Category: The Conversation

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Rehana Cassim, Professor in Company Law, University of South Africa

AI is beginning to influence how boards of directors make decisions in South African companies. Directors use it to do things like assess financial information, predict market trends or identify potential risks before making strategic decisions.

But there is a problem. South African company law does not regulate its use by boards. This matters in relation to the rules governing directors’ duties and responsibilities.

Many countries already regulate AI through binding legislation. For example, the European Union, South Korea and Vietnam adopted comprehensive AI laws. Other countries such as China introduced more targeted AI regulations.

As a company law researcher, in a recent paper I looked at four company law implications of AI use in South African boardrooms:

• whether by consulting AI the board will be regarded as having complied with its fiduciary duties

• whether directors can rely on the business judgment rule in section 76(4) of the Companies Act when AI-assisted decisions result in negative consequences for the company

• whether directors can lawfully delegate their functions to AI, and rely on AI-generated advice without incurring liability for incorrect decisions made by those systems

• who is liable when AI errors cause harm to third parties. In other words, who is legally responsible for the consequences of decisions that AI makes?

My findings show that current South African law provides little guidance on these issues. As AI becomes part of everyday business, this gap is becoming a legal and governance challenge. Clear legal rules are urgently needed to prevent a legal vacuum being created in South African boardrooms.

How AI can assist boards

There are different ways in which boards can use AI to manage companies and make decisions.

The simplest form is assisted AI. It performs administrative tasks while directors retain control over decision-making. It can compile meeting agendas, call meetings and draft reports. This allows directors to focus on strategic decisions.

Augmented AI can analyse large amounts of information, identify trends and predict the likely outcomes of different business decisions. For example, it could analyse data and evaluate the risks of a merger and recommend the best course of action. The AI provides recommendations, but the board still makes the final decision.

The most advanced form is autonomous AI, which can make decisions and carry out tasks without constant human input. Boards could, for example, authorise an AI system to make investment decisions within set parameters and independently monitor markets and execute trades.

AI has important limits

Although AI has advantages in supporting corporate decision-making, my research found that it has limitations too. These may affect the reliability of AI-generated recommendations.

AI systems learn from existing data. If that data is inaccurate or biased, AI’s recommendations could also be biased. This is a concern in South Africa, where historical inequalities remain reflected in many datasets.

A 2024 study by the Centre of Excellence in Financial Services suggested that AI used in South African banking could perpetuate racial bias. If companies rely on it without proper oversight, AI could repeat or worsen existing discrimination patterns.

Another challenge is that many AI systems operate as a “black box”. They may produce sophisticated recommendations, but even their developers may struggle to explain how the AI systems reached a particular conclusion.

A further limitation is that AI lacks human qualities essential for effective board leadership, such as empathy, intuition and emotional intelligence.

Can directors delegate their functions to AI?

South African company law allows directors to delegate certain functions to others. But they cannot relinquish their ultimate responsibility for managing the company. They remain accountable for board decisions.

My research argues that the same principle should apply to AI. Directors should be allowed to delegate their functions to assisted AI and perhaps augmented AI, provided they properly supervise the AI system and do not relinquish their responsibilities.

But delegation to autonomous AI should not be allowed. If directors delegated their functions to it, they would be giving AI decision-making powers and giving up their responsibilities.

Directors cannot simply accept AI recommendations. Company law requires them to exercise independent judgment. They must also act in the company’s best interests. If they can’t understand how AI reached a recommendation, how will they determine whether it is in the company’s best interests?

In my view, directors should therefore have some AI literacy. They do not need to understand the coding in detail. But they should have enough AI literacy to understand how the AI works. This will enable them to properly supervise the delegation of their functions to AI.

Who is liable when AI gets it wrong?

An important legal question is determining responsibility when AI causes harm.

Imagine management uses AI to assist in recommending an investment to the board. The board approves the investment based on that AI-generated recommendation, but the investment results in substantial losses. Who should be held liable?

The AI system itself cannot be sued because it is not a legal person. It cannot own property, pay damages or appear before a court.

Responsibility could potentially fall on the company, the software developer or directors who relied on the AI system. Directors might be held liable if they failed to supervise the AI system properly, but the Companies Act does not clearly define where responsibility begins or ends.

This uncertainty creates risks. Companies need legal certainty before investing in AI. Directors need clear guidance about their duties, while those affected by AI-driven decisions need to know who is accountable if something goes wrong.

Without clear legal rules, disputes are likely to increase as AI becomes more common in corporate decision-making.

South Africa should act now

South Africa has taken some steps. The National Artificial Intelligence Policy Framework promotes ethical, transparent and human-centred AI. The Draft National AI Policy is pending. It was published for public comment in April 2026 but was withdrawn after fictitious AI-generated sources were discovered in the reference list.

The King V Code on Corporate Governance for South Africa 2025 also recommends that boards should ensure that AI is used ethically, transparently, fairly, securely and with clear human oversight.

In my view, these developments are important, but they are not enough. The Companies Act should be updated to reflect AI’s growing role in corporate decision-making.

The Companies Act should require directors to supervise decisions made by AI. Ultimate human control of the AI system should be legally required.

My research argues that provision should be made for directors to rely on assisted and augmented AI, but not autonomous AI, subject to the directors supervising the AI and exercising an independent judgment.

The Companies Act should require directors to have a sufficient level of AI literacy. Boards should appoint at least one member with AI expertise. Companies should be required to appoint a designated AI officer responsible for the safe, ethical and unbiased use of AI.

Companies should also consider taking out insurance against potential liabilities arising from AI-generated decisions.

– AI has arrived in South Africa’s boardrooms – but company law hasn’t caught up
– https://theconversation.com/ai-has-arrived-in-south-africas-boardrooms-but-company-law-hasnt-caught-up-291004

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Richard Fosu, Lecturer in International Relations, Monash University

When violent conflict erupts in Africa, attention often turns to the United Nations, major powers, or external donors. Yet over the past two decades, the African Union (AU) has become one of the continent’s most important peace and security actors.

From Burundi and Sudan to Somalia, Mali and the Central African Republic, the AU and regional African organisations have deployed peace operations, mediated conflicts, monitored elections and supported political transitions.

These interventions reflect a broader ambition that Africans should play a leading role in addressing Africa’s peace and security challenges.

Despite the growing importance of these interventions, surprisingly little effort has been made to assess what’s been learned from the expanding research scholarship on them.

We are researchers interested in AU peace and security interventions. In a recent scoping review of 186 peer-reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2026, we examined four major themes in the literature:

• AU approaches to peace and security intervention

• legitimacy of AU interventions, particularly among local populations

• effectiveness of AU intervention in achieving long term peace and security

• ownership of AU intervention both at the institutional level and among local populations.

