On November 12-13, 2024, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences Network President and AIMS Rwanda President, Prof. Dr. Sam Yala joined the Italian G7-Presidency and UNDP’s “Growing Together: Building Public-Private Partnerships to Boost the AI Revolution” conference in San Francisco that was held to discuss further the implementation of the AI Hub for Sustainable Development. 

The AI Hub for Sustainable Development, initiated in June’s G7 Leaders Summit and affirmed by the Italian G7 Presidency in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), aims to strengthen local AI ecosystems within African countries and accelerate responsible private sector innovation and partnerships in the core foundations underpinning AI’s potential for sustainable development.

In his remarks, Prof. Sam Yala presented the Pan-African perspective on accelerating the AI capacity-building efforts across the continent and the role AIMS could play given the institution’s established expertise in STEM education, its pan-African network, and its commitment to sustainable development, which include building capacity, fostering research and supporting entrepreneurship; all crucial aspects of building an African AI hub. 

Prof. Sam highlighted AIMS’s impact since its inception, through its Master’s programs of over 3500 alumni majorly employed in Africa in fields such as ICT, data science, engineering, research, and more, and other related training programs such as the African Masters for Machine Intelligence (AMMI) program. 

The conference came after a Startup Acceleration Pilot conducted to inform the design and development of the AI Hub for Sustainable Development, co-led by the Italian G7 Presidency and the United Nations Development Programme, involving the participation of partners supporting the learning journey of this pilot, which include the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), CDP Venture Capital SGR (CDP), the Italian Innovation and Culture Hub (INNOVIT), and ITU AI for Good.