Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier joined a virtual discussion on 24 June with the fellows of the Research Sprint Toward an African Narrative on Digital Sovereignty
. The sprint is part of the research project Ethics of Digitalisation, run by the Global Network of Internet and Society Research Centers (NoC). The project is under the Federal President’s patronage.
The President spoke with the participants about new potential solutions to help realise the national and individual interests of citizens in the digital economy across Africa, and about how Africa can act with sovereignty in the digital world.
The aim of the 25 researchers from 14 different African countries, working over a period of eight weeks, is to articulate an internal African vision for development in the digital age. The Federal President learned about the specific topics that the fellows are researching together. They shared the initial findings of their work with him as well as their plans for the coming weeks. The joint Virtual Research Sprint will run until the end of July 2021 and is hosted by the South African Research Chair in Industrial Development (SARChI-ID) at the University of Johannesburg in collaboration with the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) in Berlin.
Find out more at https://www.hiig.de/en/virtual-research-sprint-towards-an-african-narrative-on-digital-sovereignty/