We conclude from the review that debates about AU interventions are often framed too narrowly. Some accounts celebrate African agency and present AU interventions as a clear alternative to external intervention. Others emphasise dependence, limited capacity and operational failures.

The evidence suggests the reality is more complex. AU peace and security interventions are neither clear success stories nor simple cases of dependence on external support. Instead, they show how African actors are increasingly shaping responses to conflict while working with international partners.

The findings reveal both the promise and the limitations of AU peace and security interventions.

From non-intervention to non-indifference

The AU emerged in 2002 from the former Organisation of African Unity (OAU), an institution often criticised for reluctance to interfere in atrocities and armed conflicts.

The new AU argued that sovereignty came with responsibility. Article 4(h) of the AU Constitutive Act gives it the right to intervene in member states in cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The result has been far more intervention than before. Over the past two decades, the AU and regional bodies have deployed at least 28 missions to help manage conflicts, support peace processes and improve security.

Legitimacy

The papers we analysed showed that many people regard AU interventions as legitimate because they are “African solutions to African problems”. It reflects a belief that Africans are responsible for managing the continent’s security challenges.

This legitimacy is not merely symbolic. Research suggests that African mediators and peace operations often benefit from being closer to the situation than external actors are.

In some contexts, research shows that shared experiences can make local actors more willing to engage with African-led initiatives.

Effectiveness

The reviewed evidence shows that AU interventions have become more important because they provide practical responses to the continent’s security challenges.

Our research shows that, at a time when UN peace operations are declining and international attention is shifting elsewhere, African organisations are often the first responders to emerging crises.

AU missions have gone where external actors were reluctant to intervene because conflicts were still active. Examples include Somalia and Sudan.

In many cases, the literature suggests, conditions on the ground would likely have been worse without AU involvement. In Comoros in 2008 and Burundi in 2003, for example, AU intervention helped contain instability and support political stabilisation at critical moments.

Ownership

One of the most striking findings we made is that the AU has developed a different approach to intervention from the United Nations.

AU interventions are often defined less by peacekeeping principles – consent, impartiality and the limited use of force – and more by their practical function: creating conditions in which peace can emerge.

The African Union Mission in Somalia became the clearest example of this approach. Rather than monitoring an existing peace agreement, it conducted operations against insurgents while supporting state-building efforts.

The challenge of dependency

The literature also identified challenges.

The most persistent concern is external financial dependence. Although interventions are frequently presented as African-led, many rely heavily on funding from partners such as the European Union and the United Nations. Critics argue that financial dependence limits the AU’s ability to decide on its peace and security priorities.

Some scholars have asked whether interventions can truly be considered “African solutions” when they depend on external resources.

At the same time, more recent research offers a more nuanced picture. Rather than seeing African actors as passive recipients of external support, it shows how they often negotiate, adapt and use external resources to advance their own priorities.

Agency and dependence, in other words, can coexist.

Legitimacy depends on more than good intentions

Another major finding concerns legitimacy.

The AU is often expected to solve difficult security crises. Yet a number of factors get in its way. Our review identified a few:

• lack of the resources required to meet peace and security expectations

• weak coordination with sub-regional organisations

• inconsistent implementation of norms, particularly those relating to military coups and unconstitutional changes of government

• uneven political support for intervention.

Scholars are also asking not just whether interventions are authorised by governments or international institutions, but whether the people most affected by them see them as legitimate.

The findings of this research suggest that local populations often evaluate interventions based on tangible outcomes: security, stability and everyday experiences, rather than legal mandates or diplomatic rhetoric.

Beyond the debate between success and failure

As insecurity persists across parts of Africa and UN peace operations continue to decline, a hybrid model is likely to become even more important. The challenge for the AU is not simply to intervene more. It is to strengthen local ownership, reduce financial vulnerabilities, improve coordination and produce effective and legitimate outcomes.

Beatrice Anowah Brew, an independent researcher and peacebuilding practitioner, is a co-author of this article.

– African Union peacekeeping is growing as UN missions decline: research finds a mixed record of success
– https://theconversation.com/african-union-peacekeeping-is-growing-as-un-missions-decline-research-finds-a-mixed-record-of-success-290753

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Jerome Loveland, Head of Transplant Surgery at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, and Academic Head of Transplantation, University of the Witwatersrand

South Africa is no stranger to organ transplants. The world’s first heart transplant was performed in the country in the 1960s. There have been major developments in the decades since then. In the 1980s an organ donor registry was set up and local surgeons have been pushing the boundaries of what is possible. The Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre recently marked a milestone of completing 1,000 liver transplants since initiating its programme in 2004.

The Conversation Africa asked Jerome Loveland, head of transplant surgery at the centre and academic head of transplantation at the University of the Witwatersrand, about the current state – and future – of liver transplantation in the country.

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How has the liver transplant landscape in South Africa changed?

In the 1980s, the University of Cape Town started to build a deceased donor liver transplant programme. It became the centre of liver transplantation in South Africa for decades.

When we at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre started our own unit around 2004, it shifted the landscape. Obviously, it’s never smooth, and one of the most limiting factors around transplantation is the availability of deceased donor organs.

Right from the beginning we were looking for ways to optimise the use of the livers that did become available. Very early on we embarked on more complex transplants, like reducing a whole liver into a small piece to put into a child, or dividing a whole liver into two usable pieces where one piece goes to an adult and the other to a child. So “split liver” transplants allowed us to use those livers optimally.

From there, we expanded into living donor transplantation, typically from a parent to a child, and then transplants across the blood group barrier. We were the first in South Africa to perform transplants in patients with acute liver failure. All these key moments have allowed us to optimise the organs available and we’ve become a relatively high-volume centre.

What other developments have changed things?

The most recent game-changer is machine perfusion of the liver. This machine allows us to resuscitate and store donor organs more viably for extended periods of time. We have introduced this technology as the standard of care for our extended criteria donor livers, which include livers from older donors. Donald Gordon is currently the only unit in Africa using this technology.

It allows us to transplant an additional 10% to 15% of livers that we otherwise wouldn’t have used, as we would have most likely discarded them as unsafe to use. With the resuscitative component of machine perfusion, we can now use these livers with confidence.

Most importantly, the machine resuscitates the donor liver so that once it’s put into the recipient it functions much better and much sooner. It avoids what we call early graft dysfunction. It has a whole lot of benefits in terms of avoiding complications in the recipient, and reduces the costs of post-operative care.

We are excited to prove the cost-benefit to funders over the next 10 to 20 transplants.

With all these advancements, what challenges remain?

