What changed
Zanzibar has urged African governments to prepare skilled, ethical and technology-ready public servants for artificial intelligence, with AI supporting human judgement rather than replacing it. First Vice-President Othman Masoud Othman opened the four-day 11th Annual Conference of the African Public Sector Human Resource Managers Network, bringing together public-service officials from 21 African countries and about 1,200 expected participants. The event also launched an online life-insurance system for government employees.
Why it matters
The message is less about buying software than rebuilding the public-service workforce around it. Governments were urged to create rules covering legality, citizens’ rights, information security and transparency, while training employees to use AI responsibly.
That puts human-resources departments at the centre of digital reform. Their job, Zanzibar argued, should extend beyond recruitment, salaries and leave administration to identifying emerging skills and judging how AI will reshape government employment.
Tanzania’s figures show why the workforce is a central part of the conversation: people aged 15 to 35 make up 34.5% of the population and about 40% of the public-service workforce. Inclusive digital programmes will therefore need to reach women, people with disabilities and officials in rural areas, rather than concentrating capability in the best-connected offices.
The conference is seeking practical resolutions, but no government, funding plan or timetable has yet been identified. The test will be whether the call for ethical AI produces enforceable policy and sustained investment in the people expected to use it.
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