Digital technologies increasingly underpin critical functions within modern economies. Learn how digital dependence can be counteracted.

Our Get to Know the Team series is now a weekly feature, and we’re excited to kick it off by spotlighting Thando Ndita, our Digital Public Infrastructure Manager. She is a human rights researcher, whose work explores digital governance, data rights and social justice, contributing to equitable and impactful digital transformation.

A Gates Foundation visit to Stellenbosch highlights how catalytic funding is driving investment, advancing digital public infrastructure, and enabling AI for policymaking. The work supports South-South learning and builds scalable tools and institutional capacity across African governments.

Stellenbosch University’s Policy Innovation Lab has joined the Global Network of Internet & Society Centers ...

Stellenbosch University's Policy Innovation Lab and the TUM Think Tank have handed over a landmark report on the G20's digital agenda to South African government partners. The report traces how four consecutive Global South presidencies shaped global digital policy across digital transformation, digital public infrastructure and artificial intelligence.

Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is the shared digital foundation of a modern state. By building common systems for identity, payments and secure data exchange, South Africa can deliver faster, cheaper and more inclusive services that reach everyone, especially the most vulnerable. Here’s what that means, and why it matters.

The Policy Innovation Lab with partners TUM Think Tank and the Global Network of Internet and Society Centres hosted a hybrid workshop on regulatory sandboxes for South Africa’s Digital Public Infrastructure. Over two days, officials and experts explored enabling innovation while protecting accountability, inclusion, privacy and security.

Find out about the latest update to our Catalogue of AI tools used by governments worldwide.

In November 2025, the Policy Innovation Lab hosted a workshop that brought together the Presidency, government departments, and academic experts to reflect on how South Africa regulates Digital Public Infrastructure. Emerging from the workshop was a practice-focused regulatory model for identifying legal gaps and sequencing reform systematically.

The recent LMU–SU workshop on interdisciplinarity laid the foundation for translation the institutions' formal partnership into substantive collaboration. Scholars from both institutions compared approaches to interdisciplinary teaching and the role of AI, highlighting clear alignment and identifying opportunities for joint programme development and future research cooperation.

The Policy Innovation Lab is supporting South Africa’s digital transformation by developing an AI-assisted legislative catalogue for the country’s envisioned digital ID system. This tool maps the complex legal framework governing digital ID, helping policymakers identify gaps and conflicts to ensure the system’s development is coherent, compliant and future-ready.

Over the past four years, the G20 has developed an increasingly coherent digital governance framework through policy innovation in digital transformation, Digital Public Infrastructure and Artificial Intelligence. A synthesis by the Policy Innovation Lab, TUM Think Tank and Harvard’s Global Network analyses over 200 G20 documents, with final reports to be released in late 2025.

The Western Cape government invited the Lab to participate in a academic consultation on their Digital Transformation Plan 2.0.

We outline the findings of the most recent update of our database of AI tools used in the public sector. This time our update included a number of South African tools.

Senior government officials and industry leaders from across Africa recently convened in Johannesburg to advance Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). The dialogue, hosted by the Presidency and supported by the Lab, focused on South Africa's ambitious Digital Transformation Roadmap, continental initiatives and a collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach to building inclusive DPI.

Bill Gates recently outlined the Gates Foundation’s priorities for the next two decades. In South Africa, the Policy Innovation Lab, a Foundation grantee, is applying AI to strengthen policymaking. This work helps governments respond more effectively to complex challenges, ultimately supporting more people on a path to opportunity and prosperity.