The availability of deceased donor organs is what drives the waiting list. We’ve got the capacity from a staffing and a hospital perspective to double our transplants per month very easily. We currently do about 50 to 60 liver transplants a year, or one a week.

There are still patients who fall off the waiting list because they get too ill or because they die.

My message for South Africans is to become organ donors when you die. By donating one’s organs you’re saving seven lives, probably more. There are seven recipients of those solid organs that will have a life-changing transplant. The register is run by the Organ Donor Foundation; people can sign up to be donors on their website.

South Africa runs a single waiting list for all transplant recipients, whether from the private or public sector. It’s estimated that more than 4,000 people in the country are waiting for an organ transplant. These patients are all discussed and listed at a collaborative weekly meeting, and deceased donor organs are allocated to the sickest patient on the list.

Has the demand for liver transplants increased over the last 20 years?

Yes. We have broadened our criteria for patients who are eligible for transplantation, such as transplanting for acute liver failure and for certain liver malignancies with strict criteria. These are categories of patients who benefit greatly, but it does add pressure to the system.

I think this increase is driven less by rising lifestyle diseases like obesity or alcohol use, and more by increased awareness. Physicians are better at diagnosing end-stage liver disease and referring patients, and patients themselves are becoming more self-aware. They are asking the right questions and self-referring to the hospital. Before, someone with end-stage disease might have just been palliated until the end, but now patients are seeking out transplantation. That is a very positive development.

– From split livers to machine perfusion: the 20-year evolution of liver transplants in South Africa
– https://theconversation.com/from-split-livers-to-machine-perfusion-the-20-year-evolution-of-liver-transplants-in-south-africa-290005

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Arthur Shirichena, PhD candidate aviation law, University of Manchester

When conflict erupted in the Middle East in 2026, the consequences were felt far beyond the region. One was the disruption to Gulf airspace. The ripple effects hit the global aviation network, including Africa.

Airlines have been forced to reroute flights and there’s been a spike in operating costs, delayed cargo and disrupted passenger travel. For Africa, the crisis has exposed a weakness that has existed for decades: dependence on external transit hubs for international and even intra-African connectivity.

For many African travellers, reaching another African destination often requires going through Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi or Istanbul, or Europe.

The recent disruptions show the risks of relying too heavily on infrastructure beyond the continent’s control. Direct intra-African connectivity would improve efficiency and the resilience of the continent’s aviation system.

Africa’s external aviation dependence has historical roots. Colonial air networks were designed to connect African territories with European capitals rather than with one another. After independence, states established national flag carriers. But commercial agreements and international routes remained oriented towards former colonial powers.

My work as an aviation law researcher examines African air transport liberalisation, regional integration and the legal frameworks governing how airlines access markets. My research has highlighted a persistent contradiction: Africa has enormous aviation potential, yet fragmented markets and weak intra-African connectivity. This leaves it dependent on foreign airlines and external hubs.

The African Airlines Association estimates that non-African carriers still operate almost 70% of Africa’s intercontinental capacity. This means that disruptions thousands of kilometres away can quickly become crises for African connectivity, trade and costs.

The Gulf crisis is a wake-up call. Every rerouted flight, delayed shipment and increased fuel bill illustrates the costs of fragmented markets and weak institutional coordination.

Africa’s aviation resilience will depend on building airports or expanding airline fleets, and on strengthening the institutions that govern the sector.

The cost

The costs of an unstable Gulf region are immediate. Airlines are forced onto longer routes, consuming more fuel and increasing crew costs. Insurance premiums rise as flights operate closer to conflict zones. Aircraft use declines, causing delays across entire networks.

These expenses are passed on to passengers and exporters.

The timing could hardly be worse. African airlines already have some of the world’s highest operating costs. Aviation fuel accounts for between 30% and 40%. It is more expensive at many African airports than at major hubs in Europe or the Middle East. This is due to import dependence, taxes, fragmented supply chains and limited refining capacity.

Higher fuel prices affect all airlines operating from those airports. However, African carriers are more exposed to these elevated costs. This is because many conduct a larger share of their operations within the continent. This puts them at a competitive disadvantage and limits the affordability of intra-African air services.

Even before the latest Gulf tensions, many African carriers had to compete against larger international airlines with economies of scale and integrated fuel supply systems. Longer flight paths caused by airspace closures amplify this disadvantage.

The consequences extend beyond passenger transport. Africa increasingly relies on air cargo to export fresh vegetables to global markets. These products depend on predictable schedules. Delays of only a few hours can reduce quality, increase wastage and undermine the competitiveness of African exporters.

Opportunities

The crisis also reveals opportunities.

It highlights the strategic importance of African aviation hubs such as Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Cairo and Casablanca. These hubs could absorb a greater share of traffic if:

• they were supported by efficient visa regimes

• air services were co-ordinated

• airport infrastructure was modernised.

But infrastructure alone won’t solve Africa’s aviation challenges. The continent needs institutions that can coordinate responses during a crisis.

Ethiopian Airlines shows what is possible with coherent institutional support and operational autonomy. But it’s the exception. Many African airlines face restrictive market access, inconsistent regulatory environments and fragmented continental connectivity.

What’s in place

Over the past three decades, the continent has established a legal and institutional framework to promote aviation integration.

But progress has been virtually non-existent. Liberalisation intentions have been undermined by:

• uneven implementation

• weak institutional coordination

• the preference of many governments to put national interests ahead of continental commitments.

To give fresh impetus to their efforts, African Union member states took further steps in 2026.

They signed the Lomé Declaration, a commitment to speed up progress towards a single market in air traffic.

They also signed the Yamoussoukro Decision, a legal framework for intra-African air transport.

What’s missing

Firstly, the focus must be on getting it done. The African Civil Aviation Commission needs a stronger mandate and adequate resources to:

• coordinate continent-wide crisis responses

• monitor member states’ compliance with commitments

• publish periodic assessments of what’s been done

• facilitate closer cooperation between national civil aviation authorities, regional economic communities and the African Union Commission.

Secondly, enforcement. This is one of the greatest weaknesses facing African aviation integration. Airlines still encounter route denials, discriminatory treatment or regulatory barriers despite formal commitments.

Thirdly, the existing Single African Air Transport Market dispute settlement mechanism should be strengthened. It would serve two purposes:

• adjudicate when disagreements arise between states or between regulators

• reinforce confidence among investors and airlines that African aviation operates under predictable and enforceable rules.

External shocks often encourage governments to shield national carriers. Airlines need assurance that agreed rules will be applied consistently, regardless of political or economic pressures.

The European Union offers an important lesson. The success of Europe’s single aviation market came through liberalisation as well as strong institutions. They can interpret rules consistently and resolve disputes authoritatively.

