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Mapping the information integrity landscape in West Africa: An annotated bibliography

Zara Schoeder, Liz Orembo, Marie Batista

Cape Town: Research ICT Africa (2025), 26 pp.

"This annotated bibliography is organised into four sections. Section 1 demonstrates how disinformation emerges as the most prominent topic in the literature on information integrity. Several different kinds of agents of disinformation operate within West Africaʼs information sphere. These range fr ... om political actors and interest groups to foreign entities and social media influencers. Each exploits social fault lines to sway public opinion, particularly in the lead-up to elections and during conflicts. An organised network of influence narratives – which can sometimes be complex and include both local and foreign disinformation-for-hire merchants complemented by a network of informed but polarised citizens – forms part of the machinery of political campaigns. This machinery transcends elections to become a way of governance as governments continue to rely on it to deflect accountability and manipulate public discourse. Section 2 describes the events around which information disorders are promoted. During periods of political instability, elections, or armed conflicts, information disorders often emerge as key drivers of mass action. In these contexts, disinformation and hate speech are weaponised to incite violence, manipulate public sentiment, and deepen ethnic and religious divisions. Ethnicity and religion frequently become fault lines that disinformation campaigns exploit to divide communities and trigger mass actions such as violent protests, or for widespread voter manipulation. In the case of elections, disinformation is used to sway voter opinions by distorting candidatesʼ positions or spreading fabricated narratives about political opponents. Likewise, in conflict situations, armed groups and militant organisations may use information disorders to recruit new members by promoting extremist ideologies, spreading fear, or creating a sense of urgency. Politicians and conflict groups alike have learned to manipulate these divisions for their agendas, making information integrity a critical issue for social cohesion, democratic stability, and peacebuilding in the region. Section 3 covers literature on fact-checking as one of the measures to mitigate information disorders. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can scale up fact-checking efforts by detecting and scaling up the distribution of correct information. However, even using AI for fact-checking experiences significant limitations. For example, local languages make it hard for AI to detect disinformation and hate speech in all instances. When misinformation is shared on instant messaging platforms like Telegram channels it is also difficult for an ordinary user to detect. Section 4 covers media literacy as an antidote to information disorders, especially disinformation. UNESCO has been at the forefront of addressing information integrity issues in West Africa through its research and media literacy programmes. Recognising the role of accurate and reliable information in fostering peace, democracy, and development, UNESCO has sought to promote the importance of information integrity by partnering with governments, civil society organisations, and media outlets to combat disinformation. Additionally, UNESCOʼs media literacy programmes aim to empower citizens with the skills to critically evaluate and engage with information, fostering a more informed and resilient public.8 These initiatives are particularly important in an era where digital media plays such a significant role in shaping opinions and driving political discourse." (Introduction, pages 3-4) more

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Outsourcing accountability: Extractive data practice and inequities of power in humanitarian third-party monitoring

Stephanie Diepeveen, John Bryant, Wasuge Mahad

Big Data & Society, issue January–March (2025), 14 pp.

"Since the early 2010s, humanitarian donors have increasingly contracted private firms to monitor and evaluate humanitarian activities, accompanied by a promise of improving accountability through their data and data analytics. This article contributes to scholarship on data practices in the humanit ... more

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Intelligence artificielle et robotique autonome: Enjeux et défis contemporains dans l’espace francophone

Etienne Damome, Moustapha Ben Ismïila Diaby (eds.)

Paris: L'Harmattan (2025), 358 pp.

"Cet ouvrage propose une analyse nuancée des transformations induites par l'IA et la robotique autonome dans l'espace francophone. Il insiste sur son potentiel à façonner durablement les sociétés contemporaines. S'appuyant sur des exemples concrets et des études de cas, l'ouvrage fournit un ca ... more

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Community Building through the Airwaves RefFM Radio Station and Young People in Kakuma

Valentina Baú, Michael Omandi Owiso

Journal of Radio & Audio Media, volume 32, issue 2 (2025), pp. 261-280

"This paper examines the role that community radio can play in a refugee camp, with particular focus on community building and social cohesion among young people. The article introduces the experience of RefFM in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. Findings from four focus groups with young refugees in Kaku ... more

Mapping Information Environments for Marginalised Communities in Central and Eastern Africa

Minority Rights Group

Canal France International (CFI); Advancing Global Innovation and Learning Effectively to Build Resilience in Independent Media (AGILE) (2025), 50 pp.

