Reflections from the ICT4D 2026 Conference: Beyond the AI Hype

ICT4D.at Reps: Jack Odunga and Anne Muchiri, Location: Nairobi Kenya, May 20th-22nd 2026

Wednesday: Conference Opening and Setting the Stage 

Going into the conference, we were open-minded and looking forward to the conversations, building on the momentum from the ICT4D Conference in Ghana in 2024. The opening keynotes largely focused on the future of digital development, exploring how emerging technologies, data, and digital public infrastructure are shaping development practice, while also raising important questions around inclusion, governance, sustainability, and local ownership.

As the conference progressed, one theme became increasingly difficult to ignore: Artificial Intelligence (AI). We did not expect an avalanche of discussions around AI, yet it featured prominently throughout the sessions. What stood out to us, however, was that the conversations were far more nuanced than simply promoting the latest tools and technologies. Instead, discussions centred on responsible adoption, governance, inclusion, capacity building, and understanding when AI is or is not the appropriate solution. This was particularly refreshing, as many AI conversations often focus on capabilities rather than consequences. The panel discussions and technical demonstrations on the use of AI in humanitarian contexts were particularly enriching. Examples ranged from predicting disaster-prone areas to supporting refugee response efforts and improving the efficiency of humanitarian operations. The discussions highlighted both the opportunities and the realities of deploying AI in environments where resources, infrastructure, and human capacity often remain constrained.

As researchers interested in digital inclusion, we found ourselves reflecting on a recurring question: how do we ensure that the communities most likely to benefit from these technologies are not the very ones left behind by their adoption? Rather than presenting AI as the answer to every challenge, many of the discussions acknowledged the importance of context, readiness, and human-centred implementation.

Jack and Anne at the start of the conference, ready for a week of learning and collaboration

Thursday: Shifting Digital Power, voice technologies and Tech Demonstrations

Thursday began with opening keynote sessions that set the stage for conversations around digital transformation, inclusion, and responsible technology adoption.

Following the tea break, Jack and I facilitated breakouts in a workshop on shifting AI digital power hosted by Matt Haikin. The session explored issues around South-to-South cooperation (Jack Odunga), Control (Anne Muchiri), Capacity (Nyagaki Gichia), and Practice (Mala Ram). Different facilitators and participants approached the sub-topics from various perspectives, creating a rich discussion around who benefits from AI, who controls it, and who is often left out of the conversation.

Workshop on Shifting Digital Power

One of the first activities involved understanding participants’ perceptions and experiences with AI. We explored whether participants understood what AI is and whether they had begun integrating it into their workflows. What emerged was a fascinating spectrum. While some participants were highly familiar with AI and actively experimenting with it, others had little awareness of how it could be applied in their work and no clear pathways to begin adoption. What surprised us was not the level of enthusiasm for AI, but the unevenness of adoption. This highlighted that conversations about AI adoption cannot assume a common starting point, particularly within development contexts. 

This observation also connected closely with discussions around South-to-South cooperation (led by Jack) and control (led by Anne) within AI ecosystems. Participants challenged the assumption that innovation must always flow from the Global North, emphasizing the growing role of knowledge exchange and locally developed solutions across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Equally important were questions of control : Who develops the technologies? Who owns the data? Who sets the rules? And ultimately, who benefits from the value created? These discussions reinforced the importance of ensuring that communities and countries are not merely consumers of AI technologies, but active participants in shaping their development and use. 

Jack reviewing outputs from his group with participants from other groups

Anne facilitating a discussion on power, influence, and control in AI ecosystems

After our session, we attended a session on “Voice as the Next Frontier for Inclusive Conversational AI in Low-Resource Language Contexts”. Questions emerged around the complexity of voice compared to text-based interactions. While voice can lower barriers for many users, particularly those with literacy challenges, it also introduces new layers of complexity around language, context, cultural nuances, and interpretation. The day concluded with technical demonstrations showcasing a range of digital tools, including conversational applications and platforms designed to support communication and information tracking.