Opening of markets must go with enforcing rules.

– Africa’s air travel is reliant on distant hubs: why it’s time to fix this
– https://theconversation.com/africas-air-travel-is-reliant-on-distant-hubs-why-its-time-to-fix-this-288049

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Saeed Akannah Junior, Lecturer, School of Build Environment, Bolgatanga Technical University

When people discuss architecture in Ghana, attention often focuses on modern buildings: concrete houses, glass offices, shopping malls and ambitious urban developments. Yet across the country, another architectural tradition continues to offer lessons about how people have built and lived for generations.

This is vernacular architecture. It is not uniquely Ghanaian. The term refers to buildings and settlements shaped largely by local knowledge, materials, construction techniques, cultural practices and environmental conditions of a particular region. It is not simply old or traditional architecture. Rather, it represents knowledge developed through many years of observation, adaptation and experience.

In Ghana, this relationship appears in the use of earth, timber, thatch and other locally available materials. Compounds arranged around courtyards, designs that respond to sunlight and prevailing winds, shaded outdoor spaces and settlement patterns that reflect social relationships and communal life.

These features emerged over generations. Communities learned how materials behaved, how buildings responded to seasonal changes and how spaces could support private and collective activities.

I am an architect who has researched and taught building technology for a decade. In a recent paper, I examine how vernacular architecture in Ghana has been understood, documented and interpreted.

A key finding from my study is that Ghana’s vernacular architecture is not a single tradition but a diverse body of knowledge shaped by climate and community. There are examples in the hot-dry savannah belt, the warm-humid forest belt and hot-humid coastal zones. Communities developed distinct building strategies in response to heat, rainfall, humidity, local materials and everyday life.

I conclude that the future lies in bringing that knowledge into today’s architectural design. Where appropriate, it can be done through materials, spatial arrangements and the way a building works with its environment.

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Read more: 5 lessons from ancient civilizations for keeping homes cool in hot, dry climates

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More than old buildings

For my research, I drew on the work of scholars who have helped document and interpret vernacular architectural knowledge in Ghana.

For example, architect and researcher Labelle Prussin examined northern Ghanaian settlements and household architecture. She demonstrated how building forms were closely related to social organisation, culture and the environment. Her work helped establish the importance of understanding African architecture through its social and environmental context.

The late German architect and scholar Hannah Schreckenbach also documented indigenous building practices and construction technologies in Ghana. She contributed to wider recognition of local architectural knowledge and its relevance to architectural education and practice.

My work is different. It brings together the environmental, cultural, spatial, material and institutional dimensions of vernacular architecture. This approach helps connect earlier documentation of vernacular buildings with their continuing relevance to Ghana’s built environment.

The findings also show why vernacular architecture should not be viewed simply as a record or symbol of the past. Preserving buildings is important, but vernacular architecture is also a living body of knowledge.

A vernacular building contains information about climate, materials, construction, social organisation and cultural identity. Its walls, openings, courtyards and orientation work together as a system. Through it, communities respond to environmental conditions and social needs. This knowledge matters as Ghana faces rapid urbanisation, rising construction costs, climate pressures and growing demand for buildings that consume less energy and fewer resources.

It’s not a complete solution for every building, but offers principles that architects can reinterpret through modern technologies and materials.

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Read more: Keep buildings cool as it gets hotter by resurrecting traditional architectural techniques – podcast

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What needs to be kept, what is no longer relevant?

This knowledge, however, is vulnerable. Rapid urbanisation, changing lifestyles, imported materials, standardised building practices and the perception that concrete represents progress can push aside vernacular knowledge.

When an earth building disappears, we lose more than a physical structure. We also lose knowledge about preparing materials, responding to climate, organising spaces and involving communities in construction and use. However, this does not mean every vernacular building should be kept unchanged.

For example, traditional earth construction may require improved foundations and moisture protection. Thatched roofs may need some changes to details to make them safer and longer lasting. Traditional layouts may have to adapt to sanitation, accessibility and household requirements.

A better question is: what knowledge from the past can help us build the future?

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Read more: Cities like Lagos need building designs that don’t just copy global styles

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Rethinking progress

Sustainable architecture cannot simply mean importing technologies that were developed elsewhere. It must also recognise knowledge that already exists within communities. Sustainability is not new.

Communities have long developed ways of building that respond to climate, resources, cultural values and collective needs.

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Read more: South Africa’s modern rondavels: family homes may be changing, but traditions remain

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The future will not be found by choosing between vernacular and modern architecture. It lies in bringing older knowledge into today’s design. Earth construction can be improved, not abandoned. Passive cooling can inform contemporary design. Courtyard principles can inform modern housing. Local materials can be reconsidered alongside appropriate technologies.

Ghana’s vernacular architecture is not simply an inheritance from yesterday.

It is a resource for tomorrow.

– Ghana’s local architecture has adapted to change for centuries. It can teach us about climate resilience
– https://theconversation.com/ghanas-local-architecture-has-adapted-to-change-for-centuries-it-can-teach-us-about-climate-resilience-290552

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Jack Swab, Assistant Professor Department of Geography & Sustainability, University of Tennessee

The UN has passed a non-binding resolution to endorse the Equal Earth Projection, a map which more fairly represents the true size of the Earth’s landmasses. The current commonly used projection, called the Mercator Projection, greatly exaggerates land towards the north and south poles, which makes Africa look much smaller. In the Mercator projection, countries near the north and south pole can be anywhere from two to 14 times their true size. In the Equal Earth projection these distortions are minimised, making Africa look larger in comparison.

We asked Jack Swab and Derek Alderman, cartographers and geographers who study the social and communicative power of maps, to explain what’s going on.

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What is a map projection?

A map projection is a technique that cartographers (map-makers) use to transform the round, three-dimensional Earth into a flat, two-dimensional map that we see on the wall or on our computer screen. As cartographers flatten the globe, the map becomes distorted, changing shapes and areas. There is no map projection that does not distort the Earth, but some projections are better suited for some uses than others.

A cartographer’s job is to choose from the hundreds of different map projections, and consider where the map is focused and how it is going to be used. No single projection is best for every use. This new Equal Earth projection is better suited than Mercator for producing global scale world maps for educational, public communication and policy purposes.

The Equal Earth supports a more accurate geographic understanding of the relative sizes of countries and continents. It provides a fairer perspective for the public to compare regions in terms of population, environment, development, politics and other global patterns.

Is the Mercator projection still useful?

While the Mercator projection isn’t good for showing the size of the Earth’s landmasses, we won’t see it totally disappear. For example, it’s very useful for navigational purposes as it maintains the accuracy of a compass bearing between two points without having to recalculate it.