"1. In rural areas, word of mouth is often the only information system that works: In the DRC, over 80% of media outlets are clustered in the capital Kinshasa, leaving vast rural areas effectively without coverage. Ethnic minority groups such as the Batwa and Bambuti rated the relevance of the infor ... mation they receive at 0.5 out of 3, considering it to be "never relevant”. In these communities, access to information depends less on digital innovation than on trusted local networks: local leaders, women’s groups, grassroots organisations. These systems re resilient, but they are not infallible - information shared informally can be incomplete, delayed, or distorted before it reaches its intended audience. AGILE will support more accessible and inclusive information by working with trusted local intermediaries, community networks, and communication channels that already form the backbone of information access for marginalised communities. 2. Radio is still the backbone of information access – and it is under threat: In Uganda, 87% of respondents reported having a working radio at home. In Zambia, around 60% of the population listens to radio daily. In the DRC, more than 4,000 radio stations serve communities across the country. In a region where digital access remains unequal, radio is not a legacy medium - it is the primary information lifeline for millions. But this ecosystem is now under severe pressure. Following the cut to US foreign aid in 2025, community radio stations, that relied primarily on this funding source, face an uncertain future. Where community radio disappears, so does the locally rooted, trusted voice that keeps misinformation in check and civic life alive. AGILE will work with community radios, local organisations, and trusted community networks to help information reach people in more accessible and relevant ways. 3. Language is the most underestimated barrier, and communities have a clear ask: When asked what would most improve the information they receive, communities across all four countries gave a consistent answer: Translate it into our languages, and simplify it. Language is the decisive and most consistently underestimated barrier to information access. Official communications, media broadcasts, and humanitarian messages are routinely produced in dominant administrative languages that large parts of the population do not fully understand. Even where people speak the dominant language, technical jargon and bureaucratic phrasing can produce near-total incomprehension. On average, marginalised community members report understanding the language used in information only “sometimes”. In the DRC, ethnic minorities rate their comprehension between “rarely” and “sometimes”. In Tanzania, Hadzabe and Akie communities whose languages are oral and rarely represented in any media, rate their comprehension at the bottom of the scale. In contrast, Zambia is the only country where ethnic minorities rated their language comprehension as "often" adequate, a direct result of community radio broadcasting in multiple local languages. Respondents described asking their school-going children to explain official broadcasts, or depending on religious leaders or NGO staff to interpret messages. As information passes through multiple intermediaries, it can be delayed, simplified, or distorted - sometimes significantly - before reaching the people who need it. AGILE will prioritise multilingual, audio-first, and simplified content production across all activities co-designed with community radios, women's groups, and disability organisations to ensure that the needs of different communities are better reflected. 4. When information doesn't reflect communities' realities, they stop trusting it - or stop receiving it altogether: Accuracy is necessary but not sufficient. Communities are more likely to engage with - and trust - information when it reflects their realities and responds to their everyday concerns. When it doesn't, they disengage. Women across all four countries described a consistent pattern: stories about gender issues may be factually correct, but they "fail to reflect women's lived realities, rendering them irrelevant”. In the DRC, women's comprehension of information is rated as “rarely” adequate - not because they cannot understand the language, but because the content does not speak to their lives. The pattern is even sharper for some ethnic minorities. Maasai respondents described appearing in the media “rarely on their own terms” - their way of life consistently framed as a problem to be solved, rather than a legitimate system with its own logic and history. Several communities reported being exposed to derogatory language and hate speech in the way they are described in media. For people with disabilities, the exclusion takes a different form: the near-total absence of accessible formats. Across all four countries, sign language, braille, and audio-adapted content remain the exception rather than the rule. Information that cannot be accessed cannot be trusted - or used. AGILE will work more closely with marginalised communities to ensure their perspectives, experiences, and ways of understanding information are reflected in media and communication efforts. 5. Inclusive reporting already exists but journalists still face major barriers: Across all four countries, many journalists and media professionals recognise the importance of more inclusive, community-focused reporting. The mapping found this awareness to be widespread - the gap is not one of knowledge or intent, but of resources and conditions. Putting inclusive reporting into practice remains difficult. Covering remote communities takes time and money that most newsrooms do not have. Editorial priorities favour urban, mainstream audiences. In Zambia, several journalists described stories about marginalised communities as regularly sidelined because they are considered “unprofitable”. In the DRC and Tanzania, political and legal pressures further narrow the space for sensitive reporting. The result is a gap between what journalists know needs to happen, and what the system allows them to do. AGILE will support media professionals, community radios, and local organisations to strengthen inclusive reporting practices, improve community engagement, and produce information that is more accessible, relevant, and responsive to the needs of marginalised communities." (https://cfi.fr/en/news/5-things-we-learned-about-access-information-underserved-communities-central-and-eastern-africa) more

