Session
24 Jun 2026 13:00h - 15:00h
Summary
The webinar focused on cyber diplomacy in Africa, specifically regional, national, and continental initiatives and how African interests are represented in digital and AI governance processes. Jovan Kurbalija argued that “cyber” or “digital” diplomacy is increasingly just diplomacy, centered on representing interests in negotiations, and asked whether African countries are active enough in AI, cyber, and digital forums to reflect their specific needs.He also emphasized that Africa faces a “scramble for knowledge,” raising concerns about preserving African knowledge, not just data, and about whether African diplomats are prepared to negotiate around this issue.Katherine Getao noted that Africa has been active in cyber diplomacy since the late 1990s through the UN, the African Union, and regional bodies such as ECOWAS, COMESA, SADC, and the East African Community. At the same time, she suggested that many global digital developments still feel disconnected from everyday African realities.Bitange Ndemo was critical of Africa’s fragmented approach, saying AU-level achievements often do not translate effectively to national implementation and that dependence on external funding weakens ownership.He cited the Malabo Convention as an example of disconnect, noting that countries often pursued separate data protection laws instead of coherent continental alignment.Other speakers highlighted efforts to improve regional coordination. Meriem Slimani said the African Telecommunications Union moved from a situation in which countries submitted separate proposals to one where members now discuss priorities together and present common African positions in global forums.Tapera Henry Chinemhute added that COMESA has advanced faster on trade-related digital tools-such as a digital free trade area, e-logistics, e-legislation, and electronic certificates of origin-than on governance issues like cybercrime, which have progressed more slowly.He nevertheless stressed that regional frameworks have influenced national cybersecurity strategies, even when implementation is uneven or politically sensitive.A major theme was digital sovereignty, infrastructure, language, and capacity. Kurbalija compared Africa and Europe as both lacking indigenous technology, argued that awareness of digital infrastructure is essential, and suggested practical open-source and local AI systems rather than chasing frontier large language models.Ndemo warned against regulating AI before fully understanding its potential, drawing on M-PESA as an example of innovation preceding regulation, and he argued that African languages must evolve to express key development concepts and support AI-enabled education and inclusion.Slimani similarly stressed affordable, meaningful connectivity, local content, youth innovation, and the need to connect rural communities despite persistent barriers around cost, borders, and infrastructure.
In the concluding discussion, participants repeatedly returned to financing and coordination, arguing that Africa has resources but needs creative financing, pooled strategies, and stronger institutions to fund digital priorities independently. Getao closed by summarizing the discussion around fragmentation, education, capacity building, and funding, while the panel’s final messages emphasized speaking with one voice, pursuing a digital future, and finding creative financing for critical initiatives.
Keypoints
- The discussion’s central framing was that “cyber diplomacy” should be understood as part of diplomacy generally: how African countries, communities, and citizens represent their interests in digital, AI, and cyber negotiations at regional, continental, and global levels. Jovan argued that the terminology matters less than the practical question of interest representation, and he urged focus on concrete upcoming forums such as Geneva events and the Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi.
- A major theme was that Africa has made progress through continental and regional initiatives, but implementation remains fragmented and uneven. Participants referenced African Union, UN, and regional efforts, while also noting that AU-level achievements often do not translate effectively to country-level adoption; examples included weak traction for frameworks like the Malabo Convention and differing national approaches. At the same time, speakers from ATU and COMESA highlighted efforts to build common platforms, common positions, and digital trade tools.
- Several speakers stressed that Africa must define and defend its own strategic priorities, especially around digital sovereignty, infrastructure, and African knowledge. Jovan emphasized the need to preserve African knowledge-not just data-and to build capacity to negotiate over infrastructure, AI, and knowledge systems. He also argued that Africa and Europe share a similar structural challenge of depending on externally produced technology, making awareness of infrastructure and selective digital sovereignty critical.
- Capacity building, education, language, and youth participation emerged as essential to Africa’s digital future. Speakers argued that diplomats and policymakers must continuously learn by engaging directly with technologies such as AI, rather than treating capacity building as an afterthought. Ndemo and others also emphasized the importance of African languages in technology and education, adaptive AI-enabled learning, and empowering youth to develop local solutions and content that address African realities.
- Funding and implementation were recurring concerns, with broad agreement that overreliance on external donors distorts priorities and weakens ownership. Ndemo, Meriem, and Henry all argued that Africa has internal resources but needs coordinated strategies, pooled financing, stronger institutions, incentives for talent, and creative financing models to support digital infrastructure, innovation, and regional projects. They linked funding directly to sovereignty, implementation, and long-term prosperity.
Overall purpose or goal:
The webinar aimed to examine how Africa is representing and should better represent its interests in cyber/digital diplomacy, taking stock of regional, national, and continental initiatives while identifying practical priorities for stronger African coordination, capacity, and action in global digital governance.
Overall tone:
The tone was professional, reflective, and collaborative throughout, with a mix of critique and optimism. Early on, the discussion was analytical and agenda-setting, especially around defining cyber diplomacy and Africa’s negotiating interests. The middle portion became more critical and candid, particularly on fragmentation, donor dependence, weak implementation, and premature regulation. At the same time, speakers introduced hopeful and solution-oriented ideas around common African positions, youth innovation, AI apprenticeship, language, and local technology development. By the end, the tone became more encouraging and action-focused, emphasizing “one voice,” a digital future, and creative financing for African priorities.
Speakers
- Jovan Kurbalija - Executive Director of DiploFoundation and Head of the Geneva Internet Platform (GIP); founder/CEO of Diplo as referenced in the discussion; former diplomat with expertise in cyber diplomacy, internet governance, AI, diplomacy, and capacity building for diplomats. [S1][S2]
- Mwende Njiraini - African Initiative Coordinator / associate with Diplo working as liaison for Africa; telecommunications engineer; moderator/host of the webinar; Chair of the ITU-T Study Group 17 Regional Group for Africa on security, with expertise in cybersecurity standards and telecom policy. [S4][S5]
- Amb. Prof. Bitange Ndemo - Ambassador and Professor; immediate former Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, and the EU; Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi; former Permanent Secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of ICT/Communication; expert in technology policy, innovation, entrepreneurship, AI, and digital transformation. [S7]
- Meriem Slimani - Development Director at the African Telecommunications Union (ATU); in charge of coordinating African Common Positions for major ITU conferences; works on telecommunications, digital policy, AI, data management, and cybersecurity frameworks.
- Dr. Katherine Getao - Cyber Hygiene, Cyber Diplomacy, and ICT Strategy and Governance Consultant; former CEO of the ICT Authority in Kenya; former ICT Secretary in the Office of the President/Ministry of ICT; former Director of the School of Computing and Informatics at the University of Nairobi; moderator/panel chair in the discussion. [S12]
- Tapera Henry Chinemhute - Officer working with the COMESA Governance, Peace and Security Unit at the COMESA Secretariat in Lusaka; expertise discussed in relation to regional governance, peace and security, cybercrime, cyber diplomacy, trade facilitation, and regional digital frameworks.
Additional speakers:
- Arvin - Technical team/support mentioned during the webinar.
- Stephanie - Participant from the audience who was noted as having raised a hand.
- “The gentleman from COMESA” / “Commissar ATU” - descriptive references used before full introductions; these correspond to Tapera Henry Chinemhute and Meriem Slimani rather than separate speakers.
The webinar examined cyber diplomacy in Africa through regional, national, and continental initiatives, with the aim of understanding how African interests are represented in digital, cyber, and AI-related governance processes. Mwende Njiraini framed the session as timely and relevant in light of broader diplomatic and technological changes across the continent, and invited participants to contribute questions and comments throughout the discussion.Jovan Kurbalija opened by arguing that the main issue is no longer whether to call the field “cyber diplomacy,” “digital diplomacy,” or “tech diplomacy,” but how countries, communities, and citizens represent their interests in the digital and AI realm through international negotiations.He said these questions should be understood as part of diplomacy in the ordinary sense of representing interests, negotiating, and carrying out the functions listed in Article 3 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.In his view, digital and AI issues are no longer a specialized niche, because technology now affects nearly every area of life and should therefore be treated as part of everyday diplomatic practice.He asked whether African diplomats are active enough in AI, cyber, and digital negotiations; whether they are able to reflect the social, economic, political, and security interests of their countries and the continent; and what can be done concretely in the near term. Kurbalija specifically pointed to upcoming forums in Geneva and the Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi as near-term opportunities for African governments, civil society, and the technical community to represent African interests in a multistakeholder way, including asking what could be done “next month” and later in Nairobi in December.A central idea introduced by Kurbalija was that the world is now experiencing a “scramble for knowledge,” and he asked whether Africa is ready to preserve and protect its own knowledge in AI systems.He argued that African diplomatic preparedness should be judged partly by whether diplomats can negotiate for the preservation and protection of African knowledge, including indigenous knowledge, lived experience, humour, and other tacit and explicit cultural assets.He emphasized that the issue is not only where African data is stored, but where African knowledge is stored and how it is represented in systems such as ChatGPT and other AI tools.He framed this as a question of ensuring that AI systems reflect African knowledge structures, including taxonomies and ontologies.Katherine Getao then introduced a poll by noting that cyber diplomacy is now almost 30 years old and asking participants which African and international initiatives they knew, using the results to test participants’ familiarity with existing efforts.The poll covered initiatives such as the Malabo Convention, the African digital transformation strategy, the African Union position on international law in cyberspace, ECOWAS confidence-building measures, and UN cyber processes.The results suggested uneven awareness: there was moderate recognition of the Malabo Convention, lower awareness of AU and UN cyber law and security processes, and a significant proportion of participants were unfamiliar with these initiatives.Getao used this to stress that Africa has been active in cyber diplomacy since the late 1990s, including through the United Nations, the African Union, and regional organizations such as ECOWAS, COMESA, SADC, and the East African Community.
