Four African governments set out plans to earn more from mining
Minerals plans in four African countries, Namibia’s city-mapping example, African clinical-research training and small grants for municipal finance.
Open edition →Subject area
Artificial intelligence
How skills, physical infrastructure, contracts and public oversight determine whether institutions retain control when they use artificial intelligence (AI).
- Published work
- 25 items
- Submissions
- Evidence and corrections accepted
Central question
What skills and lawful authority must government retain to test an AI system, halt its use and reconstruct the decisions it shapes?
Government remains responsible even when tools and infrastructure are privately supplied. It must retain skilled judgement, usable records, audit rights, stop authority and credible alternatives.
Coverage
The decisions in view
- 01
How government tests and buys artificial intelligence, who can stop its use and who remains responsible.
- 02
Data ownership, compute, energy, water, skills and contractual dependence.
- 03
African and Global South participation in the standards and infrastructures shaping public use.
Latest analysis
The blind spots inside public authority
Governance Research Brief, Edition 3, compares artificial-intelligence policy attention with sector vulnerability and asks which evidence public institutions require before accountability becomes possible.
Read: The blind spots inside public authority →Current archive
Published work on this subject
Public spending, personal data and the citizen’s voice
Five OECD publications issued from 12 to 15 October examine government reform, European prevention accounts, health-data reuse, AI privacy and participation in Australia. The analysis follows what enters a public decision, what is missing and how people can question the result.
Open edition →World Bank adds US$93m for Ebola response and preparedness
New World Bank financing supports the Ebola response and essential care. Biodiversity trade, Africa’s artificial-intelligence investment plans and South Asia’s seasonal outlook show how finance and production reach daily life.
Open edition →International Monetary Fund forecasts 3.1% global growth
The International Monetary Fund forecasts 3.1% global growth in 2026 amid uneven gains and higher import costs. Housing disaster risk, tuberculosis research inclusion and Yaoundé’s sanitation fleet connect evidence and spending with daily life.
Open edition →New poverty index counts 1.2 billion people facing overlapping hardship
A new poverty update counts 1.2 billion people across 108 countries. Outbreak intelligence, Nepal’s flood and Kenyan trade finance show how evidence and resources reach households and businesses.
Open edition →Philippines secures €212.7m for island water services
Philippine island water financing leads four readings on resilient services. Heat-protection evidence, African primary-care coordination and Armenia’s artificial intelligence partnership connect public investment with daily life.
Open edition →World Health Organization’s route to mental health care closer to home
A new global guide connects mental health reform with continuing care and everyday life. Trade, credit assessment and ocean cooperation reveal how institutions organise the support that turns wider opportunities into public benefit.
Open edition →AI in government: the stakeholders, roles, costs and safeguards
Five recent publications examine the choices behind public artificial intelligence (AI): which services deserve investment, who scrutinises adoption, how sensitive data travel and whose account of progress reaches the public record.
Open edition →El Niño intensifies, with strong conditions expected into 2027
New international forecasts extend the horizon for preparedness. Nigeria’s state revenues, a global pregnancy-care roadmap and research on artificial intelligence show how institutions can turn more money, earlier knowledge and faster work into better services.
Open edition →Kenya confirms its first imported Ebola case
Kenya’s health response moves from preparedness to containment. A stronger African growth outlook, new Great Green Wall finance and South Asia’s practical AI applications bring fresh choices for public spending and services.
Open edition →Heat and pregnancy: health workers report rising complications
A five-country survey brings maternity care into the climate debate. An African AI partnership, new teacher recruitment estimates and Asia-Pacific findings on drug resistance examine the resources behind dependable public services.
Open edition →Chad’s solar projects receive their first financing payment
Qair announces a first disbursement from a €37.9 million package for two solar plants near N’Djamena. Zambia trains emergency responders, Goa introduces targeted adult vaccination and an international workshop examines how artificial intelligence can serve learning.
Open edition →Government technology: oversight, computing and integrity
Five recent publications examine how governments oversee artificial intelligence (AI), sustain computing services and enforce integrity, with lessons for Kenya, the Global South and the wider world.
Open edition →AI opens a new door to development evidence
A new United Nations chatbot leads, alongside African credit assessments, contrasting seasonal rainfall forecasts and the financing of care in ageing societies.
Open edition →Kenya is tracing disaster spending. Can it show what protection follows?
Kenya’s disaster-spending trail leads three readings, alongside European funding routes into East African services and the African Court’s discussion of AI safeguards.
Open edition →A common currency by 2031. Is East Africa ready?
The EAC’s currency target leads, with new analysis of AI skills for African officials, South Africa’s proposed power-and-water reforms and Uganda’s influenza antiviral licence.
Open edition →The money is pledged. The public test is delivery.
Five developments on Ebola financing, African weather hazards, Uganda’s debt, AI-shaped health bills and WHO’s clinical guidance.
Open edition →Public services: access, costs and institutional responsibility
Ten readings follow the cost of reaching a public service, the people who help deliver it and the institutions responsible when the journey fails.
Open edition →The risks are visible. Can institutions act in time?
Four developments on heat, AI safeguards, clinical-trial capacity and the gap between protected areas and effective conservation.
Open edition →Seven of nine planetary boundaries breached. Pennsylvania records 792 measles cases. Texas has 470+ gigawatts in its data-centre and large-load queue.
The developments are global. Today’s briefing examines what they mean for public systems closer to home, and who must set the standard, allocate the cost and act.
Open edition →Health AI can change after approval. Oversight must change with it.
Today’s edition examines four distinct developments: WHO guidance on health-AI ethics, typhoon preparedness, technology finance and Uganda’s gold-led export growth. Together, they show where public institutions must turn evidence into standards, safeguards and action.
Open edition →Government accountability: risk, public trust and procurement
Five publications examine where public authority loses sight of risk, citizens’ institutional experience, democratic safeguards, development finance and the market power exercised through procurement.
Open edition →Government dependence on suppliers, infrastructure and records
Six publications show where public institutions can lose practical control: dependence on suppliers and shared infrastructure, incomplete records, weak recovery arrangements, fiscal pressure and limits on citizens’ ability to challenge decisions.
Open edition →El Niño in Kenya and the Greater Horn: preparedness before the rains
For Kenya and the Greater Horn, the question is whether earlier forecasts can trigger authorised, funded action before the short rains begin.
Open edition →Government AI: procurement, oversight and the right to challenge
Seven studies point to a common administrative duty: public institutions may buy technical capability, but they must retain the power to evaluate systems, halt their use and answer for the resulting decisions.
Open edition →Sources
Sources and related reading
These sources and publications bear directly on the subject. The analysis distinguishes forecasts, policies, research claims and institutional announcements from evidence that an action was carried out.
Related subjects
How artificial intelligence connects to other public questions
Decisions in this field redistribute authority, resources, risk and delivery across other public systems.
Evidence and corrections