CTO/05
2026
A Digital Future for All Africans How a partnership forged during the CTO Digital Roadshow in Lesotho is building an African-led model for AI and digital literacy.
BY MPHO LETIMA
&
MALETHEBA LESA MAKOELE
The 2026 Commonwealth Digital Roadshow in Lesotho was more than a gathering of policymakers, regulators, and innovators. It became the catalyst for a new continental initiative aimed at redefining digital empowerment for African women and young people. Hosted by the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) in partnership with the Government of Lesotho and the Lesotho Communications Authority, the Roadshow created a platform for dialogue on digital transformation, innovation and inclusion. It also sparked a collaboration between two Lesotho leaders whose work had long been addressing different sides of the same challenge. Today, that collaboration has evolved into GEM Africa—a pan-African initiative combining women’s economic empowerment with digital and artificial intelligence (AI) literacy. GEM Africa brings together the long-standing community development experience of the Gender Entrepreneurship Empowerment and Media (GEM) Institute with the technology and AI expertise of Code Cafe AI. The initiative is built on a simple belief: meaningful participation in the digital economy requires more than access to technology. It requires digital skills, AI literacy, economic opportunity and institutional support delivered together. Across Africa, many digital literacy programmes stop at basic computer skills. While important, these alone do not prepare citizens to participate confidently in an increasingly AI-driven economy. GEM Africa seeks to change that by equipping women and young people with the knowledge, tools and confidence to become creators—not simply consumers—of digital technologies. A SHARED VISION
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