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Indic Voice Technologies for an Inclusive Digital India: Toolkit for Developers

Nihar Desai, Sujith P., Harleen Kaur, Dona Mathew, Jyotsna Jayaram, Padmavathi Prasad, Thomas Vallianeth

Bhashini; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); FAIR Forward – Artificial Intelligence for All (2026), 70 pp.

"This toolkit sets out a layered, lifecycle-oriented approach to building inclusive and robust speech artificial intelligence (AI) systems. It brings together strategies for diverse and representative data collection, linguistically informed model training, rigorous quality control, and deployment o ... more

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Building an Open and Responsible Voice Technology Ecosystem: Policy Recommendations for Digital Inclusion in India

Bhashini; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); FAIR Forward – Artificial Intelligence for All (2026), 57 pp.

"This report examines key barriers to building open and responsible speech systems in India—from data collection and model development to infrastructure and responsible practices. It proposes policy recommendations and governance mechanisms to support an innovative and equitable voice-technology e ... cosystem. Key Recommendations: A. TREATING FOUNDATIONAL DATASETS AS PUBLIC GOODS: Foundational datasets for speech technologies are large, reusable corpora of audio, text, and metadata. They are curated to support a wide array of downstream applications, including automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS), and speech translation. Making foundational datasets available as digital public goods addresses market failures in voice-technology ecosystems and promotes local economic innovation. The report identifies challenges arising from the linguistic diversity and nuance of Indian languages, infrastructural barriers, the absence of common data standards that create governance gaps, and unresolved intellectual property and privacy issues. Policy recommendations for building foundational language datasets include clarifying and revisiting existing laws to enable the use of publicly available material, ensuring sustainable investments supported by government and blended finance techniques, and instituting strong governance systems with shared standards, coordinated repositories, and independent quality assurance. B. BUILDING OPEN AND REPRESENTATIVE MODELS: India’s success in inclusive voice technologies depends on whether speech systems perform well across the country’s linguistic and social diversity. Today, limited openly available datasets, inadequate evaluation benchmarks, and uneven access to compute have resulted in models that perform inconsistently across languages, accents, and demographic groups, especially those from rural, low-resource, or marginalised communities. Strengthening India’s ecosystem requires further investment in data, evaluation, and infrastructure. Benchmarking should be built around open evaluation datasets and transparent leaderboards providing common baselines for developers, improving procurement standards, and helping assess performance across diverse languages and speaker groups. On the infrastructure side, platforms such as Bhashini, ULCA, and AI Kosh offer strong foundations although effective operation hinges on sustained governance, clear access protocols, and long-term funding models. C. INSTITUTIONALISING SUSTAINABLE OPEN-SOURCE INFRASTRUCTURE: Speech datasets place far greater demands on storage, bandwidth, and compute than text data, making the financing and governance of longterm hosting a central challenge for India’s voice-tech ecosystem. A fragmented licensing landscape adds further uncertainty: overlapping or incompatible terms across data, code, model weights, and evaluation sets impose substantial compliance burdens on small actors, while enforcement gaps allow misuse with little recourse. Sustaining open, equitable development requires treating dataset hosting as durable public digital infrastructure rather than grant-based, project-specific assets. By international standards, India’s emerging platforms, such as AI Kosh, provide a remarkable foundation. However, they require longterm funding, transparent governance, and clear access pathways for non-government contributors. Collaborative stewardship models, such as the Mozilla Data Collective, can help establish shared quality norms and consistent metadata conventions. D. STRENGTHENING RESPONSIBLE DEPLOYMENT: Deploying speech technologies responsibly requires more than high-performance models; it depends on safe systems, contextually appropriate use, and clear accountability. Existing data practices lack value-sharing mechanisms, leaving communities and researchers without recognition or benefitsharing, even as their contributions fuel commercial products. Risks of misuse, including voice cloning, phishing, and deepfake-driven misinformation, are rising, and unintended harms like linguistic exclusion, biased performance across accents and genders, and the erosion of regional language identities remain widespread. Addressing these gaps requires structural guardrails that embed fairness, transparency, and accountability into deployment workflows. Preventing misuse demands a combination of technical safeguards, stronger legal pathways, and widespread public literacy efforts to help users recognise risks and exercise their rights. The report argues that a strong ecosystem requires more than innovation funding. Building open-source foundations—including language datasets, standards, collection protocols and responsible AI frameworks—promotes demand-driven local innovation. It is therefore essential that the state plays an active, shaping role, much as it has in the development of digital public infrastructure. In the context of voice technology, this involves both investing in commercially viable languages and sustaining low-resource languages that are vital for inclusion but unlikely to attract private capital. Open-source assets can reduce costs for the public and private sector alike. However, they demand long-term planning and financing for hosting, maintenance, and updates. These assets can be supported through blended-finance models that pool public, philanthropic, and commercial resources. Emerging national initiatives, such as the proposed AI marketplaces, can further structure participation, transparency, and value-sharing across data, annotation, and deployable models." (Executive summary, pages 9-11) more

