This study examines the data protection and the application of human-centred artificial intelligence (AI) in digital health across 10 African countries, emphasizing informed consent and privacy. With increasing AI use in healthcare, particularly in low-income nations, concerns around data privacy and inconsistent regulations have emerged. Using systematic review methods, this study reviews data protection laws of 10 African countries enacted between 2015 and 2025. These 10 countries were selected because they tailored their data protection laws to incorporate specific protections for sensitive data, which emphasize data security, accountability, and data subject rights. A comparative analysis was conducted using Africa's Malabo Convention, the U.S. Code of Federal Regulation (CFR), and Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Major issues identified include fragmented laws, weak enforcement, and insufficient provisions for user consent and data erasure. The study emphasizes the value of aligning regulatory efforts with the African Union's framework, recognizing distinct African ethical standards rather than relying solely on international norms. Additionally, it explores how human-centred AI, particularly user autonomy, can ethically guide digital health implementation. The research contributes by outlining how harmonized regulations and AI designs adapted to local contexts can effectively address privacy challenges.

This Special Interest Group (SIG) explores the transformative impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research processes. The theme here is to answer “question zero”: when to use and when to refrain from using AI tools during the research cycle? The discussion is guided by five research phases commonly used in HCI: research planning, prototyping, data collection, analysis and synthesis, and dissemination and communication. We investigate how GenAI accelerates project cycles, enhances reproducibility, and influences inclusivity in research. We also address the challenging ethical considerations about the ownership of generated content. Our goal is to build a community of HCI enthusiasts to harness the early advantages of the recent groundbreaking technology and foresee challenges arising from its prevalence in the scientific community.

Non-communicable diseases e.g., diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, and cancers etc, are slowly becoming silent epidemics in African countries. Most of them are closely linked with unique clinical manifestations and could go undetected until there is a complication. Management of these diseases requires long-term informal care, and this has resulted in a complex network of relationships between patients, complementary care providers, informal and formal caregivers. Unfortunately, there are not many studies investigating these relationships from a decolonized perspective with the intention of co-designing interventions that are unique to their lived experiences. This workshop aims to bring together researchers working on digital health and care projects in Africa to discuss the implications of existing collaborative care structures and cultures for technology, as well as near future Afrocentric approaches to collaborative care. We aim to highlight existing challenges in technology enabled collaborative care, differentiate them from established challenges in the Global North and identify design opportunities. This workshop will contribute to the growing attention shown to the African continent in CSCW and HCI research more broadly.

This is not a paper [1]; it is more of a collection and reflection of tangled ideas and discussions on the politics of engaging multiple worlds in design. Discussions brought on by three African HCI researchers on their journey to define an identity for an African HCI curriculum. We invite the readership to engage with our stories and ponder with us these questions: 1) How might we help future designers engage and navigate multiple worldviews, some of which are less dominant? 2) How might we help them navigate uncontested politics and ethics of design encounters? 3) What are the challenges that we educators might face as we introduce critical approaches in the classroom?

Even with the chaos of multiplicity and fragmentation, the inter-discipline of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is becoming a household name in African academia, industries, and communities. We propose this workshop to foreground the future dimension of HCI education in Africa, in terms of subject matters, philosophies, methodologies, theories, principles, and curriculum. The workshop is meant to be an expanded Baraza and/or a meeting point where pathways for living curriculums and pedagogies are identified and discussed. We aim to bring together researchers and practitioners doing HCI work in Africa and for African communities to reflect on the experiences of adopting (and translating) HCI methods and procedures, leading to the possibilities for the transfer of expertise and knowledge that could widen the pedagogical practices of HCI in Africa.

This workshop aims to bring together researchers and practitioners (African and otherwise) engaging with diverse communities and industries to discuss the geopolitics of knowledge production in computing research and design. Our proposal builds on existing works that have explored the modalities of the knowledge economy - particularly as knowledge is created, legitimized, and circulated as objective truth via the exercise of power. For example, engaging indigenous communities in conferences and knowledge fairs have sought to challenge disciplinary silos and boundaries imposed on non-Western academics and practitioners. This workshop, as a platform for interaction and discussion with no "sage on the stage", is the first of its kind within AfriCHI and it seeks to explore and promote more subtle discussions about HCI knowledge production and dissemination practices.

in the wake of digitalization, technology has changed the world, connecting people with information and services at the touch of a finger. Regular Internet access, smartphones, and other technological advances have made the world a global village by bringing people from various geographical locations together. Despite the positive changes, the pace and scale of this technological revolution have created space for nefarious actors. Namibia has been grappling with issues centring on cyber security education, policy, and lack of online safety awareness. In recent years, Namibians have experienced identity theft, data breaches, fake news, phishing, hacking, money laundering, and child abuse initiated on online platforms. As such, this study developed an interactive video game to teach online safety in Namibia to combat online child abuse. An online survey, game design challenge workshops, and focus groups were used to gather information. A total of 84 relevant stakeholders (students, parents, teachers, and game developers) participated in two game design challenge workshops and the alpha and beta testing sessions. These workshops followed a solid co-design practice. We designed and developed two Namibian-inspired game prototypes that were combined into one game, which was implemented and tested during this study. All the game prototypes followed an iterative process of information gathering and sharing stories of online inappropriate behaviours, drawing storyboards, designing wireframes, and testing with cognitive walkthroughs and a think-aloud protocol, alpha and beta testing. The final game is called Onlinicus- Share your Story versioned in 2D and 3D. This game took an approach of user instructiveness and interaction in form of story-telling. The use of predefined personas and utilising participants’ own stories contributed to the richness of the stories and games developed.