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The Political Economy of Indigenous Local Media for Minority Languages in Zimbabwe: A Case of Lyeja FM Community Radio

Limukani Mathe, Gilbert Motsaathebe

Journal of Asian and African Studies, volume 60, issue 1 (2025), pp. 5-17

"This article analyses the political economy of indigenous language media for minority ethnolinguistic groups in Zimbabwe. Using political economy as theory, the study engaged members of Lyeja-Nyai Development Trust to analyse socio-cultural and political challenges for Lyeja FM community radio of t ... more

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Batswana support press freedom and media’s watchdog role

Mogopodi Lekorwe, Wilford Molefe, Kefentse P. Malele

Afrobarometer (2025), 12 pp.

"Three-fourths (74%) of Batswana say they are gsomewhat freeh or gcompletely freeh to say what they think, although 24% disagree. The share who feel free to speak their minds is up by 6 percentage points since 2022 (68%) but remains below the historic high of 93% in 2008. Botswana ranks abov ... more

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African Media and Communication: Foundational Conversations

Viola C. Milton, Winston Mano (eds.)

Oxford; New York: Routledge (2025), 380 pp.

"This book provides an important set of critical reflections from a selection of foundational scholars of African media and communication studies through biographical method. The book interrogates the center of mainstream academic scholarship by providing the foundational history and origins of an A ... more

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Why trust the media? Research-based explanations for a high level of trust in Radio Ndeke Luka in the Central African Republic

Katharina Botzenhardt, Johann R. P. W. Cardinaux, Federico Di Bartolomeo, Sina Engl et al.

St. Gallen (CH): Universität St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science (2025), 56 pp.

"While several contextual factors in the Central African Republic militate against the high trust in media outlets, especially those that receive foreign funding, a large share of the population trusts Radio Ndeke Luka (RNL). Trust describes a relationship between the media (i.e., the trustee) and ... its audience (i.e., the trustors). The audience makes itself vulnerable to media content based on the expectation that the media will perform satisfactorily. However, what satisfactory media performance means depends on the specific context of the media outlet. Research-based explanations suggest that the characteristics of individual audience members, the attributes of the media outlet, and the media environment itself matter for whether people trust a media outlet. For RNL in the Central African Republic, the patterns of media consumption and the dominance of radio are likely key to explaining the high level of trust in RNL. Research also suggests that several attributes of RNL explain high trust in the station, including the proximity of its content, medium, and journalists to local audiences; the high quality of reporting (e.g., clarity, objectiveness, and educational value); and its factchecking efforts. Finally, the absence of credible domestic alternative media sources and the lack of state-provided public services may contribute to high trust in RNL. [...] In the Central African Republic, most people listen to RNL via hand-held FM receiver radios. RNL's FM signal coverage is broad, and it largely fulfils its mission to provide reliable information to people in conflict-affected areas. However, it does not yet cover all urban areas (e.g., Kaga-Bandoro is outside RNL's signal coverage) and neglects some violence-prone border areas in the northwest. Using audience surveys from 2022 and 2024 in and around major towns in the Central African Republic, our preliminary analysis suggests that media consumption patterns (e.g., the dominance of radio over TV and social media) are indeed key to explaining high trust in RNL. We also find that perceptions of RNL reporting, e.g., its clarity, balance, and objectivity, explain trust in RNL. As expected, the audience survey data furthermore suggest that several context-specific characteristics likely explain variation in trust across locations in the Central African Republic. For example, state presence and public goods provision seem to correlate with lower trust in RNL. Finally, we show that RNL extended its coverage over time to areas where credible information provision is most needed, i.e., areas suffering from high levels of violence." (Executive summary) more

