Digital transformation concerns every aspect of the global economy and is a route to economic growth and potential job creation. Yet, this global megatrend has far wider implications, affecting political systems and society at large, and requires major policy interventions in order to be beneficial for society. Both Africa and Europe are struggling with how to reign in the positive benefits of digital transformation, whilst tackling some of its most nefarious challenges.
Digital transformation can be a key area of engagement in relations between Africa and Europe. Both seek to benefit from the multiple economic and social opportunities it can bring, whilst securing their own digital sovereignty in a geopolitically fraught global environment. This book launch will examine two aspects of the relationship: 1) the nexus between digital and economic growth and 2) the role of regulatory alignment, standardisation and data protection.
This virtual book launch will discuss the current challenges and opportunities of the digital transformation for Africa and Europe, and where there is room for further cooperation. The editors will be joined by a number of contributing authors as well as external experts from both Africa and Europe to allow for an insightful and multifaceted discussion.
Europe-Africa cooperation and the digital transformation of African economies
Europe and Africa hope to take advantage of digital transformation and ensure their economies are not left behind. This panel looks at how digital technology is transforming all sectors of the economy. The speakers will unpack how technology can potentially support improved productivity for farmers, allow MSMEs to take advantage of trade opportunities, and foster industrialisation. The panel will explore the regulatory changes and investments necessary to make this happen and propose ways that Europe and Africa can work together to drive digital transformation as a route to economic growth and potential job creation.
- Chloe Teevan, Head of Digitalization Workstream, ECDPM
- Karishma Banga, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies
- Tunde Fafunwa, Managing Director, Kitskoo, Inc. and Former Senior Advisor, UNECA
- Oliver Charnoz - Key Expert - Digital Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Skills
Key expert of the newly created KNOWLEDGE DIGITAL HUB, a facility created and funded by the European Union, providing consultancy services to the European Commission and implemented by a consortium led by Stantec. Design and delivery of technical assistance packages, from terms of reference to expert profiles, timelines, supervision and quality control, overseeing the work of non-key experts (NKEs) in their areas of intervention. He recently worked on Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique.
He explained different lines of action:
"Venture builders could support incubators"
European and African approaches to data protection and regulation
In the digital era, the free flow of data is necessary to stimulate growth. At the same time, there is a dire need to protect individual rights, privacy and security. Across the African continent new data protection regimes are emerging, the design and implementation of which will shape African economies and societies for years to come. The EU understands itself as a beacon of data protection in the world and is eager to share its data protection framework (eg. GDPR) with partners abroad. Yet a mere translation of the European model to African contexts is unlikely to succeed. Against this backdrop, the panel discusses European and African approaches to data protection, the challenges ahead and opportunities for cooperation.- Charles Martin-Shields, Senior Researcher, German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
- Michael Gastrow, Director: Science in Society, Human Sciences Research Council & Professor of Practice, University of Johannesburg
- Melody Musoni, Policy Officer, ECDPM & Former Senior Subject Matter Expert: Data Protection at SADC Secretariat
Related:
9 February 2023. InfoPoint conference: Digitalizing Development – not digitizing the status quo (with recording)
Background D4D hub
The D4D mission is a human-centric approach to digital transformation: Facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogues, sharing digital expertise and fostering investments of diverse European and global partners.
- AU-EU D4D Hub project
The AU-EU D4D Hub project supports African institutions to lay grounds for an inclusive digital transformation. It offers a comprehensive package of services, products and activities aimed at creating an enabling environment for Africa to seize digitalisation opportunities. - The African European Digital Innovation Bridge (AEDIB)
The AEDIB establishes a network of African and European Digital Innovation Hubs (DIHs) to create and strengthen a common African-European digital innovation ecosystem, where national, pan-African and intercontinental innovation partnerships between stakeholders in innovation clusters are created along thematic, technological and entrepreneurial challenges (i.e. Climate Smart Agriculture, Digital Trade/E-Commerce and Smart Cities) and joint solution development is facilitated. - EU-AU Data Flagship
To support the development of an EU/AU joint and non-binding data framework based on shared values and principles and with the objectives of protecting citizens’ rights, assuring data sovereignty and supporting the creation of the African Single Digital Market. - Innovation Dialogue Europe Africa (IDEA)
To enable civil society organisations and academia to take up a role in promoting digital rights by strengthening their capacities and facilitating their active participation to multi-stakeholder dialogues. - Digital Actions tailor-made against COVID-19 In Eastern and Southern Africa (RESICODI)
The RESICODI Action improves resilience to COVID-19 and future crises through digital solutions which improve basic education, TVET and health services - Digital Actions tailor-made against COVID-19 In the IGAD Region
Digital solutions to strengthen disease surveillance and monitoring systems for Covid-19 - Digital Actions tailor-made against COVID-19 In ACP countries
ACP-EU digital connectivity and digital solutions to strengthen the resilience of education, health and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) systems to COVID-19 - #SmartDevelopmentFund
The #SmartDevelopmentFund is a springboard for innovative global partnerships, creating impactful and sustainable solutions at a local level.
