by René Edouard Mendis
Artificial intelligence (AI) is profoundly transforming our societies. Discreet but powerful, this digital revolution is reshaping the way we govern, inform ourselves and make decisions. According to the Government AI Readiness Index 2024, more than 50 countries are already assessing their level of readiness for AI as a lever for development.
But AI is not neutral. Today, it crystallises a geopolitical battle between powers (United States, China, European Union) and technological giants (OpenAI, Meta, DeepMind), each trying to impose its own standards. Africa cannot remain a spectator. It must build its own path: digital governance aligned with its social and cultural realities, and driven by its youth.
Megadata at the service of democracy
Megadata – the massive volumes of information generated every day – can improve public policy, strengthen accountability and bring citizens closer to institutions. Properly harnessed, they can help to better capture citizens’ expectations, adjust decisions and anticipate social challenges. Initiatives in Africa are already showing the way. On a continental scale, the African Union (AU) has set an essential milestone with the adoption of its Strategy on Artificial Intelligence in Africa, aimed at framing the development and use of AI according to principles of ethics, transparency and inclusion. On a sub-regional level, the Community of West African States (ECOWAS) adopted in 2024 an Regional Digital Development Strategy and launched projects such as WURI (West Africa Unique Identification for Regional Integration and Inclusion) and WARDIP (West Africa Regional Digital Integration Project), aimed at strengthening cooperation in cybersecurity, e-governance and access to digital services. In Senegal, the New Technology Deal, the Diamniadio data center and the plan to digitalise administrative services illustrate the growing ambition for digital sovereignty.
Ethically governed, this data can become a lever for inclusion, particularly for younger generations. Poorly governed, AI can become a lever for exclusion. Research by the MIT Media Lab (Buolamwini & Gebru, 2018), for example, revealed that some facial recognition systems had an error rate of 34% for dark-skinned women, compared with less than 1% for white men. These algorithmic biases are far from anecdotal. For young Africans, the risks are magnified: lack of transparency in public tools, poor access to digital education, absence of a legal framework to protect their online rights. The result: an asymmetry of power between those who design technologies and those who suffer their effects.
Governing AI differently: four levers to activate
For a truly democratic AI, four priorities are essential:
- Building ethical and locally adapted frameworks: laws and institutions must frame the use of AI while guaranteeing digital rights, transparency and avenues of redress.
- Equipping young people to become critical players: education about data, technological ethics and digital rights needs to be integrated into school curricula. This would awaken digital citizenship awareness in the younger generations.
- Integrating young people into decision-making bodies: to build truly inclusive digital governance, we need to go beyond symbolic consultation. Young people need to be integrated into decision-making bodies, with real power to influence. Empowering young people in digital governance also means supporting structuring initiatives such as Youth in AI, AfricTivistes, Polaris Asso and Smart Africa. These networks equip young people to play an active role in defining technological policies, and need to be better recognised and integrated into decision-making processes.
- Promoting a culture of digital sovereignty: encouraging local data production, African innovation and technological interoperability is essential to reduce dependence on imported models.
AI is therefore a reflection of our social choices. If it is to serve the general interest, Africa’s youth must be its co-architects, not its mere users. The AI debate is not a debate about machines, but about the world we want to build – a world based on ethics, transparency and participation.
René Edouard Mendis is Regional Program Coordinator at Social Change Factory (SCF). He pilots and coordinates multi-stakeholder projects with high social impact, mobilising collective intelligence to strengthen inclusive governance and public policies, particularly in West and Central Africa. He is also National Coordinator of the African Youth Panel, an initiative that promotes meaningful youth participation in political and decision-making processes in Africa. René actively contributes to the development of international public policy on youth as a member of the Youth Advisory Committee of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2023, he became Curator of the Dakar Hub of the Global Shapers Community, which brings together young leaders committed to social change. In 2025, he joined the Global Youth Participation Index (GYPI), a global barometer measuring young people’s involvement in public governance, as well as YouthLeads, the youth network of the Community of Democracies, which promotes democratic values and youth leadership internationally.