The discussion then turned to assessments of African progress and the gap between continental initiatives and implementation. Getao offered a memorable metaphor, comparing Africa’s position in cyber diplomacy to being alone in a honeymoon suite: surrounded by attractive things, but disconnected from the continent’s actual needs.Her point was that many global digital processes appear impressive but often feel detached from practical realities on the ground.Bitange Ndemo argued that Africa remains fragmented, and that achievements made at African Union level often take too long to be understood or implemented at country level.He cited the Malabo Convention as an example, saying that instead of coordinated continental action, countries moved ahead with separate data protection laws, creating a disconnect between continental ambition and national execution.He also argued that dependence on external funding, especially from the European Union and other partners, weakens African ownership and slows the development of priorities rooted in the continent’s own needs.His conclusion was that until Africa begins financing such initiatives more independently, the same structural problems will persist.Meriem Slimani provided a more institutional perspective from the African Telecommunications Union. She recalled that when she joined the ATU in 2015, African countries were largely submitting separate proposals to global forums and were not consulting one another effectively.She said the ATU responded by creating a platform for member states to meet, discuss common concerns, share experiences and best practices, and define joint priorities before international conferences.Slimani said that in preparation for PP26, African countries had been meeting since July 2024 to consolidate priorities and positions, including the concerns of least developed countries.She also explained that African diplomacy involves not only internal coordination among member states but also engagement with other world regions to identify shared interests and improve the chances of reaching consensus.Tapera Henry Chinemhute added nuance by distinguishing between policy areas. He argued that African states should not be judged uniformly across all digital issues because progress has been faster in trade facilitation and integration than in governance and cybersecurity.He said COMESA had negotiated a digital free trade area and related tools such as e-trade, e-logistics, e-legislation, simplified digital trade systems, and electronic certificates of origin, all intended to reduce trade barriers and transport costs.By contrast, governance initiatives such as cybercrime frameworks have moved more slowly, as shown by the time taken for the Malabo Convention to gain traction.He suggested that governance issues attract greater sensitivity and scrutiny, which partly explains the slower pace. At the same time, he argued that regional frameworks do feed into national cybersecurity strategies, even if implementation is often quiet, fragmented, or politically cautious because states do not want to expose vulnerabilities.This marked a difference in emphasis with Ndemo: Ndemo treated fragmentation as evidence of serious failure, while Chinemhute suggested that in sensitive areas some of the unevenness reflects the nature of state behavior rather than complete inaction.
Several speakers then addressed AI, sovereignty, language, and capacity. Responding to a question about what should keep Africa awake at night, Kurbalija said that Africa and Europe are both largely technology takers receiving digital systems from outside, even if their economic conditions differ greatly.He argued that this makes digital and AI sovereignty a shared challenge, because neither continent fully controls its infrastructure, data, or knowledge systems.While acknowledging that total sovereignty is difficult in an interdependent world, he said that selected layers can still be controlled.He presented digital infrastructure, including fiber-optic and submarine cable routes, as critical national infrastructure and a core part of digital sovereignty, arguing that policymakers should know where those connections run.Kurbalija also argued that Africa should not focus too heavily on building large language models or major data centers, but rather on open-source systems, retrieval-based approaches, and knowledge-organization tools such as taxonomies and ontologies.He said these approaches are more practical and affordable, and cited Diplo’s own in-house AI systems as evidence that useful tools can be built without depending entirely on the public internet.His proposal was that Africa should invest in practical, affordable layers of AI capability, such as open-source systems and locally organized knowledge bases, rather than trying to compete first on frontier-scale models.Ndemo approached AI from the angle of innovation and regulation. He argued that Europe tends to place policy and regulation before innovation, and warned that Africa should avoid copying that approach uncritically.Drawing on Kenya’s M-PESA experience, he said innovation often comes first and regulation can follow after the practical effects are better understood.He therefore criticized attempts to legislate AI too early, arguing that Africa should resist rigid regulation before fully understanding the technology’s potential, especially in areas such as education.Language emerged as a major theme. Ndemo argued that if development concepts cannot be expressed clearly in African languages, public understanding and development efforts will be limited.He said African languages have not yet evolved enough to express some modern development concepts such as “data” and “productivity,” and that this weakens communication with citizens.He emphasized that languages evolve and that African languages must be allowed to absorb and generate the vocabulary needed for the modern economy.Kurbalija reinforced this point from a different angle, arguing that discussing AI in one’s mother tongue helps strip away imported hype and forces people to engage more directly with core concepts of knowledge and understanding.He illustrated this with Swahili terms for knowledge and contrasted current emphasis on “data governance” with earlier international language about the “information society” and “knowledge.”Meriem Slimani connected this to policy practice by referring to ATU studies on local content and the need for digital services in local languages.Education and capacity building were treated as equally important. Getao questioned the common practice of embedding capacity building within digital governance processes, observing that it can imply participants are negotiating matters they do not yet fully understand.Kurbalija responded that confusion about AI is global, not uniquely African, and proposed an apprenticeship approach in which diplomats learn by building AI assistants and experimenting with the technology directly.He argued that because AI evolves rapidly, this learning must be continuous rather than one-off.Ndemo widened the point into a broader argument about educational transformation, saying AI could improve comprehension through adaptive learning, strengthen teacher-student interaction, and help address long-standing problems in assessment and fairness.He also argued that AI could be transformative in health and agriculture if citizens, including farmers, are helped to understand and use key concepts such as productivity and data.Youth participation and contextualized digital policy were also emphasized. Slimani highlighted ATU’s “Digital Innovation for Youth” initiative, launched in 2020, saying it had attracted over 200 young Africans and produced promising projects, including AI applications built around local languages and local challenges.Chinemhute stressed that digital tools must be contextualized to African realities, especially the informal sector and the continent’s large youth population.He argued that digital tools should support informal cross-border traders and help them grow into medium and then larger enterprises, rather than being designed only for large formal firms.Their remarks connected digital policy to practical development concerns, especially trade, inclusion, youth opportunity, and support for informal cross-border traders.The discussion also covered telecommunications and connectivity. Getao asked how telecoms would evolve in Africa as data overtakes voice and whether current investments are sufficient for future demand. Slimani replied that the ATU’s main goal is “meaningful connectivity” for all Africans, meaning useful and affordable access rather than nominal coverage alone.She said telecommunications coverage is already above 80 per cent in many areas, increasingly supported by satellite technologies, but that affordability remains a major challenge for rural and low-income households.She also stressed the need for relevant services and local applications so that schools, farmers, and communities can actually benefit from connectivity.Slimani further noted Africa’s structural and geographic constraints, including the large number of landlocked countries, as part of the connectivity challenge, along with the need for backhaul infrastructure and long-term continental strategies that pool resources, infrastructure, and expertise.
Ndemo added that affordability is not only a technology problem but also a policy problem caused by taxes, duties, and government protection of incumbent telecom business models.He argued that disruptive technologies such as direct satellite connectivity could provide universal access cheaply if governments stop shielding existing operators at the expense of citizens.Slimani emphasized affordability and meaningful connectivity as the key operational challenge, while Ndemo added that government taxes and protection of incumbent operators are a major part of the affordability problem.
