Paradigm Initiative focuses on a diverse range of thematic areas, including AI. Through research, advocacy, capacity building and global engagement, our impact is felt across the African continent and globally.
Identifying AI governance gaps and informing governments through evidence-based policy recommendations.
Convening stakeholders and making policy submissions that influence national AI strategies and regulatory frameworks.
Equipping journalists, lawyers, teachers and policymakers to engage AI responsibly.
Shaping international AI governance through submissions to UN, OHCHR, ACHPR and more.
Our recent findings, based on 27 African country assessments, show limited progress in developing national AI strategies. Currently, only about 16 countries in Africa have AI national strategies, presenting an opportunity for PIN to work with African governments to influence these strategies.
This policy brief emerged from the critical discussions and expert insights shared during Paradigm Initiative’s Côte d’Ivoire inaugural Digital Policy Engagement Series (DiPES), convened in Abidjan and it presents the need for a fundamental shift towards a right-based framework for AI governance and the urgent need to integrate the African Union’s AI Strategy to integrate the African Union’s AI Strategy, and to develop concrete, actionable tools to translate policy aspirations into tangible outcomes for all segments of Ivorian society.
This report comprehensively analyses the legal and policy frameworks governing AI in Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Mauritius, and Zambia—to explore how these laws and policies integrate human rights, ethical considerations, and transparency.
This report examines how surveillance technologies are increasingly being used across Africa to enable digital repression, including censorship, shutdowns, and monitoring of citizens, often undermining fundamental rights. It also highlights weak legal protections, fragmented responses, and calls for stronger, coordinated, rights-based regulation of digital technologies and surveillance systems.
This policy brief seeks to examines the impact of AI systems in Kenya on human rights. It begins by giving an outline of the application of AI in crucial sectors in the country i.e., agriculture, health, education, and finance. It then looks at the challenges faced in the adoption of AI in Kenya, followed by the risks posed on human rights, and concludes by making recommendations on measures that can be adopted by the Government to prevent the violation of human rights by these systems.
A stakeholder mapping of institutions and organisations in Nigeria(2021) that regulate, deploy, or create Artificial Intelligence systems. This work highlights Nigerian AI actors across three (3) broad clusters: Public AI actors in Nigeria, Private AI actors in Nigeria, and regional AI actors impacting Nigeria.
Through our Digital Policy Digest, we provided input to the Zimbabwean government, highlighting the need for inclusive public engagement in AI governance processes.
Through our platform governance work, PIN has convened diverse stakeholders in Nigeria to contribute to the development of the Online Harms Protection (OHP) Framework. Our expertise and thought leadership on AI have also informed national policy discussions and are reflected in the White Paper adopted by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Through our Digital Rights Academies, we build the capacity of stakeholders across Africa on AI, including journalists (AI in newsrooms), lawyers (AI in legal practice), and teachers (AI in the classroom). Our training is grounded in a rights-based approach that emphasises ethics, accountability, inclusion, and the protection of digital rights.
In partnership with ALP East Africa Advocates and East Africa Law Society we co-host the East Africa AI Forum & Advocates Training. The regional Forum and Training will bring together lawyers, policymakers, tech leaders, civil society, and academics to explore how East Africa can harness the benefits of AI while safeguarding rights and promoting ethical practices
We responded to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) call for inputs on The Use of Artificial Intelligence and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
In 2024, PIN contributed, as part of a regional group of experts, to the review and input on the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ Draft study on human and peoples’ rights in relation to artificial intelligence, robotics, and other emerging technologies in Africa.
Paradigm Initiative participated in the WSIS+20 review processes, providing both oral and written submissions to the Co-Facilitators on Artificial Intelligence (AI)and related themes, including data justice and privacy.
Paradigm Initiative was part of an expert team that contributed to UNICEF’s Data Governance for EdTech landscape review and policy recommendations, examining the use of AI in education and its implications for children’s data governance.
Through the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF), we include AI as a sub-theme to share developments and tools with Global South delegates, while also engaging diverse stakeholders through targeted calls for action. We curate the DRIF agenda to reflect emerging areas of development. AI was also highlighted in the DRIF25 report, where the community urged PIN to prioritise AI programming in recommendations to the DRIF Convenors.
