Ghana is hosting the second African Digital Humanism Summer School, bringing together researchers, academics, students and technology experts from across Africa and Europe to examine how emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), can be developed to serve humanity.
The programme opened on Monday, August 31, 2026, at Central University, Accra, providing a platform for PhD students, early-career researchers and faculty to explore digital humanism, digital sovereignty and the human impact of technology.
President of the Internet Society Ghana Chapter, Dr Maud Ajele Ashon-Elliott, said digital humanism was about ensuring that people remained at the centre of technological development.
“Digital Humanism in its sense is to just look at what technology could do to make the human okay,” she said. She said the principle meant that human beings should determine the technologies developed for their use, rather than technology determining how people live.
Dr. Ashon-Elliott said Ghana’s hosting of the second edition was significant, describing the country as an appropriate environment for important conversations on technology.
“This is great news,” she said, noting that the summer school had grown from an initial discussion in Vienna to the first African edition in Kigali, Rwanda, last year, before coming to Ghana.
Dr. Ashon-Elliott said the Internet Society Ghana Chapter’s involvement reflected the importance of the Internet in discussions about technology and humanity.
She called for emerging technologies to be designed to include persons with disabilities and other groups that could be excluded from digital development. “We want to make sure it’s inclusive, meaning that we pay attention to persons with disabilities when we are developing these technologies,” she said.
She also stressed the need for technologies to be affordable and open to users.
Sandra Gintsberger, Deputy Head of Mission of the Austrian Embassy in Accra, currently serving as Chargé d’Affaires, and Director of the Austrian Cultural Forum in Accra, said the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs was supporting the second edition, following its support for the inaugural programme in Kigali.
She said Ghana offered a natural environment for continuing conversations on digital humanism and digital sovereignty.
“Ghana is a country where a strongly democratic nation with strong democratic values meets a very dynamic young population that is taking the future into their own hands and where a true ecosystem of digital startups is already changing the world,” Ms. Gintsberger said.
She said the programme would enable participants from across Africa to develop an African approach to digital humanism while exchanging ideas with European experts.
A key expectation, she said, was for participants to consider how AI could benefit humanity broadly. “We really want the students to engage with the question how AI can serve the world’s population but not only a portion of it, but all of us,” she said.
William Mutero, Director of the Center for Inclusive Digital Transformation of Africa (CIDTA) at Carnegie Mellon University Africa, said the initiative was intended to ensure that people remained at the forefront of Africa’s technological advancement.
He said although engineering and technology were increasingly shaping societies, industries and academia, their ultimate purpose should be to improve people’s lives.
“The human aspect is always important. We do things for people, people need these things and we want to put people at the forefront,” he said.
Mr. Mutero said lessons from last year’s edition had shown the need for stronger Pan-African collaboration and solutions developed by African researchers, students and faculty.
He said participants would critically examine whether technology advanced societies, created better conditions or caused harm.
He also stressed digital sovereignty, saying Africa’s technological development should reflect its own values, languages and ways of life.
“We want independence of the things that we do and they should be reflective of who we are as a people, in our values, in our languages, in the way we do things,” he said. He described the summer school as an investment in the continent’s future.
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