- A Feminist Approach to AI in Sub-Saharan Africa • Stimson Center– www.stimson.org
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Excerpt:Across Africa, AI is being harnessed to achieve positive impacts for marginalized communities. However, while AI can be used for good, some fear it could further marginalize and harm those it is intended to empower. Despite emphasis from both public and private sectors on equality and equity, uncertainty around policy-enabling environments, skills, and resources still presents a bottleneck for building inclusive AI. Though there are promising femtech solutions aimed at addressing specific gender concerns, the question of addressing needs and wants from a feminist approach in AI lingers.
Gender is often still an afterthought when it comes to policy implementation and practice, but there are many initiatives, charters, and agreements in Africa that support equality and aim to eliminate violence against women, combat the disproportionate effect of poverty on women, and support women’s participation in the political and economic spheres. For example, Agenda 2063 promotes gender equality and an engaged, empowered youth. The African Union strategy on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) 2018-2028 also aims to strengthen women’s agency in Africa and ensure that women’s voices are amplified and their concerns are fully addressed. The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa similarly requires member states to tackle “all forms of discrimination against women through appropriate legislative measures.”
In Africa, there is a strong normative framework on gender equality and women’s and girls’ rights, and correspondingly, there are some civil or governmental initiatives that support women in national digital transformation policies. In Rwanda, for example, women have become increasingly influential in building national plans for artificial intelligence, and in Kenya, women have impacted the national plan for data uses. However, Africa is still facing challenges in integrating AI and policy. The Oxford AI Worldwide Readiness Index exemplifies the gap between the United States, ranked as first, and Mauritius, considered the African flagship country in AI policy, ranked 69th. There are only four African countries – Mauritius, South Africa, Rwanda, and Egypt – whose scores were higher than the global average of 47.59.
Policy efforts across the continent are increasing but still limited. In mid-2021, Egypt launched its national AI strategy, christened “Artificial Intelligence for Development and Prosperity,” making clear the country’s ambitious goals for development and economic growth. Senegal followed suit in 2023 with a strategy of its own, also focused on economic development. On April 20, 2023, Rwanda released its “National AI Policy for Responsible AI Adoption,” which emphasizes AI for sustainable development. In 2024, Kenya published its draft national AI strategy with goals including social inclusion, ethics, and equity in AI.
Africa Watch
Morocco pledges reforms as death toll from anti-government protests rises to three– www.euronews.com
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Excerpt:
Morocco’s government said on Thursday that it would address grievances fuelling youth-led protests, a day after security forces killed three people during the unrest.
Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch said he was saddened by the deaths, praised law enforcement for its efforts to maintain order and indicated that the government was prepared to respond favourably to the protestors demanding better public healthcare and education.
Speaking before a council of government ministers, he did not detail the reforms under discussion, but said he was “ready for dialogue and debate within institutions and public spaces.”
“The approach based on dialogue is the only way to deal with the various problems faced by our country,” Akhannouch said.
Authorities updated the death toll from this week’s unrest to three on Thursday, saying that armed rioters had stormed public buildings and disrupted public order as the youth-led anti-government demonstrations showed few signs of abating.
After Nepal’s government was felled by a Gen Z protest, the countries in the region have grown nervous, especially China. Now, the Gen Z revolution has spread, but not in the same region. This revolution happened in Madagascar. Madagascar youth began protests that have only been building, holding signs that say “We want to live, not survive.”
In response to the protests, Madagascar’s President, Andy Rajoelina, has dissolved the government, saying in his dissolution announcement, “We acknowledge and apologise if members of the government have not carried out the tasks assigned to them.” Shortly afterwards, the military turned on the President, causing him to leave the country out of fear for his life.
Madagascar Government Dissolved After Gen Z Riots – Freedomist
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Excerpt:
After Nepal’s government was felled by a Gen Z protest, the countries in the region have grown nervous, especially China. Now, the Gen Z revolution has spread, but not in the same region. This revolution happened in Madagascar. Madagascar youth began protests that have only been building, holding signs that say “We want to live, not survive.”
Madagascar president has left the country after soldiers turned against him, lawmaker says Goshen News
Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina said he has fled the country in fear for his life following a military rebellion but did not announce his resignation in a speech broadcast on social media late Monday from an undisclosed location.
Rajoelina has faced weeks of Gen Z-led anti-government protests, which reached a pivotal point on Saturday when an elite military unit joined the protests and called for the president and other government ministers to step down. That prompted Rajoelina to say that an illegal attempt to seize power was underway in the Indian Ocean island and leave the country.
Malawi’s electoral commission warns parties of Lazarus Chakwera and Peter Mutharika not to declare victory– www.bbc.com
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Excerpt:
The head of Malawi’s electoral commission has warned political parties not to prematurely declare electoral victory, saying they should wait for the official results.
Annabel Mtalimanja’s warning came after the parties of the two main presidential candidates, the incumbent Lazarus Chakwera and his predecessor Peter Mutharika, claimed they had won Tuesday’s poll.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Ms Mtalimanja said that only the commission was mandated to release results.
Malawians have been eagerly awaiting results, but the commission has not yet released any – despite the fact that nearly all votes have been counted.
The commission is expected to announce the outcome only after all votes have been tallied and verified in order to avoid the possibility of the final result being challenged.
A candidate needs to win more than 50% of the vote, or a run-off is held.
Nigeria: Report shows that 100 churches are attacked every month and 32 Christians are killed every day in the country – ZENIT – English
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Excerpt:
A new report from Nigeria has cast a stark light on the relentless wave of anti-Christian violence sweeping across the country, revealing that roughly one hundred churches are destroyed every month. The figures, compiled by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), suggest that the world’s most populous African nation has witnessed nearly 19,100 churches attacked, looted, or shuttered since 2009.
That year marked the rise of Boko Haram, the Islamist insurgency whose campaign for a caliphate in the Sahel ignited one of the most brutal chapters in Nigeria’s modern history. Since then, extremist factions — including Boko Haram, ISIS-West Africa, and armed Fulani herders — have left a devastating trail of burned sanctuaries, massacred congregants, and shattered communities. For Emeka Umeagbalasi, the Catholic-inspired human rights advocate who leads Intersociety, the statistics are not abstract but a portrait of survival.
“A church does not simply close itself,” he told reporters. “It takes violence, intimidation, or bloodshed to empty a parish. When we counted every church that had been abandoned or destroyed, the figure reached 19,100. That is one hundred every month, three every single day, for sixteen years.”
Sudan war: Torture, rape and forced starvation as paramilitaries suffocate besieged city | World News– news.sky.com
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Excerpt:
The battle for Al Fashir – and Sudan
Rwanda’s proxy invasion of DR Congo through “rebels” is accelerating after an attack in the eastern Congo leaves 141 mostly Hutus dead. The Rwandan-backed group M23 allegedly conducted the attack. These Hutus are the same Hutus that escaped to the Congo after the Rwandan Genocide that saw their tribe kill 800,000 Tutsis.
At least 140 killed by Rwanda-backed rebels in eastern DR Congo, rights group says– www.france24.com
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Excerpt:
Human Rights Watch said 141 people, predominantly Hutus, were feared to have been killed in eastern Congo in July in attacks believed to have been carried out by the Rwanda-backed M23 group, the most prominent of the armed groups fighting for control of the region.