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Bridging digital gaps in a mobile device age: Evidence from community telecentres in Ghana

Daniel Azerikatoa Ayoung, Frederic Naazi-Ale Baada, Oswin Aganda Anaba, Augustine Aduko Alu

African Journal of Empirical Research, volume 6, issue 3 (2025), pp. 776-792

"This study explores the usefulness of Community Information Centres (CICs) amidst growing ubiquity of mobile phones. It examines how CICs can play a complementary role to personal mobile phones, specifically in facilitating access to information that translates into social and economic progress. Th ... more

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Media, Culture, and Decolonization: Re-righting the Subaltern Histories of Ghana

Wunpini Fatimata Mohammed

New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press (2025), 184 pp.

"Through Dagbaŋ epistemologies and knowledge systems, this book examines media by highlighting how African languages, cultures, and traditions can shift how we think of knowledge. It is an offering to anyone curious about the relationship between culture, language, and media. By focusing on African ... more

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Ugandans support free media that holds government accountable

Jane Mercy Muthoni Kamunyi

Afrobarometer (2025), 10 pp.

"Findings from the Afrobarometer Round 9 survey (2022) show that a strong majority of Ugandans supported media freedom and believed the media should play a watchdog role by investigating and reporting on government mistakes and corruption. Most citizens said the public should have access to governme ... more

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The State of Large Language Models for African Languages: Progress and Challenges

Kedir Yassin Hussen, Walelign Tewabe Sewunetie, Abinew Ali Ayele, Sukairaj Hafiz Imam, Eyob Nigussie Alemu, Shamsuddeen Hassan Muhammad, Seid Muhie Yimam

arXiv.org (2025), 25 pp.

"Large Language Models (LLMs) are transforming Natural Language Processing (NLP), but their benefits are largely absent for Africa’s 2,000 low-resource languages. This paper comparatively analyzes African language coverage across six LLMs, eight Small Language Models (SLMs), and six Specialized SL ... more

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The African Book Industry: Trends, Challenges & Opportunities for Growth
Deep Insights

Paris: UNESCO (2025), 249 pp.

"Thanks to its outstanding literary talent and growing number of success stories, Africa’s book industry holds immense potential. Although the continent as a whole still relies heavily on imports and foreign publishing houses, it accounted for 5.4% of the global publishing market in 2023, generati ... more

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Ruanda 1994 bis heute: Vom Vorhof der Hölle zum Modell für Afrika - Wahrheit und Schein in Ruanda

Gerd Hankel

Bonn: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb), Sonderausg. (2025), 170 pp.

"1994 kam es in Ruanda zu einem Völkermord, bei dem radikale Angehörige der Bevölkerungsgruppe der Hutus innerhalb von drei Monaten Hundertausende Menschen aus der Tutsi-Minderheit wie auch viele gemäßigte Hutus umbrachten. Gut 30 Jahre später gilt Ruanda vor allem in Europa und den USA als Vo ... more

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Global thematic evaluation of EU actions to counter disinformation and foreign interference and manipulation of information (FIMI). Contract N° 300109186, Final Report

Per Oesterlund, Vesna Salaj, Andrei Richter, Tanja Hafner Ademi, Jawad Wariaghli, Suzanne Moll Moll

European Commission; Particip (2025), 357 pp.

