Webinar Invitation: ARFSD Side Event SE30 on Data Visitation for Health and Precision Public Health; Monday, 27 April 2026, from 13:00 to 14:30 EAT Addis time / 10:00 to 11:30 UTC
Francis P. Crawley
Dear colleague,
On behalf of Dr. Tshiamo Motshegwa (Executive Director, African Open Science Platform [AOSP]), I am pleased to invite you to participate in the official side event of the Twelfth Session of the African Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD 12), titled: ‘Data visitation for health and precision public health: advancing African participation in the Human Genome Project II’. Please see the attached programme.
The webinar will take place this coming Monday, 27 April 2026, from 13:00 to 14:30 EAT Addis time / 10:00 to 11:30 UTC in the context of the larger UNECA ARFSD 12 meeting at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Here you can register and receive the Zoom meeting link.
This high-level session is convened at a critical moment for Africa’s science and innovation systems, as advances in genomics, artificial intelligence, and digital research infrastructures reshape how health knowledge is produced, governed, and applied. It is positioned within the broader frameworks of African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with a focus on building sovereign, trusted, and equitable data systems for public health and innovation.
This event also considers the Draft African Guidelines on Promoting and Harnessing Data Access as a Tool for Advancing Human Rights and Sustainable Development in the Digital Age that were released by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) this April 2026 as a continent‑wide normative instrument on data access and data governance, issued pursuant to ACHPR Resolution 620 (LXXXI) of 2024.
The event is grounded in the work of the African Open Science Platform (AOSP) and the Human Genome Project II and will explore data visitation as a key enabling model, allowing secure, sovereignty-preserving collaboration by bringing algorithms to data rather than transferring sensitive datasets across borders.
We hope you will be able to join us and contribute to shaping Africa’s leadership in data-driven health science.
Kind regards,
Francis
Francis P. Crawley
Lead, Policy & ELSI Working Group, Human Genome Project II (HGP2)
Executive Director, Good Clinical Practice Alliance – Europe (GCPA)
Strategic Initiative for Developing Capacity in Ethical Review (SIDCER)
Leuven, Belgium
Mobile: +32 495 23 11 11 (also for WhatsApp)
E-mail: f...@gcpalliance.org