This is why most online mapping platforms like Google Maps or Apple Maps rely on a variation of the Mercator projection to provide directions. Using the Equal Earth projection for navigation would not be as effective as the Mercator projection.

How will the Equal Earth projection be used?

Map-making is decentralised and there is no single authority regulating which map projection is used. What the UN did was endorse the broader message that Equal Earth is a fairer projection that more equitably displays the true size of the Earth’s land. And although this action is happening at a global level, there are movements underway in cartographic communities to make the Equal Earth projection the default world map projection.

The UN resolution by itself will not make Equal Earth a globally adopted projection. That requires intentional revision of maps used in textbooks, databases, media productions and diplomatic discussions, which requires labour and financial investment.

The Equal Earth projection was developed by cartographers and is a popular choice among map-makers since it was unveiled in 2018. It’s now possible to buy wall maps with the Equal Earth projection on them, and the projection has already been used in a wide variety of media. That said, individuals will need to opt in to using the Equal Earth projection over other types.

Why has the Equal Earth projection sparked resistance?

Resistance to the Equal Earth projection has been quite limited. There were several abstentions from the United Nations General Assembly vote, but most of this was for other reasons. Ukraine, for example, raised concerns over the depiction of the contested Crimean Peninsula on the map, which the Equal Earth Projection website depicts as contested territory.

This spurred a Russian response, along with points from other nations about contested territory. Given the UN resolution was a vote on how the world is portrayed and not about any specific political boundaries (a point that both Russia and Ukraine agreed on), these discussions amounted to geopolitical posturing about non-map issues.

The lone outlier, and only “no” vote against the Equal Earth projection, came from the United States. It claimed that the proposal was part of a “radical and ideological project” that was not appropriate for the United Nations to be debating. American delegates took issue with language linking Mercator’s distortions to colonial legacies and the marginalisation of Africa. This is not surprising since the current administration denies the existence of structural systems of inequality.

It is hard to miss the hypocrisy at play. The US wants other countries not to discuss the political implications of cartography even as President Trump engages in his own nationalist branding of the map. He has unilaterally renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and Lake Ontario to Lake America for clear ideological reasons and without international consultation.

How does the new map matter when it comes to changing global views of the world?

The argument that African nations put forward was that the Equal Earth projection is a form of “cognitive justice”. Cognitive justice recognises that people often equate power and value of places with their apparent size on maps. Traditional views of Africa as a smaller continent compared to Europe or North America typically reflect the perceived importance of these parts of the world.

Equal Earth may make it easier to teach, broadcast and discuss a different view of Africa and its prominence in the world. Today, African countries are among the world’s fastest growing economies and fastest growing populations. Map projections alone cannot change people’s attitudes. Yet, as African nations seek to have more influence in international affairs, correcting the mental map of global leaders is an important step in amplifying the continent’s relevance and rights.

– New world map makes Africa look bigger: what’s the fuss about? Cartographers explain
– https://theconversation.com/new-world-map-makes-africa-look-bigger-whats-the-fuss-about-cartographers-explain-291691

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ryan A. Manzuk, Research Fellow, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The southern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is known as the Copperbelt because of its rich deposits of copper and other minerals.

The area was the original source of uranium ore for the first nuclear weapons built by the US’s Manhattan Project (1942 and 1947). Two atomic bombs were then dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The Manhattan Project’s main source of uranium was the Cobberbelt’s Shinkolobwe mine in south-east DRC. It has been officially closed to excavation since 2004.

The DRC hasn’t officially reported any uranium exports in decades.

However, our recent research shows that substantial unreported quantities of uranium are likely to be leaving the country today. I am a geologist with expertise in analysing data concerning the chemical and mineral contents of rocks. I do most of my work in map-view, taking in spatial data points – like regional cobalt statistics – and drawing conclusions.

Our research is the first to systematically take two crucial factors into account:

• the natural geologic co-occurence of uranium and cobalt

• their similar behaviour in processing chemistry.

Uranium and cobalt occur together in rock and respond the same way to chemical processing, so they are hard to separate.

From this we were able to come up with a single estimate of how much uranium is at stake when cobalt is mined and exported.

Very few data points about uranium concentrations in ores or the chemical steps that prepare cobalt for shipment are publicly available. We reached our estimates by using geologic maps to model the likely uranium grades in cobalt ores.

We combined these grades with the amount of ore being processed at each facility in the Copperbelt, and a model of uranium behaviour during the processing chemistry prior to shipment.

The end result links cobalt production to likely uranium export. Our calculations show that, in the most likely scenarios, 2,000-5,000 tonnes of natural uranium were exported from the DRC in cobalt-hydroxide shipments between 2000 and 2024.

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Read more: How a rich uranium mine thrust the Congo into the centre of the Cold War

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Less than 10% of this material appears to have been publicly declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The agency is responsible for uranium accountancy and safeguards. Most of the material was exported to China, which dominates the global cobalt market.

This quantity of uranium could be processed into enough material for roughly 600-1,500 nuclear weapons, by our calculations. Or fuel a standard light-water nuclear reactor for 10-25 years.

Our findings identify a substantial gap in nuclear accountancy and environmental oversight within a critical mineral supply chain. In the weeks following our study’s publication in July 2026, the DRC launched a probe to test outgoing cobalt shipments for uranium content. It will also consult with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

But more needs to be done.

Putting pieces of the puzzle together

The specific risk of uranium exports as a byproduct of cobalt is not a story of covert access to deposits and smuggling. It stems from a geologic coincidence.

Cobalt is key to many modern conveniences and technologies, such as smartphones and laptops. Southern DRC is the source of 70% of the world’s cobalt. The ores that supply this cobalt sit in close proximity to the several concentrated uranium deposits, like Shinkolobwe, that dot the region.

Over the past few million years, uranium has spread throughout the Copperbelt as rainwater has gradually carried it away from the concentrated deposits that formed roughly 600 million years ago, before the first animals even walked on land. Heterogenite, the main mineral that supplies cobalt, can adsorb – or grab hold of – this uranium as it passes by.

The result is that the same minerals that form the world’s majority supply of cobalt are known to have elevated uranium content.

We reviewed several pieces of prior research that noted that uranium and cobalt have similar chemical behaviours in the crude refining that takes place in the DRC.

So nearly all the uranium that comes out of the ground when extracting cobalt minerals will remain in the final product that’s ready for export.

Refineries can follow explicit processes to remove uranium from cobalt. Discussions about these techniques have only begun to happen in recent years, starting roughly in 2020. They are not common. We compiled DRC import records of the chemicals required to remove uranium and found only three of the 31 operations we investigated appeared to be consistently implementing uranium removal measures.

