Projects

This research project examines how African‑led AI innovations can be responsibly adopted and scaled to improve equity, learning outcomes, and system efficiency in education. Led by the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), it seeks to generate evidence, frameworks, and policy guidance to support ethical, inclusive AI in African education systems.

The AI4GH initiative supports robust, innovative and interdisciplinary research projects and processes across sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa. Each activity within AI4GH promotes ‘responsible AI’ (solutions that are ethical, inclusive, rights-respecting and sustainable) that aims to strengthen gender equality and inclusion, and integrate plans for sustainability, scale and influence. This initiative aims to build regional and global networks across a range of actors, including researchers, policymakers, practitioners, the private sector and civil society.

The Hub for AI and Disability Inclusion (HAIDI) is Africa’s first continent‑wide platform dedicated to embedding disability inclusion across the AI lifecycle. The Hub seeks to strengthen inclusive AI ecosystems by developing disability‑representative data, supporting scalable inclusive AI innovations, and advancing disability‑inclusive AI governance to ensure AI delivers meaningful benefits for people with disabilities across Africa.

AfriLab strengthens public universities’ capacity for multidisciplinary, responsible AI research. It fosters gender-inclusive methodologies, community building, and teaching excellence while supporting AI deployment from academia to industry.

Ethiopia is tackling major development challenges in sectors like agriculture, healthcare, energy, and governance, made worse by climate risks and limited AI capacity.The Resonance Lab at Addis Ababa University aims to respond by creating ethical, locally relevant AI solutions, including tools for precision farming, AI-driven healthcare, and data-based governance. The lab will also strengthen local expertise through graduate training and regional collaboration, promoting inclusive and sustainable AI applications.

This flagship initiative will create high‑quality, open‑source, culturally grounded multimodal datasets—spanning text, speech and vision—across 40 African languages. By anchoring this work in the Masakhane community, a grassroots, expert-led organization that champions participatory methods, the project aims to shift Africa from being a data-poor consumer of AI technologies to a globally recognized contributor to ethical and inclusive AI innovation. Emerging from the AI for Development Funders Collaborative, it represents a cross-donor effort, with parallel funding from IDRC, the UK’s FCDO, the Gates Foundation, and Google.org.

The RobotsMali AI4D Lab strengthens AI research and innovation in Francophone Sahel countries by overcoming language barriers and building local capacity. It fosters collaboration among universities, government, and industry to enhance AI education, literacy, and research while incubating AI-powered startups. The lab prioritizes ethical AI, gender inclusion, and community-driven development.

Building on AI4D’s first phase, this project strengthens responsible and inclusive AI in Francophone West Africa by fostering policy co-creation, demystifying AI for the public, and focusing on capacity building while upholding human rights and equality.

This initiative leverages responsible AI to support smallholder farmers, women, and youth in Africa’s agriculture sector. It generates evidence on AI’s impact, promotes inclusive innovation, and enhances capacity through knowledge sharing and network building. By addressing key challenges, it drives scalable AI solutions that advance sustainable and equitable food systems across the continent.

This project builds evidence and practical tools for responsibly scaling AI in health systems across the Global South. Through seed grants and case studies, it supports equitable, sustainable AI solutions addressing sexual and reproductive health and climate‑sensitive epidemics.

CITADEL is a regional hub for AI research in French-speaking Africa. It advances interdisciplinary research, contextualizes AI solutions for real-world challenges, trains diverse talent for local industry needs, and fosters responsible AI innovation to drive sustainable development across Burkina Faso and the broader sub-region.

RAIL addresses AI adoption challenges in sub-Saharan Africa by fostering responsible, multidisciplinary research and innovation. It strengthens local talent, prioritizes inclusivity, and develops AI solutions for key sectors like health, agriculture, and assistive technologies. In its second phase, RAIL expands its focus on vulnerable communities, energy, food security, and women’s participation in technology.

The AI Climate Innovation Hub will accelerate locally led, responsible AI innovations that strengthen climate resilience across Sub‑Saharan Africa, guiding at least four high‑impact tools toward scale. By unlocking critical climate datasets, building African research capacity, and generating evidence on AI’s environmental footprint, the Hub ensures African expertise shapes national, regional, and global climate‑AI policy.

