Digital-ID in Africa
call for expressions of interest
24th April 2024
New research project:
Digital-ID in Africa: identity, power and interests
This project will map current developments in Digital-ID across the continent as biometric identity systems are rolled out, linked to citizens' banking and mobile phone accounts, and becomes a precondition of access to services & entitlements.
The first phase of the research will be a report that documents the drivers, dimensions, dynamics and directions of Digital-ID in ten Africa countries including examples from all of the continent's main regions and language groups. The research will document the impact of new identification and verification technologies on citizens' digital rights.
The second phase of the research will build on the work of phase one studies by producing a collected edition book featuring in-depth critical analysis by ten African scholars on the Digital-ID systems emerging in ten Africa countries, and will provide ten in-depth case studies to expand knowledge and theory in this space.
The book will be edited by 'Gbenga Sesan and Dr. Tony Roberts and will be the sixth title in the ADRN series of 'Digital Africa' books published by Zed Books.
Call for abstracts:
We invite expressions of interest from researchers interested in contributing to the project in the form of 300 word abstracts stating the proposed country, issue, and conceptual focus. The deadline for submissions is 14th June 2024. Please note that although we will iniciate discussion with potential authors in July 2024 to help us refine the research design and book proposal, it is not expected that writing will begin in earnest until January 2025.
Please include with your expression of interest, a short CV, that includes links to your previous publications in this area. We welcome submissions from activists and practitioners and from emerging and established scholars. We are keen to include case studies from activists and researchers writing about countries that are under-represented in the anglophone literature.
Possible topics for the volume include, but are not limited to:
- The role of digital-ID in expanding legal identity and access to rights and entitlements
- Digital-ID and digital government services
- The role of the prviate sector in biometrics and digital-ID
- Power analysis of the range of interests driving digital-ID
- Participatory / ethographic research with citizens' included or excluded by biometric Digital-ID
- Intersectional analysis of 'who benefits'?
- How to expand citizen influence in Digital-ID agendas in ways that expand rights, freeoms and entitlements
Please submit your expression of interest to t.roberts@ids.ac.uk by email in Word format including “Digital-ID in Africa" in the subject line.
Digital Disinformation in Africa: Hashtag Politics, Power & Propaganda
This book was published 18th April 2024
Our exciting new book documents and analyses digital disinformation campaigns that manipulate citizens' beliefs and behaviour and shrink the civic space for democratic debate and deliberation. Chapters include disinformation campaigns in ten African countries designed to foment ethnic division, distort elections, and mobilise misogyny online.
This is the first collected edition by African scholars dedicated to digital disinformation across the continent.
It is the second book in our Digital Africa series and will be published by Zed Books on 18th April 2024. You can order a copy from the publisher by following this link: Digital Disinformation in Africa: hashtag politics, power and propaganda.
The paperback and hardback versions of the book are available from online book retailers but this volume is also published open access meaning it is also available free to download from Bloomsbury Collections.
Digital Disinformation in Africa is an ADRN production,
edited by Dr. Tony Roberts and Dr. George Karekwaivanane.
ADRN Digital Rights Reports
All of our reports are open access and free to download by following the links below
Digital Rights in Closing Civic Space:
Our first landscape report documented positive examples of digital citizenship to open civic space online and negative practices of digital authoritarianism to close civic space online.
Surveillance Law in Africa:
This unique report analyses how privacy rights are guaranteed in African constitutions but violated with impunity and shows how focused surveillance can be balanced with citizen's rights.
Mapping the Supply of Surveillance Technology to Africa:
The first analysis across all Africa's regions of which companies from which countries are supplying which rights-violating technologies to African governments.
Digital Africa Book Series
ADRN members are producing a six-book series of collected edition books on digital rights in Africa with Zed Books / Bloomsbury. Follow the links below to find out more and download.
In July 2023 we published the first book "Digital Citizenship in Africa" edited by Tanja Bosch and Tony Roberts.
In April 2024 we will launch the second book of the series documenting authoritarian practices, "Digital Disinformation in Africa: hashtag politics, power, and propaganda" (follow the link to pre-order a copy).
and "Digital Surveillance in Africa: power, agency and rights" will be also be published later in 2024.
All the books feature chapters authored by experienced and emerging scholars from different countries across the African continent.
We are also working on a follow-up to our first book on digital citizenship in Africa called "Feminist Digital Citizenship in Africa" co-edited by Tanja Bosch and Tony Roberts.
Digital Rights Landscape Country Reports
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