We built a model that took the uranium and cobalt’s geologic co-occurrence and similar behaviours in processing chemistry to form a single estimate of how much uranium is involved. The end result linked cobalt production to likely uranium export.

The risks

The sheer size of the DRC cobalt industry poses a uranium accountancy problem, regardless of uranium grades in ores or removal strategies. The country exported over 200,000 tonnes of cobalt in 2024.

Each shipment should be checked for radioactivity when entering ports or crossing borders. It should be flagged if a geiger counter – which detects and measures radioactive energy – returns too high a reading. However, this system requires consistent applications of sensitive instruments, and high-uranium shipments are known to escape regulatory control.

Even if mines in the DRC were systematically implementing uranium removal strategies to keep cobalt products within international shipping limits for radioactivity, enough uranium would be reaching China to make approximately 12 nuclear weapons per year. This is based on our calculations and the size of the DRC’s cobalt industry.

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Read more: What is uranium enrichment and how is it used for nuclear bombs? A scientist explains

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Beyond the clear global security risk that comes from the undocumented flow of uranium, our results demonstrate a widespread risk to the people and environments near these mines.

People are exposed to this uranium when working in the mines. We estimate 1,000-4,000 tonnes of uranium have been discarded in highly mobile forms in tailings areas – sites used to hold material left over after mining. This poses an environmental health and safety risk to the surrounding communities.

Prior research has shown that some populations of miners and communities near mines in the DRC show signs of uranium exposure, based on sampling of their blood and urine. Our research shows that this risk must be considered across the entire Copperbelt.

What next

Systematic assay measurement of cobalt products is a crucial first step in bringing transparency to this issue. This would involve an independent agency taking representative samples of cobalt shipments and measuring the precise amount of uranium present to produce a shared record.

In addition to testing the outgoing shipments, we would also recommend monitoring workers in the DRC cobalt industry for radiation exposure. Our results indicate that even ores that have modest uranium grades present a potential exposure risk as they can eventually achieve high concentrations through processing.

And policies are needed that mandate the treatment of cobalt products to remove uranium and dispose of it in stable forms in tailings areas that are isolated from public water supplies.

– DRC’s cobalt exports contain unreported uranium – our study estimates the global nuclear risk
– https://theconversation.com/drcs-cobalt-exports-contain-unreported-uranium-our-study-estimates-the-global-nuclear-risk-291107

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Suvi Rautio, Anthropologist, University of Helsinki

Connected to wireless earphones, Yoofi Greene from Ghana begins his dance steps down a busy sidewalk in Guangzhou, China. People, bicycles and cars zoom past. Pedestrians watch with a mix of amusement and annoyance as he glides by them and moves to occupy the middle of the street.

Yoofi draws closer to the long lane of traffic that his dancing has managed to interrupt. He pauses. I steady my phone to track his choreography. He looks directly at the camera. A big smile extends across his face as he proceeds to twerk at an impatient taxi.

Back on the sidewalk, I airdrop him the footage to edit and before you can say “viral dance” he’s uploaded it to social media and his followers – 215,000 at the time of writing.

Yoofi is one of many Africans living in China who are participants in a broader movement to bring emerging lifestyle trends from the continent to new audiences. Like most dancers, he connects with these new audiences on social media.

Dancers rely on social media to create and share dances from different parts of the world. The more followers, likes and reposts they get, the more recognition, status and money they can gain. Going viral also helps dancers connect with and learn from others, while giving them opportunities to travel and migrate.

I am a social and cultural anthropologist from Finland who grew up in China. I was first drawn to the contagious energy of African dance in 2018. The following year, I took my new hobby to Guangzhou. From learning choreography in studios to shooting dance videos on the streets to dancing in nightclubs, I entered this rich world of dance and developed a research project around it to study how African dancers in China harness cultural norms and market themselves to serve their larger mobility project.

I learned that as dance moves from the streets or the studio to the screen, dancers are in a position to provide alternatives to the circulating stereotypes about “Africanness”.

The public display of dance can emphasise racial and ethnic differences and reinforce the perception of certain people as outsiders in both the dancer’s and the audience’s imaginations.

But at the same time it offers opportunities for cultural exchange, friendship and collaboration.

Yoofi Greene

My study was conducted several years ago. The African dance scene has since grown into a big industry in China. Established African dancers regularly teach at dance studios in the country’s cities. Alongside classes, dance camps (intensive short programmes) featuring instructors from Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and the wider African diaspora are becoming increasingly common.

This did not happen overnight. Over the past decade, African dance influencers and dance entrepreneurs in China, like Yoofi, have worked hard to attract audiences, offering new ways of imagining Africa.

Yoofi first started posting dance videos in China a decade ago. At the time, African dance had not yet gained public appeal in the country. The market has changed enormously since then. At the tail end of the COVID pandemic, African dance genres moved from the margins to the mainstream.

Yoofi’s popularity rides the waves of many African artists who have exploded in popularity around the world with their vibrant sounds and rhythms.

Internationally, dancers play a prominent role in amplifying music trends like Afrobeats by filming choreographies and “dance crazes” to the music, inspiring viewers to imitate the dance.

Dancers bring a blend of dance styles borrowed from across the African continent to China. These include the sensual hip rotations of Congolese ndombolo, the intricate footwork of Afro house emerging from Angola, and the slick moves grooving to the hypnotic synths of South Africa’s amapiano. Others go viral using Nigerian street styles or Ghana’s azonto style with fast-paced legwork to complement the music’s rapid tempos, and sharp shoulder thrusts, pelvic grinds, and facial movements.

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Read more: The Angolan dancers who helped South African anthem Jerusalema go global

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Posting eye-catching and sometimes disruptive videos – like Yoofi’s public street dancing – consistently on social media accounts becomes an entrepreneurial strategy for dancers. The exposure becomes quantifiable in followers, likes and reposts as a crucial way for them to grow their fame and attract paid work.

Yet going viral goes not guarantee long term security or profit.

Countering stereotypes

Many people in China carry racialised stereotypes about Africa and Black people. Tribalist and primitive tropes are presented through dance performances on state television and in theme parks. Globally, Blackness has also become commodified as fashionable.

My study of African dance influencers shows how they defy these stereotypes. They use their phones and cameras to share their dances on their own terms, to celebrate all the layers of diversity of African dance and thus of the African subject.

Viral African dance in China becomes simultaneously a form of cultural exchange, a site that treats racial identity as a commodity, and a means through which dancers strategically negotiate and reproduce ideas about Africa and African dance.