One message that resonated strongly throughout the day was that AI is not a silver bullet. Before deciding on any technology, we must first understand the problem. Only then can we determine whether AI is the appropriate solution, or whether a simpler, more traditional approach may be more effective.

Friday: Data, Practice, and Scale

Friday was packed with engaging presentations and discussions.

The day opened with keynote presentations that continued the conversation around digital transformation, responsible innovation, and the realities of implementing technology in development and humanitarian contexts. Subsequent sessions explored data collection tools and methodologies, including practical demonstrations of platforms such as CommCare and Kobo Collect. While the technologies themselves were important, the conversations increasingly centered on data quality, governance, and responsibility rather than simply data collection. The conference later concluded with additional technical demonstrations that showcased how organizations are leveraging technology to improve programme delivery and decision-making.

Key Reflections

One of the strongest themes throughout the conference was the inclusion of communities and young people in technology conversations. Rather than designing solutions in isolation, there was a growing emphasis on ensuring that affected communities participate in shaping the systems intended to serve them.

What also became clear is that conversations around digital transformation have matured significantly. The focus is no longer solely on deploying technology but on understanding whether organizations and ecosystems are actually ready to adopt and sustain these technologies. Questions around data governance, security, infrastructure, skills, and organizational readiness featured prominently throughout the discussions.

Several recurring themes emerged:

• Data governance remains central. Collecting the right data, ensuring its quality, and using it responsibly are increasingly recognized as foundational requirements.
• Interoperability continues to be a major challenge, particularly when organizations and governments struggle to share information effectively.
• Political will remains a critical factor in enabling meaningful data sharing and collaboration.
• Partnerships are essential, especially in the humanitarian sector, where there is a growing desire to move beyond endless pilots and towards sustainable scaling.
• Questions around data centers, hosting, energy consumption, and water usage are becoming increasingly important as digital infrastructure expands.
• Bias, inclusion, and fairness remain critical considerations in AI development and deployment.
• Organizations are beginning to think more seriously about staff capacity, reskilling, and redesigning workflows to accommodate emerging technologies.
• Discussions around data sovereignty, AI sovereignty, local language technologies, and small language models reflected a growing interest in ensuring that countries and communities retain agency over their digital futures.

A Shift Towards Responsible Digital Transformation

Perhaps the biggest takeaway was the growing sense of maturity in digital transformation conversations. A few years ago, many discussions around technology seemed driven primarily by the promise of innovation and efficiency. Today, there appears to be a stronger recognition that human-centred values, inclusion, ethics, governance, and sustainability must be integral to technology development. As researchers working on digital inclusion and equitable access to technology, this shift strongly resonated with our own work and experiences. 

The conversations repeatedly reinforced the idea that AI is simply one tool among many. It may be the right solution in some situations, but not all. What matters most is understanding the problem, the context, and the people involved before deciding on the intervention.

Overall, we left encouraged by the increasing emphasis on responsibility in digital transformation. Rather than pursuing technology for its own sake or focusing solely on profit and efficiency, there seems to be a growing commitment to ensuring that technological progress remains grounded in human needs, local realities, and long-term societal value.

12th ICT4D Conference 2024 in Accra, Ghana

Overall the conference is worth a visit to see yet another aspect of the ICT4D movement. The ICT4D conference is more an event from the private sector for the private sector and governments. Although some researchers were present, many of the exhibition booths and sessions were held by for-profit organisations. Everyone working in the ICT field as an engineer understands that ICTs need constant funding for software development and maintenance and there is nothing wrong with earning money while doing some good with ICTs. It is estimated that 70% of ICT4D projects fail and having a business model behind any ICT4D initiative can only be a plus if it successfully balances profits and benefits for its users. Unfortunately some sectors such as education or health can never be profitable if you do not discriminate the most marginalized. One challenge we saw was that this is yet another ICT4D event where only a subsection of the movement is represented. Others such as researchers, UN organisations, target groups (marginalized people) or engineers were mostly absent. This also applies to other conferences where for instance the private sector is absent and we do not know of any event or conference where all stakeholders are involved equally – please let us know if you do.

