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ABOUT THE DATA GOVERNANCE CONFERENCE 2026

A Region in Transition

Across East Africa, the digital landscape is expanding rapidly. National ID systems, mobile money platforms, biometric registries, health information systems, and emerging AI applications are transforming public life. But institutional coordination, rights protections, and cross-border frameworks have not kept pace.

This conference recognises the tension at the heart of East Africa’s digital transformation: the drive to innovate and the obligation to protect people’s rights and agency.

Why The Data Governance Conference?

The conference convenes policymakers, regulators, innovators, academics, civil society leaders, journalists, and development partners to explore one overarching question:

How can East Africa advance digital innovation while safeguarding rights, trust, and accountability in governance?

It is a working space that is analytical, collaborative, and honest,  grounded in lived realities and practical needs.

Join us

Conference Theme: Navigating Duality in Data Governance

Innovation and accountability are often treated as competing imperatives. In reality, they must evolve together. The 2026 theme focuses on the duality that defines East Africa’s digital moment — a region building new systems of data-driven governance while grappling with heightened concerns around privacy, power, surveillance, exclusion, and fragmentation. The conference explores how East Africa can build digital governance ecosystems that enable innovation without sacrificing justice, rights, or public trust.

Conference Pillars

The conversations will be organised around five pillars:

  • Data Ownership and Custodianship: Interrogating who holds rights over citizen-generated data and how custodianship should function across states, corporations, platforms, and public service systems.
  • Sovereignty and Cross-Border Governance: Exploring how the region can assert control over data, resist digital dependence, and create harmonised approaches for cross-border data flows and regional integration.
  • Infrastructure, Interoperability, and Standards: Understanding the foundations of trustworthy digital governance — infrastructure design, interoperability, data portability, cybersecurity, and integrated architectures.
  • Ethics, Algorithms, and Accountability: Addressing algorithmic fairness, transparency, discrimination, and regulatory capacity as AI and automation shape decision-making in public and private sectors.
  • Economics and the Value of Data: Examining the political economy of data — how value is created, who benefits, and what models ensure that citizens and public institutions share in the returns.

    • Each pillar recognises the region’s complexity and invites exploration rooted in evidence, practice, and lived experience.

    Programme Structure

    Plenaries: High-level dialogues unpacking regional realities, tensions, and shared priorities. Breakout Sessions: Participatory discussions under each pillar allow for deeper exploration and collaborative problem-solving. Demonstration Labs: Showcases of tools, platforms, and methods shaping responsible data governance and innovation. Roundtables: Focused discussions among regulators, civic actors, researchers, and innovators to develop actionable insights. Public Dialogues: Open sessions that anchor the conversation in lived experience and civic realities.

    expected outcomes

    The conference will generate: A Regional Reflection Paper on data governance trends, gaps, and opportunities in East Africa. A Framework for Responsible Innovation, balancing technological progress with rights and accountability. A Network Charter enabling continued collaboration among regional actors. Policy and practice recommendations on data ownership, sovereignty, interoperability, ethics, and the economics of data. Strengthened partnerships across the ecosystem, driving East Africa’s digital transformation.