The final phase of the webinar focused on financing and institutional ownership. Getao explicitly raised the concern that many digital processes in Africa are financed by external development partners, which can redirect attention toward the priorities of other regions rather than Africa’s own.Ndemo responded that Africa has abundant resources but has failed to remain close enough to innovators and new financing ideas.He argued for more creative resource mobilization, giving examples such as energy sovereignty and tokenizing resources to fund infrastructure partnerships without excessive reliance on aid.He argued that aid is expensive and creates dependency, noting that money entering African countries is often offset by greater outflows.Slimani said the ATU itself is about 90 per cent government-funded, but that many member states cannot afford the major investments needed for implementation projects.She argued that the deeper problem is the absence of a coordinated African strategy for pooling resources, expertise, and infrastructure.She contrasted this with the European Union’s stronger economic mechanisms for pursuing common priorities, and added that if Africa is serious about the future, education should be made free across the continent because it remains foundational to addressing poverty, exclusion, and insecurity.Chinemhute also argued that money should not be treated as the fundamental obstacle.Before technical interruptions and after reconnecting, he proposed regional solutions such as earmarked contribution mechanisms and specialized institutions to support emerging technologies and sustained expertise.He suggested that regional or continental centers focused on AI or other modern technologies could help build capacity, coordinate implementation, and reward expertise more systematically.Earlier, he had also stressed that talent must be matched with incentives and rewards or Africa’s expertise would be wasted.Before leaving the webinar, Kurbalija proposed carrying the discussion on language and education into a dedicated session at the Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi.Getao then summarized the discussion around several recurring themes: diplomacy as interest representation, fragmentation, the need for Africans to come together, the importance of education and capacity building, and the centrality of funding.In the closing round, Chinemhute urged Africans to continue speaking with “one voice” in negotiations.Slimani said that “digital is our future” and warned against missing that future for the sake of the next generation.Ndemo’s closing emphasis was on developing creative financing models for critical digital initiatives.Getao tied these together as the session’s concluding message: one voice, a digital future, and finance.Overall, the webinar portrayed Africa as active in cyber and digital diplomacy but still constrained by fragmentation, uneven implementation, dependence on external funding, and capacity gaps, while also highlighting regional coordination, digital trade initiatives, youth innovation, and practical local AI strategies as areas of progress. A notable feature of the discussion was the way speakers connected cyber diplomacy to African knowledge, language, education, infrastructure, and financing rather than treating it only as a matter of security or regulation.
Good morning. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to everyone. Thank you for joining us at this second quarter webinar brought to you by Diplo. And we now, as has been said in the previous meetings, Diplo has an office in Nairobi and therefore is here to communicate within the African continent. So we believe that you have had time to look at the documentation shared with you. And today we're going to be discussing cyber diplomacy in Africa, regional, national, and continental initiatives. So thank you very much for spending your time this afternoon with us. We invite you to place your comments on the chat. You can say where you're coming from or where you're logging in from.
And if you have an interesting question to the panelists, you're most welcome to share it in the chat. This meeting is also being captioned, so if you'd like to follow the captioning, please put it on, and you will be able to follow the discussions as we have them going forward. So today we'll be discussing cyber diplomacy in Africa, and it's a very topical. It's a very topical issue because we have seen... a lot of changes within the African continent, whether it's diplomatic or otherwise. We are looking forward to having the discussants share their opinions and areas of interest that they would with us. And so right now I'm going to invite our CEO and founder of Diplo Foundation, Jovan Kurbalija, to start us off with the opening remarks.
Thank you and welcome everyone. Thank you, Jovan. Thank you.
Thank you, Mwende It's great to join you online from Geneva. As you can see, I have to dress very summerly because the temperature here is 38 degrees. It's very, very hot these days in Geneva. Therefore, if you are coming for the WSIS and AI week on the 6th of July prepared really for the tropical heat in Geneva. It's my great pleasure to address this meeting. And whenever these issues on diplomacy, cyber tech, digital, online, you know, there are so many prefixes are discussed. We have to start from very common sense question. And the common sense question is how countries, communities and citizens represent their interests in digital and AI realm in international negotiations. How are Kenyan interests represented in international negotiations?
How South African and other interests? This is the underlying question. As a matter of fact, I think we will soon lose prefix cyber digital tech diplomacy and it will be just diplomacy. People gathering to discuss standards. cooperation, security and other issues as people are discussing anyway without technology in a way we will close the circle Diplo started this organization three decades ago that focused on digital, ICT and other diplomacies but nowadays as technology is becoming part of our daily life and impacts everything from our entertainment to our security it is becoming just diplomacy. This is the first point that I would like to advance and that we are not confused that much if the right name is cyber or tech or digital diplomacy as you can hear in current discussions it is just diplomacy diplomacy as a representation of interest, negotiation and basically everything which is listed in the article 3 of Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations Now keeping this in mind we have to discuss today how African interests, social, economic, political securities, are represented on the continental level, on the regional, continental, African level, and the global level.
Are African diplomats active into negotiation, let's say, on AI, digital, on cyber? They are more and more active. That's the fact. But still not sufficiently to reflect the specific interests of the countries and continents. Why is this important particularly now? We are at the point where there is a scramble, not scramble for Africa historically, but scramble for knowledge. And this scramble is happening everywhere. It's happening in the United States, in Europe, in China, and in Africa. And the ultimate question is, how African knowledge? knowledge of societies indigenous knowledge experience and expertise of people sometimes the humor I always love the humor which is always refreshing there are so many artifacts tacit and explicit that we should somehow preserve and protect is Africa ready for that where is African knowledge stored when you ask Chat Gpt or Deep Seek or whatever are African developing their own solutions not necessarily large language models, everybody is impressed by large language models but I argue that they are not that critical, it's good to have them but other things storing the knowledge knowledge graphs, ontologies taxonomies, non -technical issues are becoming critical and this is the underlying question are African diplomats currently prepared to negotiate preservation of African knowledge?
And I'm insisting knowledge, not data. Knowledge is much more than data. That's the first question. There was clarification about terminology. There is a question, what is the purpose of diplomatic activities? And let's say more operational question. Negotiations are happening now. Nairobi will be the center of the developments in December when it will host Internet Governance Forum. Next month, there will be quite a few events here in Geneva. AI for Good, AI Dialogue, and World Summit on Information Society forums. How African countries are going to be represented in multi -stakeholder way by governments, by civil society, by technical community? This is a question that we should discuss. We should have a vision how Africa should prepare for the next world war.
We should have a vision how Africa should prepare for AI Knowledge Center, DIRA. But as the Chinese saying goes, the whole journey starts with the first step. What can be done next month, what can be done in Nairobi in December. That would be my sort of initial comments to kick off this discussion on behalf of Diplo, and to see if over the next 50 minutes we can gain a bit more clarity. Moving beyond general notions that technology changes diplomacy. Yes, we know it. But how to make this change practical and concrete. Over to you, Mwende.
Thank you, Jovan, for that insight. And with that, we will invite Dr. Katherine Getao to continue on with the discussion that we have ahead of us. Dr. Getao, please come in. Thank you.
Okay, greetings to everyone. I'm in a slightly strange environment, so you'll forgive my video and audio quality. Can you hear me? Yes, yes
we can hear you.
Okay, that's great. So, thank you Professor Kubalija and with me I also have three panelists who are going to discuss that very important issue of representing African interests on the global stage and particularly our digital interests. So, we're going to start with a poll because since the whole issue of cyber diplomacy is now almost 30 years old, I think it started in 1998 when several countries recognized the importance of digital in global affairs and started creating forums where it could be discussed. So there's just one question, which is, are you aware of some few African... Yeah, so if you could just click which ones you are familiar with so that we get an idea. Okay, so quite interesting that we can see that there's quite a good knowledge of the Malabo Convention, although it's only half of you.
the digital transformation strategy about a third of you are aware the African Union position on the applicability of international law in cyberspace just 14 % the ECOWAS confidence building measures again a fifth commercial digital initiatives about a tenth of you are aware of what's happening there the UNGG or EWG on international security in cyberspace just 14 % and a good quarter of you are not aware we can see your hand oh you can see my hand? yes I'm sorry no problem I hope it looks decent Okay. Okay. We're back. Fine. Okay. So, all of these are initiatives. I'm sorry. It keeps coming back to sharing the results. Arvin, maybe you can stop it. Okay. So, all of these are important initiatives that have taken place in and around Africa.
And now our four panelists, Jovan Kurbalija, the gentleman from COMESA there's Meriem from ATU, and there's Dr. Ndemo from the University of Nairobi, but very well -known in IT circles. Very well -known. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Here in Kenya, he really set us off on this journey. Thank you. 25 years ago or so. So I'll kindly request the panelists to introduce themselves in one minute each so that we can then go on to the discussion about how well African interests are being represented in cyberspace. We'll start with the other way around. I'll start with Dr. Ndemo and then Commissar ATU. And I think you're all familiar with Professor Jovan that he can also say something at the end.
Thank you. Thank you, Dr. for asking. My name is Ndemo. I teach at the University of Nairobi, was a Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communication. and recently ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the EU. Thank you.
Thank you, Tapera Henry Chinemhute We can go on to the gentleman from COMESA I'm sorry.
