VACANCY | Apply to be Research ICT Africa's Project Manager 🗃️ Read the full position overview 🖇️ https://bit.ly/3RyxCss Research ICT Africa is currently seeking a highly organised and proactive Project Manager to support the planning, coordination, and delivery of projects across the organisation. Working at the intersection of research, policy, and digital governance, the Project Manager will play a central role in ensuring projects are delivered efficiently, on time, within budget, and in compliance with contractual and organisational requirements. Application process Please submit your CV and motivation letter in a single PDF to info@researchictafrica.net Application deadline: Friday, 12 June 2026, at midnight SAST. #Hiring #ProjectManager #CapeTown #DigitalGovernance
Research ICT Africa
Technology, Information and Internet
Cape Town, Western Cape 9,327 followers
Towards digital equality and data justice in Africa.
About us
Research ICT Africa (RIA) conducts public-interest research on the digital economy and society that responds to national, regional and continental needs. It provides relevant stakeholders with the information and analysis required to develop flexible and adaptive policies and regulation to dealwith an increasingly complex and dynamic digital environment. The network will contribute to the gathering and analysis of data and indicators to establish a repository of knowledge for furthering research and digital governance.
- Website
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http://www.researchictafrica.net
External link for Research ICT Africa
- Industry
- Technology, Information and Internet
- Company size
- 11-50 employees
- Headquarters
- Cape Town, Western Cape
- Type
- Nonprofit
- Founded
- 2008
- Specialties
- Public interest research, Capacity building, Policy development, Information Communication Technology, Internet Governance, Research, Market assessment, Telecommunications, Access to ICTs, Use of ICTS, Africa, Spectrum Management, cybersecurity, gender, digital rights, and digital economy
Locations
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Primary
Get directions
Old Castle Brewery, 6 Beach road
Woodstcok
Cape Town, Western Cape 7925, ZA
Employees at Research ICT Africa
Updates
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NEWS | What Kenya's AI Bill Gets Wrong About Political Expression 🇰🇪 "The concern now is whether the AI Bill 2026, despite its greater ambition, could similarly undercut the industry-led, government-supported AI strategy and the policy process already underway, and how such proposed bills can be coordinated to ensure alignment with the country's broader digital strategies." RIA Researcher Elizabeth Orembo takes a look at how #Kenya's privately sponsored AI bill might overstep existing AI policy processes. But even beyond its potential misalignment, Orembo also focuses on its impact on political expression more explicitly. Under the proposed Bill, government mass surveillance systems and satirical AI-generated images or deepfakes of politicians could result in 2 years' imprisonment. Orembo notes that such harsh restrictions can stifle digital civic dissent and commentary, especially during election periods, when the public is particularly reliant on digital channels and tools to communicate frustrations. With the government cracking down on AI-generated content and multiple actors having already been charged and arrested for publishing AI-generated content, this article addresses how the government can tackle disinformation threats while allowing political expression and innovation through varying policy strategies and a more targeted public participation process. #JustAI Tech Policy Press
I wrote about Kenya's Senate AI Bill and how its provisions on synthetic media could be used to limit online political expression. An AI bill is necessary, but the process and details matter. https://lnkd.in/dXveSW74 Research ICT Africa Tech Policy Press #AI #AIBill #DigitalRights #Senate
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STAFF ADDITION | New Junior Digital Content Creator joins the RIA team 👋 As the Junior Digital Content Creator at Research ICT Africa, Kirsten du Preez is responsible for translating complex research into digital content, print materials and physical collateral for wide dissemination. This content aims to be educational and informative, amplifying the organisation’s impact and influence across policy, academic, and public spheres. Kirsten received her Bachelor's degree from Stellenbosch University in BA Visual Communication Design, going on to study her Master’s in Visual Arts. #RIATeam #GraphicDesign #Research
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RESEARCH | Capacity building for Southern African regulators 🏛️ 🖇️ https://lnkd.in/de_9C_jF Analysing regional and country-level institutional assessments for #Namibia, #SouthAfrica, and #Zambia, in line with UNESCO’s Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms, this report calls for a more coordinated approach to digital platform governance in Southern Africa. Arguing that governance systems across the region still largely regulate individuals instead of digital platforms - which play a key role in shaping public discourse and democratic participation - the report proposes that regulators, electoral bodies, and policymakers strengthen information integrity, democratic resilience, and public safety in digital spheres. To do this, they propose developing a regional governance toolkit to guide the operationalisation of a rights-based, transparent approach to democratic accountability. Authors: Tshepiso N. Hadebe, Diana Nyakundi, Zara Schroeder, and Jackie Akello #InformationIntegrity #ICT4D
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MAY NEWSLETTER | 📨 Read it here 🖇️ https://lnkd.in/drc_fBMv] Our work this month points to one growing reality: effective digital governance is not just a technical issue but one of power, public trust, and democratic accountability. Through our work across #InformationIntegrity, #JustAI and #DPI projects, we explored how media narratives shape misinformation, the labour structures at the centre of content moderation, the institutional capacity required for effective AI governance, how inequalities shape DPI responses, and more. This newsletter includes: 🔻 Highlights from completion of the School of Digital and Data Futures’ inaugural course, convened with AUDA NEPAD, and our Rapid Response Webinar Series on emerging African AI policy frameworks in #SouthAfrica, #Zimbabwe, #Mauritius and #Kenya. 🔻 Featured Information Integrity research focusing on the Global South, by Zara Schroeder and Dr Scott Timcke. 🔻 Research by Thomas Linder, Ph.D and Merlin Chatwin using #AfterAccess demand-side data to determine how an evolved data governance framework might impact DPI adoption in unequal African contexts. 🔻 A high-level review from our Executive and Research Directors on how we can move the CRASA Summit's commitment to collaborative regulation from intent to action. 🔻 Updates on new staffers, Research Fellow, Hlengiwe Dube and Junior Digital Content Creator, Kirsten Du Preez. 🔻 Launch of two new projects in #InformationIntegrity and #DigitalEconomy and Indicators Programmes. Subscribe to get our monthly newsletter in your inbox: https://lnkd.in/deZz2PAy Open North | Nord Ouvert Centre for Information Integrity in Africa (CINIA) International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Gates Foundation