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Advancing Open Source AI in India: Recommendations for Governments & Technology Developers

Aarushi Gupta, Anushka Jain, Urvashi Aneja, Shreeja Sen

Bonn; Delhi; Noida (IN): Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); FAIR Forward – Artificial Intelligence for All; NASSCOM (2026), 80 pp.

"[...] this brief positions open source AI as a strategic policy option within India’s evolving AI ecosystem. It unpacks the critical importance of openness for India’s digital future, crystallising the key opportunities it offers to governments and developers alike. In doing so, it also explore ... more

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Handbook on Data Protection and Privacy for Developers of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in India

Ajey Karthik, Aman Taneja, Sreenidhi Srinivasan, Vidushi Sinha

New Delhi: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); FAIR Forward – Artificial Intelligence for All (2026), 117 pp.

"This Handbook is designed as a practical guide for developers of AI systems, especially from early-stage startups, to navigate data protection obligations and ethical considerations, in a clear and actionable manner. Rather than serving as a comprehensive legal or technical manual, the Handbook co ... more

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„Hi, how may I assist you?” Chatbots for Better Service Delivery. Practical Guide, Applications and Principles in Development Cooperation
Key Guides

Daniel Brumund, Prashant Pratap Singh, Lisa Werkmeister

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2026), 48 pp.

"The guide provides lessons-learnt for building AI chatbots and explores: motivations and requirements for developing a chatbot; functional types of AI chatbots suitable for different projects; content and knowledge base behind chatbots; technological architectures for AI chatbots; steering and man ... more

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Invisible Workers, Visible Harms: Perils and Precarities of AI Labour

Aapti Institute

Bonn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2026), 40 pp.

"Across South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, data workers operate within fragmented and opaque supply chains characterised by informal employment arrangements, limited social protections, and a profound imbalance of power between workers, vendors, and the global technology firms that ... more

Developing an Artificial Intelligence Maturity Assessment Framework for South Africa. First Annual AI Maturity Assessment 2025

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); FAIR Forward – Artificial Intelligence for All; University of the Western Cape (UWC) (2025), 107 pp.