Case study: The Digital Agriculture Africa Program (DAA) helped small-scale farmers by enabling scaled digital learning. The platform ranges in topics from climate-smart farming to the COVID-19 pandemic and other critical topics through a free, open access learning platform, thus including both small-scale farmers and consumers. The DAA has supported partners access information through Amana Market Platform, IVR, Sprout Platform, Sprout Learning WhatsApp Service, SMS, Digifarm WhatsApp Service, ATA 8028 Farmers Hotline. The solution trained more than 20,000 farmers on modern farm practice on digital platforms.
- The e-Governance Conference, the most influential e-governance event in the international arena, brings together strategists, decision-makers, policy implementers, and donors to chart a future course for digital governance.
- This year, the conference will explore how digital innovation can serve as a catalyst for social change and improve the welfare of societies and citizens.
- The programme will examine drivers for viable social change, from capacity building to a culture of cybersecurity.
- Visit the event website
Background EU Knowledge Hub Digital
- A Knowledge Hub on digital for development and Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) is established.
- The role of EU in international partnerships as regard to STI and digitalisation is strengthened through improved collaboration and policy dialogue among EU and non-EU key actors also through the D4D Hub.
- knowledge-management regarding the European Commission’s role in the Digital for Development and STI domain is strengthened.
Resource (free to download):
Daniels, C., Erforth, B., & Teevan, C. (Eds.). (2022). Africa–Europe Cooperation and Digital Transformation (1st ed.). Routledge.
Digitalisation and digital technologies are not only essential for building competitive and dynamic economies; they transform societies, pose immense challenges for policymakers, and increasingly play a pivotal role in global power relations. Digital transformations have had catalytic effects on African and European governance, economies, and societies, and will continue to do so. The COVID-19 pandemic has already accelerated the penetration of digital tools all over the globe and is likely to be perceived as a critical juncture in how and to what purpose the world accepts and uses new and emerging technologies.
Digitalisation and digital technologies are not only essential for building competitive and dynamic economies; they transform societies, pose immense challenges for policymakers, and increasingly play a pivotal role in global power relations. Digital transformations have had catalytic effects on African and European governance, economies, and societies, and will continue to do so. The COVID-19 pandemic has already accelerated the penetration of digital tools all over the globe and is likely to be perceived as a critical juncture in how and to what purpose the world accepts and uses new and emerging technologies.
- This book offers a holistic analysis of how Africa and Europe can manage and harness digital transformation as partners in a globalised world.
- The authors shed light on issues ranging from economic growth, youth employment, and gender, to regulatory frameworks, business environments, entrepreneurship, and interest-driven power politics. They add much-needed perspectives to the debates that shape the two continents’ digital transformation and innovation environments.
- This book will interest practitioners working in the areas of innovation, digital technologies, and digital entrepreneurship, as well as students and scholars of international relations. It will also be relevant for policymakers, regulators, decision-makers, and leaders in Africa and Europe.
