Africa & Global Power

  Abstract The African Union Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy, adopted by the AU Executive Council in Accra, Ghana in July 2024, represents the most comprehensive AI governance document produced at the continental level in Africa. 1 Two years into its existence, this article conducts a systematic policy analysis of the Strategy. It examines what the document says across its six focus areas and six implementation pillars, reviews what has been achieved under Phase 1 of its implementation roadmap (2025 to 2026), and identifies ten substantive gaps where the Strategy falls short of what effective continental AI governance requires. The analysis draws on the Strategy's own text, the 2025 Kigali Africa Declaration on AI, implementation data from academic and institutional sources and national policy developments across the continent. The article is intended to contribute to the ongoing policy dialogue on how the AU's continental framework can be strengthened as ...

T he term “Global South” has become one of the most used and least examined phrases in contemporary international relations. It appears in AU summit communiqués, UN General Assembly speeches, academic journals, and newspaper editorials with a frequency that suggests consensus on its meaning. That consensus is largely illusory. The Global South is not a defined institution, a formal alliance, a shared ideology, or a coherent economic bloc. It is a political shorthand for a diverse collection of countries that share a historical experience of colonialism and marginalisation in the Western-designed international order, and that are increasingly asserting the right to shape that order’s next iteration on terms more favourable to their own interests. For Africa, the Global South framing matters because it provides the continent with a discursive and sometimes institutional home for its demands: for debt restructuring, for climate finance, for permanent UN Security Council representation, ...