"The South African AI MAF serves as a foundational tool for guiding the country’s progress towards AI maturity and is tailored to the country’s unique socioeconomic, cultural, and technological realities. It furthermore aligns with broader continental ambitions (i.e. African Union’s 2024 Conti ... nental AI Strategy), which reflects a strong commitment to leveraging AI for sustainable development. This implies the ethical and inclusive development and implementation of AI in ways that address local challenges. In South Africa, GIZ, through the FAIR Forward project, has collaborated closely with the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and researchers from the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to develop the AI Maturity Assessment Framework (AI MAF) for South Africa. A design-science methodology was applied to develop the AI MAF for South Africa. The approach involved a structured literature review process, co-design workshops with cross-sectoral stakeholders, expert interviews, validation workshops and external expert review. This first version of the AI MAF consists of eight domains: Domain 1: International and Continental Profile as AI Leader Domain 2: An Enabling Regulatory Environment Domain 3: Citizen Engagement With and Empowerment Through AI Domain 4: Education and Workforce Enablement Domain 5: Innovation and Research Domain 6: Growth of the AI Ecosystem Domain 7: Data and Digital Infrastructure Domain 8: Security and Privacy Each domain includes sub-domains with specific indicators. A total of 68 indicators are included in this 2025 instrument, aimed at reflecting the country’s unique socioeconomic, cultural, and technological realities. An assessment instrument (rubric) to measure the level of maturity of these eight domains was adapted from the maturity measurement scale set out in ISO 37004 (Governance Maturity Model – Guidance). It reflects the structured progression of the ISO standards, employing a maturity scale that ranges from Level 0 (No evidence) to Level 5 (Continual optimisation or improvement). It is grounded in the principle of evidence-based assessment, evaluating maturity through the lens of activities and inputs (Levels 1–2) that lead to measurable outcomes and impact (Levels 3–5). The application of this instrument in the first iteration of assessing AI maturity in South Africa indicated that the country is in the early stages of AI maturity, with seven of the eight domains assessed at Levels 1–2 on the maturity scale, and only one domain reaching Level 3. This suggests that all domains demonstrate some level of foundational ‘input activities’, signalling a positive intent and growing awareness of the importance and relevance of AI, with some initial movement towards demonstrating positive outcomes. Overall, the generally low maturity scores indicate that progress across the domains is fragmented. This could be attributed to still limited strategic ecosystem coordination, targeted investment and capability building. The evidence-based approach enables a reflection of the South African landscape and supports strategic alignment across government, industry, and academia. The framework and interactive dashboard – developed through this project to enable accessible visualisation of the data – serve as foundational reference points for supporting South Africa’s evolving AI ecosystem. An AI agent developed as part of the initiative facilitates regular updates, helping ensure that the AI MAF remains a relevant strategic tool." (Executive summary, pages 8-10) more

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AI and Data Science Bootcamp for Women and Minoritised Groups: Impact Report

Luisa Olaya, Deshni Govender, Abeera Dubey, Jocelyn Mukamisha, Mary Seiwah

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); FAIR Forward; Intel (2025), vii, 35 pp.

"The AI and Data Science Bootcamp for Women and Minoritised Groups was designed to actively address the diversity gap in the AI field by lowering the entry barriers that women and minoritised groups face and empowering them with advanced technical and personal development skills to succeed in the AI ... more

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Mitigating the Risks of Political Microtargeting: Guidance for Policymakers, Civil Society, and Development Cooperation
Deep Insights

Key Guides

Jacob Kröger, Emilia Errenst, Niklas Nau et al.

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2024), 63 pp.

"Digital technology has revolutionized how political ads are delivered and consumed, giving political campaigns increased possibilities to target and tailor their messaging to specific audiences—a practice known as political microtargeting (PMT). While PMT has potential benefits for society, it al ... more

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AI for Climate Action: Applications and Principles in Development Cooperation

Katelin Butler, Moritz Harzbecher, Sven Marc Egbers, Lea Voigt, Erik Lehmann, Ruth Schmidt

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2024), 16 pp.

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Scaling toolkit: A guide to scaling (digital) innovation in international cooperation

Jan Schröder, Pierre Golbach

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2024), 47 pp.

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Manual: Forum Theatre in Peacebuilding. With Experiences from Jordan

Lisenka Sedlacek, Anne Dirnstorfer

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2024), 62 pp.

"This manual offers both practical and theoretical insights into the methodology of the Forum Theatre. It is offered as a resource for youth workers wishing to use the methodology to engage young people towards positive social change. The different chapters offer guidance on how to design a Forum Th ... more

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Mentorship toolkit: Creating sustainable business and funding models with open source AI

Villgro Africa

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); FAIR Forward - Artificial Intelligence for All (2024), 48 pp.

