The Just AI Conference is the flagship event of Research ICT Africa’s Africa Just AI project, a continental initiative that seeks to address the critical need for research on redressing the harms associated with data-driven technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the uneven distribution of opportunities within and between countries. This initiative falls under the broader umbrella of the Artificial Intelligence for Development in Africa (AI4D Africa) programme, launched in 2020 and jointly funded by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Following the success of the inaugural 2024 Just AI Conference, which brought together scholars, policymakers and technologists to reimagine the relationship between AI and democracy, data justice, misinformation, law and political economy, the 2026 edition, under the banner of Grounding AI Governance in Justice, built on that momentum to ask a deeper question:
What would AI governance look like if justice, rather than capital, efficiency or innovation, were its organising principle?
The conference expanded on RIA’s Just AI Framework of Inquiry, a context-grounded, action-oriented tool for policymakers, technology developers, and researchers to ensure the AI value chain protects, promotes, and fulfils human rights and environmental sustainability. The FoI’s nine core inquiries guide research on Just AI in Africa, forming a coherent axis of political-economy and governance justice across AI systems. This gathering moves from conceptual discussion to applied learning, using the Framework to explore how justice can be made actionable in AI policy and practice.
The conference took place from 30-31 March at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) in Johannesburg, South Africa. The two-day programme was designed to balance scholarly provocation with policy relevance.
Programme Structure
Day 1 – Scholarly Focus: Keynote lectures and paper panels that interrogate justice as a guiding principle for AI governance.
Day 2 – Policy Focus: Roundtables and dialogues that apply the Framework to policy and institutional practice, closing with a forward-looking plenary on the way ahead for Just AI research and governance in Africa.
Conference Themes
Participants are invited to engage with four interconnected themes drawn from the Just AI Framework of Inquiry:
- Theme 1: Democratic Futures in the Algorithmic Age
This theme explores how algorithmic systems are transforming democratic institutions, participation, and accountability. It invites analyses that connect AI governance to human rights, public oversight, and civic agency. - Theme 2: Building Just AI in Digital Public Infrastructure
As African states and regions invest in digital public infrastructure, this theme examines how justice can be embedded from the start in data governance, identity systems, and economic architecture. It considers how AI can be designed and deployed to promote data justice, economic equity, and inclusion by design rather than deepen dependencies and structural inequalities. - Theme 3: From AI Extraction to AI Restoration
This theme interrogates the political economy of AI, from data extraction and labour exploitation to new models of reciprocity, redistribution, and ecological sustainability. It connects to inquiries of economic justice, structural inequality, and sustainability, asking what restorative approaches could rebalance power and value in AI’s global value chains. - Theme 4: Relational Ethics and Contextual Knowledges in AI Design
This theme centres human experience, care, and context in the development and governance of AI. It invites contributions that examine how embodied data, local epistemologies, and intersectional ethics can inform AI design, ensuring systems reflect and respect the diversity of human life and knowledge.
Keynote Speakers
Sally Ncube (Respondent)
Scientific Committee
Prof Bankole Awuzie, University of Johannesburg
Dr Douglas Aghimien, University of Johannesburg
Prof Wallace Chigona, University of Cape Town
Dr Adewunmi Gideon Fareo, University of the Witwatersrand
Prof Geci Karuri Sebina, University of Witwatersrand
Prof Jude Kong, University of Toronto
Prof Enid Montague, University of Toronto
Dr Neltah Mosimanegape, Tempest Gold
Prof Arthur Mutambara, University of Johannesburg
Dr Oluka Pross Nagitta, Uganda Management Institute
Dr Winston Ojenge, African Center for Technology Studies, University of Kenya
Dr Adekemi Omotubora, University of Lagos
Dr Peterson Owusu-Junior, University of Cape Coast
Dr Morgenie Pillay, South African Department of Trade, Industry and Competition
Dr Roland Banya, Research ICT Africa
Dr Kola Ijasan, Research ICT Africa
Dr Thomas Linder, Research ICT Africa
Dr Sandra Makumbirofa, Research ICT Africa
Mpho Moyo, Research ICT Africa
Dr Andrew Rens, Research ICT Africa
Contact
For queries email: justaiconference@researchictafrica.net