Yes, I'm Tapera Henry Chinemhute . I work with the COMESA Governance Peace and Security Unit at the COMESA Secretariat in Lusaka. And I'm very happy about this conversation because it's a rare opportunity. Usually we just practice without having opportunities to discuss about maybe ways of improving the cyber diplomacy and so forth. It's usually more of implementation. And you'll find that most of the times we've been stuck on our frameworks without so much innovative ideas on how to ensure that those frameworks are implemented, put more effectively into action. So thank you so much for this opportunity. I think we'll discuss more about the initiatives from Comesa. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, Henry. I'll just use first names because your second name is quite complex. Then we'll go on. I believe we have Meriem from African Telecommunications Unit. Please introduce yourself.
Thank you, Chair, and good afternoon, everyone. My name is Meriem Simani. I'm the Development Director working for the African Telecommunications Unit. I'm also in charge of coordinating the African Common Position for main conferences, mainly ITU conferences, PP, WTDC, WTSA, and of course we come up with the African Common Position and proposals that we defined as a region. It's mainly telecommunication and digital issues and also work together closely with AU, a commission regarding frameworks and policy frameworks on AI, on data management and cybersecurity as well. Thank you.
Okay, thank you so much, Meriem. Jovan, would you like to say anything?
Not necessarily. I'm director of Diplo Foundation, head of Geneva Internet Platform. Well started the first AI system in 1992. Some of you were not born at that time. It was at that time expert system and since then doing capacity building for diplomats, many, many diplomats from African region and small states, small and large states, and trying to reduce lost in translation between diplomats and tech people.
Thank you so much Dr. Ndemo Bitange, Henry, Meriem and Jovan and we're looking forward to how you are going to represent African interest during this webinar as we review what Africa has achieved in cyber diplomacy So we've been in this space as I said for quite a while The space started around the late 1990s so it's pre -millennial I don't know whether to say it's a Gen Z process from its age However, we have been active and those processes which were listed and I hope you're going to look them up on the web because I don't want to go over them one by one but we've been active at the United Nations We've been active at the African Union.
We've been active at the different regions, ECOWAS, COMESA SADAC, East African Community, on considering how Kenya, not Kenya, but Africa can be represented on the world stage in areas of telecommunications, in areas of information technology around the world. So, yoga noise expects a joke from me. I'm not sure this is a joke, but many years ago, I was in a quandary because my train had been so delayed that I lost my reservation for a hotel in a new city. So when I got there, they told me, sorry, we've given your room away. So I said, please, please have mercy because I don't know this city. It's after 11 at night. just give me a room so that tomorrow I can sort myself out.
At this point, the only room that was available in that hotel was the honeymoon suite. So they gave me the honeymoon suite. And I went up there and to my surprise, there was champagne, there were chocolates, there were a bunch of flowers, there was a jacuzzi, many things. So after I'd been there for a few minutes exploring all these privileges, the receptionist called and she said, Madam, are you happy with the room? Is everything okay? Is anything missing? So I said, the only thing missing is a man. I don't think I can enjoy this honeymoon suite by myself. Now, sometimes I feel as if Africa, in cyberpunk, the diplomacy is like me in that honeymoon suite.
all the good things are happening, but they really have nothing to do with the real issues that we are experiencing as Africans on this continent. So I'm just going to ask a few questions in the first round. And maybe I'll start with Dr. Ndemo and ask you having been at the EU in Belgium and even University of Nairobi and the Ministry of ICT, what do you consider to be the most significant achievements of African cyber diplomacy in the last decade?
I am a bit critical because Africa is so much a fragmented and when something is made at the AU level sometimes at the country level it takes so much, so long to be understood. The biggest problem emanates from that many of these initiatives are funded by maybe the EU or some other places and it takes quite a bit. If you look at data from Malibu Convention every country went ahead and did their own data protection laws and stuff. There is a disconnect which I think we need to deal with it and that can only be dealt with by Africa independently investing in some of these initiatives. If you look at what is happening now about energy requirements and sovereignty, it's a shame.
We should have actually started talking about this much, much earlier. Infrastructure, inclusivity, there are so many things. Until we begin to finance many of these initiatives, we will still have a similar problem.
Okay, thank you very much, Dr. Ndemo, for pointing out that sometimes a lot is achieved at the AU, but how it percolates to countries does not reflect the the gravity of that achievement. So I'll turn to you, Meriem, because you're in the area of telecommunications on the African level. Maybe you have a different viewpoint on what we've achieved so far and maybe even what you see as the gap.
Thank you. Indeed, I joined the HU in 2015 and when I started working with the African decision makers regarding the ICT fields, I noticed that at that time every country was submitting their own proposals. They were not talking to each other. They were not consulting each other. And the first thing we started to do was... is to create a platform. A platform where... All our members are invited to start discussing, to highlight their priorities, and to see how to address common interests, how to make our members talk to each other, and also to understand each other, and to share their experience, their best practices, their concerns, and come up when submitting our African position to the Global Forum with one voice.
And today... I'm happy to say that we are preparing for PP26 next November, and we are sitting together since July 2024. discussing our priorities, discussing our concerns and pushing for our priorities. We already established the African priorities, having consolidated our views and positions. We are also trying to address the concerns of least developed countries because we need also to have them on board and try to discuss and to push the agenda, the digital agenda, for example, the WSIS agenda, the GDP agenda, through a common platform with common positions. And we are talking not only to member states as a key, but we are talking also, to other regions. to coordinate our mutual interests and to also start negotiating and start sharing our common interests and make sure that at the end of these big conferences, we achieve our objectives through a very good consensus among ourselves and with the other regions as well.
Okay. Thank you very much, Meriem A ray of hope. It's taken nine years, but the 8 units is bringing countries together to discuss priorities. Maybe I turn to you, Henry, now, representing COMESA That's a common market which stretches from Egypt right down to South Africa. So on those issues of markets and trade and the things that COMESA discusses, what would be an important development for you? And how are you bringing countries together to emphasize their own priorities?
Thank you so much Catherine maybe first of all let me say it from another perspective that countries do listen but sometimes there are several factors that maybe make the public feel maybe that countries are not listening I've heard this experience from a COMESA especially when it comes to issues of trade facilitation trade integration vis-a-vis issues of governance you tend to realise that when it comes to issues of governance there is so much scrutiny when it comes to issues of governance such that sometimes it becomes a little bit slower but this has not been the news when it comes to issues of trade facilitation and or trade integration. For example, we have come up with the digital free trade area which has been negotiated to come up with several tools that are intended to reduce trade barriers, lower transport costs.
We have the MVTS that facilitate movements of goods and services using this online to e-trade, e-logistics, e-legislation. We have the simplified trade regime digital tools which have been very much well accepted including the electronic certificate of origin. So many tools. However, when it comes to issues of governance because commensal initiatives on these issues of cybercrime and trying to regulate cybercrime started way back in 2011 but they did not have so much traction, which is a similar trend even on the continent when it comes to the Malabo Convention which, as you rightly mentioned, it took 10 years for it to be ratified. So I see that difference. We just don't need to put everything in one blanket. When it comes to trade, from my own understanding and from my own experience, we've moved faster than when we are dealing with issues which are related to issues of governance.
So that's where I can end now. But I find that in the region, we have so many priorities. Countries are overburdened by many other issues such that they prioritize and see that maybe these issues of cyberspace for now, we can maybe reduce the pace of implementation, while some other countries also silently implement because they don't want to expose their vulnerabilities and so forth. It's the nature of countries. But at the end, you just realize that all of them. national cybersecurity strategies. Where did they come from? It was maybe from those regional frameworks that they adopted those strategies to also enhance their national cybersecurity strategies. You will find that they have developed so many digital tools that they are using, but sometimes they like working in silos and also secretly, I don't know for whatever reason, but such is the behavior of memberships in some other instances.
So it doesn't mean that nothing is being done, but I think it's just the modus operandi. So I would like to have that perspective for now and we'll continue with our discussion. Thank you so much.
Thank you very much Henry for pointing out that yes, Africa is able to agree on issues but the area of digital issues is a little bit lagging but there is hope. Now Jovan I turn to you because Europe is in the honeymoon suite. and they really emphasized on the issue of digital sovereignty the US worries about staying a technological leader what do you think should be keeping Africa awake at night if you were to
There is this third world of digital world and strictly speaking obviously Europe is much richer than an African continent in many respects but conceptually speaking it is the third world of AI and digital world because like African countries Europe receives technology from outside and it raises the question of digital sovereignty now what therefore the situation in African continent and European continent is conceptually similar obviously there is a difference in development wealth infrastructure and other things but conceptually neither Africa nor Europe has indigenous technology and that's basically the major problem for both parts. Now, with the latest developments, especially on cloud, but I would say even longer, Europe has been thinking about what is called digital or AI sovereignty, which ultimately boils down, can you have control and say over your infrastructure, data, knowledge and other things.