Digital services have the potential to improve rural entrepreneurs' access to wider markets and increase their competitiveness among other benefits. Moreover, during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic in which movement and physical contacts have been limited, businesses relied much on digital services. However, many Namibian rural entrepreneurs have not been able to use digital services to maintain their livelihood. Therefore, this study investigated the factors affecting the adoption of ICT enabled services by rural entrepreneurs. The study applied a cross-sectional survey of 77 respondents comprising 14 rural entrepreneurs and 63 rural community members from four sites. It was found that the five main factors affecting the adoption of digital services by rural entrepreneurs are a lack of awareness of digital services, electricity, skills to navigate smart devices, high cost of both devices and mobile internet and cybercrime. We recommend a tailor-made training program for rural entrepreneurs which includes raising awareness of digital services and associated benefits, capacity building on digital skills and best practice for cybersecurity. In addition, we propose that the Namibian Government should enhance digital inclusion through a policy initiative to reduce the cost to make both data and smart devices affordable for the poor and rural communities.

The preponderance of Western methods, practices, standards, and classifications in the manner in which new technology-related knowledge is created and globalised has led to calls for more inclusive approaches to design. A decolonisation project is concerned with how researchers might contribute to dismantling and re-envisioning existing power relations, resisting past biases, and balancing Western heavy influences in technology design by foregrounding the authentic voices of the indigenous people in the entire design process. We examine how the establishment of local Global South HCI communities (AfriCHI and ArabHCI) has led to the enactment of decolonisation practices. Specifically, we seek to uncover how decolonisation is perceived in the AfriCHI and ArabHCI communities as well as the extent to which both communities are engaged with the idea of decolonisation without necessarily using the term. We drew from the relevant literature, our own outsider/insider lived experiences, and the communities’ responses to an online anonymised survey to highlight three problematic but interrelated practical paradoxes: a terminology, an ethical, and a micro-colonisation paradox. We argue that these paradoxes expose the dilemmas faced by local non-Western researchers as they pursue decolonisation thinking. This article offers a blended perspective on the decolonisation debate in HCI, CSCW, and the practice-based CSCW scholarly communities and invites researchers to examine their research work using a decolonisation lens.

Ethnography has firmly established its position in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) community. Many studies have benefited from following ethnographic approaches to arrive at a grounded and comprehensive understanding of the respective research context. Applying that to the non-Western world, however, comes with challenges for researchers. Aside from ethical concerns which have been addressed in the past, we want to use this workshop to foster conversations and discussions on authority, bias and immersion when conducting ethnographic field work in the non-Western world – especially as a Western researcher. The main objective of this workshop is to exchange experiences and to identify common aspects and ways of overcoming, coping with or even embracing the messiness in ethnographic work and derive guidelines based on these discussions.

The Third Industrial Revolution or Digital Revolution happened in the late 20th century. It referred to the extensive use of digital technologies in industrial applications, particularly the computer and communication and systems, to automate processes in the production industry through electronics and computers and the Internet. Internet of Things (IoT), term coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999, which the machine got the capability of communicating and communication. The Fourth Industrial Revolution refers to how a combination of internet-connected computing and communication technologies integrates our physical lives. These technologies include the Internet of Things, blockchain, cloud computing, edge computing, robotics, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI). The automation economy, resulting from the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies, is changing the way we live and work.

Previous research has investigated gender and its implications for HCI. We consider inclusive design of technology whatever the gender of its users of particular importance. This conceptual review provides an overview of the motivations that have driven research in gender and inclusive HCI design. We review the empirical evidence for the impact of gender in thinking and behavior which underlies HCI research and design. We then present how HCI design might inadvertently embed and perpetuate gender stereotypes. We then present current HCI design approaches to tackle gender stereotypes and to produce gender-inclusive designs. We conclude by discussing possible future directions in this area.

This is a forum for perspectives on designing for communities marginalized by economics, social status, infrastructure, or policies. It will discuss design methods, theoretical and conceptual contributions, and methodological engagements for underserved communities. --- Nithya Sambasivan, Editor

The ACM SIGCHI community has been at the forefront of addressing issues of equity and inclusivity in the design and use of technology, accounting for various aspects of users' identities such as gender, ethnicity, and sexuality. With this panel, we wish to explore how we, as SIGCHI, might better target similar goals of equity and inclusivity - across intersections - within our own community. We wish to create a forum for recognizing best practices regarding equity and inclusivity in participants' local and global contexts that we might feasibly integrate across SIGCHI. By equally prioritizing the voices of those in the audience and on the panel, we intend to foster a lively and constructive discussion that will help us chart a way forward. The takeaways from this panel will be articulated into an article for the Interactions magazine, targeting the larger human-computer interaction (HCI) community.

Career counselling is one of the most pressing issues in Namibia. Some youth in Namibia expressed that they do not receive career guidance at all in their high schools. Besides the lack of general career guidance systems, high school students are also not exposed to other sources of information as well as career and educational opportunities. However, given the proliferation of smart mobile phones and cost-effective data plans a gamified career counselling system for mobile devices was developed to complement the existing career systems in Namibia. In this paper we discuss how stakeholders i.e. university and high school students, and career counselors contributed to an interactive career guidance mobile game through participatory co-design workshops. This was done through a game design challenge approach, several workshops and an eventual prototype that will undergo testing in a gameathon soon.

There is a shortage of e-Government research from a citizen-centric perspective within the African continent. Focus has been on how governments can improve service delivery by being efficient and effective. Arguably, the focus of e-Government research appears inspired by the New Public Management theory that aims to import private sector operations into the public sector. While benefits can be drawn from this approach, governments appear to fail to completely play their role of generating public value among citizens. The focus on government’s view on e-Government often short charge the citizens who are expected to adopt and use e-Government. This paper adds to the body of knowledge by proposing a model for citizen centric e-Government that is suitable for Namibia.