Remove entry barriers to AI: FAIR Forward facilitates the provision of open, non-discriminatory and inclusive training data, models and open-source AI applications. This includes open language data to enable voice-based access to services and information, and earth observation data to empower marginalised groups with access to climate-smart agricultural advice. Through these efforts, we aim to ensure that AI benefits everyone. As part of this effort, FAIR Forward has worked in several key areas, including:

• Language AI by and for all – making AI speak your language
  FAIR Forward has worked extensively to address the shortage of AI training data in emerging and developing countries. Some examples.

• Building Inclusive language AI for over a Billion Million people: the Masakhane African Languages Hub                                                Masakhane (which means “let’s build together”) is a grassroots community of over 2,000 African NLP researchers at the forefront of building AI by, with and for Africans. In April 2025, the Masakhane Hub for African Languages was launched to address the critical underrepresentation of African languages in AI. FAIR Forward has supported the creation and structuring of the Hub through technical consultation rounds, multi-stakeholder design workshops in Ghana and Kenya, and with inclusive data governance models.  Supporting the Hub creation has led to the collective action by the AI for Development Funders Collaborative to foster the African language AI ecosystem. By developing open source datasets, AI models, and scalable use cases tailored to local contexts, the Hub is working towards democratizing language AI technology. Anchored in community-driven approaches, the Hub aspires to empower over one billion Africans by 2029 by enhancing equitable access to AI technologies.

• Open-source, data governance and licencing
  With Mozilla Foundation, the Open for Good Alliance and Maseno University, FAIR Forward has been working towards building open voice datasets (datasets with Mozilla, datasets with Maseno) and community-led data governance models  –  all to work towards to principle: Data Sharing: yes! Data Colonialism: no!

• Creating markets: Open-source AI for Inclusive Voice Technologies in India
  In India, together with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), FAIR Forward has collected language data in Indian languages and made them freely and openly available to Indian partners.  Overall, our efforts to open language technology in under resourced languages spans African, Indonesian and Indian languages,  such as foundational AI on on voice or on textbased AI such as chatbots. This has created the foundations for AI reaching over 1 Billion people worldwide in their mother tongues.

• Agri AI – better harvest, food security, farmer advice and less crop diseases
  Using hyperlocal geo-referenced data and high-resolution satellite imagery, FAIR Forward supports climate-smart agricultural use cases. In Kenya, with the Local Development Research Institute (LDRI) an AI Early Warning System was developed that monitors farming activities and supports AI-powered practices of smallholder farmers in Kiambu and Embu counties of Kenya.
  In the Indian state of Telangana, we have partnered with the Department of Agriculture & ITE&C Department to  support the development of an AI-based crop type map for the state.

• Reusable AI building blocks for global challenges
  91 local open-source datasets and 50+ open-source local AI models are available for replication in the Fair Forward –  Catalog of Open Source AI Datasets,  Models & AI Systems

FAIR Forward supports digital learning and training for the development and use of AI and fosters cooperation with German and European research institutions and businesses. These efforts have brought AI expertise to over 256.400 professionals across our partner countries.

As part of this activity/action-area, FAIR Forward has worked on several key projects, including:

• Global E-learning Courses – Democratizing AI knowledge
  Joining forces with Makerere University Uganda and more partners, FAIR Forward has developed 53 e-learning courses.  Topics range from AI basics, AI for policymakers, Python coding, to creating and sustaining open source datasets for applications like natural language processing and computer vision with satellite data. The courses are available for free to anyone on the atingi e-learning platform and can be customised for local adaptation with the help of a dedicated replication kit.

• AI Bootcamp for Women
  Recognising that over 75% of AI professionals globally are currently male identifying persons, this gender imbalance is reflected by AI systems that don’t equally serve all genders and identities. FAIR Forward created the first Africa-wide AI and Data Science Bootcamp for Women and Minoritised groups. This bootcamp was designed to actively address the visible and invisible barriers that women and minoritised groups face in entering and staying in AI. It empowers them with advanced technical and personal development skills to succeed in the AI field.  The first edition of the AI and Data Science Bootcamp for Women and Minorities was held in South Africa, through a partnership with the BMZ initiative Data Economy and Intel. An adjusted version, the AI Fellowship for Women was also successfully carried out in Ghana, in partnership with Blossom Academy, and in Rwanda, with the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology.

• AI Skills for Professionals
  The Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT), supported by NEMISA, in collaboration with FAIR Forward, developed an AI training programme to equip young South Africans with the skills they need to develop local AI solutions. This knowledge enables them to solve local problems and contribute to economic growth in the South African AI industry.

AI is often described as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, AI offers new opportunities for countries to achieve SDGs and presents promising avenues for economic and social development and environmental protection. On the other hand, it can create substantial harm if left untethered. Simultaneously, economies might risk being left behind in meaningfully participating in the intensifying AI competition, especially when they face historical and systemic barriers, including a lack of policy frameworks to guide the responsible use of data and AI development, whilst still trying to be economically competitive.  FAIR Forward has promoted a dialogue about value-based AI that is rooted in human rights, international norms such as accountability, transparency of decision-making and privacy, and draws on European regulation such as the EU AI Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Some key projects in these areas include:

• AI regulation— developing national AI strategies and policy blueprints:                                                                                                    Together with local partners (academia, government, civil society and industry), with the support of FAIR Forward, locally led initiatives were successfully concluded to develop national AI strategies in Africa in the Republic of Ghana, Republic of Kenya and Republic of Rwanda. Additionally, this work has supported inter-government peer learning across partner countries which accompanied the creation of six ethical and regulatory guidelines in Asia and Africa covering areas such as AI procurement, data protection, and AI maturity assessments (e.g. South Africa’s AI Maturity Assessment Framework  to assess South Africa’s readiness for AI integration). Presently, over 165 million citizens of the countries of Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Rwanda would see a benefit from enhanced government frameworks for ethical, inclusive, and responsible AI. Moreover, FAIR Forward, in collaboration with Smart Africa and the Republic of South Africa, helped champion the development of thethe first regional AI policy blueprint for the continent and the 42 member States of the Smart Africa Alliance in 2021.

• Asia-Africa Policy Makers Network
  Launched in 2022, the Africa-Asia AI Policymaker Network offers a valuable platform, enabling collective and cross-country exchange of government officials from Africa and Asia on policy frameworks and strategies to develop responsible and locally relevant AI applications.

• Responsible AI Assessments (AI Governance in Action)
  FAIR Forward, along with Eticas has developed a method to conduct a holistic AI risk and ethics assessment. The method bridges the gap between abstract, high-level AI ethics principles and practical implementation by providing a structured approach to operationalize these principles, enabling AI stakeholders to identify and mitigate potential risks effectively.

• Local Answers to Global AI Challenges: The AI Policy Playbook                                                                                                                                                       AI may hold extraordinary promise, but for whom, and by whom? Africa and Asia comprise more than 75% of the world’s population, yet they contribute a fraction of global AI research output. This disparity reveals a troubling reality: the rules and rewards of AI are being crafted without the Global majority. Change requires inclusive and responsible AI development, use and governance. The AI Policy Playbook emerges as a practice-oriented guide for crafting inclusive, responsible, and context-aware AI governance—through the eyes and experiences of policymakers across Africa and Asia. The playbook is a robust practice-oriented guide for crafting inclusive, responsible, and context-aware AI governance through the eyes and experiences of policymakers and local partners on the ground, across seven countries in Africa and Asia.