"This Global Thematic Evaluation of EU Actions to Counter Disinformation and Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) assessed 45 Actions funded by the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI) since 2021, with a combined budget of around €100 million. The portfolio covered Afri ... ca, Asia, Latin America, and the EU Neighbourhood and Enlargement regions, spanning media literacy, fact-checking, journalism support, and targeted counter-disinformation initiatives. The evaluation reviewed all Actions and analysed 12 in depth, combining desk research, surveys, interviews, and six field missions. Relevance: The Actions were broadly relevant to EU commitments on countering disinformation and FIMI, aligning with the IcSP/FPI mandate and the EEAS Stratcom agenda, and responding to the concrete needs of journalists, fact-checkers, and civil society in fragile contexts. Flexibility allowed rapid mobilisation, which was widely valued. However, strategic articulation was weak: many Actions remained stand-alone or implementer-driven, without clear embedding in a wider EU counter-FIMI strategy. The portfolio was largely reactive, drawing little on foresight capacities, and emerging themes such as gendered disinformation, climate/environmental narratives, digital security, or psychosocial support were rarely addressed systematically. Effectiveness: Most Actions were implemented as planned, despite serious disruptions, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine or weak digital infrastructure in some contexts. Outcomes, however, were uneven: ambitious objectives were often poorly matched with measurable indicators, making achievements difficult to evidence. Implementing Partners with local credibility and contextual expertise proved decisive, while those lacking local embeddedness delivered weaker or short-lived results. Innovations such as AI-driven tools demonstrated potential but struggled with uptake due to usability issues, lack of long-term financing models, and limited cooperation from social media platforms. Effectiveness was consistently higher where in-country engagement (for example through EU Delegations) and cooperation with the EEAS and other services successfully linked projects to EU policy efforts, ensuring stronger coordination. Efficiency: The IcSP/FPI instrument proved flexible and resilient, with most Actions delivered broadly on time and within budget, even in fragile and high-risk environments. A rapid budget review confirmed significant variation in cost distribution, ranging from highly cost-effective interventions to projects where management and overheads absorbed disproportionate resources. Variation is expected in a diverse portfolio, but the absence of common budgetary parameters constrained comparability and transparency. Efficiency was higher where Actions partnered with trusted local organisations, leveraged existing infrastructure, and were designed for scalability. At the same time, duplication occurred in some cases (e.g. overlapping AI initiatives), reflecting limited technical coordination. Digital security and GDPR compliance were also weakly addressed in several Actions handling sensitive data, raising risks and inefficiencies. EU Added Value: The EU’s added value was evident in its neutrality and legitimacy, enabling access in contexts where Member States faced political constraints. The rapid-response capacity of FPI was a distinct comparative advantage, with activities launched in weeks rather than months. The EU’s ability to operate at scale and across regions added weight and reach to counter-FIMI efforts. However, visibility of EU support was often low, with Delegations sometimes deliberately keeping a low profile in sensitive environments. Weak articulation of Team Europe further limited collective EU impact and visibility. Coherence: Cooperation with EEAS Stratcom and certain Commission DGs (INTPA, CONNECT, RTD) was constructive, providing continuity and complementarity. At Action level, collaboration between FPI, Delegations, and Implementing Partners generally worked well. Nonetheless, internal coherence remained a challenge: there was no common prioritisation framework, and lesson-sharing across Actions and regions was mostly informal and ad hoc. Coordination with Member States varied: in some countries, EUDs and national embassies worked closely together, while in others MS distanced themselves from sensitive projects. Team Europe approaches were therefore inconsistently applied, limiting collective visibility and strategic weight. Sustainability and impact: Sustainability was strongest where Actions were embedded in credible institutions, such as Strategic Communication Centres in Moldova and Ukraine. Stand-alone platforms and networks often collapsed once funding ended, unless informal peer-to-peer groups were deliberately nurtured. Training effects were fragile due to staff turnover and limited institutional uptake. Many platforms and dashboards lacked handover or financing models, leaving investments vulnerable. These gaps reflect the structural trade-off of a rapid-response instrument: immediacy and flexibility often take precedence over sustainability. At impact level, Actions delivered visible results at micro and meso levels (skills, peer learning, new tools), but systemic change in disinformation dynamics was neither realistic nor evidenced at current scale. Weak outcome-level monitoring further limited the ability to demonstrate incremental long-term effects." (Executive summary, page iv-v) more

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Who Makes the News? Progress on a Plateau. Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) Special Edition: 30-year Findings on Change in Gender Equality In and Through the World News Media
Deep Insights

Sarah Macharia, Maximiliano Dueñas Guzmán, Rodrigo Molina et al.

Toronto: World Association of Christian Communication (WACC); Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) (2025), 123 pp.