Ghana’s Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Hon. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, opened the 12th ICT4D Conference. She emphasized Ghana’s leadership in digitalization while acknowledging the global connectivity gap and the need for digital inclusion for older generations. This timely conference coincided with a critical situation in Africa at the time, with multiple submarine cable cuts disrupting internet access across Sub-Saharan Africa. These challenges underline the importance of building sustainable, local digital infrastructure for long-term progress in Africa’s digital transformation.

What was rather troubling was the involvement of Microsoft and their keynote speech where they wrapped their business case into a shiny development aid gift wrapping paper. The Microsoft speaker started to explain that we are living in an overall changing world and the new big factor is artificial intelligence (AI). He stated that some countries are left behind and Microsoft wants to solve this problem. 10 million for Microsoft’s OpenAI to close the “digital divide” and “democratizing” AI by providing access to the people – where the problem starts. Once more the “digital divide” is misused and a 2 billion offline population is connected to a system where they will become customers rather than free citizens. Furthermore, why would you call connecting people to a product “democratizing” it? Microsoft will call all the shots and is owning the technology. Just as ever and today, they will not open their technologies for anyone but themselves and call acquiring more customers “democratizing”. Do not let you get fooled by the “Open” in their product’s name. OpenAI is not controlled, owned nor adaptable by the people. Only open source LLMs and open source software can live up to these high standards of a democratized technology and Microsoft/OpenAI defiantly do not.
In the second part he presented the true reason why they sponsored the event, their Digital Development Program (DDP):

“During UNGA78, we also unveiled Microsoft’s Digital Development Program (DDP). Our DDP program is a comprehensive platform that supports low- and middle-income countries who receive international development assistance. These countries, with 1.8 billion citizens, represent 23% of the world’s population. Participating countries will benefit from pro bono digital advisory, affordable cloud solutions, skilling, and capacity building tools to help governments modernize their infrastructure and provide critical services. Cape Verde, Angola, and Ethiopia are among the first countries leading the way in harnessing the potential of this program and to have a real impact towards a more equitable and inclusive digital economy.”

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/nonprofit-community-blog/unlocking-the-power-of-ai-and-digital-innovation-reflections/ba-p/3963203

In short, they will grant governments of low- and middle-income countries 35% discount on Microsoft products until 2030. Full price from 2030 onwards of course. Not only is this just plain business and has not much to do with development, it also has the following consequences:

Author: Paul & Jack

Promoted Material and updated Documents

During the conference two documents were promoted:

Principles for Digital Development

The Principles for Digital Development got updated and republished:

“The Principles for Digital Development serve as a compass for those working to promote sustainable and inclusive development in today’s complex digital landscape. Using these Principles as a starting point, policymakers, practitioners, and technologists will be better equipped to ensure that all people can benefit from digital initiatives and from the broader digital society.”

Digital Development Guidebook

The Digital Development Guidebook was presented and discussed. Overall a good guidebook and definitely worth reading and discussing. The checklists seem to be thought through and helpful for future projects. Listing expert organization, underline the importance of open source software and a focus on digital literacy is something we very much appropriate. A bit confusing is the fact that the guidebook advocates for Digital Public Goods, ownership, free and open source software while probably nobody at the conference was using Linux nor other free software while Microsoft was promoting exactly the opposite in their keynote and they mark “ChatGPT” as the main achievement in 2022?

Projects, Talks & Discussions

This blog post is a collaboration between Tobias, Jack and Paul who report from sessions they visited and overall impressions.

Reimagining Digital Transformation through Digital Public Goods (DPGs)

Speakers: Abisola Fatokun, Sabeen Dhanani, Ms. Nita Tyagi, Dileep Bapat, Seth Akumani, Lauren Kahn, and Moritz Fromageot

Decision-makers and development professionals across the globe have increasingly understood the importance of Digital Public Goods (DPGs). DPGs promise significant changes in communication between citizens and authorities and in the way services are provided. A key example of the introduction of DPGs was the introduction of an eHealth system in India based on the Aadhaar ID. Due to the size of the Indian population it was not possible to reuse respectively import an existing system from another country. Another key point was that the solution was not pushed from the top down, but rather according to the approaches of “Empowerment comes when people build solutions” and “it is people who bring in the transformation”. DHIS 2 was mentioned several times as a prime example for a successful Digital Public Good. The discussion concluded in the statement that people design solutions that meet their needs – It’s not digital transformation, it is people transformation.

