The Forum on Information and Democracy and its partners in three West African countries are publishing recommendations to ensure that Artificial Intelligence serves the public good and the integrity of information. Based on the international report published in February 2024, these recommendations aim at advancing the implementation of frameworks in West Africa.
The debates around the management of information space could not do without a contextualized approach to different realities. That is the reason why, for more than three years, the Forum on Information and Democracy works with partners in different regions of the world to develop and adapt its policy recommendations.
The last report of the Forum on Information and Democracy, “IA as a Public Good: Ensuring Democratic Control of AI in the Information Space”, published in February 2024, therefore called for a localization of over the two hundred final recommendations. To this end, the Forum coordinated, in partnership with three members of the Civil Society Coalition in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, of local consultation processes between public authorities and civil society experts.
“The reports we are publishing today are the result of longstanding work, articulating international standards and adaptation to different national contexts. We hope for this approach to enable both an appropriation of the debates by the actors of concerned countries, and a better inclusion of these recommendations in the international debates.”
- Camille Grenier, Executive Director of the Forum on Information and Democracy
Following the consultations, a set of recommendations specific to each State have been selected in order to provide a democratic framework for AI.
These three reports allow the Forum’s partner organizations to strengthen their advocacy towards national public stakeholders to enable clear, binding and inclusive legal frameworks, in line with the principles of the International Partnership on Information and Democracy. They include concrete recommendations, including:
- Strengthening of governance frameworks of AI systems, including with the implementation of AI national supervisory authorities, ethical certifications, and liability regimes on the use of AI, accompanied by independent complaint mechanisms.
- Supporting scientific research and the practice of journalism in the democratic control of AI, by implementing tools, infrastructures and necessary funding, thanks to a regulation similar to the Paris Charter on AI and Journalism.
- Raising awareness on an ethical use of AI in journalism, with the creation of a code of ethics on AI, by promoting a responsible use of AI, and assuring the protection of journalists rights.
These reports will also contribute to informing the work of the Forum’s international coalition, which brings together stakeholders from more than 56 countries.
Find below the three reports (in French) co-produced with our local partners: the NGO ALCRER in Benin, the Network of Online Press Professionals of Côte d’Ivoire (REPPRELCI), and the NGO JONCTION in Senegal.