Expertise France is working alongside Team Europe for a fair digital transition

Online public services, start-ups, connected health, artificial intelligence… Digital technology holds both opportunities and challenges for development and is an integral part of our societies. “The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how much our lives depend on digital technologies”, said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, during the launch of the D4D Hub on 8 December 2020. “With the Digital4Development Hub, Team Europe is building strong ties across the globe to make the digital revolution an opportunity for everyone.”

The D4D Hub, an ambitious European digital partnership

The Digital4Development Hub (D4D Hub) is a European platform for digital cooperation gathering European Union Member States, as well as stakeholders from the public and private sectors, civil society and the academic world. The operational application of “Team Europe’s” approach, the D4D Hub has been designed to be the entry point for all projects to support the digital transition for the European Commission. It will give Team Europe greater visibility and help operationalise long-term public and private partnerships in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In early January 2021, the African branch of the platform started its activities. A multilateral initiative with the African Union, the “African Union-European Union D4D Hub” (AU-EU D4D Hub) aims to turn digital technology into a real driver for development, for the benefit of people and with the aim of achieving social inclusion, sustainability and security. “Digital technology is both an opportunity to accelerate development and a challenge. We need to ensure that no one is left behind”, said Jean Van Wetter, Managing Director of Enabel, the agency which is coordinating the AU-EU D4D Hub.

Expertise France is involved in this initiative alongside Agence Française de Développement (AFD), members of the European consortium and the secretariat of the AU-EU D4D Hub. Digital technology is an essential aspect of Africa’s development and involves several components: innovative entrepreneurship, public policies for digital technology and digital data management. “In this context, the European Union, in the Team Europe format, has its own values, a European signature to put on all these issues”, said Jérémie Pellet, Chief Executive Officer of Expertise France, during the inaugural sequence of Emerging Valley.
 

Expertise France a key actor in flagship digital initiatives

In addition to its commitment to the D4D Hub, Expertise France is actively involved in flagship initiatives launched by the European Commission back in 2019, such as the African-European Digital Innovation Bridge (AEDIB) project. This project aims to establish a comprehensive framework for policies to support the Africa-Europe partnership for digital innovation and technological entrepreneurship. AEDIB sets the basis for the joint construction of future digital projects by providing a conducive collaborative space between digital innovation hubs in Africa and Europe. Expertise France is also implementing the IDEA D4D Hub (Innovation Dialogues Europe-Africa) project, which aims to initiate a dialogue for a joint construction of digital solutions to socioeconomic issues with civil society.

To address the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Union has launched response plans which aim to use digital solutions to increase the resilience of the education, health and business sectors. Expertise France is actively involved in the component to allow microenterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises to use digital technology to mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic.
 

Operational initiatives already underway in Niger

In partnership with the AU-EU D4D Hub, Expertise France and AFD, along with the Delegation of the European Union to Niger and the National Agency for the Information Society (ANSI) of Niger, are organising a “Digital Week” from 12 to 16 April 2021. Labelled D4D Hub, it gathers a large number of Nigerien stakeholders in the digital ecosystem and the members of the D4D Hub.

Based on five thematic workshops, this event, which is accessible online, aims to raise awareness of the benefits of digital technology for sustainable development, strengthen the coordination and synergies between stakeholders in digital technology and assess the successes and opportunities for digital technology in Niger. The ultimate aim is to come up with potential concrete projects with local stakeholders, which can be submitted to development partners, and conduct feasibility studies in the field of digital technology, which could be supported by the D4D Hub. AFD and Expertise France will more specifically lead workshops on e-governance and e-entrepreneurship.

Niger is engaged in a proactive digital transition. It launched its public service digital portal in late January 2021 through the ANSI. This initiative, which aims to facilitate access to public services for citizens and companies, was supported by AFD and Expertise France under the project to support digital administration. In this context, the two agencies are also supporting the “Entrepreneur of General Interest” (EIG.Niger) initiative. It is supporting the digital transition of ministries and assisting Nigerien entrepreneurs developing innovations for the public service.
 

Finally, Expertise France is also working alongside the Nigerien customs authorities on the use of data science to combat fraud under the PAMRI project, financed by AFD. This project will be developed and extended to other countries in the subregion under the new DATAFID project, which is financed by the French Ministry of the Economy, Finance and the Recovery, with the technical participation of the Directorate General of Customs and Excise (DGDDI) and FERDI.

360-degree commitment to digital technology

Along the same lines as projects related to digital administration, as in Niger and Vietnam, Expertise France is working alongside AFD to promote open government. Through the #PAGOF project, the agency, along with CFI, is supporting and assisting administrations and civil society (including the media) in French-speaking African countries with the achievement of their commitments to open government and the use of new technologies for transparency and accountability.

Expertise France is also supporting innovation and start-ups in the field. For example, in Tunisia and Libya, countries which were central to the two Emerging Valley workshops, the agency is helping to structure an entrepreneurial ecosystem with the aim of diversifying the economy, supporting entrepreneurs and improving the business environment, including in sensitive areas.

 

Alongside AFD, Expertise France is also involved in initiatives to support research in the field of digital technology. This is the case with the #Data4COVID19 Africa Challenge, whose 7 winners were announced in early April. This data competition organised by AFD, Expertise France and The GovLab focuses on projects that use data to tackle Covid-19 and its consequences in Africa. Expertise France is also supporting the organisation of the IA-Biodiv Challenge, financed by the French National Research Agency (ANR) and AFD with a grant from Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR). This scientific challenge is open until 31 August 2021 and aims to support research projects on the development of artificial intelligence methods to predict changes in biodiversity and produce reliable indicators.

Furthermore, under a technical assistance facility financed by AFD, Expertise France is assisting the African Union Commission with the implementation of its digital transition strategy. This support specifically targets the development of the continent’s strategy on e-commerce and the integration of fiscal sovereignty issues by Member States, at a time when the international community is about to adopt new rules for the taxation of international economic activities. Part of the activity of the digital giants could thereby be taxed in the countries of final consumption of the goods and services marketed. Following its transposition into national legislation, this future international standard will extend the tax bases of African countries and remedy unfair competition practices which local companies are subject to, by preventing the invasion of domestic markets by the GAFAM without any taxes and social charges.

Finally, Expertise France is also working on the fight against cybercrime. Under the OCWAR-C project financed by the European Union, it is working with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Mauritania to implement national cybersecurity strategies and establish cooperation between countries at the regional and international levels, as cybercrime knows no borders.

Watch the workshop (in French)
Entrepreneurship: A Hope and a Future for Economies in Sensitive Areas?