Ensuring security, privacy, and equity

CyLab-Africa Summit on Digital Public Goods

October 10-11, 2022
Carnegie Mellon University Africa
Kigali, Rwanda

The CyLab-Africa Summit on Digital Public Goods will explore how DPGs can be used to accelerate the digital transformation of Africa securely, privately, and equitably. It will bring together stakeholders from across Africa and beyond, including government regulatory authorities, national central banks, telecommunications providers, healthcare providers, financial services companies, NGOs, and academia.

Join us for this invitation-only summit to help shape the future of digital public goods.  

About | Schedule | Speakers | Organizers | Register

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View the CyLab-Africa Summit on Digital Public Goods: Summary Report

About

Digital public goods (DPGs) are an important tool for helping to realize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in low- and middle-income countries. The Digital Public Goods Alliance (DPGA) defines digital public goods as “open-source software, open data, open AI models, open standards, and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable laws and best practices, do no harm by design, and help attain the Sustainable Development Goals.” As of July 2022, there are 116 digital solutions that have been evaluated against the DPGA standards and have been classified as DPGs. There are an additional 103 solutions that have been nominated as DPGs. These solutions span the entire spectrum of SDGs and are expected to play a major role in the digital transformation of low and medium-income countries.

However, despite the promise and significance of DPGs, there is little global coordination or consensus about how to design the technical building blocks of digital public goods and how they should interact with each other. With different projects addressing different problems and being developed independently, there is no guarantee that they will integrate well together in a cohesive ecosystem, or that they will satisfy basic quality standards. This lack of systematic oversight and coordination can substantially undermine the global value of DPGs, particularly in terms of their security, privacy, and fairness.

The CyLab-Africa Summit on Digital Public Goods will bring together stakeholders from across Africa, including government regulatory authorities, national central banks, telecommunications providers, healthcare providers, financial services companies, NGOs, and academia. The summit will explore how technology in general, and DPGs in particular, can be used to accelerate digital transformation securely, privately, and equitably. This summit will be held at the CMU-Africa campus in Kigali, Rwanda from October 10-11, 2022.

Schedule

Day 1: October 10, 2022

  • 8:00 - 9:00 a.m. - Registration
  • 9:00 - 9:15 a.m. - Opening Remarks: Welcome to the CyLab-Africa Summit for Digital Public Goods

Session 1: Security, Privacy, Fairness, and Sustainability of DPGs

  • 9:15 - 9:20 a.m. - Welcome to Session 1: Security, privacy, fairness, and sustainability of DPGs
  • 9:20 - 9:50 a.m. - Keynote: Building cybersecurity capacity and research in Africa
    • Speaker: Paula Ingabire, Minister of Information and Communications Technology and Innovation, Rwanda
  • 9:50 - 10:30 a.m. - Panel: Building secure and private digital public goods and digital public infrastructure
    • Panelists:
      • Melissa Omino
        Acting Director, Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law (CIPIT), Strathmore University
      • Gautham Ravichander
        Director, eGov
      • Vyas Sekar
        Tan Family Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
    • Moderator: Assane Gueye
      Co-Director of CyLab-Africa, Associate Professor, CMU-Africa
  • 10:30 - 10:45 a.m. - Coffee Break
  • 10:45 - 11:08 a.m. - Lightning Talks
    • The role of human agents in enabling digital financial inclusion
      Karen Sowon
      Postdoctoral Researcher, Carnegie Mellon University
    • Open AI as a Digital Public Good – the case of speech technology
      Golo Rademacher
      GIZ Fair Forward
    • Designing the Next Generation of Gov Services with GovStack Global
      Concorde Kananura
      Regional Coordinator for Africa, GovStack
  • 11:10 - 11:50 a.m. - Panel: Data sovereignty and the impact of data collection and data sharing in Africa
    • Panelists:
      • Mohamed Mubashir Massaquoi
        Director General, National Civil Registration Authority of Sierra Leone
      • Ouanilo Jérôme Medegan
        Director General, National Agency of Security for Information Systems (ANSSI), Benin
      • Arlette Rwakazina
        General Manager, Cybersecurity and Innovation, Rwanda Utilities Regulatory Authority
      • Phidelis Suwedi
        Senior Technical Advisor, Digital Health at Clinton Health Access Initiative
    • Moderator: Giulia Fanti
      Co-Director of CyLab-Africa and Assistant Professor, CMU
  • 11:51 - 12:14 a.m. - Lightning talks
    • PicoCTF: Building cybersecurity capacity at scale
      Lenah Chacha
      Lab Manager, CyLab-Africa and Upanzi Network
    • Sustainability and fairness of DPIs – Lessons from the ground
      Mitul Thapliyal
      Partner – Government and Social Impact, MicroSave Consulting (MSC)
    • Securing DPGs at scale: Lessons and challenges from scaling RapidPro at UNICEF
      Evan Wheeler
      ICT Manager, UNICEF Digital Centre of Excellence
  • 12:15 - 1:15 p.m. - Lunch
  • 1:15 - 2:00 p.m. - Demo and Poster Session

