As geopolitical rivalry intensifies and confidence in universal models of global governance declines, digital policy has emerged as a critical arena where questions of power, sovereignty, and development are being renegotiated. Across Africa, governments, regional organizations, civil society actors, and technical communities are increasingly shaping how digital transformation unfolds amid competing global influences and evolving institutional landscapes. This panel brings together scholars and policy practitioners to explore how African actors are navigating digital governance in a period marked by fragmented rule-making, infrastructural dependency, and shifting geopolitical alignments. Rather than focusing primarily on Africa’s integration into existing global frameworks, the discussion examines how regulatory approaches are being adapted, hybridized, and locally grounded in response to complex political and economic pressures. Drawing on themes central to contemporary debates on digital governance, participants will discuss issues including data governance, artificial intelligence, platform regulation, digital public infrastructure, cybersecurity, and information integrity. Particular attention will be given to how African policymakers and stakeholders balance opportunities for innovation and partnership with concerns about digital dependency, data extraction, and uneven global power dynamics. The panel also considers what African experiences reveal about the future of digital governance more broadly. As global regulatory authority becomes more diffuse and contested, Africa’s approaches to governing the digital space offer valuable insights into how new norms, institutions, and governance models may emerge in a more plural and decentralized international order.
Please submit abstracts to Andrew Heffernan (andrew.heffernan@uottawa.ca) by September 6.
