Africa Sandboxes Forum

Building a Pan-African Sandbox Ecosystem for Agile Data Governance

Africa Sandboxes Forum in context

The Datasphere Initiative’s Africa Sandboxes Forum is fostering a pan-African community dedicated to enabling innovative, cross-border data governance solutions. Through a multistakeholder process, the Forum invites local, regional, and global experts to explore how regulatory and operational sandboxes can support responsible data flows, collaboration, and experimentation.

Africa Sandboxes activities

Co-creation Labs

The Africa Sandboxes Forum’s first Co-Creation Lab was launched in Kigali during the Global AI Summit for Africa. This interactive session brought together stakeholders from government, academia, civil society, and the private sector to collaboratively explore what responsible AI sandboxes could look like in Africa. The Lab series will continue across the region, advancing inclusive co-design, ethical principles, and Africa-led sandbox models in priority sectors like health, finance, and AI.

Sandbox Coaching Program

The Datasphere Initiative offers organizations in Africa personalized coaching sessions to support their sandbox design and implementation. For organizations unsure about whether a sandbox is the solution they need, the Datasphere Initiative also offers personalized exploration sessions.

Resources

Events

On April 3-4, 2025, the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Rwanda’s Ministry of ICT & Innovation, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, hosted the inaugural Global AI Summit on Africa in Kigali, under the theme: “AI and Africa’s Demographic Dividend: Reimagining Economic Opportunities for Africa’s Workforce.”

We invited you to a special side event during the Summit—the kick-off of our Co-creation Lab Series on Africa Sandboxes for AI, on April 2nd, where we highlighted insights from the two new publications from the Datasphere Initiative and engage stakeholders in shaping the building blocks of responsible AI sandboxes.

Milestones

2023

Phase 1

Launch

The Datasphere Initiative launched the Africa Sandboxes Forum in July 2023 to support the growing use of regulatory sandboxes across the continent and foster cross-border collaboration. To further this mission, the Initiative developed “A Guide to Cross-Border Sandboxes for Data”, a self-paced online course with a dedicated Africa module, drawing from its flagship publications to equip stakeholders with practical skills to design and implement context-driven sandbox initiatives.

Phase 2

Dialogue, Sectoral Deep Dives & Working Groups

Following its launch, the Africa Sandboxes Forum hosted Regulatory Roundtables that brought together regulators, policymakers, and innovators to explore how sandboxes can address challenges in rapidly evolving digital sectors. This effort led to the creation of working groups in health, finance, and AI, where participants identified common regulatory hurdles, discussed necessary updates to existing frameworks, and examined how sandboxes can enhance responsiveness and informed decision-making in data-driven governance.

2025

Phase 3

Co-Creation, Coaching & Scaling Impact

As the Africa Sandboxes Forum enters its third phase, the focus shifts from exploration to action—empowering institutions across the continent to turn ideas into inclusive, practical solutions. Key initiatives include the launch of the Africa Sandboxes Outlook Report, offering a comprehensive analysis of sandbox activity in Africa; the rollout of a Sandbox Coaching Program to build capacity among civil servants and regulators; and the kick-off of Co-Creation Labs, beginning in Kigali, to collaboratively design responsible, Africa-led sandbox models.

Our community

If you are interested in joining the Africa Forum as a participant or partner please contact us.