Dear colleagues and fellows,

As many of you closely follow the evolving digital policy landscape, I wanted to share key reflections from the recently adopted Cotonou Declaration on Accelerating Africa’s Digital Transformation, which emerged from the African WSIS+20 Review Summit (May 2025, Benin).

This declaration stands out as one of Africa's most structured, comprehensive, and forward-looking commitments to digital transformation in recent years. Some core elements I believe deserve special attention:

• Bridging Infrastructure Gaps: Ambitious targets to achieve 95% broadband coverage in leading countries by 2030, while tackling the persistent issue of high mobile data costs across the continent.

• Moving Beyond Digital Access: A shift towards advanced capacity-building, integrating AI, IoT, Big Data, and Quantum Computing into national curricula, addressing both foundational and frontier digital skills.

• Strengthening Governance & Regulation: Clear calls for developing adaptive AI governance frameworks, cross-border data harmonisation, and robust cybersecurity standards.

• Commitment to Measurable Progress: The introduction of an Africa Digital Performance Index and Ministerial Peer Reviews to ensure transparency, benchmarking, and shared learning across Member States.

• Linkage to Global Processes: The Declaration explicitly reinforces Africa’s engagement with WSIS, the IGF, and the GDC, ensuring Africa’s voice remains influential in shaping global digital norms.

In my view, this is not just a declaration, it is a blueprint for operationalising Africa’s digital ambitions, with a heavy emphasis on differentiated targets recognising our continent’s diversity in digital maturity.

I would love to hear your perspectives:

• How do you see this Declaration influencing the national and regional policy work you are involved in?

• How do you envision Member States and the African Union translating these ambitious targets into concrete action and accountability frameworks?

• Are you actively following or contributing to any UN processes related to digital governance (WSIS+20, IGF, Global Digital Compact)?

I believe cross-sharing between these tracks is becoming increasingly essential, and as fellows within the UN ECA community, we are well-positioned to contribute to that dialogue.

Let’s keep this conversation active; Africa's digital future depends on how effectively we move from commitments to coordinated action.

Dear Fellows,

I’m excited to share that my recent peer-reviewed paper has just been published: "Drivers and Barriers in Libya’s E-Government Implementation"

The paper explores how technological, organizational, environmental, and user-acceptance factors shape the progress of e-government initiatives in Libya, drawing from a combination of theoretical models and fieldwork conducted with multi-stakeholders. While focused on Libya, many of the lessons may be relevant to other countries across Africa and beyond as we all navigate digital transformation in different contexts.

The full paper link here, for anyone interested.

But beyond sharing the publication, I wanted to open a small conversation with you all:

• How is e-governance evolving in your respective countries or institutions?
• Have you had experience publishing your own work, whether through conferences, journals, or policy papers? Do share it.
• What challenges or lessons have you encountered in getting your work published and shared?

I believe many of us are dealing with overlapping themes, and it would be great to exchange ideas, experiences, and even explore possible collaborations in the future. Let’s continue to build on the great momentum of the UNECA Fellowship network!

Looking forward to your thoughts and experiences.