Kenya has taken a step towards strengthening its use of data, artificial intelligence (AI), research and innovation to drive better policy and economic outcomes.
This follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the government and the Emerging Markets Working Group of the Hoover Institution, a public policy think tank at Stanford University, on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
According to Eng. John Tanui, principal secretary for the State Department for ICT and the digital Economy, the five-year pact aims to move from data to insight, and from insight to action.
The collaboration arrives amid a rapid global shift towards using AI to enhance strategic foresight, enabling governments to analyse emerging global trends and translate them into economic growth strategies.
The partnership, formalised as a strategic cooperation framework, will be anchored on the Growth, Resilience, and Investment Platform, designed to enhance investment readiness, policy coordination and development intelligence for the East African nation.
The agreement was signed by Dr Musalia Mudavadi, Kenya's prime cabinet secretary and cabinet secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, and Dr Jendayi Frazer, co-director of the Emerging Markets Working Group.
Immediate focus will be placed on the El Niño Impact Monitoring and Response System, which integrates climate, geospatial, water, agriculture and infrastructure data to generate county-level intelligence and support faster, coordinated responses.
Tanui said the government's ambition is not simply to digitise existing processes, but to build a government and economy that can use technology and intelligence to anticipate challenges, allocate resources effectively and create new opportunities for citizens and businesses.
The alliance will also advance a Digital Trade Readiness Index, a Public-Private Partnership Governance Tracker and a Sectoral Resilience Scorecard to strengthen digital trade readiness, governance and risk-informed policy and investment decisions.
"Beyond these tools, the strategic objective is to build lasting institutional capability in evidence generation, analytics, monitoring, evaluation and policy development," Tanui said.
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