"This toolkit is designed to help you create and run a successful mentorship program that will support and empower opensource AI entrepreneurs to develop sustainable businesses and funding models for their projects. Open source AI is a rapidly growing field that offers many opportunities for innovat ... more

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Mapping of Actors: Identification of Potential Cooperation Partners for Media Outlets in the Western Balkans

Amra Kapo

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); Internews; Deutsche Welle DW Akademie (2023), 59 pp.

"In this study we identify and elaborate at least six components of the digital media ecosystem: (1) content creators and distributors; (2) consumers/users; (3) monetization channels; (4) advertising networks, (5) data analytics and insights and (6) social media, streaming and e-commerce platforms. ... Qualitative findings have revealed four major traits of the digital media ecosystem in Western Balkans: (1) market underdevelopment (the market significantly lags behind the developed countries); (2) financial constraints (media outlets are not resourceful enough and lack funding to use advanced services digital media ecosystem offers); (3) media dynamics and technological uptake (traditional media outlets recognize the opportunity in digital media and mostly possess digital channels as secondary screens to their main formats, with larger media also utilizing the opportunities of YouTube and podcast format); (4) driven by donors or media outside of WB (independent media outlets are mainly driven by donors and external investments. Furthermore, the main reasons for slower progress in the media landscape and with media outlets in Western Balkans are identified in the study, namely: (1) economic challenges, (2) lack of infrastructure, (3) regulatory environment, (3) media ownership and control, (4) lack of training and skills and (5) monetization challenges. Each of these reasons are elaborated, with the support of arguments from the primary study. Comprehensive maps of media outlets and IT companies in the Western Balkans are created, with detailed lists of both categories provided. Here, it can be concluded that there are plenty of actors in both sectors as well as the sector is growing. The study further groups media outlets into three main categories, taking the level of digital transformation and technology adoption: (1) advanced media outlets, (2) media outlets undergoing transformation, and (3) traditional media outlets. In terms of IT companies, and general in the IT sector, which is very prolific in the region, the study selected ones that demonstrate innovativeness and an advanced assortment of services and products, positioning them as potential collaborators for media outlets seeking to improve their digital presence, engagement strategies, and content delivery mechanisms." (Executive summary, pages 1-2) more

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Artificial Intelligence Practitioner's Guide: Kenya

Bonn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2023), 77 pp.

"Kenya is the third most innovative economy in sub-Saharan Africa, behind Mauritius and South Africa. (Oxford Insights, 2022, pp.44-46). Therefore, this Artificial Intelligence Practitioners’ Guide (the Guide) has been developed to address AI’s disruption in the tech and legal sector in Kenya. T ... more

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Creating Community-Driven Datasets: Insights from Mozilla Common Voice Activities in East Africa

Jan Krewer

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2023), 23 pp.

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Conflict Sensitive Media Work within the Civil Peace Service (CPS)

Suzanne Gentges, Karin Bridger, Faith Chege et al.

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2023), 11 pp.

"The media plays an important role in shaping public discourse on current issues - especially in conflict situations. Depending on the reporting, media can either exacerbate conflicts or contribute to their de-escalation and constructive management. The aim of CPS's work in this field, is to support ... partner organizations that work on conflict-sensitive media content. Training courses for journalists and media professionals raise awareness of the consequences of their reporting and the resulting responsibility. Core principles of conflict-sensitive media work are independence, transparency, no manipulation, identification of problems as well as possible solutions, and consideration of different perspectives. This enables readers, listeners, and viewers to have access to objective information, to form their own opinions and to be oriented towards solutions. Journalists and media professionals have the power to positively influence public discourse, provide an inclusive and safe space for dialogue and exchange, and contribute to nonviolent conflict transformation. Our partners focus on the intersection of media and conflict transformation. Their conflict-sensitive media work is aimed at providing media professionals with concepts, methods, and strategies for analyzing and understanding conflicts and their dynamics. Further, they explore the possibilities of exerting a de-escalating and peace-promoting influence on the presentation of conflicts through informed, differentiated, and sensitive reporting. A variety of approaches are used to strengthen conflict-sensitive media work at the individual, local, community and institutional levels and to bring about societal change. [...] Initiatives and activities of our CPS partners include: Designing training modules on conflict-sensitive media work and non-violent communication; creating a wide range of media products, including radio shows and dramas, photographs, visualized interviews, television, theater performances, articles, features, online media, vlogging, blogging, comic books, murals, or paintings; bringing together diverse groups in conflict to report on divisive issues; creating communities of practice for learning, listening, and sharing; establishing monitoring and evaluation structures to assess the impact of products; organizing peer-to-peer exchanges in labs, conferences, and roundtables. On the following pages, nine countries in which the CPS runs projects provide insights into their respective conflict-sensitive media work." (Page 1) more