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After three years of collaborative research and engagement, the Resisting Information Disorders in the Global South project has culminated in the publication of ‘Information Disorder and Resilience in the Global South: Structural Drivers, Governance, Media Literacy, and Fact-Checking’. Led by the Centre for Information Integrity in Africa (CINIA) at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, and funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the report brings together evidence from Africa, the MENA region, Asia, and Latin America to examine the structural drivers of information disorder and their regulatory strategies. The publication includes contributions from LIRNEasia, InternetLab - human rights and internet policy think tank, the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism, Research ICT Africa, and ARIJ Network. LIRNEasia contributed Chapter 4 of the publication, ‘Empowering Children Against Misinformation: A Review of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Interventions in Sri Lanka’, authored by Isuru Samaratunga, Research Manager at LIRNEasia, and Helani Galpaya, CEO of LIRNEasia. The chapter explores how Media and Information Literacy (MIL) programmes can strengthen children’s ability to recognise and resist misinformation. It uses a MIL initiative by Sarvodaya-Fusion as a case study, focusing on how it equipped children with the skills to navigate the digital environment safely, ethically, and responsibly. The year-long data collection followed children across three districts in Sri Lanka, tracking not only what they learned from the programme, but also what they retained and applied months later. Full report is available on the LIRNEasia website: https://lnkd.in/g-WM4_mq Learn more about the research: https://lnkd.in/gkgSyna3 Ruhiya Kris S. | Herman Wasserman | Meli M Ncube, Ph.D. | Ester Borges | Isabelle Fernanda dos Santos | Scott Timcke | Zara Schroeder | Arwa Kooli | Ahmed Ashour | Saja H. Mortada | Fatima Bani Ahmad | Menna Elhosary #InformationDisorder #MediaLiteracy #MIL #Misinformation #SriLanka #LIRNEasia
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Yesterday I joined the AI Governance Reflection & Advocacy Friday at Research ICT Africa Webinar Series as a discussant, unpacking Zimbabwe’s National AI Strategy 2026–2030 through a gender justice, inclusion, and digital rights lens. What Zimbabwe gets right is that The Strategy grounds AI governance in Ubuntu, gender equality, and community participation. Critical gaps on explicit protections against technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV),enforceable safeguards,clear accountability when AI systems cause harm and risk mitigation frameworks for marginalized women, rural communities,and persons with disabilities require urgent attention To strengthen Zimbabwe’s AI governance framework, the following actions are essential: 1. Embed gender-responsive safeguards across the full AI lifecycle, from design to deployment and monitoring, supported by diverse datasets, gender expertise in technical teams, and continuous auditing of public systems. 2. Establish an independent AI oversight mechanism with gender and human rights expertise, strong auditing and enforcement powers, accessible complaint systems, and gender parity within ZAIRA. 3. Define clear accountability for harm caused or amplified by AI across platforms, developers, and the State, with accessible and enforceable remedies for affected communities. 4. Mandate sex-disaggregated and intersectional data collection and monitoring across all AI and digital governance systems. 5. Guarantee women’s meaningful participation in AI governance and innovation ecosystems, including allocating at least 50% of AI innovation funding to women-led enterprises. 6. Ensure women’s rights organisations, feminist movements, youth, disability advocates, and local communities hold decision-making power, not just advisory roles. 7. Introduce explicit prohibition frameworks for AI systems that enable or amplify gender-based violence, alongside survivor-centred design standards for public-sector AI use. 8. Ensure AI policy reflects intersecting realities shaped by disability, rural exclusion, poverty, age, displacement, sexual orientation, and language barriers. 9. Require mandatory transparency on how AI systems are trained, including data sources and potential biases, to strengthen public accountability and trust. 10. Address extractive data practices by ensuring Zimbabwe communities are not only data providers but also equitable beneficiaries of AI-driven value creation. Read Zimbabwe’s National AI Strategy 2026–2030: https://lnkd.in/dzwfYkXC Explore Research ICT Africa’s Just AI Framework of Inquiry: https://lnkd.in/dRTtTd8Y Join Alliance for Universal Digital Rights (AUDRi) and Equality Now in advancing feminist, inclusive, and rights-based digital governance. #AIGovernance #DigitalRights #GenderJustice #ZimbabweAI #Ubuntu #ResponsibleAI #AIJustice #AfricaTech
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ENGAGEMENTS | RIA contributes to Joint Statement on Global AI Governance Dialogue 🤝 Mandated by the United Nations General Assembly under the #GlobalDigitalCompact, this dialogue seeks to promote inclusive and transparent global cooperation on AI. To ensure its success, the Global Digital Rights Coalition (GRDC) called upon RIA and coalition partners to draft inputs on how the dialogue can leverage multistakeholder approaches to truly ensure that Global South voices are represented within the process, and actively shaping its outcomes. Drawing on our #JustAI research, as well as our learnings from multiple overlapping AI governance processes, Elizabeth Orembo contributes to the statement on behalf of RIA. More to come on this process soon.
