 on African soil, this sense of possibility keeps us anchored in the values that guide our work: curiosity, collaboration, courage, civility, compassion, critical thinking, and credible research. With these values at our centre, we look toward the year ahead, one in which digital equality and data justice in Africa feel more achievable than ever.
Some highlights from the month of November include:
- Five new projects across three programmes, including DPI, Digital Economy and Indicators, and Information Integrity.
- T20 policy briefs, and a T20 Summit Plenary on DPI in practice.
- Four new Africa Just AI Lab policy analyses, decoding Kenya, Egypt, Mauritius and Zambia’s new AI strategies.
- Our latest Just AI policy brief on how to leverage economic policy for equitable and just AI in Africa.
- Final calls for extended abstract submissions, to be presented at the 2026 Just AI Conference, ‘Grounding AI Governance in Justice’.
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