AI4D Innovations

In Kenya, PROMPTS, an AI-powered maternal health messaging platform by Jacaranda Health, is transforming access to life-saving care. Delivering personalised messages via WhatsApp and triaging thousands of help desk queries daily, it guides mothers to timely prenatal and postpartum services. Reaching three million women, PROMPTS improves care, routes high-risk cases to hospitals, and offers a scalable, responsible AI model.

Mama Mbogas, Kenya’s women agri-food traders, are often excluded from digital tools shaping agriculture. This project embeds their voices into AI development, addressing barriers to inclusion and informing fair policies. By integrating local women’s perspectives, it strengthens food security initiatives, empowers informal sector workers, and provides a scalable model for gender-inclusive, responsible AI in agriculture.

Across Nigeria’s aquaculture value chains, women are often confined to low-value post-harvest roles. Led by Summit University, Offa, this project uses AI and gender analysis to identify biases, create pathways for women into higher-value production, and guide policymakers. It offers a replicable model for responsible, inclusive AI that ensures equitable access to emerging opportunities.

A Kenyan research project uses AI to reveal hidden patterns of gender inequality in STEM education and careers. By analyzing diverse socioeconomic datasets and mitigating historical biases, the project equips policymakers with evidence to design more equitable programs. This approach highlights barriers to women’s participation, enabling targeted, data-driven interventions and scalable gender-responsive STEM policies.

Across Africa, millions of women are excluded from AI by design. Automatic Speech Recognition systems often underrepresent African women’s voices, reducing accuracy and utility. This AI4D Africa project addresses this by creating bias mitigation frameworks, representative datasets, and governance guidelines, empowering researchers to build inclusive speech technology that works for all genders and dialects, shaping equitable AI across the continent.

In six East African countries, gender-disaggregated data is scarce and often excluded from AI policy. This project examines power dynamics in the AI ecosystem, mapping barriers to inclusive data and fostering cross-regional collaboration. By prioritizing women’s and girls’ voices, it equips policymakers and advocates to demand fairer, more representative AI systems and digital governance.

Across South Africa, food loss drives insecurity, poverty, and climate change, yet marginalized voices especially women are often missing from policy and data systems. This project uses AI to map and reduce food waste across supply chains, embedding gender inclusion at every stage. The result: actionable insights for authorities, fairer policies, and more equitable, efficient food systems.