Now, bad news is that the world is so interconnected that it is increasingly difficult to have that control for anyone. Good news is that some elements and some segments can be under the digital sovereignty. But the first is awareness that countries have to understand that digital is a critical infrastructure of society. I always ask my students, and your colleagues here, you're not students, but this is the question for all of us. Do you know where are the, where are the fiber optic cables connecting your respective countries? submarine or overland if you are a landlocked country. This is like airport or road or railway. This is a critical infrastructure of your society. Now, the last point in this search for sovereignty, of whatever sovereignty, there is another good news for both Europe and Africa, I would say, if I can make this parallel.
Many other actors were basically in AI hype rush. What is the latest AI model? What is large language model and the other things? And for different reasons, both continents were lagging behind, which is a good news in a sense that large language models are not that critical parts of AI pipeline. Much more can be done and achieved with open source solutions, with so -called RAG organizing knowledge, organizing taxonomies and ontologies. Therefore, my suggestion for both continents, I think, is to start looking at the RAG model and to look at the RAG model and to look at the RAG model and to look at the RAG model and to look at the RAG model is not to focus that much on having super trooper data farms, AI factories, but go around us in schools and universities and basically develop local systems, open source systems, which are now quite affordable.
And I'm saying it with the full authority of Diplos development. We use in -house systems and we can switch off Diplos system from the internet. And still have AI. It's affordable and it's doable and it's technically not that difficult to do. But there is no awareness of it. Therefore, instead of chasing the latest large language model, who has more tokens or more parameters, let's start from the immediate steps. At least this is the way how we at Diplos approach it. But I would say it would be good also for Europe and for Africa, whose position we discussed today.
Okay, thank you Jovan for that hopeful view that even if we're lagging behind, the opportunities open up for both Europe and Africa are ones that we can take up and find a place in this digital future. Demo, once again, and ask you Dr. Demo that you are living in Europe for several years and now you're back in Kenya and working with students. What do your students say about the future of Africa in the digital realm, especially given the context? What kind of technological developments that have been happening in the last few years? Just before I came here, I got an alert on my phone that Oracle has shared... 21 ,000 jobs globally. And I wonder because at one point, this is where Kenya was really having high hopes that our talent would find a place globally.
And yet now with developments in AI and so on, how are their aspirations changing? And how should Africa be working to create international policies that would help us to have a place in this digital future? Thank you.
Thank you for that question, because as a diplomat in the European Union, Europe believes in regulation and a policy that is And many of you understand that innovation precedes regulation. And I kept on emphasizing that we couldn't have done what we did if we put regulation ahead. And Kate, you remember during M -PESA, there were two camps. One wanted to create regulation first, even without understanding how it was going to pan out. But we went ahead and managed to get M -PESA through, and it has disrupted everything. In as much as we learned from that, you still find the funding that we get from the EU usually focuses on to do things EU wants. Like now in parliament, we have AI.
We have legislation in the process. and I've said loudly, I said even today, we must fight it because we don't know what we can come out with with AI. Yes, there are risks, but they can be mitigated in the process of trying to understand. We can see the need for AI, especially in education, adaptive education, which is disrupting learning across the world. But here we are working towards to regulate this technology first before we understand. And simply because we have let ourselves down by being dependent on resources from the EU mostly. And that would hurt us in the long run. Everybody wants again, several studies show that kids do well when you use your mother tongue to teach because there's some things that in English we are not able to teach properly I think that evidence is there, we have been saying develop our languages and that is key to develop those languages, I did an article recently, several concepts like data or productivity, those are not in our vernacular they are not within African languages so when politicians say I'm going to improve productivity to the citizens, very few understand what they are talking about and that could hinder the Those two terms that I've mentioned are the most consequential in changing our lives.
But we still don't see the reason why we should develop our languages in such a way that we can begin to develop. Because languages evolve. Even European languages didn't have certain concepts in their vernacular. But they have evolved to develop some. They use the words as they are. For example, French, they would use the word computer, which is computer. Even in Swahili, we are trying to adopt almost the same. But there are several key. We have not evolved our languages in simple language. And we need to evolve the language. To take care of emerging concepts. which would mean development or not developing. So we must find a way of financing our development rather than depending.
And the reason why I started by saying that the Malibu Convention, for example, it's not known within the countries. The fragmentation itself, it is so severe that the document is developed and kept there. Only academics keep on referring to it. That's why I'm saying we need to change. If we can work towards integration of Africa, which we have every reason to integrate Africa because now we are beginning to see more trade within intra -Africa. We are trying to find gross product and we are trying to find more product and we are trying to find more product and we are trying to find more product and we are trying to find more product And then we are undermining the very concepts that would help us to open up Africa, integrate Africa, and see more prosperity than we have seen before.
Thank you.
Thank you very much. You really pointed out two important issues. The issue of language, and I understand we are the most language -rich continent with over 2 ,000 languages. And you've also pointed out how technologies like AI could be used to enhance our education and to solve some of those problems. Now, as I turn to Meriem, Meriem, ATU, I guess. comes together to discuss issues of telecommunications. Now. I think telecommunications in the future is probably one of the areas that is really going to have to change and evolve. I wonder if one day I'll be able to speak my mother tongue into the phone and somebody in Mauritania will be able to hear what I'm saying in a different language and so that we can really interact and trade and do things without being limited by language but at the same time being able to use our own languages.
How is ATU looking at the issue of both indigenous and international technologies in transforming the way that Africans communicate continentally? Meriem?
Yes, thank you Katherine for this question. Indeed, we are aware about the richness of our continent. We have diversity of culture, diversity of languages, diversity of the geographical as well. As you might know, Africa is the only country where we have almost 35 % of the country's landlocked. So we already started some studies regarding the development of local content. The study is to provide... a guideline to our members to improve the digital development content in their respective countries. in their respective languages and also to involve as much as possible the young people because we need a young generation developing AI models. By the way, we already launched what we call the digital innovation for youth. It started in 2020 and we received from more than 200 young people across Africa very, very interesting projects, including AI projects, including the use of local languages.
And these young people were very passionate about addressing local challenges and issues. So we are very. Very keen to address this kind of issues in our continent. But the biggest challenges today is we still have a lot of barriers. We still have, of course, this single digital market and this open market for Africa, but on the ground we still have borders, we still have the need of visas, we still have a lot of challenges that we need to address to make sure that at the end these young people will talk the same language, will understand each other and share their views, their positions, their cultures. And we are working to establish this kind of youth communities, women communities.
We already have some African associations partnering with ATU to establish this kind of youth communities. To develop this kind of platforms and frameworks and really to push on the, and also to bring on board our partners. and our stakeholders, especially decision makers across countries, to really proceed with the implementation process. We do have a very good framework, but now regarding the funding of projects and to implement on the ground, it becomes sometimes challenging because some barriers in Africa. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Mariam. That was very encouraging, especially the new project, the digital innovation project, because I think this is really a way forward for us. I've seen in the charts that people are commenting that regional processes seem to get much more traction than continental processes. So I'll turn to you, Henry, from two directions. Thank you. One is that as a region, even in your introduction, you said you know what the priorities are because you have a focus on markets, on trade, on really making it easier for people to trade together and to prosper together. So you have priorities. How do you translate these priorities for the digital realm? You know, there are things we can do together.
For example, we have powerful money and financial applications which could help trades happen more coherently across commerce. So for you, what would be the digital priorities that would be very much aligned with your existing priorities? And what processes could we be having at the region? What would be the digital priorities at the regional level? that could then percolate upwards to the international level and help Africa be more assertive and carry real priorities to the processes ongoing globally.
Thank you so much, Katherine First of all, let me talk about the advantages that we have as regional economic communities. I think an obvious one is because of our size we are a bit smaller than the AU. When it goes to the AU level it becomes more politicized, so usually it takes time for it to settle through. But that said, once we identify our priorities, we target the programs that we have always implemented in member states in order to actualize our objectives. But we need to bear in mind that we still have a lot of informal sector in Africa. And we also have a few compared to the informal sector, we might not have very many large businesses, but I would not want to generalize all that for the World Commerce Region because we have different countries, but in general, we tend to have more informal sector.
So we also have a large youth population. So whatever digital processes that we are going to come up with, they should take care of all those issues that we have in informal sector sector. We have a few large businesses, but we want to ensure that we support the informal sector so that they grow up into large businesses. This can be small cross -border traders who we want to improve them so that they become medium -sized enterprises, then they grow later on to become large -scale enterprises. So those tools need to be customized according to that. So I think The issue of contextualization becomes so much important, not forgetting that we have so much youth on the continent who need to have tailored programs for them so that they drive the continent, especially with these issues of cyberspace and all that.
