Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D)

Artificial Intelligence for Development (AI4D) is a programme that aims to foster safe, inclusive and responsible AI ecosystems that empower people and accelerate progress on challenges in international development. AI4D supports responsible AI ecosystems where experts in developing countries are enabled to develop their own solutions to development challenges and mitigate AI risks through safe, inclusive, rights-based and sustainable AI applications and policies.

Launched initially as ‘AI4D Africa’ in 2020, the first phase of the programme laid a solid foundation by supporting responsible AI policies, multidisciplinary research, and innovative projects across the African continent. Building on this success, AI4D entered its second phase in 2024, with a broadened scope that now spans Africa and Asia, supported by a partnership between the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and additional funding from Swedish SIDA.