Research ICT Africa’s Just AI Framework of Inquiry (FoI) provides an African-centred foundation for advancing justice in artificial intelligence (AI) governance, design, and policy. Developed by Pria Chetty and Araba Sey as part of the second phase of the Africa Just AI project, the framework responds to the urgent need to ground AI policy in Africa’s historical and contemporary contexts.

As AI technologies proliferate across every sector of society, the Just AI Framework of Inquiry reframes global debates on ethics and fairness by centring justice as the fundamental quality AI systems must embody. Rather than replicating governance models designed for high-income economies, the framework calls for an approach that reflects Africa’s diverse democratic systems, development priorities, and epistemic traditions.

Through nine interrelated inquiries, from structural inequality and data justice to democratic governance and environmental sustainability, the FoI equips policymakers, technologists, and researchers with the tools to design and evaluate AI systems that actively promote equity, inclusion, and care.

The Framework’s justice-oriented lens connects human rights, ecology, and economy, guiding both research and regulatory reform to ensure AI advances public interest outcomes. It aims to move beyond aspirational ethics toward actionable mechanisms for embedding justice across the AI value chain.

The next phase of this work, will test the FoI’s application through participatory engagements with policymakers, civil society, and research partners.