I think we all agree that the youth are the ones who are best positioned to drive the continent forward when it comes to all these new imaging technologies. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Henry, and thank you for segueing us into that issue of youth, talent, and capacity building. So, Jovan, I'll turn to you again from two perspectives. One perspective is that even in the processes taking place digitally, the issue of capacity building always comes up. And I sometimes find this... It's amusing because it means that you already know that the people who are engaging... in this process don't have the full capacity to engage in it, meaning they don't yet know what they're talking about. So you are in the area of building the capacity of diplomats to engage in very many new areas of diplomacy. What should capacity building mean going forward, both in Africa, in Europe and in other parts of the world?
And should we really be putting it in the process or should it be a precursor or a prerequisite to the process?
Good. Kate, it is again another good news, especially on AI. Confusion in policy, in diplomatic circles is equal among African, American, European, Chinese and other diplomats. Confusion. Obviously, the big diplomacies have better scripting and notes, and they look more in charge. How we approach this, let's say for AI, impact on AI, we can speak on digital and security and the other things. We run AI apprenticeship program, and it is a very simple program. You develop AI assistance agent, and while you are developing AI agent, you learn core concepts. What are the neural networks? What are the other issues that you have to negotiate and to discuss? Therefore, you can touch AI. Like apprentice, it's an old way of learning in all cultures, from the Grand Wall of China to pyramids.
People are observing how others are doing and doing the same thing. Therefore, we are running it, and it's a very popular and very effective way of learning, because you learn by developing AI. I would advise that diplomats should learn AI. in the whole process. And bad news is that you may learn something in advance and go and negotiate, but technology is changing very fast. It has to be a continuous process. That's my advice. And I will just reflect on what professor said on language. It is so critical. And I have two points here. I found the three words for knowledge in Swahili. Marifa, Uyuzi, Elimu. You will say they are correct. And there is even saying knowledge is power.
Marifa, Ni, Nguvu. Now, why is this important? For data, you probably have more difficulties to find the word. But for knowledge, there are words. If you observe carefully World Summit on Information Society, in 2003 and 2005, knowledge was the key word. It was somehow clean. And today we speak about data, governance and data. Now, with AI, it is paradoxical because AI is more about knowledge. Yes, we use data to train the models, but it's about knowledge. And the second and last point, especially for professors and teachers, I suggest that you discuss, I experimented it in my native language with my colleagues, you discuss AI in your native language, in my case in Serbian language, and by discussing it in your native language, you're basically removing all hype narratives, which are all over the meetings.
And you are coming to the core meaning. Your mother tongue, what we experience about love, exploration of the world, about parents, about these things. Therefore, if you can teach AI, not in English, but in your native language, it could be French, Spanish, another language, you will train it. You will train your way of rethinking. and mental calibration and you will better understand AI because AI is less and less about technology, it's more and more about the core concepts, how we know, what we know. Those would be my inputs on AI apprenticeship and importance of language. Over to you.
Okay, thank you so much Professor Kurbalija for bringing us back to where we need to go. I'm sorry, my hand keeps appearing. I'll turn to Dr. Ndemo again and it is on this issue of use of talents of learning. I attended an AI conference last year. There were 150 students in a certain university and about 30 faculty members. When they were asked who is using AI, all the students put up their hands and maybe a third of the professors put up their hands. So even as Jovan is pointing us towards learning on the job and not learning before or learning after the job, but realizing that the way knowledge is changing, all of us have to become continuous learners and continuous users of technology.
How is the university environment changing to make sure that not only the students but also the professors are not only aware of this, not only aware of technology, but using it in their day -to -day life? And then how will this help us create a new generation? of people who are ready to go into these processes, who are ready to discuss all types of technology, wherever they may be placed on the world stage, because they're not afraid to use, not just to learn, but also to use emerging technologies.
Very good question and I've been saying as I said education needs to be transformed and every indications are that AI would help us improve comprehension of what we are teaching simply because adaptive learning it gives you at your speed of comprehension something which we never talked about previously and if every student in class gets to learn and understand the concepts there will be disaster because the teachers are not used to being asked questions and I must say here that AI is a very important part of the learning process. It is a very important part of AI is not going to eliminate teaching the teachers still would come and discuss with students and many schools students don't discuss with teachers.
Teachers dictate what they have and that's it. That's where the friction is going to come and already you're beginning to hear that AI is going to displace a lot of people from their jobs but what is happening is that the relationships would change for the better. but nobody wants to understand that because everybody is condemning AI including the professors who are supposed to use it for research, to use it for many things in the classroom so we have to have a huge number of people talking about it positively that it's going to help us achieve more than we have ever done I know how AI is condemned by older professors that this thing is not it's just because people are going to remove this I hope some of you in the audience have been teachers before it's far much easier that we leverage AI, especially in detailed exam taking, where you have to write, because I went to school in the US, UK, and in Kenya.
Professors have the same problems of marking the exams, especially when it's essay type. This is where the students can respond and then they get their responses immediately if AI was to be applied and it will be a much fairer system and less abused like we abuse the normal systems where the lecturers or professors harass, especially women. So AI is going to do more, more than we have done, especially in education. in health, in agriculture, for example. I gave those two terms, productivity and data. If farmers understand those two concepts, things would change because most farmers don't know how much we consume, how much we produce. And you have to have those numbers to know whether when you go to markets, you will be able to get the market.
So we must aspire to get those numbers to them. They understand how the dynamics of business work. We have a lot of work to do and there is a lot of work in order for them to be competitive in today's market. Otherwise, we are going to be talking about food shortages, importing food from other parts of the world. That's why I'm so concerned that we need to simplify the language. as Johan said so that we remove it from the tech and let's talk about how do we remove poverty. Number one thing is to understand the data. Why are they poor? It's because they are growing things that cannot affect their lives whereas they have an opportunity to do things which can be marketed and give them more resources.
I could talk this in a much more detailed way but simply this is what I'm trying to say that there are people who are stalling implementation of AI talking alarmingly about AI but this is the game changer and we must look towards adapting it and finance it by ourselves. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Dr. Ndemo. I'll turn to Meriem. Meriem, I don't know if you ever had to sell your technology. As Africans, we like talking to each other. So I suppose telecommunications was like a duck to water. Now, going forward, I think I saw that maybe it was around two years ago when data surpassed voice as possibly the most profitable telecommunications business. How is ATU looking at the future? What is it that people will want to do through the... Thank you. I'm sorry, I think just give me a moment. So Meriem, can you hear me?
Can I be heard?
Yes, you can.
Okay, thank you. I'm sorry, I'm getting a lot of phone calls. I don't know why I never get phone calls, but suddenly.
So how is telecommunications going to be in the future? And are we investing enough as a continent in our networks to enable us to meet the future?
Sorry, can you come again? Because I lost you because of the connectivity issue.
I'm sorry about that, Meriem. I just said that telecom has always done very well in Africa because we need to talk to each other. but I was going further and saying what about the future we've seen a move from voice to data how are you anticipating the future needs of telecommunications and also how well are we investing how well are we investing to meet this future telecommunications demand from the African continent
Thank you indeed now the big the most important objective of our organization is to provide meaningful connectivity for all Africans meaning useful connectivity and affordable actually actually I'm Internet, the coverage of telecommunications across the continent is over 80 percent, especially now having this space and satellite technologies, we are able to cover remote areas. But the issue is how to provide this connectivity to rural communities to add affordable and having in mind that the average income of African individuals or families is around like 200 U .S. dollars. So. Technology will not is there. It's available. But how to address these affordability issues and also meaningful, meaning we need to develop our. services at affordable costs, meaning we need to develop our applications in local content to make sure that all these people, the farmers who are talking Kiswahili or talking any language which can use the technology and use the applications with a benefit for them, and also to afford to connect our schools, our communities.
And this is the challenge and the objective of the African Telecommunication Union today to bring this. We ask the decision makers across Africa to look for funding to pool together some resources. We have talked about cables, submarine cables. We need to look at the backhoe for those who are landlocked countries. So this is the issues we want to really address to make sure that the 60 % unconnected people in Africa, in rural areas, especially the young people who need to be educated, they will be able to at least achieve this connectivity using emerging technologies, using new business models, looking at a new framework and how African countries can come together addressing some connectivity challenges. And also... to bring the academia in resolving these issues because we need people to look at these concerns and come up with innovative way to address these challenges.
And it's only academia, African academia, can really deal with these ground issues. And also we have as a big continent resources and potential to fund our projects, but we need to have a common strategy, a long -term strategy with clear objectives, targets, and R2 is trying to bring all stakeholders to coordinate efforts among African organizations among African stakeholders, among industry. to make sure that at the end we will really address these challenges and to bridge the digital gap in Africa. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you very much for bringing us down to earth about the affordability. Can I make a small comment on that? The family or household level. Dr. Demo, I can see you. Is there something you wanted to interject? Very quick, a very quick comment. Yes, go ahead.