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 (𝐆𝐃𝐑𝐂) 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐮𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐀𝐈 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞. Co-authored by GPD alongside other coalition member organisations, the submission welcomes ongoing efforts to establish the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance. To ensure its success, the coalition calls for the Dialogue to adopt a targeted agenda grounded in international law, including international human rights law. The submission also stresses the importance of a truly multistakeholder approach, both in the functioning of the Dialogue and its outcomes, alongside stronger coordination and coherence across AI governance processes, including close integration with existing UN initiatives. These foundations will be essential to ensuring the Dialogue is effective, credible and impactful. Read the joint submission here 👇 https://lnkd.in/e8wbp6YD Access Now, Association for Progressive Communications, ARTICLE 19, Center for Communication Governance (CCG), CyberPeace Institute, Data Privacy Brasil, Derechos Digitales, Digital Rights Foundation, DW Akademie, the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ECNL), @Fact Check West Africa, Fundación Multitudes, Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), Global Network Initiative, the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL), ICT Watch - Indonesia (Internet Sehat), Media Foundation for West Africa(MFWA), Paradigm Initiative, Research ICT Africa, STOPAIDS, Tech Global Institute, WACC, Weiba Foundation and WITNESS.
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ENGAGEMENTS | Dr Pria Chetty at the African Foresight Network Event, 'Origins & Horizons: Weaving from African Futures' 🌅 Today, Executive Director Dr Pria Chetty convenes with the Africa Foresight Network in Johannesburg, #SouthAfrica, to reflect on the past years' progress in advancing regional foresight. Hosted by Dr Olugbenga Adesida and Prof Geci Karuri-Sebina, this three-day event explores network research findings through a structured agenda focused on: 🗯️ Reflection, Origins and Collective Learning; 🤼♀️ Generative Practice and Expanded Possibility; and 🎯 Influence, Agency and Action. Since Dr Chetty's selection to join the 'Deepening African Perspectives in Anticipation and Foresight initiative' in August 2025, she has completed her paper, 'Anticipating the Future, Shaping the Present: A Foresight Approach for African Data Governance', and now looks forward to socialising and disseminating her findings with Foresight for Development, the Wits School of Governance, as well as funding partners from International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and other multidisciplinary network participants and peers. Calling for sovereignty and agency to reinforce #datagovernance for the public good, her paper responds to critical questions surrounding the next phase of African #DigitalTransformation - looking beyond the adoption of normative global instruments, and towards the architecture of safe, innovative and interoperable mechanisms to facilitate secure data exchange between both citizens and states. #ForesightMethodologies #DataGovernance
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MEET THE PROJECT TEAM | Reframing content moderation in Africa: Labour, systems, and information integrity in platform governance 👨💻 View the project page 🔗 https://bit.ly/4eTTpnU Much of the current debate on information disorder has focused on content itself: its spread, amplification, and impact. Yet, relatively less attention has been given to the systems and labour structures that underpin how such content is governed. At the core of these systems are content moderators, whose work remains largely invisible despite being central to the functioning of digital platforms. This project explores labour-driven governance models by connecting labour conditions, platform governance systems, and information integrity outcomes. This study, led by Dr Kola Ijasan, Naila Govan-Vassen, Zara Schroeder and Leslie Dwolatzky, uses a qualitative research design with comparative case studies, key informant interviews and in-country engagement in #SouthAfrica, #Rwanda and #Nigeria. Together, these cases capture variation in governance approaches, labour conditions, and platform dynamics, strengthening both the analytical depth and policy relevance of the work. Research objectives: 📲 Examine how content moderation systems, labour conditions, and governance frameworks interact to shape information integrity outcomes on digital platforms in South Africa, Rwanda, and Nigeria; 📲 Map the structure and operation of content moderation systems across selected digital platforms; 📲 Assess the labour conditions and institutional arrangements shaping content moderation work; 📲 Identify governance and policy gaps and develop targeted, context-sensitive recommendations; and 📲 Generate comparative insights that inform regional approaches to platform governance in Africa. #InformationIntegrity #InformationDisorder #Rwanda #Nigeria #SouthAfrica #ContentModeration Open Society Foundations