Digital Skillshare Project

The LINK Centre, in collaboration with six partner organisations, is implementing the Digital Skillshare Project. This two-year project explores various dimensions of digital governance in order to identify opportunities for investments and initiatives to strengthen interventions in these areas. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the project has a novel way of identifying research questions. The research questions are driven by practical challenges experienced in the ongoing implementation of development interventions by the Foundation, ensuring that research projects address practical problems related to digital transformation.

As the host organisation, the LINK Centre is responsible for conceptualising these research projects and mobilising the research teams comprising researchers and expert advisors from the continent. Four research projects are currently at various stages of implementation, including (1) exploring the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in primary education; (2) strengthening the regulation of food fortification through a digital system; (3) assessing opportunities for scaling the development of African Language Technologies; and (4) mapping and analysing the role of public sector digital capabilities in African transformation.

The six organisations partnering with LINK Centre are:
African Advanced Level Telecommunications Institute (AFRALTI), Nairobi
Carnegie Mellon University Africa (CMU-Africa), Kigali
Centre for Cyberspace Studies, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria
Johannesburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE)
Open African Innovation Research (Open AIR) network
Evisights

A central objective of this initiative is to seed the formation of a network of researchers and experts in the field of digital governance.