Extracts
Innovation and digital policy, if well designed and implemented, can support Africa’s economic transformation. Cooperation between Africa and Europe can help accelerate that transformation. There are many examples of engagement such as the AU–EU Digital for Development (D4D) Hub, the Africa–EU summits, and private sector investment by European companies. (pp.20)
The AU–EU Digital for Development (D4D) Hub supports African institutions to lay grounds for an inclusive and sustainable digital transformation that benefits everyone. The EU has also set up an African European Digital Innovation Bridge to promote cooperation on digital innovation, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups. Needless to say, this support will go hand-in-hand with support to the development of digital skills and literacy. (pp.23-24)
The African Union’s (AU) Digital Transformation Strategy (DTS) for Africa (2020–2030) articulates Africa’s vision, objectives, and priority areas of digital policy (African Union Commission (AUC), 2020). The DTS points to the ways that digitalisation can contribute to the achievement of the AU’s Agenda 2063, while emphasising alignment with the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa 2024 (STISA-2024) (AUC, 2014). The approach adopted by the AU emphasises the vital linkage between digital technologies, science, and innovation, and their potential to play a role in the continent’s industrialisation and in the roll-out of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The EU Digital For Development (D4D) Hub, which was launched by the European Commission and fve EU member states (Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, and Luxembourg) in December 2020. The majority of the D4D Hub’s initial fagship projects focus on Africa (AU–EU D4D Hub) and seek to build on the work of the AU–EU Digital Economy Task Force (DETF) (DETF, 2020). These goals also fed into the EU’s Global Gateway. (...) Global Gateway is an EU initiative that seeks to foster a sustainable connectivity, with the aim to invest EUR 300 billion between 2021 and 2027 in both physical and digital infrastructure. (pp.31 + 38)
Ultimately, the main goal of digital development should be to lead to real improvements in the lives of people, acting as a lever allowing greater access to education, training, employment, and health. The AU’s Digital Transformation Strategy outlines a clear vision for the roles that digital technologies can play in human development in Africa. (pp.33)
The AU–EU D4D Hub, can assist African countries in developing citizen-centric and inclusive digital
policymaking processes. (pp.37)
There are hopes that the negotiations of an e-commerce chapter for the AfCFTA will promote a harmonisation of data regulation throughout the continent and also strengthen the African Groups’ position regarding the negotiation of binding rules for digital trade at the level of the World Trade Organization (WTO) (pp.48)
The D4D Hub hosts three main projects. Aside from the African European Digital Innovation Bridge (AEDIB) and the Innovation Dialogue Europe Africa (IDEA), the EU–AU Data Flagship (pp.50)
Civil society organisations (CSOs) provide two vital and unique success factors. First, they are typically integrated or embedded with diferent communities and therefore can better represent and articulate their needs. Second, CSOs can play a critical role in validating the expected benefts of the implementation mechanisms and programs. Therefore, CSOs constitute the critical “third leg” required for sustainable success. Digital tools and services including moderated chat groups, online workshops, webinars, and communication platforms can facilitate engagement and dialogue between stakeholders. (pp.102-103)
Online self-paced tutorials and training modules, particularly in local languages, and an interactive tool for checking compliance would go a long way to getting MSMEs over the digital business divide. (pp. 103)
Leveraging digitalisation for increasing value from the agricultural sector holds signifcant potential for boosting employment generation, particularly for post-COVID-19 recovery on the continent. Digitalisation of the sector can further facilitate linkages between the less-formal segments of the sector with more formal and productive segments.
Digital technologies operating in the African agricultural sector can be broadly classifed under fve categories:
- agricultural digital platforms, primarily driven by software development;
- agricultural biotechnology, harnessing the strengths of biotech and bioengineering;
- innovative food and farming, which unlock new systems of plantation and food alternatives;
- farm robotics and automation, drawing on mechanical and electronic engineering coupled with artifcial intelligence (AI); and
- smart warehousing and logistics, consisting of the use of blockchains, feet optimisation software and economic resource planning (ERP).
Among the five sets of technologies, agricultural digital platforms (here on in ag-platforms) have the highest uptake on the continent and therefore hold the most potential in transforming the African agricultural sector and creating new employment opportunities (pp. 111-112)
digital farming apps are currently unable to live up to their promise of providing real-time information on weather, soil, pests, and other natural factors (an in-turn productivity gains) due to a limited number of mobile towers in African rural areas. (...) An important recommendation of the DETF report (European Commission, 2020) is expanding digital connectivity to rural areas in African countries, with the recently launched “Rural Connectivity Toolkit” from the European Investment Bank (2021) (pp.113)
A second area of EU–AU digital cooperation includes coordinating and scaling capacity and awareness-building programmes that are aimed at increasing awareness of digital platforms and models of use and their benefts, particularly for African youth and ag-entrepreneurs. (pp.114)
The information and training material needs to be comprehensible to farmers and women with low to moderate literacy levels, potentially through making use of storyboards, simple language, and integrating feedback from focus groups testing the resources . (pp.114)
