To be fair, I think the gulf between RCT economics and the concerns of African policy makers and top economic advisors is there even without AI (for example, see David Ndii's comments on this). But to your wider point - I wonder if the answer is to look to industry-aligned research as well? Eg, the Qhala team in Kenya, as an example of tech research (researchers trained at Microsoft research, IBM research, etc, producing for clients and also working with govt on implementation and policy influence). Maybe space for VoxDev to champion voices like that too - esp as we wait for academic research to catch up with the speed of AI model changes so we're not reading papers on models from two years ago!
Agreed, it’s not just AI where there is a mismatch between research questions and policy questions in dev econ. And this is a good idea, I think it makes sense for VoxDev to cover some of this industry work.
I think the World Bank Development Report for 2026 will also be about AI and Development, with country meetings happening at the moment. (The South African one was recently held in Pretoria.)
So there certainly are a lot of people on the continent thinking about this. Let's start there.
I guess my point is that development economics research itself should be responding, on top of the more speculative writing and thinking on Substack. We should have both, but currently the research side is severely lacking on the bigger questions.
Definitely agree this effort should start, and be led by, people on the continent. And yes, looking forward to the World Bank report, I think it will be an important resource in this space - I hope one of many, from a variety of sources.
To be fair, I think the gulf between RCT economics and the concerns of African policy makers and top economic advisors is there even without AI (for example, see David Ndii's comments on this). But to your wider point - I wonder if the answer is to look to industry-aligned research as well? Eg, the Qhala team in Kenya, as an example of tech research (researchers trained at Microsoft research, IBM research, etc, producing for clients and also working with govt on implementation and policy influence). Maybe space for VoxDev to champion voices like that too - esp as we wait for academic research to catch up with the speed of AI model changes so we're not reading papers on models from two years ago!
Agreed, it’s not just AI where there is a mismatch between research questions and policy questions in dev econ. And this is a good idea, I think it makes sense for VoxDev to cover some of this industry work.
Oliver, it might begin by mentioning a few Africans who already write on the topic. On Substack, I'd recommend Ken Opalo (https://www.africanistperspective.com/) and Guyde Moore (https://gyudemoore.substack.com/) and Afroconomist (https://afroconomist.substack.com/), to name a few. I've also written a few articles on AI and its impact, with another one coming out soon (https://www.ourlongwalk.com/), as well as a podcast interview with Chinasa Okolo, one of Africa's leading voices on AI governance. .
I think the World Bank Development Report for 2026 will also be about AI and Development, with country meetings happening at the moment. (The South African one was recently held in Pretoria.)
So there certainly are a lot of people on the continent thinking about this. Let's start there.
Hi Johan, thanks for these links, will add these to my growing list of initial resources here: https://voxdev.org/topic/ai-and-development-economics-early-evidence-and-how-keep
I guess my point is that development economics research itself should be responding, on top of the more speculative writing and thinking on Substack. We should have both, but currently the research side is severely lacking on the bigger questions.
Definitely agree this effort should start, and be led by, people on the continent. And yes, looking forward to the World Bank report, I think it will be an important resource in this space - I hope one of many, from a variety of sources.