We shouldn't behave like we did during when mobile was beginning. We treated it like something out of space, and the telcos, they did not quite understand. Most of them have been wiped out. we are at the cusp of disruption proper disruption and mobile companies need to raise up and either cover every part of the country or citizens are going to revert to the new tech direct satellite to link to the people at a very cheap cost I know they can provide cheap broadband to people throughout the country it's just that we protect businesses more than protecting our citizens so what has happened now with SpaceX, it is for them now to fight for themselves I remember we were trying to save Intel's so that it doesn't and people are fearing about mobile and stuff.
I think technology is now available to provide every citizen with capacity. The problems are coming from governments which put duties and taxes on connectivity and stuff. That is where we need to fight, not to give other excuses that affordability is not a problem if government removed taxes. I remember we did that and it worked.
Okay. Yes, thank you. Dr. Ndemo has a fascinating story to tell of how Kenya moved from almost 6 % digital access to much, much higher. The rate of access by using innovative methods, thanks to Dr. Ndemo and others. I'll turn to you, Henry, and I will give time for audience questions. So please, Mwende, could you be scanning the chat and just pick like two themes which we can use for the audience questions? I can see Dr. Kurbalija, you want to say something? Go ahead.
Yes, I'll unfortunately have to leave this very interesting discussion. I have one concrete proposal that as we are going to meet at IGF in December, and I think few useful ideas and threads were developed, especially this around language and education. And let's ask Mwende and Kate to propose this session that we discussed during the Internet Governance Forum. let's say session on language, important language or important education and we advance this discussion further. I would like to thank you all for great inputs and I really enjoyed a lot. Unfortunately, I have to leave now, but please continue and hopefully inshallah see you in December in Nairobi. All the best. Bye.
Thank you so much Jovan. Thank you. Thank you. So Henry, I think you had the discussion. So what's missing? If trade was really to take off in Kormessa, the way you envisage, what should the digital worlds be providing commonly or individually in this region? What do you see as missing from your experience? Henry.
Thank you so much, Katherine It's not different from what the previous speakers have said. stated, we always grapple with expertise, we always grapple with issues of infrastructure that is providing these platforms at a cost that is largely enhances accessibility of the different stakeholders. So that one, if you can allow me to use a word that has been commonly used these days that is intentional. Authorities I think should just be intentional when it even comes to budget allocation because talent moves hand in hand with rewards. If we have talent and we don't have sufficient rewards, that talent will be wasted. So whoever has talent should actually be rewarded. Whether we are dealing with universities, colleges to assist us in building these tools, whether we are dealing with incubation hubs, whether we are dealing with a like what Jovan has said, apprenticeships to develop these tools, there should be enough rewards, there should be enough incentives.
That's the only way we can promote digital tools. That's the only way we can promote the talent that we have. Without that, I don't think we'll be going anywhere. So this use of expertise and infrastructure, they are basic and they've been affecting regional integration, they've been affecting the promotion of emerging technologies for a long time. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Henry, for bringing together several threads that we've been discussing. So we're into our last 10 minutes, and possibly if we have at least one participant who could raise their hands, I'm sure we would have time for the panelists, so please address your question directly to the panelists too. We'd like to address the question. So as we wait for participants to come forward with their questions, one of the things that has always disturbed me is that many processes taking place in Africa are externally funded by interested development partners. And sometimes I wonder whether that pushes us towards focusing on the priorities of other geographies rather than our own priorities. Dr. Ndemo, what should we be saying for our ministers and others, the parliaments, to be interested in funding African initiatives?
What can we say to convince them that some of our money needs to go in this direction?
Africa has got a lot of resources and there are new ways of looking at funding a number of things that we do but we haven't quite stayed close to innovators and young people attempting new ways of doing we look at the discussion about energy sovereignty we have so much resources in energy, geothermal and nobody has ever thought about that we don't want money from outside the country to develop that and we don't want because if tokenize the resource, we can get someone to actually build the staff and partner with the government. But those discussions are not on the table. There are several ways of doing things, but they are not done in a way of avoiding aid money.
And you know for sure, at some point, every dollar that was brought to Kenya or to any African country, two dollars left the continent. It's not free money. It's expensive money. So we need to think out of the box and begin to fund some of the projects, and that is what creates independence and pride in terms of development. Thank you very much.
I'll turn to Meriem now with almost the same question. Where is the money going to come from? And can it come from our own internal resources? And what is the story we tell to make sure that the money comes from here and stays here?
You know, HEO is a governmental -based organization. It's 90 % funded by the governments. But when it comes to really, of course, we are focused on capacity building programs. We are facilitating coordination among. But when it comes to build projects and fund projects, members cannot afford because we don't have. a clear African strategy with clear initiatives, coordinated initiatives. We are still managing our issues in silos. Each country is dealing with its own challenges. But if we come together as a continent, put together resources, expertise, and try to really build Africa for future, I think this vision will really... But for now, we don't have this kind of platform. If you compare with European Union, They are not only a political institution, but they are economic.
They are discussing their economic challenges and come up with a common strategy for the whole continent. Yet Africa is not having this kind of vision to come together, put resources together, and address challenges together. We have very good countries, big countries with a very good experience that could, of course, support other countries, pooling resources, infrastructure, expertise. But yet we don't have this kind of platform. I don't know what sub -regions like ECOWAS and the directs, they are doing something, but not yet mature. for really building the future. And the other thing, if we really want to address the future, let's make education free in Africa, everywhere, because without education, we'll suffer criminality, we'll suffer poverty, we'll suffer.
Education is the key instrument to develop the continent. And I stop here. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Okay, thank you so much, Meriem, for reminding us about the basics and the importance of working together. So, Henry, I'll let you have the last word in this discussion. Does COMESA see any money problem? And if they do, where should the money be coming from? How do you address it?
Thank you so much. Money. It should not be a problem in Africa. I agree with... the previous speakers. There have been so many proposals that have been put on the table to ensure that there's sufficient money even for regional projects. One of them has been a certain percentage, like 0 .5%, from
also I think we have lost Henry. Have we lost Henry? Yeah, we look like we have lost him. Yeah, as we wait for Henry to come back. Mwende, is there any burning issue that is there in the chat? I haven't seen any hand raised.
There's a hand raised by Stephanie. Maybe she can be, the media team can assist her to unmute.
Sorry, I can barely hear you, Mwende. I don't know why.
I was saying there's a hand up. by Stephanie and Henry is back.
Oh, Henry is back. Then let him finish. Henry, please continue. Henry, can we hear you? He needs to be unmuted. Henry, could you unmute, please? I think he disappeared again.
Thank you so much. I will not turn on my video. I think that's the one that could be affecting me. So I was saying there were so many regional initiatives and strategies to ensure that money is easily raised, like a 0 .5 % tax on VAT for all countries so that contributions become easier. Then the other way has been specialized institutions. We have so many specialized institutions. At the African Union level, Maybe let's talk about the Counterterrorism Center, PCRD Center. We have so many specialized institutions at commercial level, Commercial Business Council, Commercial Monitoring Institute, Commercial Competition Commission. We can also have a center for modern technologies, whether you want to call it AI and all that, just to ensure that we promote the strengthening and capacity building of modern technologies.
Modern technologies, specialized institutions are the best way when it comes to also promoting the expertise on issues of emerging technologies. I want to give examples of maybe also countries that have advanced in the commercial region, for example, Rwanda. They have deliberately ensured that they... promote issues to do with imaging technologies. I was reading somewhere and I heard that they've developed large language models to help in agriculture and so forth and so forth. So it starts from that specialization, specialized institutes, and pulling resources together using these different strategies that have been proposed and I think we'll be good to go. Thank you so much.
Thank you so so much Henry for that and for giving us hope and also pointing us to how much capacity and how many institutions we already have in place So now we're just two minutes from the end I have tried to look at the chat, I know there's somebody who wanted us to talk about quantum, I can just reassure you that we do look at the contents of the chat and they help us to draw up future topics So even if we didn't really get round to your interest at this time, please continue joining us on these webinars and I'm sure we'll address your burning issues Now Jovan started us off by telling us that diplomacy is about interests and sometimes we don't focus on specialised areas but we just talk about how countries work together to represent and promote the common interest in the diplomatic field and this includes our digital.
There are other words that have come up like fragmentation. So clearly we need to come together as Africans, set our priorities and represent them on the international stage. Education is key, capacity building is key so that we understand not only how we want what we want but how to express it and how to to promote it. And the last thing I'll focus on is funding. Everyone has said we have enough resources. All we need to do is to bring them together to serve our interests. So thank you very much once again for joining us on a wonderful conversation. Thank you very much, Dr. Ndemo. I know how busy you are, and to give us one and a half hours is amazing.
