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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about the first real opportunity to test the efficacy of the Responsible Research and Innovation framework or RRI in a global health crisis. This is in view of the bold new approaches to health research and innovation that the pandemic has paved the way for. One such approach is the digital contact tracing application (CTA). Although contact tracing has been a fundamental part of infectious disease control for decades, this is the first time this technique has been used in mobile applications. Based on a Multivocal Literature Review, the development of CTAs in four countries – France, Germany, Spain, and the UK – was assessed to understand what dimensions of RRI can be identified in the governments’ response to COVID-19. This chapter shows that although from 2011, RRI has been promoted as a governance approach for increasing societal desirability of the processes and products of science and technology, very little is known about how the framework may be applied in a health crisis. Notwithstanding that RRI was not explicitly referenced during the development of CTAs in France, the UK, Spain, and Germany, the analysis has identified some interesting linkage to this framework. It shows that while no RRI approach was explicitly embraced by these governments, some key components were present – even though inadequately. It also indicates that, while it is challenging to apply RRI in crises, there is value in using it as an analytical tool for techno-social responses in situations, like those created by the COVID-19 health crisis.

In a bid to improve service delivery and efficiency in Nigeria, the use of conversational agents such as chatbots capable of providing round the clock responses is growing. This is gaining more traction in the financial sector, particularly in fintechs where there have been significant improvements in the last year. However, not enough research has been conducted on the impact of the gendering of these conversational agents. This is concerning, especially as findings from our research reveal that the majority of chatbots currently deployed in the country are deliberately gendered to appear female, reinforcing already existing gender stereotypes within African societies. With an increase in the deployment of these bots in many other sectors, it is crucial to evaluate the significance of the gendering of these bots to ascertain the effect on gender inequality in Nigeria.

Africa faces myriads of challenges one of which is the need for development; as a result, development is a critical issue in Africa. The apparent disparity and inequity of the global economic system in the aspect of international economic development, conspicuous particularly on the Africa continent has dominated academic discourses since the era of the decolonization of the undeveloped countries. One of the direct consequences of this was the evolution of right-based approach to development agenda which have implications for democracy and the rule of law; two elements that have suffered serious setbacks in almost all African countries. This paper examines the extent to which the effective enforcement of the rule of law in African countries can aid the human rights based approach to development in order to deliver meaningful improvements to the African development crisis. It starts by highlighting the evolution of the rights based approach to development agenda with a view to clarifying the meanings of the “right to development”. It further examines the import of the doctrine of rule of law, its relationship to the rights-based approach to development agenda and the theoretical underpinnings of both concepts. The paper continues to assess the position of the rule of law in African countries now, and its implications for the realization of the Right to Development (RTD), domestically (in each African country), regionally (and possibly sub-regionally).It is the argument of this paper that although, the African human rights-system, particularly the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights was the first enforceable document to contain the right to development, thereby making the African continent to be the first in conceiving it, yet one of the major reasons why development has eluded African over a considerable period of time until now is abysmal failure of the Rule of Law.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of corporate social responsibility disclosure (CSRD) on firm performance and the moderating role of corporate governance on the CSRD–firm performance relationship of listed companies in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a panel data set comprising 841 firm-year observations for the period covering 2007-2016. Fixed effect regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between CSRD and firm performance, and the moderating role of corporate governance in the CSRD–firm performance relationship. Findings The results of the study show that there are positive performance implications for firms that engage in CSRD. Although this study finds no effect of board size on the CSRD–firm performance relationship, it provides a strong evidence of a positive effect of board independence on the CSR–firm performance relationship. Practical implications The study contributes to the understanding of CSRD–firm performance relationship by providing evidence of the moderating role of corporate governance. It is, therefore, recommended that a stronger regulation be put in place for CSR engagement and the disclosure of same in Nigeria as well as robust measures for the enforcement of corporate governance mechanisms because there are economic benefits to be derived. Originality/value The findings contribute to the literature by providing up-to-date and original insights on the CSRD–firm performance relationship within a developing country context. It also uses an uncommon method of measuring CSRD, taking into account the institutional biases that may arise from other methods used in studies on developed countries.

In the past few decades, there have been significant advances in the sciences concerned with the brain and its functions. As science has advanced, the scientific and practical utility of neurodata – data concerning the nervous system’s nature, structure and function – has also grown. This expansion in utility, however, has brought with it ever increasing ethical and legal scrutiny on the legitimate use of neurodata. There is every reason to believe that the expansion in the scientific and practical utility of neurodata, as well as the increased attention given to attendant ethical and legal concerns, will continue apace. It seems likely that many of the forthcoming legal discussions will concern questions as to whether the collection and use of neurodata should be subject to specific and novel legal, ethical considerations: questions of neuroexceptionalism. In order for such discussions to take place in a structured and logical manner, a framework, in the form of an elaborated set of boundary conditions, for what constitutes a legitimate neuroexceptionalist position, is necessary. Unfortunately, no such framework has hitherto been elaborated. This paper attempts to fill this gap by elaborating such a framework in the form of relevant boundary conditions in relation to: i) the conditions under which neurodata might be considered exceptional; and ii) the conditions under which specific, novel, legal rules are required in response.

Africa is quickly becoming the new data frontier in the face of continued increase in the deployment of digital technologies. A proportionate data governance ecosystem is, however, still lacking. The available governance ecosystem is characterised by a lack of relevant institutions or in most cases non-functional institutions for effective data governance implementation. As part of the bid to understand how to create a functional and responsible data governance ecosystem that can play a vital role in Africa's competitiveness in the global data economy, this report explored the questions; what are the institutional gaps impeding responsible and sustainable data governance in Africa and what are the peculiar institutional capacity needs of existing institutions? To answer these questions, we used a multidimensional research approach to study five African countries namely Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya, Mauritius and South Africa. In this study, we identified clear institutional gaps and capacity needs that require significant attention. The findings show that institutions that make or create data and monitor governance laws beyond data protection, that can generate evidence-based research for data governance and that can facilitate Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable (FAIR) data are lacking in Africa. They also demonstrated that whereas data protection regulations are gaining traction in Africa, most established institutions created to monitor compliance and enforcement are yet to operate independently of government control. This lack of independence grossly affects effectiveness at different levels. Furthermore, our findings show that both private and public data-driven entities that should apply data governance principles to their processing workflows are yet to establish data governance roles within their organisations. To understand institutional capacity needs, we studied established institutions for monitoring the compliance and enforcement of data protection regulations which are often called Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) in these countries. We identified that compliance and enforcement of data protection regulations remain low, and this is informed by a number of factors including; a lack of robust organisational culture built around the right people, non-functional systems and processes that support efficient data related policies for the right stakeholders, and a lack of enabling infrastructure to adequately respond to the views and needs of data stakeholders. The findings of this research show that for DPAs in Africa, lack of the right mix of relevant expertise, skills and knowledge (particularly technical and ethical skills), non-integration of contextual African values, lack of resources (including funding and technologies), lack of clear policy methodology, monitoring and enforcement plans and risk assessment approaches contribute to the existing inefficiency of data governance mechanism.