The African Forum on Sandboxes for Data is a pan-African community created by the Datasphere Initiative to enable innovative cross-border data governance solutions. The multistakeholder process invites local, regional, and global experts to explore how regulatory and operational sandboxes could facilitate responsible data flows and exchange.
The Datasphere Initiative believes that Sandboxes can foster collaboration among stakeholders and sectors, enabling them to jointly explore novel applications, functionalities, and data governance methods in the face of real-world challenges. Although the adoption of sandboxes is growing in Africa, there is still a requirement for capacity building, the exchange of best practices, and rigorous testing to fully harness their potential in addressing cross-border data issues across the continent. Just as at Convergence, we aim to bridge gaps and promote growth in the African AI ecosystem; sandboxes seek to bridge divides in the AI landscape and unlock their transformative potential through collaborative efforts.
On this note, Convergence’s Founder and CEO – Olamide Goriola, has been invited to participate in a sectoral working group within the Africa Forum on Sandboxes for Data. The working group’s primary goal is to design and test the potential of sandboxes in Artificial Intelligence. While participants will engage in a consultative process to define specific objectives and outputs, the focus will be on harnessing AI tools and applications to enhance fiscal and monetary policymaking in Africa.
The working group will be chaired by Rob Floyd, Director of Innovation and Digital Policy, Africa Center for Economic Transformation (ACET), and supported by Justin Bryant, Global Lead Sandboxes, Datasphere Initiative. The convening of these leaders in government, industry, academia, civil society, and the technical community, which kick starts on the 18th of October 2023, over the space of the next four months, will also support a broader process that will include sandbox exercises in three African countries, knowledge sharing among the focus countries, as well as with other African countries and institutions, and a community of practice among policymakers and experts in AI in economic policymaking.
Read more about this initiative here.