Session 2: Financial Inclusion

  • 2:10 - 2:15 p.m. - Welcome to Session 2
  • 2:15 - 2:45 p.m. - Keynote: UPI: A possible Sovereign Real-Time Payment Solution for the World Large-scale financial inclusion through interoperability: Lessons learned from the Unified Payment Interface
    • Speaker: Nehal Shah, In-charge – Business Development, MENA region, National Payments Corporation of India
  • 2:45 - 3:25 p.m. - Panel: The role of digital identity platforms in digital financial inclusion
    • Panelists:
      • Jacki O’Neill
        Director, Microsoft Africa Research Institute
      • Ramesh Narayanan
        CTO, MOSIP
      • Fahd Salek
        Economy Digital Transformation Unit Manager, Digital Development Agency, Morocco
      • Al Shiferaw
        Lead, Ethiopian Digital ID Advisory Council
    • Moderator: Kanwaljit Singh
      Senior Program Officer, Financial Services for the Poor, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
  • 3:25 - 3:40 p.m. - Coffee Break
  • 3:40 - 4:03 p.m. - Lightning Talks
    • Digital ID requirements and 3rd party SIM card registration practices in East Africa
      Edith Luhanga
      Assistant Research Professor, Carnegie Mellon University Africa
    • Financial inclusion: Technology, people, money?
      Jacki O'Neill
      Director, Microsoft Africa Research Institute
    • Designing Technologies for Societal Impact
      Sello Boshomane
      SADC Payment Systems Projects Coordinator, SADC Banking Association
  • 4:05 - 4:45 p.m. - Panel: The future of financial interoperability
    • Panelists:
      • Ibrahim Stevens
        Deputy Bank Governor of Sierra Leone
      • Sello Boshomane
        SADC Payment Systems Projects Coordinator, SADC Banking Association
      • John Karamuka
        Director in Charge of Payment Systems, National Bank of Rwanda
      • Kuassi Ayikué Satchivi,
        Head of Digital Development Unit, Financial Inclusion Division, Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO)
    • Moderator: Priyadarshini D, Carnegie India
  • 4:45 - 5:00 p.m. - Coffee Break
  • 5:00 - 5:15 p.m. - Lightning Talks
    • Building a sustainable technology for digital financial inclusion
      Michael Mbuthia
      Regional Director, East Africa, AfricaNenda
    • Digital ID and data privacy regulation
      Fiacre N. Mushimire
      Policy Lead at the Centre for Financial Regulation and Inclusion (CENFRI)
  • 5:30 -5:45 p.m. - Day 1 Wrap up
  • 7:00 p.m. - Dinner

Day 2: October 11, 2022

Session 3: Healthcare

  • 9:00 - 9:05 a.m. - Welcome to Session 3: Healthcare
  • 9:05 - 9:35 a.m. - Healthcare Keynote: Leveraging innovations and technologies in the journey towards reducing maternal mortality
    • Speaker: Austin Demby
      Minister of Health, Sierra Leone
  • 9:35 - 9:40 a.m. - Break
  • 9:40 - 10:20 a.m. - Panel: Overcoming the scaling and integration challenges of healthcare DPGs
    • Panelists: 
      • Noella Bigirimana
        Deputy Director General, Rwanda Biomedical Centre
      • Himanshu Nagpal
        Deputy Director, Global Health at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
      • Johan Ivar Sæbø
        Associate Professor, University of Oslo, Norway, DHIS2
    • Moderator: Conrad Tucker
      Arthur Hamerschlag Career Development Professor of Mechanical Engineering, CMU
  • 10:25 - 10:40 a.m. - Lightning Talks
    • Towards an open data pathway for digital public goods: A digital health case study from Sierra Leone
      Nathaniel Houston-Suluku, Digital Health Professional
    • Extending healthcare beyond the clinic: language models as public infrastructure
      Jacki O’Neill, Director, Microsoft Africa Research Institute
  • 10:41 - 11:00 a.m. - Coffee Break
  • 11:00 - 11:40 a.m. - Panel: Healthcare DPG Deployment and Security: Hosting locally or in the cloud?
    • Panelists: 
      • Pradipta Kundu
        Director, eGov
      • Phidelis Suwedi
        Senior Technical Advisor, Digital Health at Clinton Health Access Initiative
      • Tom Oluoch
        Co-Founder and Chairman at Kenya Health Informatics Association - KeHIA
    • Moderator: Karen Sowon, Postdoctoral Researcher, Carnegie Mellon University
  • 11:43 - 12:08 p.m. - Lightning Talks
    • DIVOC: Catalysing DPI across 5 countries during a global pandemic
      Pradipta Kundu
      Director, eGov
    • Navigating digital gaps and cultural dynamics to promote fairness and inclusivity of digital health innovations
      Wallace Chigona
      Professor, School of IT, University of Cape Town
  • 12:09 - 1:25 p.m. - Lunch
  • 1:25 - 2:10 p.m. - Demo and Poster Session
  • 1:25 - 2:10 p.m. - PicoCTF Info Session (CyLab-Africa Upanzi Lab, 1st floor)