"This report presents the findings of the seventh iteration of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) global snapshot, based on 30,049 news articles containing 58,563 people and 26,708 news personnel in 94 countries on the 7th global monitoring day, May 6, 2025. Key Findings: 1. Thirty years a ... go, the report of the first GMMP called for a shift in coverage beyond the male-dominated realms of political and economic power. Not only has the hierarchy of “hard news” in legacy media persisted across time, it has also crossed over into digital outlets. 2. Digitalization did not bring a radical break from the patriarchal norms of traditional journalism. Instead, it continues to reinforce and amplify a news hierarchy that privileges spheres and issues centred on power, namely, those dominated by men. The challenge is threefold. First, to dismantle the “hard news” bias, second, to integrate more intentionally spaces and issues of greater concern to women, and third, to enable visibility and voice to women present in traditionally male-dominated spaces. 3. After a period of slow but steady improvement, progress toward gender parity in the news has flatlined since around 2010, failing to reach 50% in any media type. Thirty years after Beijing, women are 26% of those seen, heard, or spoken about in legacy news (29% on news websites). The needle has shifted 9 points in legacy media since 1995, and 4 points in online news during the past 10 years. Minority groups are five points more likely to be present in digital news than in legacy media. The probability of minority women being featured in the news as the main protagonists or as interviewees is two in a hundred in traditional media (3% for men) and 4% on news websites (5% for men). 4. Women’s visibility in political and economic news beats has increased significantly – by 15 points each – over the past three decades. The severe underrepresentation noted in 1995 (7% in political news, 10% in economic news) has improved. Women’s presence in sports news is abysmal, at only 15% of news subjects and sources. 5. The proportion of women providing expert testimony has grown remarkably over the decades, showing the highest increase (+7 points) in digital news since 2015. In legacy media, the gender gap in authoritative roles as experts and spokespersons has closed at a slower pace than for persons providing testimony based on popular opinion and personal experience – ordinary roles that require no specialized knowledge. 6. Patterns of gender-biased portrayal endure despite decades of change in women’s roles in the real world. Women have remained about twice as likely as men to be portrayed as victims since 2010. Historically, women were most often portrayed as victims of accidents or poverty. This pattern was overturned in 2025, with “other crime” and “domestic violence” (by intimate partners and family members) becoming the top victim categories. Women depicted as survivors in legacy media were most likely to have survived “accidents, natural disasters, poverty, and disease” in previous GMMP studies. In 2025, they are most frequently portrayed as domestic violence survivors in equal proportion to accident/disaster survivors. The over-representation of women as homemakers/parents decreased from 81% in 2000 to 73% in 2025, indicating some progress, albeit a persistent journalistic bias toward defining women by domestic roles, despite women’s current unprecedented engagement in work outside the home. Underrepresentation in occupations and in positions of power has remained consistent. The tendency to describe women by their age and physical attributes has also persisted. They have been photographed more often than men (a 7–9-point difference) over the past two decades, with qualitative analysis continuing to show patterns of sexualised portrayal [...]" (Key findings, pages 2-3) more

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Entfernte Nachbarn / distant neighbours / vizinhos distantes: Transnationale Öffentlichkeit in afrikanisch-europäischer Nachrichtenberichterstattung

Marcus Kreutler

Wiesbaden: Springer VS (2025), xxii, 351 pp.

"In diesem Buch wird untersucht, ob gleichsprachige Berichterstattung in europäischen und afrikanischen Zeitungen Kennzeichen transnationaler Öffentlichkeit aufweist. Dabei überträgt der Autor ein vor allem mit Blick auf EU-Staaten etabliertes Konzept auf afrikanisch-europäische Länderpaare, d ... more

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Rethinking Open Source in the Age of Foundational AI Models
Deep Insights

Greg Maly

ICTworks, July 29 (2025)

"As the global artificial intelligence community wrestles with the tension between scale and accessibility, recent work by researchers at Lelapa AI offers a compelling example of what inclusive, efficient AI can look like. Around the world, the push to shrink massive language models into deployable, ... 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

The African Book Industry: Trends, Challenges & Opportunities for Growth Deep Insights

Who Makes the News? Progress on a Plateau. Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) Special Edition: 30-year Findings on Change in Gender Equality In and Through the World News Media Deep Insights

Rethinking Open Source in the Age of Foundational AI Models Deep Insights

The African Book Industry: Trends, Challenges & Opportunities for Growth
Deep Insights

Who Makes the News? Progress on a Plateau. Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) Special Edition: 30-year Findings on Change in Gender Equality In and Through the World News Media
Deep Insights

Rethinking Open Source in the Age of Foundational AI Models
Deep Insights