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Project 06 — Research & comparative analysis

African Digital Sovereignty Observatory

A research and analysis project mapping national legislation, sovereign cloud infrastructure and cross-border data flows in Africa.

Research Comparative public lawMalabo ConventionComposite index

01 — Overview

The Observatory is a research project intended to objectify the state of African digital sovereignty: where critical data is hosted, which countries have operational data protection authorities, and which agreements govern transfers.

Field
Comparative public law & tech policy
Methodology
Legal analysis & infrastructure metrics
Reference
Malabo Convention & AfCFTA
Stage
Research

02 — Problem

The debate on African digital sovereignty often rests on impressions rather than comparable data. There is a lack of a homogeneous empirical base covering the legal, infrastructure and governance dimensions together.

03 — Objective

To provide researchers, decision-makers and multilateral organisations with comparative data and analysis to guide public policy design and treaty negotiation.

04 — Proposed solution

  • Legal pillar: data and cybersecurity laws, ratification of the Malabo Convention.
  • Infrastructure pillar: local data centre capacity, Internet exchange points.
  • Governance pillar: national data protection authorities, AI strategies.
  • A composite index with a comparative dashboard.

05 — My role

Conception of the methodology, definition of the pillars and development of a prototype scoring engine. A personal research project, with no institutional commission.

06 — Methodology / tools

A structured data taxonomy (JSON) and a prototype weighted scoring engine in Python aggregating the legal, infrastructure and governance pillars.

07 — Governance & policy dimension

The project sits within debates on the Malabo Convention, the continental AI strategy and the AfCFTA digital protocol. It aims to equip comparative analysis of national frameworks.

08 — Current status

Research. The taxonomy, a sample dataset and a prototype scoring engine exist. State coverage is not complete and no publication has yet appeared.

09 — Evidence

  • Sample dataset (JSON) across several states.
  • Composite scoring engine prototype (Python).
  • Methodology note (README).

10 — Roadmap

  1. Extend and verify the database across African Union member states.
  2. Publish the scoring methodology openly.
  3. Prepare a first research note — Research in Development.

Any publication will depend on validation of the collected data.

11 — Potential impact

Providing a shared empirical base for African debates on digital sovereignty and supporting evidence-based policy design — subject to the robustness of the data.

12 — Documents

  • Sample dataset (JSON)View
  • Composite scoring engine (Python)View
  • Methodology note (README)View
  • Policy Brief #01 — AI Governance in AfricaRead