Mathew Nandala

Not all dancers chase online fame by making videos that stop traffic. For example, during the years that Ugandan dancer Mathew Nandala was living in China, he chose to film his dance videos with public backgrounds that display visual contrasts between Africa and China.

With their intricately choreographed sword fighting and acrobatics, Chinese movies influenced Nandala’s aspirations to become a dancer when he arrived in the country. These influences are visible in his dance videos. In one, for example, he is wearing body paint and dancing in a pagoda. In another, he dons a Chinese-inspired outfit while incorporating martial arts into his sequences. Hashtags like #AfroinChina and #Africatotheworld draw wider audiences into these expressions. In a way, this portrays his ability to inhabit multiple places – an expression of being Afropolitan.

Nandala’s viral videos catch people’s attention because they play with cultural and racialised images and stir people to think about them in new ways, to compose multiple worlds at once.

Dance as a way to appreciate difference

Digital platforms offer vital opportunities for African dance influencers to construct their own visions of what it means to be African.

Whether the dance is filmed on the street, like Yoofi’s, or uses imagined worlds, like Nandala’s, viral dance content spreads to new audiences. Its meaning constantly changes as different people use and share it.

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Read more: Wolf Warrior II: what the blockbuster movie tells us about China’s views on Africa

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What I learned in the course of my research is that, for people who are open to these experiences, dance can challenge racialised stereotypes and transform how we see one another. This does not mean that differences will disappear. It means that we become open to new ways of understanding one another with a deeper complexity.

– Viral African dance videos are busting stereotypes in China – and making money for some
– https://theconversation.com/viral-african-dance-videos-are-busting-stereotypes-in-china-and-making-money-for-some-290555

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Kamaldeen O L Omosanya, Research Fellow, Department of Earth Science, University of the Western Cape, University of the Western Cape

From the Vredefort Dome in South Africa (the world’s oldest and largest known meteorite-impact structure) to the volcanic lakes of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, Africa’s landscapes hold some of Earth’s oldest stories. Morocco’s M’Goun Unesco Global Geopark records more than 200 million years of geological history, while Tanzania’s Ngorongoro-Lengai landscape brings together a vast caldera, an active volcano and the fossil record of Olduvai Gorge.

These places are not simply beautiful. Their rocks, fossils, caves, craters and river valleys preserve evidence of ancient climates, vanished environments, human origins and changes in the Earth’s surface. They are part of Africa’s geoheritage: geological features and processes with scientific, educational and cultural value.

Yet much of this heritage in Africa remains poorly documented and unevenly protected. Many countries lack formal inventories of important geological sites. Legal protection is inconsistent, public awareness is limited and responsibility is often split between geological surveys, universities, conservation agencies and tourism authorities.

When a place is missing from an inventory or map, it is also more likely to disappear online. It may never be photographed systematically, modelled in three dimensions or added to searchable databases. That makes it harder for researchers, teachers, visitors and funders to find. The under-representation of African journals in major academic databases deepens the problem.

I am a research fellow at the University of Western Cape, South Africa, geoscientist and founder of DigGeoNaija, which explores how digital tools can document, interpret and promote Africa’s geological heritage. In a recent study, I examined the visibility of Africa in the international literature on digital geoheritage.

A global digital transformation, with Africa at the margins

Around the world, heritage managers are using geographic information systems (GIS), satellite imagery, drones, photogrammetry, laser scanning, 3D modelling, virtual reality and artificial intelligence to record and explain geological sites. These tools can reveal erosion, quarrying and vandalism. They can also give students and researchers access to places that are distant or fragile, while helping visitors understand a landscape before they arrive.

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Read more: Fossil treasure chest: how to preserve the geoheritage of South Africa’s Cape coast

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There are African projects that show what is possible. At M’Goun, researchers created digital records for 13 geological sites, combining photographs, location data and descriptions in an interactive map. The geopark also offers 360-degree virtual visits to selected geosites.

The African Fossils virtual laboratory is another example. Anyone with an internet connection can examine 3D models of fossils, ancient tools and other objects, many from the Lake Turkana region of Kenya. Lake Turkana and its surrounding basin are internationally important to the study of human origins because of the fossils and archaeological material discovered there. Some of the digital models can also be downloaded for 3D printing. This does not replace museums, local guides or field visits. Instead, it broadens access and can encourage deeper engagement with the landscapes and communities behind the material.

What my study found

I analysed publication records in Scopus and Web of Science, two major academic citation databases, searching for research about geoheritage sites. This was not a complete census of every African project, community initiative or unpublished archive. But it measured Africa’s visibility in influential indexed research on geoheritage.

The result was striking. The global Scopus search returned 885 publications, but only 31 were Africa-related. Web of Science returned 534 publications, of which 20 concerned Africa. In both datasets, Africa accounted for fewer than 4% of the results from 2001 to 2025. No African country appeared among the ten leading global contributors or case-study locations. Within Africa, publications were concentrated mainly in Morocco, Egypt and South Africa, with Ethiopia also more visible than most countries. Many nations with major fossil, volcanic, desert and impact-crater landscapes had little or no representation.

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Read more: Ghana has a rare treasure, a crater made when a meteor hit Earth: why it needs to be protected

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This does not rank the value of any country’s geological heritage. The pattern probably reflects unequal funding, limited access to equipment, differences in institutional capacity, international partnerships and the greater likelihood that research from some countries reaches indexed journals.

The central point is simple: visibility influences what gets researched, funded, taught and protected. Closing this gap is about providing better evidence for conservation, education, tourism and local decision-making.

Why digital visibility matters

First, documentation supports protection. Decision-makers cannot safeguard what has never been identified or assessed. A geosite may be damaged by mining, road construction, uncontrolled collecting, urban growth or poorly managed tourism before its value is understood. Digital records cannot stop destruction, but they create evidence of a site’s importance and condition.

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Read more: Rock stars: how a group of scientists in South Africa rescued a rare 500kg chunk of human history

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Second, visibility can create economic opportunity. Geoheritage can expand African tourism beyond wildlife, beaches and major monuments. When carefully managed, places such as Baringo and M’Goun can support local guides, accommodation, museums, transport, crafts and food businesses. The benefits must be shared with communities.

Third, digital resources make Earth science more relevant to African students. A learner should be able to study volcanic landforms in Tanzania, Nigerian inselbergs, Ethiopian fossil sites or Saharan landscapes through maps and models. Africa’s evidence also matters to global science. Without it, our understanding of Earth’s history remains incomplete.

What needs to happen next

The answer is not simply to buy expensive virtual-reality equipment. The first task is to build reliable, searchable inventories of geological sites. Governments, universities, geological surveys, tourism agencies and conservation bodies need shared methods for identifying sites, assessing their significance and recording threats.

