Join us on May 15th for an AI+Africa Working Group Meeting: Shaping Our Priorities!

On May 15th at 11am ET/ 4pm BST/ 5pm CAT, CET/ 6pm EAT, we are hosting the first AI+ Africa Working Group meeting of the year.

Back in 2024, we launched this working group to be able to focus on conversations and practical learning about AI and NLP for MERL in African contexts, talk about “Made in Africa” AI and NLP tools, and to create space for connection and cross-learning with other NLP/AI and Evaluation groups and networks in and outside Africa. 

During in our inaugural meeting, we gathered more perspectives on the priority topics for the community in Africa. From the discussions, it emerged that data protection and privacy when using AI on qualitative data, the use of AI for data collection for evaluations, and influencing for organizational uptake of AI were some of the key priorities from the community.  After almost a year of this initial conversation, we are looking forward to re-energizing and reigniting the momentum of this working group, and we would love for you to join us!

For our event on next month, we will hear from experts already engaging with the subjects of NLP development and AI ethics and governance in Africa, and also have space to explore what community members are interested in. We are hoping to gain a more nuanced grounding of the community needs, hopes, and ideas for the AI+ Africa Working Group.

Get to know our speakers

We will be joined by: 

• Nana Mgbechikwere Nwachukwu, AI Ethics and Governance Expert, who will be talking about ethics and governance;
• Israel Olatunji Tijani, Data Scientist and ChatVE Founder, discussing guidance on LLM development in Africa.

We hope these reflections from the speakers and interactive discussions will provide you with insights, as well as contribute to shaping the future of AI in Africa evaluation practice.  

How can this working group support you?

We also invite you to come prepared to share your thoughts on how we can make the Working Group (and the CoP!) work for you! We’re looking forward to hearing your ideas related to…   

• What knowledge or skills do you feel are missing in the Africa MERL+AI space, either for yourself or in your network?
• What knowledge or skills do you feel are emerging or have emerged in the Africa MERL+AI space?
• What does ‘Made in Africa AI & Evaluation’ mean to you? What should it look and feel like in practice?
• What kinds of platforms, communities, or shared resources are you currently engaging with or would you like to engage with?
• What will it take to build strong, lasting collaboration for  ‘Made in Africa AI & Evaluation’? How might networks and partnerships be supported to grow and thrive?

Register now

Register here to join us on May 15th  at 11am ET/ 4pm BST – the meeting is open to all members of the working group!

And if you haven’t already, you can join the NLP Community of Practice convened by the MERL Tech Initiative! In addition to gaining access to resources and events at the intersection of MERL and NLP, you can join a wide range of working groups covering everything from NLP in Ethics and Governance to Social and Behaviour Change Communications.