IPAR took part in the second workshop on the formulation of the national Artificial Intelligence strategy, which was held on 21 and 22 June 2023 in Dakar, organised by the Ministry of Communication, Telecommunications and the Digital Economy (MCTEN).
Represented by Seynabou Sall, a data expert, and Mouhamadou Dia, Head of Communications and Technology Watch, Ipar took part in Group A, entitled “Facilitating, supporting and driving AI innovation (infrastructure, funding, clusters, coordination) and priority use cases”, and in Working Group B, which focused on “Ensuring trustworthy, ethical and responsible AI“, and
Guiding, supporting and driving AI innovation
In short, with regard to Group A, IPAR helped to provide an overview of AI in Senegal, notably by presenting the projects carried out at IPAR relating to AI, its responsible and ethical use, the integration of gender considerations and the responsible use of data (GRAIN, CLIMB, AGRIDATA).
IPAR has also contributed to the selection of priority sectors and use cases, and to the development of a roadmap for innovation in AI. For the agricultural sector, in light of the observation that water resources are being managed inefficiently, IPAR proposed using AI to produce accurate weather forecasts by setting up early-warning systems.
The proposed roadmap for this use case is to promote and implement data collection systems to gather relevant datasets, including information on soil, weather, crops, diseases and markets, following the example of the AGRIDATA platform. This would require a suitable technological infrastructure to collect, store and manage agricultural data, but above all to ensure that the data is regularly updated whilst guaranteeing security and confidentiality.
Ensuring trustworthy, ethical and responsible AI
With regard to Group B, which was tasked with establishing an AI governance framework in Senegal, IPAR helped draft the summary document for the AI strategy by contributing to the development of the regulatory and institutional frameworks for trustworthy, ethical and responsible AI. With regard to the regulatory framework, the project’s policy paper (Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence Systems (DUA)) provided proposals for the regulation of AI at the strategic, legal and institutional levels.
In its DUA mapping report, IPAR highlighted the need to carry out a political, legal and institutional mapping of AI to ensure better governance and adaptive, multi-stakeholder collaboration.
Finally, IPAR put forward recommendations in DUA’s policy paper with a view to adopting an effective and promising strategy on AI.
One of the conclusions of Group B’s review is the IPAR’s recommendation for a national consultation at ministerial level, which would enable the relevant study carried out by the DUA project on the establishment of the political, legal, institutional and ethical framework for AI in Africa to be taken into account.
As a reminder, Ipar took part in the first workshop on the development of the national strategy on Artificial Intelligence, held on 8 and 9 June 2023.
The aim of this workshop was to launch the essential «national debate» on AI called for by the minister, given its wide-ranging implications, by bringing together representatives from Senegal’s digital ecosystem, economic stakeholders and the country’s key institutions.
The aim was to carry out an initial assessment of the state of AI in Senegal, to evaluate the country’s capacity to realise its full potential without suffering any negative impacts, and to recommend initial courses of action to achieve this. Finally, the aim was to identify priorities across sectors and use cases.
The aim of these initial discussions at the kick-off workshop was to set out a framework for the preparation of the in-depth workshops scheduled for 21 and 22 June 2023.
On Monday 15 May 2023, IPAR took part in an "expert panel on artificial intelligence as a driver of development” in Saly Read more
IPAR is continuing to implement the DUA project in the pilot countries. Following Senegal, Burkina (CEDRES) and Read more
FR 
EN 
