The UK government has announced new projects to support the responsible development and use of AI across Africa, following the G20 ‘AI for Africa Initiative’, held in Cape Town.

These initiatives, developed with both African and international partners, are intended to improve development outcomes, strengthen democratic resilience and ensure AI technologies are deployed safely and fairly.

The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is collaborating with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and philanthropic science funder Community Jameel to launch the AI Evidence Alliance for Social Impact (AEASI).

The £2.75-million initiative will focus on promoting the evidence-based use of AI for social good in Africa. FCDO is contributing £1-million to the project, which will be implemented by the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and IDInsight.

The alliance will fund experimental evaluations to determine which AI tools have real-world impacts in Africa and Asia. It will also strengthen local research leadership, provide guidance for policymakers, and bring together stakeholders to share insights and plan future research and funding priorities.

The initiative forms part of a wider $7.5-million collaboration with Google.org to support AI impact evaluations.

Separately, the University of Cape Town will host a new African Hub for AI Safety, Security and Peace, becoming the twelfth multidisciplinary global AI lab and the second in South Africa under the UK-Canada AI for Development (AI4D) programme.

The lab will focus on understanding and mitigating risks associated with AI, ensuring that African perspectives are included in global AI governance discussions. It will train researchers and policymakers, develop governance frameworks and technical tools suited to African contexts, engage local communities and position African actors in international AI decision-making.

“AI has the power to fuel growth, build trust and transform lives and every country should share in that. That’s why we’re backing African-led innovation that puts people first, tackles real-world challenges, and builds global resilience. By working with countries like South Africa, we're making AI safer, fairer and more inclusive, and helping communities shape the future on their terms,” UK AI Minister Kanishka Narayan said.

“AI holds extraordinary potential, but only if the tools, knowledge and power to shape it are accessible to all – that includes contextually grounded research and evidence on what works and what does not. That is why IDRC is proud to be supporting this new evaluation work as part of our ongoing commitment to the responsible scaling of proven safe, inclusive, and locally relevant AI innovations,” IDRC VP Maggie Gorman Velez added.

“AI has the potential to help tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges, but we need evidence of which AI solutions work effectively, safely and fairly in order to maximise its impact. We are excited to be launching this new alliance to help generate the rigorous evidence we need and scale effective AI solutions to benefit communities around the world,” Community Jameel director George Richards said.

“AI has great potential to benefit all people but we urgently need to study what works, what doesn’t, and why if we are to realise this potential,” said Google.org AI for Social Good head Alex Diaz.

The African Hub for AI Safety, Security and Peace will produce open-access research, develop risk detection tools in multiple African languages, and offer training for students and policymakers. The AI4D Evaluation Partnership will provide evidence to guide responsible AI innovation, focusing on reducing bias, exclusion and systemic harms.