This is part three of a series of blogs by the IFoA Data Science, Sustainability and Climate Change Working Party that discusses progress updates on UN SDGs and AI use. This blog focuses on South Africa.
Adopted in 2015, the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals (UN SDGs) are a voluntary set of 17 target areas for governments around the world to address – further split into 169 targets, with the aim of tackling a wide range of challenges including extreme poverty, climate change and gender inequality by 2030.
Given the ongoing popularity and focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI), there is a broader question of whether AI can be used to help accelerate progress for each UN SDG. Organised by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – the UN agency for digital technologies, the annual AI for Good Summit takes place in Switzerland, which recognises the potential benefits AI solutions can have to both address any current problems and accelerate UN SDG progress.
This publication on UN SDGs & AI – South Africa aims to look at both local SDG and AI progress in South Africa, and how AI solutions are being used to progress local SDG development.
South Africa currently ranks number one in Africa in terms of GDP, totalling c.USD 373 billion. Despite its position in terms of GDP, South Africa faces high levels of inequality, poverty and unemployment.
Given these challenges, currently South Africa is ranked 115th globally in terms of progress, with an overall score of 63.4 out of 100.
South Africa is actively engaged in a range of projects to progress the UN SDGs, including a range of local initiatives, including upskilling and education opportunities, food subsidies, access to sustainable water, wider access to healthcare, inclusive employment opportunities and ESG-related investment bonds.
In terms of AI progress, South Africa ranks 77th in the world. Currently, the market size of AI within South Africa stands at just below USD 1 billion, with the market expected to grow to c.USD 4bn by 2030. For example, earlier in 2024, Microsoft announced a USD 70 million investment in the South African economy over the next decade to promote growth in technology and develop AI transformation. The investment also includes c.USD 19 million to help develop local skills in this area.
Despite the upcoming investment in AI, we must ensure that any adoption and future integration of AI within South Africa works in partnership to address the current challenges of inequalities and unemployment and not simply compound such problems.
Examples of local AI projects used to promote SDGs include benefits for agriculture, smart cities and enhanced AI-based detection of tuberculosis.
You can read a more detailed discussion on the points raised above by downloading the full publication (PDF, 319 KB).
To discuss any of the points raised above or in the publication, please reach out via IFoA communities.
The views expressed in this post are those of the individual author(s), and not necessarily those of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries or those of their employer(s). Information within this post is correct as at the date of writing (i.e. end of October 2024). Hence, there may be subsequent updates which are not reflected. Any reader should still reference the underlying legislation and standard, and should there be any conflict, the underlying information in the relevant standard or legislation supersedes any information presented in this post. Please note that this post is not promoting any of the underlying sources used.