There are foundations to build on. Unesco has supported capacity-building and aspiring geoparks such as Baringo. M’Goun has shown how field information can become a useful public map. In Nigeria, DigGeoNaija is developing a university-linked programme for GIS documentation, virtual interpretation and promotion, with Olumo Rock as an early pilot site.

Investment in people matters as much as technology. Young African geoscientists need training in mapping, remote sensing, drone surveying, 3D modelling, database management and public communication. They also need skills in preserving files, managing metadata, securing community consent and maintaining platforms after funding ends.

Regional collaboration could lower costs through shared standards, multilingual platforms, equipment centres, training programmes and repositories. Research searches must also extend beyond Scopus and Web of Science to African Journals Online, institutional repositories and national publications.

Most importantly, local communities must be partners from the beginning. Geological sites are often tied to oral histories, spiritual traditions, livelihoods and identity. Digital documentation should not remove knowledge or authority from the people who live with these landscapes. It should help them tell their own stories and shape decisions about access, tourism and commercial use.

Africa’s geological heritage has always been here. What is missing is consistent documentation, protection and visibility. With sustained investment, African leadership and community participation, these ancient landscapes can become better-protected scientific archives, living classrooms and responsibly managed sources of local pride.

The rocks already hold the stories. The task is to make sure people can find them, understand them and protect them.

– Africa’s rocks hold ancient stories. We need better ways to document and protect them
– https://theconversation.com/africas-rocks-hold-ancient-stories-we-need-better-ways-to-document-and-protect-them-286864

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By De Wet Swanepoel, Professor in Audiology in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, University of Pretoria

Hearing loss affects more than 1.5 billion people worldwide. Close to 80% live in low – and middle – income countries, where hearing care is out of reach for most. In Africa, an estimated 136 million people live with hearing loss, a figure expected to more than double to 337 million by 2050. Yet fewer than 2% of people on the continent who need a hearing aid have one.

This shortfall is not a minor inconvenience but a major public health crisis. Left unaddressed, hearing loss drives costs across healthcare, education and productivity, falling hardest on children, whose language development and schooling depend on being able to hear. A 2024 Lancet Commission report identified it as one of the largest modifiable risk factors for dementia. The World Health Organization puts the annual global cost of unaddressed hearing loss at close to a trillion US dollars (page 10).

Despite this, access to care remains scarce. There are too few audiologists (fewer than one for every million people in many African countries), hearing aids cost more than a year’s income for many households, services are concentrated in cities and a persistent stigma keeps people from seeking help even where it exists.

Our research team at the University of Pretoria, where I head the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for the Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Loss – the only such centre on the continent – has spent the past decade pioneering ways to close this gap. Our latest study reviews a decade of evidence on whether hearing care can be delivered outside clinics, by people who aren’t specialists.

Our data shows that the pieces are now in place. Affordable devices, automated mobile testing tools and non-specialist training have each been shown to work. Together they form a care pathway that can deliver hearing services to most adults with hearing loss outside clinics – meeting people where they are.

Rethinking who provides frontline community care

The traditional model for fitting a hearing aid has barely changed in decades: a patient visits an audiologist, undergoes testing in a soundproof booth and returns for several follow-up appointments. That works reasonably well where specialists are plentiful. It cannot scale in places where the nearest audiologist is hours away.

What our work shows is that this no longer has to be the only way. Over the past several years, our research group and others have been testing a “high-tech, soft-touch” approach: training community health workers – trusted, non-specialist members of the community – to carry out the essential steps of hearing care themselves, using smartphones and tablets loaded with validated apps. This is already happening in three low-income communities in South Africa: Khayelitsha and Mbekweni in the Western Cape, and Atteridgeville in Gauteng.

The process typically runs through five steps: a tablet or smartphone hearing test; an ear examination using a small camera attached to the phone; a chance to try a hearing aid; fitting of an affordable, rechargeable device; and several weeks of support delivered by text message or WhatsApp. A remote audiologist checks the results without ever needing to be in the room. In several of our South African studies, a single visit was enough for a person to walk away wearing a hearing aid fitted to their own hearing loss.

Much of this evidence comes from work with the hearX Foundation, the non-profit implementation partner of our research centre. Led by audiologist Tersia de Kock, the foundation trains and manages the community health workers.

Does it actually work?

Community health workers have now fitted hearing aids for hundreds of adults across South Africa, and outcomes – hearing aid use, satisfaction, quality of life – are broadly comparable to traditional clinic-based care. In several of our studies, we found that more than 70% of people were still using their devices six months on, a retention rate that compares favourably with many specialist-led programmes in high-income countries.

Two developments have made this possible. The first is the emergence, largely over the past decade, of affordable digital technologies for ear and hearing assessment that rely on automated testing that can be facilitated by community health workers with minimal training. The second is low-cost preset hearing aids that don’t need individual programming by an audiologist and that increasingly use rechargeable batteries. This removes one of the most underestimated barriers to hearing aid use in poorer communities: reliable access to disposable batteries.

None of this means the model is perfect. Most evidence so far comes from small studies run by research teams, not from health systems delivering this care routinely at scale. Brazil and India offer a glimpse of what that could look like: both have built hearing care into their national public health systems at scale. We also don’t yet know enough about long-term outcomes when people select their own hearing aid programme rather than having one fitted to clinical hearing test results, called an audiogram.

And stigma remains a barrier that technology alone won’t solve. Some people see hearing aids as a sign of old age, and sometimes cultural beliefs link hearing loss to misfortune. Our recent review of stigma in low- and middle-income countries found that generic awareness campaigns developed for wealthier countries made little difference. What does work is education delivered by trusted local figures (community leaders, religious institutions, peer networks) and grounded in local beliefs and language.

What needs to happen now

The case for investment is unusually strong, even by public health standards. The World Health Organization estimates that scaling up ear and hearing care globally would cost less than US$1.40 per person per year, yet return nearly $16 for every dollar invested over a decade in health, productivity and broader societal gains.

What’s missing is political will. Governments need to fold hearing care into national health insurance schemes, remove the import tariffs that inflate hearing aid prices in many African countries, and invest in training and supporting community health workers. And the few audiologists there are should be deployed to train, support and oversee these community-based services.

Multiplying the reach of hearing care across the hundreds of millions of people still waiting will take more than good technology. It will take the same ingredient our research keeps pointing back to: someone in the community, equipped and trusted to help.

– Fewer than 2% of Africans who need hearing aids have them, but new solutions offer hope
– https://theconversation.com/fewer-than-2-of-africans-who-need-hearing-aids-have-them-but-new-solutions-offer-hope-289668