If the EU is serious about promoting a human-centric approach to digitalisation and working with African countries on promoting their digital sovereignty, then investment into building local and regional data centres on the continent is key. This needs to be accompanied by investment into building data processing capacities on the continent through support to “local infomediaries” – firms that act as data intermediaries and can turn data into actionable information – and national and regional skills development initiatives on data analysis and processing (pp.117)
Ag-platforms can increase productivity gains and access to decent work for African farmers, but there is a need for EU–AU digital cooperation to facilitate digital infrastructure development in rural areas. There is also a need to (a) coordinate and scale capacity-building and awareness-building programmes for models and benefts of digital platforms; and (b) target women’s access to technology in Africa and their involvement in the design, development, and production stages. (pp.121)
There could be limits to the EU’s regulatory externalisation strategy. (...) legal environment needs to exist or emerge that can translate political commitments into applicable law along with the necessary enforcement mechanisms. Fourth, public opinion needs to support and adopt newly introduced regulations to align norms and practices. (pp.168)
Data Protection Act constitutes a signifcant leap towards citizens’ privacy rights – signifying a strong degree of partner country buy-in – challenges persist at the operational level. (pp.169)
The Nexus of Education, Sustainability, and Digital Innovation for Small-Scale Agriculture
There is still a significant knowledge gap on the deployment, uptake, and continued use of digital applications and platforms aimed at small-scale agricultural communities. These communities face practical day-to-day challenges related to old mobile equipment, high data costs, or little memory
storage capacities. Hence, this chapter navigates such practical challenges faced by small-scale agricultural communities, which are usually the target audience of such platforms, yet often cannot access them. One of the most comprehensive reports on digital transformation, Towards our Common Digital Future, by the German Council on Global Change (WGBU, 2019), takes a holistic approach to digitalisation, learning, and education, which it also applies to the agricultural sector. (pp.226)
However, the report takes a holistic view and does not incorporate low-cost and efective digital solutions for rural agricultural communities. (...) the deployment of low-cost and efective digital solutions is a key area where AU–EU cooperation could beneft rural communities through policy and
practice knowledge exchanges. (pp. 226)
There are serious concerns in terms of digital divides, failure of state-led digital agriculture programmes, and regarding the quality of digital services as well as the exclusion of smallholder farmers in rural Africa. This calls for policy dialogues on digitalisation and inclusive agricultural transformation in Africa. (pp.227)
There is a need for research into low-cost and effective solutions, which can be deployed for learning around the green transition in rural areas for small-scale farmers. (pp. 229)
Related:
26 May 2022. Africa and Europe: Cooperation on digital transitions and new technologies
This high-level event was co-hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, the Chatham House Africa Programme and the European Commission.
Introduction:
Welcome and opening keynote addresses
- H.E. Mr Borut Pahor, President of the Republic of Slovenia
- H.E. Dr Anže Logar, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Slovenia
- H.E. Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Nigeria
- H.E. Hon. Dr Peya Mushelenga, Minister of Information and Communication Technology, Namibia
- Mr Firmin Edouard Matoko, Assistant Director-General, Priority Africa and External Relations, UNESCO
- Ambassador Ramses Joseph Cleland, Acting Chief Director, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ghana
SHORT VIDEO MESSAGES BY:
- H.E. Ms Jutta Urpilainen, Commissioner for International Partnerships, European Commission
- H.E. Prof. Mohammed Belhocine, Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, African Union Commission
- Chair: Ms Natalia Al Mansour, Head of the Department for Africa and the Middle East, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Slovenia
Session 1: Collaborations on citizen-centred technology governance
- Ambassador Mr Tadej Rupel, National Coordinator for External Aspects of Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Slovenia
- Prof. John Shawe-Taylor, Director, International Research Centre on Artificial Intelligence (IRCAI); UNESCO Chair in Artificial Intelligence, Slovenia and United Kingdom
- Dr Papa Gueye, Director-General, National School of Regional Cybersecurity, Senegal
- Mr Ahsan Mahboob, Head, Sibanye-Stillwater Digital Mining Laboratory (DigiMine), Wits
Mining Institute (WMI), South Africa - Ms Koliwe Majama, Senior Programme Officer, Mozilla Foundation, Zimbabwe
- Ms Katja Majcen (see picture), Digital Policy Expert, Unit for Science Technology Innovation and Digitalisation, DG INTPA European Commission
- Chair: Prof. Carlos Lopes, Associate Fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham House
Session 2 | Shaping sustainable digital societies and economies
- Ms Mercy Kimalat, Chief Executive Officer, Association of Startups and SME Enablers of Kenya (ASSEK), Kenya
- Mr Fred Uduma, President, Slovenia – Nigeria Chamber of Commerce, Slovenia and Nigeria
- Ms Vesna Virant, Commercial Director, Medex d.o.o., Slovenia
- Mr Ibrahim Nouhoum, Co-founder, International African Forum, Slovenia and Mali
- Mr Boris Nicolas Erjavec, Executive Director, Pomurski sejem d.o.o., Slovenia
- Chair: Mr Robert Rakar, Director, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Primorska, Slovenia
Session 3 | Language diversity and digital transition
- Dr Maina wa Mu˜tonya, Professor and Researcher, African and African Diaspora Studies, Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Kenya and Mexico
- Ms Mama Adjetey-Nii Owoo, Founder and Lead Researcher, Afroliteracies, Canada / Ghana
- Mr Asmelash Teka Hadgu, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Lesan, Ethiopia
- Chair: Ms Aleksandra Gacˇic´, Doctoral Student, Postgrad
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