Background
Data centres have the potential to strengthen Africa’s digital economy. As the physical infrastructure underpinning the internet and modern digital services, they store and secure critical data, enable cloud computing and online services, support business continuity, and provide the computing power needed for emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. They are therefore increasingly important infrastructure for governance, commerce and civic technology.
However, their benefits are neither automatic nor evenly distributed. Their impact depends on access to reliable and affordable electricity, effective regulation, environmental safeguards, and whether local economies and communities benefit through ownership, skills, investment and taxation. As capital-intensive and highly automated infrastructure, data centres may create fewer permanent jobs than expected, while profits may flow primarily to international providers and investors. Meanwhile, local communities may bear the costs associated with land use, energy and water consumption, pollution and pressure on infrastructure.
The rapid expansion of data centres also raises important human rights and environmental concerns. Their location, energy and water use, labour practices, cybersecurity and governance have implications for rights including privacy and data protection; access to clean water, health and a healthy environment; housing and land; freedom of expression; and public participation and non-discrimination.
These challenges are particularly significant in contexts already experiencing electricity constraints, water scarcity and climate vulnerability. Data centre development could place additional pressure on scarce resources, increase utility costs or contribute to displacement. It could also reinforce digital inequality if infrastructure and economic opportunities remain concentrated in major hubs such as Nairobi, Lagos, Cape Town and Cairo, leaving rural and lower-income communities behind. Cybersecurity, surveillance and espionage present further risks.
These realities raise fundamental questions about how data infrastructure should develop across Africa. The question is not simply whether more data centres should be built, but under what frameworks, under whose oversight and ownership, powered by what energy, and ultimately, for whose benefit?
Objectives
This Dialogue will:
- Explore the opportunities and risks associated with expanding data centre infrastructure across Africa.
- Examine the human rights, environmental and socio-economic implications, including energy and water use, land, privacy, data protection and digital inequality.
- Consider the accountability mechanisms, regulatory frameworks and governance models needed for responsible data centre development.
- Explore how local communities and economies can benefit through ownership, skills, investment, employment and taxation.
- Bring together different perspectives on the role of data centres in Africa’s digital economy, balancing opportunities for governance, commerce and civic technology with human rights and environmental considerations.
Bringing together practitioners, policymakers, technology and civic tech experts, researchers and civil society leaders from across Africa, the Digital Dialogue will explore what responsible, inclusive and sustainable data centre development could look like, and how Africa’s expanding digital infrastructure can contribute to equitable development while respecting human rights and environmental limits.