And your insights on language and other very important issues have been excellent. Thank you, Meriem, from the African Telecommunications Union. You've enlightened us about many things going on in the telecommunications realm, and you've really given us hope for the future of not just telecommunications, but the future of our youth and their innovation. Thank you Henry for giving us a very broad view of COMESA and the things that it can do for us in the future and what you're already doing to make sure that our markets are connected and prosperous I don't know if any of you have one word so that I don't have the last word. Henry what's one word you could use to encourage us as Africa as you go forward
I think it could be because I'm coming from a regional organization I would talk of continue to speak with one common voice so that even when we are negotiating at other fora we always speak with one voice. Thank you
Okay one voice it's two words but we know what you mean Meriem what's your word
Thank you for giving us this opportunity and this very interesting conversation today. For me, digital is our future, so don't miss the future. So this is the future of our children, and let's move forward. Thank you.
Okay. Digital future is how I'll summarize that. And Dr. Ndemo, I'm giving you the last word.
I will only say that let's find creative financing models to finance some of these critical initiatives in the digital space. Thank you.
So there you have it. One voice, a digital future, and the finance. Thank you very much, everyone, and have a wonderful evening and a wonderful week. Thank you, Arvin, and technical team, Mwende, and everyone who has participated. Thank you so, so much. Thank you. Thank you.
However, there was broad agreement on the importance of cyber issues for Africa and the need to enhance African participation in global cyber diplomacy. Disagreement level The level of disagreemen...
13:00 UTC I 14:00 WAT I 16:00 EAT As the digital landscape evolves, cyber diplomacy has emerged as a critical component of international relations, particularly in Africa. This webinar aims to explo...
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Rather, all countries need to participate. As Kurbalija stated, ‘the absence of African countries is a major problem not only for Africa but also the rest of the digital world’. Due to this absence, t...
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## Areas of Consensus and Disagreement ### Strong Agreement Areas All speakers demonstrated strong agreement on several key points: - **Universal Digital Access**: Comprehensive digital infrastruct...
“The webinar examined cyber diplomacy in Africa through regional, national, and continental initiatives.”
This is directly aligned with the webinar description, which says the event focused on developments in cyber diplomacy across Africa at the continental, regional, and national levels [S33].
“The session aimed to understand how African interests are represented in digital, cyber, and AI-related governance processes.”
The knowledge base supports the broader objective of strengthening African representation in global digital processes, especially on cybersecurity, AI, data governance, access, and infrastructure [S31]. It also stresses the need for stronger African participation in global cyber diplomacy [S35].
“Jovan Kurbalija argued that the key issue is not what to call the field, but how countries and communities represent their interests in digital and AI negotiations.”
The knowledge base strongly supports this framing by emphasizing that the practical challenge is broadening Africa’s digital diplomacy footprint in international processes and ensuring African priorities are represented in global fora [S31] [S39].
“Kurbalija said digital and AI issues are no longer a specialized niche and should be treated as part of everyday diplomatic practice.”
This is corroborated by material noting the growing importance of cyber and digital issues in mainstream diplomacy, including their prominence in recent UN General Assembly speeches and the push to train diplomats to see themselves as proactive cyber diplomats [S74].
“He asked whether African diplomats are active enough in AI, cyber, and digital negotiations.”
The knowledge base confirms this concern: African participation in cyber diplomacy has increased but remains limited, and speakers broadly agreed on the need for increased African participation in global cyber governance discussions [S35].
“Kurbalija pointed to forums in Geneva and the Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi as near-term opportunities for African actors to represent their interests.”
The knowledge base clearly confirms Geneva’s importance as a venue where many digital governance processes take place and where African missions often face capacity constraints in following them [S31]. It does not, however, provide corroboration for the specific reference to the IGF in Nairobi, so only the Geneva part is supported here [S31].
“A central idea introduced by Kurbalija was that the world is now experiencing a 'scramble for knowledge,' including concern about how African knowledge is represented in AI systems.”
The knowledge base adds useful context rather than direct confirmation: it highlights concern that governance debates have shifted from 'information and knowledge' to 'data' and argues that attention should still be paid to knowledge beyond data [S86]. It also documents serious underrepresentation of African languages and locally grounded knowledge online and in AI training resources [S83] [S84].
“He emphasized that the issue is not only where African data is stored, but where African knowledge is stored and how it is represented in systems such as ChatGPT and other AI tools.”
The knowledge base supports the underlying concern by documenting weak representation of African languages and content online, which directly affects AI training and digital knowledge systems [S83] [S84]. It also notes a broader policy concern about paying more attention to knowledge, not only data, in governance discussions [S86].
“Katherine Getao introduced a poll by noting that cyber diplomacy is now almost 30 years old.”
The knowledge base does not substantiate the 'almost 30 years' formulation. Related material discusses cyber diplomacy as an established field but does not provide a timeline that confirms this precise age claim [S35] [S74].
“The poll covered initiatives such as the Malabo Convention.”
The Malabo Convention is explicitly identified in the knowledge base as the AU’s most ambitious cybersecurity initiative, aimed at harmonising cybersecurity and cybercrime policies across Africa [S20].
“The poll covered the African digital transformation agenda.”
The knowledge base confirms the existence and relevance of continental digital transformation frameworks, including the AU Digital Transformation Strategy, as a foundation for African priorities in cyber and digital diplomacy [S74] [S31].
| World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) | Internet Governance Forum (IGF) | OSET | Global Digital Compact (GDC) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where are we with AL implementation? | Is it fulfilling its mandate? | What role in “coordinating digital” across the UN system? What can and cannot be done? | What do we know about the GDC? |
| What to expect from WSIS+20 process? | What stops the IGF from evolving towards IGF Plus? | What about relations with UNGIS? | What do we want from the GDC? What is realistic to expect? |
| Best and worst case scenarios? | |||
| How will the GDC differ from WSIS(+20) outcomes? How to connect the two (if at all)? | |||
| Also, any connections between GDC and annual UNGA resolutions on ICT for sustainable development? | |||
| Shall we already talk about GDC implementation and follow-up? What role (if any) for OSET and IGF? | |||
| Any inspiration from the Global Compact for Migration? |
The speakers showed broad agreement on the major diagnosis: Africa is active in digital diplomacy but remains fragmented, undercoordinated, and too dependent on external agendas and funding. They also agreed on the main remedies: stronger common African positions, better implementation of existing frameworks, practical capacity building, attention to language and local realities, meaningful connectivity, and more self-financing of digital priorities .
High consensus on strategic direction. The implications are that the debate is less about whether action is needed and more about how to operationalize ownership, coordination, and financing across African institutions and states.
The discussion showed more divergence over methods, sequencing, and institutional pathways than over end goals. Speakers largely agreed that Africa needs stronger representation, more ownership, more capacity, better connectivity, and more internal financing for digital initiatives . The main disagreements concerned whether implementation is failing or happening quietly , whether regulation should lag innovation or be preceded by stronger preparedness , whether affordability is the core connectivity problem or whether policy distortions are , and whether regional or continental coordination is the more effective route .
Moderate disagreement. The speakers shared a broad strategic vision for African digital development but differed meaningfully on diagnosis and implementation. This level of disagreement is constructive rather than polarizing: it suggests the field has consensus on objectives but still lacks settled models for governance, financing, and coordination. The implication is that future African cyber diplomacy efforts may advance if they focus less on debating goals and more on testing practical institutional and policy pathways that reconcile these competing approaches .
The discussion was shaped by a productive tension between conceptual reframing, structural critique, and practical optimism. Jovan Kurbalija's opening comments established the broad intellectual frame: cyber diplomacy is not a technical side issue but a core diplomatic question about whose interests, knowledge, and sovereignty are represented in the digital age. Dr. Katherine Getao's metaphor about Africa being in a 'honeymoon suite' without real agency then sharpened the conversation, pushing participants to confront the gap between global processes and African realities. Bitange Ndemo's interventions repeatedly deepened the discussion by challenging donor dependency, fragmentation, premature regulation, linguistic exclusion, and weak internal financing; these comments gave the webinar much of its critical edge. Meriem Slimani and Henry Chinemhute complemented that critique by showing that coordination platforms, regional mechanisms, meaningful connectivity, and trade-linked digital tools can generate real progress. Together, these key comments shifted the discussion from general statements about digital transformation to a more grounded and strategic conversation about African agency, language, implementation, and financing. By the end, the webinar had converged around three powerful themes: Africa must speak with one voice, build a digital future rooted in its own realities, and finance that future more independently.
Disclaimer: This is not an official session record. DiploAI generates these resources from audiovisual recordings, and they are presented as-is, including potential errors. Due to logistical challenges, such as discrepancies in audio/video or transcripts, names may be misspelled. We strive for accuracy to the best of our ability.
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