Bonaventure Saturday
Research Manager, Pollicy
Kampala, Uganda
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Bonaventure Saturday is a researcher and project manager with over ten years of experience working at the intersection of digital rights, AI governance, data governance, gender justice, and civic engagement in Africa. His work focuses on online safety for women in public life, technology-facilitated gender-based violence, digital public infrastructure, responsible and inclusive AI, and the governance of emerging technologies. He has extensive experience managing and evaluating donor-funded programmes, conducting policy-relevant research, needs assessments, and stakeholder consultations, and convening multistakeholder actors across government, civil society, academia, the private sector, and regional institutions. He contributes evidence-based perspectives to debates on AI, platform governance, digital inclusion, data protection, and public interest technology. He is committed to advancing digital policies and systems that are inclusive, accountable, safe, and rights-respecting, particularly for women, girls, and historically underrepresented communities across Africa.
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No One Left Behind: Building Inclusive and Trusted Digital Public Infrastructure in Africa
Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is rapidly becoming the cornerstone of digital transformation in Africa. Governments across the continent are making investments in digital identity systems, digital payment platforms, interoperable data exchange platforms aimed at improving delivery of services, economic participation and African led digital innovation. As more and more governments increasingly experiment with AI-powered public digital services, trusted DPI becomes even more critical.
Nevertheless, there are still many challenges. Concerns related to governance, trust, privacy, data protection, interoperability, accessibility, digital exclusion, institutional capacities, and accountability continue to influence how citizens experience and use DPI. These concerns are often felt by women and girls, persons with disabilities, rural populations, low-digital-literacy users, and other historically underrepresented communities, who continue to face barriers to accessing and benefiting from digital public services. Without addressing these concerns, digital systems might be used in ways that reinforce existing inequalities, widening digital divides, and undermining public trust in digital transformation initiatives.
This session is informed by Pollicy's research on Digital Public Infrastructure in Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa, highlighting lessons on governance, public trust, inclusion, and accountability that can inform the development of trusted and inclusive digital public infrastructure across Africa.
This interactive multistakeholder session will bring together government representatives, policymakers, civil society, researchers, technical experts, development partners, and the private sector to examine what it will take to build inclusive and trusted Digital Public Infrastructure across Africa. Participants will discuss practical approaches to embedding inclusion, accessibility, gender responsiveness, public participation, and accountability throughout the design, implementation, and governance of DPI.
The session will conclude with a set of actionable policy recommendations and governance priorities for governments, regional organisations, development partners, the private sector, and civil society to strengthen trusted, inclusive, and rights-respecting Digital Public Infrastructure across Africa.
Building AI That Works for Africa: Lessons from Digital Public Infrastructures in Africa
Governments across the world are integrating artificial intelligence into public services, often relying on existing Digital Public Infrastructure such as digital identity, payment systems, and data exchange platforms. Despite rapid adoption, many AI initiatives inherit structural challenges already present within these digital systems, including exclusion, weak accountability, limited transparency, and unequal access.
This session examines what AI practitioners can learn from Digital Public Infrastructure initiatives across Africa. Drawing on comparative research from Uganda, Kenya, and South Africa, it identifies governance, technical, and institutional factors that influence whether AI strengthens or weakens public trust.
Participants will gain practical recommendations for designing AI enabled public services that prioritise inclusion, transparency, interoperability, and human rights. The presentation provides a perspective from the Global South that complements existing discussions on AI governance and responsible innovation.
Invisible Labour & Data: What Domestic Workers Teach Us About Building Inclusive AI Infrastructure
Artificial intelligence is often presented as a technological breakthrough driven by algorithms, large language models, and computing infrastructure. Far less attention is given to the human labour and everyday data practices that make AI systems possible and determine who benefits from them.
Drawing on research with domestic workers in Nairobi Kenya, this session explores how invisible forms of digital labour shape AI infrastructure. Domestic workers increasingly interact with AI mediated recruitment platforms, messaging applications, digital identity systems, payment technologies, and algorithmic management tools. These interactions generate data that are rarely recognised as labour despite becoming part of the digital ecosystems that support AI development and deployment.
The session introduces a feminist lens for understanding AI infrastructure to explore questions of consent, data ownership, surveillance, digital exclusion, and unequal power relations, demonstrating how these issues influence both AI governance and everyday working conditions.
Participants will gain practical insights into designing AI systems that recognise invisible labour, protect vulnerable communities, and promote equitable data governance. The session combines empirical evidence from African contexts with policy and design recommendations relevant to researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and technology developers interested in responsible AI
From Homes to Hashtags: Women Domestic Workers and the Struggle for Fair Labor Policies in Kenya
This discussion will focus on how Kenyan women domestic workers utilize digital platforms in accessing employment, mobilization, and advocating for fair labor practices.
Participants will engage with members from domestic worker collectives, labour platforms, civil society organizations, and policy actors to share experiences, observations, and insights, and practical strategies.
The workshop will be structured into three interactive sections:
1. exploring current use of digital platforms by domestic workers to find work and mobilise,
2. discussing challenges and opportunities for online mobilization, and
3. co-identifying actionable approaches to strengthen domestic worker advocacy, with lessons that can be applied to other sectors or regions..
The participants will contribute through facilitated questions capturing different perspectives encouraging knowledge sharing of experiences from different backgrounds. Real-time feedback and learnings will be collected by capturing key points from discussions and short feedback rounds
Africa Internet Governance Forum 2026 Sessionize Event Upcoming
Bonaventure Saturday
Research Manager, Pollicy
Kampala, Uganda
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