Author: Tobias

Food Security and Climate Tech

Speakers “Enabling Tech access for local market Systems strengthening”: James Haithcoat, Sildio Mbonyumuhire, Meshack Mbinda, Dorien Asampana, Karen Hampson, Gidraf Wachira, Andrew Karlyn, and Worlali Senyo
Speakers “Harnessing Technology for a Climate-Smart Future”: Karen Hampson , Gidraf Wachira, Andrew Karlyn, Dorien Asampana, and James Haithcoat

The Big Discussion on Food Security and Climate Tech stressed the power of technology to bolster local markets, optimizing supply chains and connecting producers directly to consumers. It also highlighted the need to leverage technology for a climate-smart future, promoting precision farming, weather forecasting tools, and resilient crops. The conversation acknowledged the digital divide in rural areas, emphasizing the importance of last-mile solutions like solar-powered equipment to bridge the gap and ensure farmer access to information and markets. Farm Radio was recognized as a vital tool for understanding farmers’ needs, underlining the importance of listening to the listeners to tailor effective solutions. Federated data was seen as crucial for documenting farmers and informing policy decisions, emphasizing the need for collaboration and data sharing to achieve food security and sustainability. Ultimately, the discussion resonated with the message of collective action: “Those of us who can do more should do more, but together we can do a lot.” In his contribution, Worlali Senyo, a member of ICT4D.at and the Country Manager of Farmerline Limited, highlighted a significant financial gap that must be addressed to empower farmers to fulfil their responsibilities. He emphasized the importance of ensuring poverty alleviation among farmers and advocated for a comprehensive approach that incorporates introducing them to the carbon market. Farmerline Limited is already walking the walk. They are equipping farmers with cutting-edge tools for monitoring, traceability, and data analysis. This not only helps farmers, but also paves the way for a future where they can benefit from carbon credits.

The crux of the food security challenge hinges on our resource allocation. The quandary lies in our allocation of efforts: are we truly prioritizing effective food distribution, whereby regions facing scarcity are systematically pinpointed and supplied with surplus from areas of abundance within national, continental, or global contexts? Or are we inadvertently tilting the balance towards a singular focus on production efficiency, channelling our energies solely into boosting yields without adequately addressing the pressing issue of equitable food access and distribution? This dilemma presents a compelling research opportunity. By delving deeper into the effectiveness of both distribution and production efforts, we can illuminate the path towards a more comprehensive and sustainable solution for global food security.

Author: Jack

Greening ICT4D: Tackling our impact on the environment and climate

Speakers: Mariela Machado, Morten Risgaard, Ms. Onica N. Makwakwa and Joel Urbanowicz (Moderator)

The Plenary discussion on “Greening ICT4D: Tackling our Impact on the Environment and Climate” highlighted innovative initiatives like Japan’s Smart Farming, showcasing the potential of technology to reduce the agricultural sectors carbon footprint. However, a critical challenge emerged – the inadequate management of electronic waste (e-waste), particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. This exposes a significant gap in the region’s approach to sustainable waste management.

A Call to Action: Addressing the E-Waste Challenge

The discussion emphasized the need for a multi-pronged approach:

• Policy and Strategy Formulation: There’s is a pressing need for robust policies and strategies that encourage responsible e-waste management by producers, consumers, and waste handlers. Research efforts should explore effective policy frameworks that incentivize environmentally sound practices throughout the e-waste life cycle.
• End-of-Life Management Solutions: Organisations more so in Sub-Saharan Africa lacks proper infrastructure and cost-effective solutions for handling e-waste at the end of its lifespan. Research is crucial to develop sustainable e-waste collection, recycling, and disposal systems tailored to the region’s context.
• E-waste Reuse and Refurbishment: Exploring the potential for e-waste reuse and refurbishment can significantly extend the lifespan of existing equipment and reduce the need for new electronics. Research could investigate ways to create local markets and incentives for refurbishing and reusing e-waste.

