EthiopiAI
2026 to 2029
Funding Partners
UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO)
Sector
Health and Education
Target
Develop and pilot two priority AI solutions in Health and Education, while strengthening government capability to govern, adopt and sustain responsible AI.
Regions
Ethiopia
EthiopiAI is a 36-month public sector innovation programme led by FC Africa to support responsible, high-value AI adoption in Ethiopia, beginning with Health and Education. Building on FC Africa’s experience applying data and AI to development and nearly two decades of delivering large-scale programmes with Ethiopian government institutions, the programme will identify priority public-service challenges, develop and pilot AI solutions, and strengthen the institutional capability, governance and knowledge needed for sustainable, government-owned adoption.
DELIVERY PARTNERS
Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), and Kagool
GOVERNMENT PARTNER
Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute (EAII)
Strategic Focus Areas
EthiopiAI brings together technical delivery and institutional strengthening to support responsible AI adoption within Ethiopia’s public sector. The programme focuses on five integrated areas:
01 Assessment and Use-Case Prioritisation
Conduct sector, institutional, data, infrastructure and technical assessments to identify high-value AI opportunities based on public-service need, feasibility, readiness, scalability and potential impact.
02 AI Solution Development
Co-design, develop, test and pilot AI-enabled solutions with government institutions and intended users. Initial implementation pathways will focus on one priority solution in Health and one in Education.
03 Institutional and Capacity Building
Strengthen AI and data literacy, technical skills and organisational capability through training, Train-the-Trainer approaches, practical learning resources and knowledge transfer.
04 Responsible AI Governance
Develop practical governance tools, including an AI Mainstreaming Manual, with provisions for human oversight, privacy, security, fairness, accessibility, data governance and accountability.
05 Partnerships and Knowledge Exchange
Strengthen collaboration between Ethiopian institutions, UK partners and specialist technical organisations to support knowledge exchange, institutional learning and targeted technical cooperation.
Initial Sector Focus
HEALTH
AI-enabled clinical and frontline support
Potential opportunities include clinical decision support, diagnostic assistance, local-language tools and solutions that extend scarce expertise and strengthen last-mile care.
EDUCATION
Teaching, learning and data-driven support
Potential opportunities include teaching and learning assistants, accessibility tools, student-performance analytics, early-warning systems and academic-integrity support.
Key Programme Outputs
2 Solutions
Priority AI solution pathways developed and piloted, initially one in Health and one in Education.
1 Manual
AI Mainstreaming Manual and practical tools developed to support responsible public-sector AI adoption.
Programme at a Glance
36 months
From April 2026
to March 2029
2 sectors
Initial focus:
Health and Education
5 workstreams
Assessment, solution development, capacity, governance and partnerships.