2024 AI Governance for Africa Toolkit

As AI systems become increasingly embedded in everyday life, they raise important questions about regulation, ethics, and their potential impact on human rights. These questions find form in debates about the governance of AI – how do we provide protection without stifling innovation? How can the law keep pace with the evolving nature of AI? Should AI be governed internationally or domestically? 

Despite the complexity of AI governance, it is clearly a global concern. Countries are at different phases of resolving these questions and have implemented a range of governance instruments in response to concerns. 

This toolkit unpacks the context of AI governance, in Africa and globally, and considers advocacy approaches for future governance, with a focus on Southern Africa. It does so in the following ways: 

• Part 1 provides an introduction to AI governance principles and approaches, and outlines international frameworks, with case studies from the European Union, the United States, and China. It discusses governance trends and considerations included in governance instruments. 
• Part 2 examines existing and emerging AI governance instruments in Southern Africa – in particular, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. More broadly, it also outlines continental responses and details existing governing measures in Africa.  
• Part 3 explores a series of key questions for the design of advocacy strategies on AI governance, particularly in African contexts. 

The 2024 version is an update of the toolkit first published in 2023. The toolkit was prepared by ALT Advisory for the Thomson Reuters Foundation. 

The aim of the toolkit is to empower journalists and civil society organisations to inform public discourse, drive policy and regulatory change and advocate for ethical and responsible AI deployment.

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