Session 4: Agriculture

  • 2:10 - 2:15 - Welcome to Session 4: Agriculture
  • 2:15 - 2:45 p.m. - Keynote: Incentives and roles across the agricultural data exchange ecosystem to enable farmer-level impact
    • Speaker: Vineet Singh, Senior Platform Architect, Digital Green
  • 2:45 - 3:25 p.m. - Panel: Scaling up digital agriculture in Africa
    • Panelists: 
      • Racine Ly,
        Director, Data Management, Digital Products and Technology, AKADEMIYA2063
      • Dawit Phillipos
        Chief Operating Officer, Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute
      • Kennedy Senagi
        Data Management, Modelling and Geo-Information Unit,
        International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE)
    • Moderator: Tim Brown, Director of Research, CMU-Africa
  • 3:25 - 3:40 p.m. - Coffee Break
  • 3:40 - 4:03 p.m. - Lightning Talks
    • Software and data engineering approaches for managing digital public goods - Scientific data: case of icipe"
      Kennedy Senagi
      Data Management, Modelling and Geo-Information Unit,
      International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE)
    • Experience learned with Project Tolbi
      Ahmath Bamba Mbake
      Professor, UCAD-ESP, Dakar
    • Earth observation data for sustainable farming
      Yves Hategekimana
      Head of the Earth Observation Department, Rwanda Space Agency
  • 4:05 - 4:45 p.m. - Panel: Boosting resilient agriculture and data-driven practices
    • Panelists:
      • Joseph Abakunda
        Chief Strategy Officer,
        Rwanda Space Agency
      • Richard Ferguson,
        Vice Chancellor, Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA)
      • Vineet Singh
        Senior Platform Architect, Digital Green
    • Moderator: Edith Luhanga
      Assistant Research Professor, Carnegie Mellon University Africa
  • 4:45 - 5:00 p.m. - Lightning Talks
    • IDEA – AgriStack to create a digital agriculture ecosystem in India
      Mitul Thapliyal
      Partner – Government and Social Impact, MicroSave Consulting (MSC)
    • Leveraging IoT to improve water efficiency in agriculture
      Alfred Ntaganda
      Information Security Analyst (RISA)
  • 5:00 - 5:15 p.m.- Closing Remarks
  • 5:15 p.m. - (Optional) CMU-Africa Campus Tour

Keynote speakers

  • Austun Demby headshot

    Austin Demby

    Minister of Health, Sierra Leone

  • Paula Ingamire headshot

    Paula Ingabire

    Minister of Information and Communications Technology and Innovation, Rwanda

  • Nehal Shah headshot

    Nehal Shah

    In-charge – Business Development, MENA region, NCPI

  • Vineet Singh headshot

    Vineet Singh

    Architect, Digital Green

Speakers

  • Joseph Abakunda headshot

    Joseph Abakunda

    Chief Strategy Officer, Rwanda Space Agency

  • Sello Boshomane headshot

    Sello Boshomane

    SADC Payment Systems Projects Coordinator, SADC Banking Association

  • Lenah Chacha headshot

    Lenah Chacha

    Project Manager, Carnegie Mellon University Africa

  • Wallace Chigona headshot

    Wallace Chigona

    Professor, School of IT, University of Cape Town

  • Priyadarshini headshot

    Priyadarshini D

    Associate Fellow, Carnegie India's Technology and Society Program

  • Richard Ferguson headshot

    Richard Ferguson

    Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs, Research and Extension, RICA

