Reproduce “African Data Ethics: A Discursive Framework for Black Decolonial Data Science” on OpenResearch

About this paper

Teanna Barrett, Chinasa T. Okolo, B. Biira, Eman Sherif, Amy X. Zhang, Leilani Battle

Researchers from the University of Washington and The Brookings Institution synthesize existing African data ethics discourse into a comprehensive framework with six major principles, challenging Western-centric norms and offering guidance for responsible data science in Sub-Saharan Africa. The framework, derived from 50 documents, uniquely emphasizes principles such as centering remote communities and advocating for material redress for data harms.

Key insights

• The developed framework addresses unique aspects of African contexts, such as the explicit principle of "Centering Remote and Rural communities," which was not found in other particularist data ethics frameworks.
• The African framework provides a deeper, more actionable interpretation of "common good," advocating for material restoration in addition to narrative restoration for data harms.
• The act of constructing and articulating comprehensive ethical frameworks is presented as an essential operational step for Responsible Data Science, providing a clear moral vision for technical decision-making.

Summary by alphaXiv.