Infrastructure Sharing and Global Collaboration

The discussion recognized the importance of infrastructure sharing as a means to minimize the carbon footprint of ICT4D initiatives. Additionally, it highlighted the need for substantial global efforts, particularly in the Global South, where a lack of adequate e-waste management policies and infrastructure presents a critical gap in sustainable development. Collaboration across different stakeholders – governments, NGOs, technology companies, and research institutions – is crucial to bridge this gap.

Bridging the Gap: A Sustainable Future for ICT4D

By addressing these challenges and gaps, ICT4D initiatives can contribute to a more sustainable future for Sub-Saharan Africa. This will allow the region to bridge the digital divide in an environmentally responsible manner, ensuring inclusive growth and a greener future.

Author: Jack

Digital and Data for Education

Speakers: Nyagaki Gichia, Lindsay Kincaid, Daniel Ganyoame, Maryam Lawan, Vincent Wang (Moderator)

It was a vivid discussion about education and hubs/spaces where learning can happen. Most parents think these spaces are only for children, so how could a hub become inclusive for all ages to access education? Bringing in parents as participants into their children’s education raises its importance and also targets adult’s education. One presented solution was to offer services for adults such as searching online for jobs so they get in touch with the hubs or schools.

The following challenges for education were mentioned:

Author: Paul

Connecting the Unreached; Accelerating Dignified Development to Amplify Shared Prosperity

Speaker: Ms. Peace Delali

I was not expecting much from BLUETOWN Ltd.’s presentation at this panel discussion. It felt like another company pitch. But then Ms. Peace took the stage, and everything changed. She was not there to sell; she was there to share the incredible work BLUETOWN is doing to bridge the digital divide. Their approach is ingenious. They use a network of strategically placed, solar-powered base stations to deliver local cloud content to students and underserved communities. They even empower locals to monitor the network, troubleshoot basic issues, and escalate problems when needed. This creates a sustainable model that keeps content local and avoids the high cost of undersea cables.

BLUETOWN’s projects are a shining example of how to make ICT truly accessible in Sub-Saharan Africa and the greater global south. Their focus on local content ensures its relevance and accessibility, while their community involvement creates a sense of ownership and long-term impact. This is the kind of innovative thinking we need to bridge the digital divide and empower people everywhere.

Author: Jack

GIS Mapping Innovation & Community Engagement

Presenter: Pano Skrivanos

I was tuning into a session from Cadasta about mapping land for vulnerable communities via GIS technologies. Their “tools empower vulnerable communities to affordably and easily document, map, and secure inclusive land and resource rights at scale for a more sustainable and equitable planet” as vast land has not yet officially claimed by the people who actually live there since generations. They mentioned the following projects they worked on:

• Protecting Indigenous Land through self recognition and registration in Cambodia Indigenous peoples Organization
• Colandef in Ghana to document lands
• VSG Association of Saamaka Authorities – Empowering Saamaka Communities: Strengthening Territory Governance and Resources Management
• JKPP Indonesian Community Mapping Network

They focus a lot on training people and illustrated how they categorize “mappers” from beginners to experts and what kind of services in terms of trainings & technologies they then offer.

In the end participants raised the question if they are also working with governments as just mapping without officially acknowledging would not be enough. They do work with governments but this adds further complexity to a project and often officials are not welcoming to these kind of empowerment. Unfortunately, what I completely missed in the discussion and presentation was the fact that land often is claimed by more than just one person or group. It is still unclear to me how they decide who actually has the right to map a certain area and then state that they own it? Someone who can afford their services and is in control of the technology can raise claims to properties of others which showcases the power such a technology encapsulated.

Author: Paul

#Accra #conference #Ghana #ICT4D #ICT4DConference

Today we will be visiting the ICT4D Conference in Accra, Jack Otieno, Noah Alorwu, Tobias Klammer and @spipau will be attending and it would be great to connect. Ping us if you'd like to have an exchange!

#ict4d #ict4dconference