  • Yves Hategekimana headshot

    Yves Hategekima

    Head of the Earth Observation Department, Rwanda Space Agency

  • Nathaniel Houston-Suluku headshot

    Nathaniel Houston-Suluku

    Digital Health Professional

  • Concorde Kananura headshot

    Concorde Kananura

    GovStack Regional Coordinator for Africa

  • John Karamuka headshot

    John Karamuka

    Director in Charge of Payment Systems, Rwandan National Bank

  • Pradipta Kundu headshot

    Pradipta Kundu

    Director, eGov

  • Edith Luhanga headshot

    Edith Luhanga

    Assistant Research Professor, Carnegie Mellon University Africa

  • Mohamed Mubashir Massaquoi headshot

    Mohamed Mubashir Massaquoi

    Director General, Sierra Leone National Civil Registration Authority

  • Michael Mbuthia headshot

    Michael Mbuthia

    Regional Director, East Africa, AfricaNenda

  • Ouanilo Medegan Fagla headshot

    Ouanilo Medegan Fagla

    Director General, National Agency for the Security of Information Systems, Bénin

  • Fiacre Niyigena headshot

    Fiacre Mushimire Niyigena

    Policy Lead, CENFRI

  • Himanshu headshot

    Himanshu Nagpal

    Deputy Director, Digital Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

  • Ramesh Narayanan headshot

    Ramesh Narayanan

    CTO, MOSIP

  • Jacki O'Neill headshot

    Jacki O'Neill

    Microsoft Africa Research Institute (MARI) Director

  • Melissa Omino headshot

    Melissa Omino

    Acting Director, CIPIT Strathmore University

  • Dawit Philipos headshot

    Dawit Phillipos

    Senior Director of Operations, Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute

     

  • Golo Rademacher headshot

    Golo Rademacher

    FAIR Forward

  • Gautham headshot

    Gautham Ravichander

    Director, eGov

  • Johan Ivar Saebo headshot

    Johan Ivar Sæbø

    Associate Professor, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo

  • Fahd Salek headshot

    Fahd Salek

    Strategic Projects Unit Manager at Agence de Développement du Digital (ADD)

  • Kuassi Ayikue Satchivi headshot

    Kuassi Ayikué Satchivi

    Head of Digital Development Unit, Financial Inclusion Division, Central Bank of West Africa

  • Al Shiferaw headshot

    Al Shiferaw

    Lead, Ethiopian Digital ID Advisory Council

  • Kanwaljit Singh headshot

    Kanwaljit Singh

    Senior Program Officer, Financial Services for the Poor, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

  • Karen Sowon headshot

    Karen Sowon

    Postdoctoral Research Associate, Carnegie Mellon University Africa

  • Ibrahim Stevens headshot

    Ibrahim Stevens

    Deputy Bank Governor, Sierra Leone

  • Phidelis Suwedi headshot

    Phidelis Suwedi

    Senior Technical Advisor, Digital Health, Clinton Health Access Initiative

  • Mitul Thapliyal headshot

    Mitul Thapliyal

    Partner-Government and Social Impact, MicroSave

  • Evan Wheeler headshot

    Evan Wheeler

    ICT Manager, Field Solutions, UNICEF

Organizers

  • Giulia Fanti headshot

    Giulia Fanti

    Co-Director of CyLab-Africa, Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University

  • Assane Gueye headshot

    Assane Gueye

    Co-Director of CyLab-Africa, Associate Teaching Professor at CMU-Africa

  • Conrad Tucker headshot

    Conrad Tucker

    Arthur Hamerschlag Career Development Professor, Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University

  • Isabelle Glassmith headshot

    Isabelle Glassmith

    Project Manager, Partnerships, CyLab

  • Olive Uwimana headshot

    Olive Uwimana

    Administrative Support Coordinator, CMU-Africa

  • Marie-Ange Rukundo headshot

    Marie-Ange Rukundo

    Events Manager, CMU-Africa

  • Michael Lisanti headshot

    Michael Lisanti

    Director of Partnerships, CyLab

  • Karen Sowon headshot

    Karen Sowon

    Postdoctoral Research Associate, CMU-Africa

  • Edith Luhanga headshot

    Edith Luhanga

    Assistant Research Professor, CMU-Africa

  • Tim Brown headshot

    Tim Brown

    Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering and Engineering and Public Policy
    Director of Research, CMU-Africa

  • Monica Sumbi headshot

    Monica Sumbi

    Associate Director of Marketing and Communications, CMU-Africa

  • Lenah Chacha headshot

    Lenah Chacha

    Project Manager, Carnegie Mellon University Africa

Register

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A collaboration between CyLab Security and Privacy Institute and CMU-Africa

CyLab-Africa

CyLab-Africa is supported by a seed grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The CyLab-Africa team is interested in working with other organizations and institutions to improve the security and privacy of digital systems in Africa and other developing economies.

Learn more about CyLab-Africa