Methodology — how policies were tagged
The 8 theme categories below were derived inductively from the actual text in the source workbook — by reading through all 18 policy scopes (and the stakeholder mandates that reference them) and identifying the subject-matter clusters that recurred, rather than starting from a pre-set taxonomy. Most policies carry 1–4 tags, which is what makes the network and overlap-matrix views below meaningful.
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| Theme | Why it earned its own category |
|---|
Connectivity & Infrastructure | Broadband, spectrum, IXPs and mobile networks kept appearing together as a distinct technical/physical-layer concern (ITU Connect 2030, Smart Africa Manifesto, STISA-2034). |
Cybersecurity & Cybercrime | A narrower, recurring legal/security concern distinct from general "digital" — the UN Cybercrime Convention and the Malabo Convention anchor this cluster. |
AI Governance & Ethics | Frequent enough on its own (AU Continental AI Strategy, UNESCO's AI Ethics Recommendation, the GDC) to separate from general data governance. |
Data Governance & Digital ID | Data protection, digital ID and data-flow language cluster together as a policy-and-rights concern, distinct from AI (Malabo Convention, AU Digital ID Framework, AU Data Policy Framework). |
Digital Trade & DPI/Payments | E-commerce, fintech, digital payments and Digital Public Infrastructure showed up as an economic/commercial cluster (AfCFTA and its Digital Trade Protocol, AU Data Policy Framework). |
Digital Skills & Inclusion | Education, capacity-building, digital literacy and youth — the human-capital side, appearing in nearly half of all policy scopes. |
Digital Cooperation (GDC/WSIS) | Multilateral/internet-governance language specifically tied to global coordination instruments (GDC, WSIS+20, the Pact for the Future, African Digital Compact) rather than any single technical domain. |
Finance & Investment | Financing and resource-mobilization language — present in only one policy (AU Digital ID Framework) but kept distinct since it dominates several stakeholder mandates it connects to. |
Method: a keyword dictionary was built per theme (e.g. "cyber," "cybercrime," "cybersecurity" → Cybersecurity & Cybercrime) and matched against each policy's Scope and ECA Role text. Any policy whose text matched a theme's keywords was tagged with it.
- This is pattern-matching on the text in the workbook, not a legal or policy-expert classification. If an instrument's actual text uses different language than what's literally in the spreadsheet cells, it could be mistagged.
- A small number of entries needed manual correction where the automated match missed an obvious fit — for example, AfCFTA wasn't picking up "digital trade" language by default, so that tag was added manually.
This platform is currently released as a beta version and serves as a proof of concept. It is intended to demonstrate and explore thematic alignments between the global digital frameworks and the development agenda.
The mappings, visualizations, and analytical outputs provided by this platform are based on an independent interpretation of the official framework documents and do not constitute official positions, endorsements, or jointly agreed crosswalks by the affiliated organizations.
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy and consistency of the information presented, the platform may contain errors, omissions, or incomplete mappings. Users are therefore encouraged to independently verify all information against the original source documents before using it for policy development, research, reporting, decision-making, or any other official purpose.
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