AI development in Africa faces challenges like data gaps, limited skills, and insufficient innovations in key sectors. The Data Innovation Centre for AI tackles these issues in Senegal and beyond by strengthening AI skills, producing high-quality data, fostering responsible AI solutions, and promoting inclusion, particularly for women and disadvantaged groups, in the AI ecosystem.

The Gender and Responsible AI Network (GRAIN) Scaling Hub fosters inclusive AI innovations in Africa, ensuring tools address bias and benefit women and underrepresented groups. It develops guidelines, supports scalable solutions, and engages AI ecosystem actors to promote gender, diversity, and inclusion in AI, advancing responsible and impactful AI for social and economic challenges.

Responsible AI can tackle Africa’s development challenges, but scaling real-world solutions is critical. This project establishes a lab to guide scaling efforts, mentor innovators, and develop use cases, enhancing collaboration and advancing an inclusive AI ecosystem across the continent.

The AI Network of Labs, supported by the AI for Development (AI4D) initiative, connects research and innovation laboratories across Africa to advance responsible, locally relevant artificial intelligence. Operating in multiple countries, the network addresses key development challenges across sectors such as health, agriculture, education, climate, language technologies, and AI governance, while strengthening local capacity and collaboration.

Disease outbreaks are rising globally, especially in climate-vulnerable regions of the Global South. This project scales responsible AI solutions to improve public health preparedness for infectious diseases like malaria and dengue, focusing on underrepresented populations through collaboration with communities, researchers, and policymakers.

Building on its earlier successes, this extended initiative aims to further empower African Union (AU) member states to harness artificial intelligence (AI) responsibly and inclusively to drive sustainable development. Implemented by the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), the project aligns with the African Union’s Continental AI Strategy and emphasizes the role of AI in addressing Africa’s unique challenges, including health, education, food systems, and climate change.

AI is increasingly used in education, but in Africa, its impact is held back by poor data, limited local language support, and ethical concerns. These challenges mostly affect marginalized groups. This project, building on work from the EduAI Hub, will develop AI models in Hausa and Yoruba, create personalized learning tools for underserved communities, and strengthen ethical AI practices in education. The goal is to make education more inclusive and support SDGs 4 and 5.

This project supports Dedan Kimathi University’s Centre for Data Science and AI in Kenya as a multidisciplinary lab. It develops responsible AI innovations for environmental, health, and agricultural challenges, strengthens early-career researcher capacity, and fosters collaboration to grow Africa’s AI ecosystem.

Rwanda sees Artificial Intelligence (AI) as key to transforming into a knowledge-based economy. However, gaps in skills and research remain. The TAIRI Lab at the University of Rwanda builds AI capacity and develops ethical solutions for agriculture, health, and the environment, fostering collaboration, innovation, and responsible AI practices tailored to Rwanda’s needs.

Born out of the AI for Development Funders’ Collaborative, the AI Evidence Alliance for Social Impact is the first phase of a broader collaboration among global funders focused on advancing AI evaluation. It represents a cross-donor effort, co-financed by IDRC, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Community Jameel, and Google.org.

The East African AI Policy Center, led by CIPIT at Strathmore University, advances responsible AI policy in the region. It focuses on ethical, inclusive, and sustainable AI through research, fostering collaboration, addressing power imbalances, and promoting gender awareness. The initiative supports local and regional governments in adopting AI policies tailored to East Africa’s unique needs.

AI is key to achieving sustainable development and economic growth while ensuring sovereignty. This project supports the AI Living Lab in Dakar, Senegal, fostering innovation through a collaborative platform, cutting-edge research on responsible AI, and promotion of AI among youth, decision-makers, and socio-economic actors.

This project establishes the Makerere University AI for Development Research Lab as a leader in responsible AI in Africa. It supports research, capacity building, and solutions for challenges in health, agriculture, climate, and language processing while strengthening a pan-African AI research network.

The AI for Maternal, Sexual, and Reproductive Health Hub in sub-Saharan Africa scales promising AI innovations to improve health outcomes. It strengthens AI innovators’ capacity to develop solutions using large datasets and supports the deployment of AI tools in five countries, including new innovations from an open competition, ensuring ethical and impactful AI applications.