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Social and Behaviour Change Strategy. Volume I: Policy & Strategic Approach

Adrita Bagchi

New Delhi: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2022), 127 pp.

"The Government of Madhya Pradesh is committed to ensure the overall development of all its residents, especially women and children. The Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) works to sustainably improve health and nutrition outcomes for women of reproductive age and children below 6 yea ... rs, enable holistic development and protection of children and ensure safety, equity and empowerment of women. The department implements the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme for improving maternal and infant nutrition and health. It also implements the Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS) and various other schemes and programmes for health, gender equality and women empowerment. Over the years, a lot of progress has been made. However, there are still a few indicators that are not doing well as expected. Census 2011, National Family Health Survey – 4 (2015-16) and NFHS-5 (2019-21) have found that low sex ratio, lack of women empowerment, experiencing gender-based violence, substance abuse, low female literacy, child marriage and small landholdings are some of the determinants of poor health and empowerment of women and children. Individual and community behaviours, attitudes, social norms and practices are some of the reasons for such indicators. To bring about an improvement in these indicators and positively transform the status of women and children in Madhya Pradesh, a comprehensive state-specific social and behaviour change (SBC) strategy has been developed for DWCD. This strategy is supported by the recommendations provided in the department’s other policies. The state’s Nutrition Policy (2020-30) emphasizes on the importance of designing SBCC plans in local dialects for its acceptability and greater involvement of the community. The centre’s Poshan Abhiyan which DWCD follows stresses on community mobilisation and behaviour change, highlighting the need to take-up sustained efforts requiring multi-pronged approach and bring grass-root synergy and convergence. The state’s Child Protection Policy (2020) also highlights the need to build awareness and stakeholder capacities to strengthen implementation and the enabling environment to ensure child well-being and protection. This document details the SBC strategy which includes thematic area-wise priority and desired behaviours that should be practised by the target groups for improved indicators, barriers and enablers to its adoption, key messages to be communicated and strategic approach and interventions that will facilitate positive change." (Introduction) more

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The Influence of Gender-Based Online Violence on Political and Societal Participation of Women and Girls

Bonn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2022), 19 pp.

"Several projects, publications and initiatives within German development cooperation already focus on bridging the digital gender divide, for instance by promoting gender-equitable internet access, digital literacy and employment opportunities in the tech sector. This paper aims to build on existin ... more

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A study paper on human-centred cybersecurity: Kenyan Fintech sector

Grace Githaiga, Victor Kapiyo, Mwendwa Kivuva

Bonn; Eschborn: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) (2022), 37 pp.

„Hi, how may I assist you?” Chatbots for Better Service Delivery. Practical Guide, Applications and Principles in Development Cooperation Key Guides

Mitigating the Risks of Political Microtargeting: Guidance for Policymakers, Civil Society, and Development Cooperation Deep Insights Key Guides

„Hi, how may I assist you?” Chatbots for Better Service Delivery. Practical Guide, Applications and Principles in Development Cooperation
Key Guides

Mitigating the Risks of Political Microtargeting: Guidance for Policymakers, Civil Society, and Development Cooperation
Deep Insights

Key Guides