Code for Africa AI for Good Fellowship 2026 – YOA

Deadline: May 11, 2026

Applications are open for the Code for Africa AI for Good Fellowship 2026. Are you a technologist with expertise utilizing AI to resolve actual-world issues? The Digitalise Youth consortium, by Code for Africa (CfA), is providing six fellowships for technologists in Africa to work with Human Rights Defender (HRD) organisations and assist them strengthen their affect by the accountable use of AI.

The HRD organisations shall be primarily based within the Sahel, in addition to neighbouring international locations in West and East Africa, so familiarity with the area and its political, social, and digital realities is crucial.

Through this fellowship, technologists will assist HRDs to strengthen current AI-enabled initiatives and assets, or to design new instruments and workflows the place wanted. Fellows ought to subsequently have confirmed expertise constructing sensible AI instruments, particularly utilizing generative AI instruments, together with massive language fashions (LLMs), in addition to a powerful dedication to human rights and accountable AI follow. Activities will embrace co-designing AI instruments with HRDs, supporting protected and context-delicate deployment, and producing actionable insights to tell coverage, advocacy, and public-curiosity interventions.

Fellows could develop AI-enabled instruments/interventions independently or in collaboration with different specialists. These options could embrace multilingual analysis assistants, instruments for analysing and summarising massive volumes of textual content, techniques for detecting or monitoring dangerous narratives, and workflow automation that strengthens civic engagement and public-curiosity response. Expected deliverables embrace analysis briefs, prototype AI instruments, and sensible plans for scaling AI-enabled interventions that strengthen HRDs’ work and assist safeguard public discourse.

Selected fellows will obtain assist from CfA’s TechLab, DataLab, and AI Sandbox, in addition to mentorship from world AI specialists, civil society organisations, and policymakers. The wider partnership consists of local weather resilience networks, public well being organisations, and digital rights advocates, offering further alternatives for prototyping, testing, and scaling options.

Benefits

• Stipend: $500/month 
• Duration:  Four months
• Mentorship: Guidance from CfA’s TechLab and assist from companion establishments on the Digitalise Youth consortium.
• Network: Collaborate with the consortium and its regional networks.
• Real world affect: OPPORTUNITY to work with HRD organisations to implement options to current challenges.
• Showcase : Present capstone initiatives to native, nationwide, continental, and world companions, and at occasions.

Eligibility

They search downside-solvers with:

• Social Impact – Demonstrated expertise in creating AI-driven options that improve civic info, assist human rights defenders, or deal with societal challenges.
• Data Fluency – Expertise in gathering, cleansing, and analysing socio-financial or environmental datasets.
• Design Thinking – Skill in co-creating options with communities and CSOs.
• Prototyping Experience – Track report of testing AI options in useful resource-constrained settings.
• Scalability Planning – Ability to design instruments for broad adoption throughout various areas.
• Technical Proficiency –  Experience in AI modelling (NLP, pc imaginative and prescient, predictive analytics).
• Ethical AI Practices – Commitment to equity, transparency, and inclusivity in AI design.
• Collaboration Skills – Experience working with policymakers or grassroots organisations.
• Fluency in both English/French/Arabic
• Familiarity with open-supply instruments and open-information ideas.
• Applicants should display ties to African communities.
• Location: Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Guinea, Benin, Togo, Cameroon, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia.

Application

Click here to apply

For extra info, go to Code for Africa AI For Good Fellowship.