#INDL
INDL-MEA 2 conference
25-26 November 2025
Digital labor in the Middle East and Africa: Emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities
Program Day 1
| Tuesday, November 25, 2025 | |
|---|---|
| 12:30 - 13:00 | Welcome address - Myriam Raymond, GRANEM, Université d'Angers; Nagla Rizk, American University of Cairo; Sarrah Kassem, Scuola Normale Superiore, Firenze; Antonio A. Casilli, IP Paris |
| 13:00 - 14:20 | The Political Economy of Digital Labor in MEA Chair: Søren Bøgh Sørensen, Copenhagen Business School |
| 13:00 - 13:15 | › On the rising phenomena of Troll Farming: Electronic Committees and the Exploitation of Digital Labor in the Middle East - Myriam Raymond, GRANEM, Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Angers, Digital Platform labor |
| 13:15 - 13:30 | › The Social Production of Disinformation: Labor, Ideology and Patriotism in Iranian Troll Farms - Marina Ayeb, University of Urbino; Selem Chaouachi, Institute of Press and Information Sciences |
| 13:30 - 13:45 | › The Political Economy of Digital Labour in Bangladesh and MEA: Comparative Perspectives on Platform Work and Precarity - Dr. Md. Hasan Ali, Selinus University |
| 13:45 - 14:00 | › Algorithmic Management, Data Practices and Worker Precarity on Ride-hailing Platforms in Kenya - Geoffrey Ochieng, Independent researcher |
| 14:20 - 14:30 | Break |
| 14:30 - 15:00 | Special Report: Data Work in Egypt - Myriam Raymond, Paola Tubaro, Antonio Casilli, Lucy Neveux |
| 15:00 - 16:20 | Algorithmic Management and Workers’ Rights Chair: Kauna Malgwi, Digital Rights and Mental Health Initiative Africa |
| 15:00 - 15:15 | › Algorithmic Governance and Regulatory Blind Spots: Insights from Turkey for Platform Labor in the Middle East and Africa - Zeynep Kıyak, Independent Researcher |
| 15:15 - 15:30 | › From Plato to Platform: Political Philosophy and Algorithmic Governance of Labor in the Middle East and Africa - Mazhar ELSHORBAGI, Deraya University |
| 15:30 - 15:45 | › Who is standing up for the workers - Setting the agenda for AI in the workplace regulation in the GCC - Mohamed Elimam, University of Bath [Bath], Kearney Middle East and Africa |
| 15:45 - 16:00 | › Regulating platform work: a contribution to assessing the convergence of public policies in Africa - Youssef Belhaj, Faculty of Legal, Economic and Social Sciences |
| 16:20 - 16:30 | Day 1 closing remarks - Myriam Raymond, Antonio A. Casilli, Paola Tubaro |
Program Day 2
| Wednesday, November 26, 2025 | |
|---|---|
| 14:00 - 14:40 | Building Ethical AI from the Ground Up: Voices from Kenya’s Data Workforce - Joan Kinyua, Data Labelers Association of Kenya (DLA) Chair Adio-Adet Dinika, Distributed AI Research Institute |
| 14:40 - 16:00 | AI, Automation, and Labor Transformations Chair: Manovosoa Rakotovao, ISCAM Business School |
| 14:40 - 14:55 | › Technologies avancées dans le marché du travail en Égypte et en Arabie Saoudite : dynamiques et défis. - Kawtar Tsouli, sciences économiques |
| 14:55 - 15:10 | › The impact of using ChatGPT on internal audit quality: a case study of a subsidiary of an oil group in Morocco - Abdelmounim Bouziane, Université Chouaib Doukkali |
| 15:10 - 15:25 | › Feminist Futures of Digital Labor and Democracy in Africa - Judith Gbagidi, ActionAid Nigeria |
| 15:25 - 15:40 | › Flexibility or Precarity? A Sociological Inquiry into Platform Drivers in Morocco - Saadeddine Igamane, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Laboratory of Cultural and Social Research and Studies (LaRECS) |
| 16:00 - 16:10 | Break |
| 16:10 - 16:50 | Intersectionality in the context of the AI MENA Observatory - Nagla Rizk, American University of Cairo |
| 16:50 - 17:30 | Challenging the 'thingness’ of AI from Eastern Africa - Sharath Srinivasan, University of Cambridge |
| 17:30 - 17:45 | Closing remarks - Myriam Raymond, Nagla Rizk |
Keynote Speakers
Sharath Srinivasan
Challenging the 'thingness’ of AI from Eastern Africa
Summary:
Lucy Suchman recently exhorted scholars to appreciate that “interventions into the field of AI controversies that fail to trouble and destabilise the figure of AI risk contributing to its uncontroversial reproduction”. This talk explores how interrogating AI encounters, innovations and resistances from a place-in-the-world such as the Eastern Africa region can serve not only to critique the global political economy of AI production and deployment, but also to challenge the ‘figure of AI’ in distinctive and vital ways.
Bio:
Sharath Srinivasan is David and Elaine Potter Professor of International Politics and a Fellow of King’s College, University of Cambridge, where he also co-directs the Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR). He works on contentious politics in Africa in global perspective and on technology and radical democratic theory. He is co-editor of Publics in Africa in a Digital Age (Journal of Eastern African Studies, 2019; and Routledge, 2021) and The Oxford Handbook of Peaceful Assembly (Oxford University Press, 2025). He is also the author of When Peace Kills Politics: International Intervention and Unending Wars in the Sudans (Oxford University Press, 2021), and co-editor of Making and Breaking Peace in Sudan and South Sudan: The Comprehensive Peace Agreement and Beyond (British Academy/Oxford University Press, 2020). Professor Srinivasan is Vice-President for Research at the British Institute in Eastern African, a Fellow and Trustee of the Rift Valley Institute, and Co-Founder of the non-profit digital social research organisation, Africa’s Voices, all based in Kenya.
Joan Kinyua
Building Ethical AI from the Ground Up: Voices from Kenya’s Data Workforce
Summary:
This talk will explore the often-invisible labor that powers artificial intelligence, drawing from the experiences of Kenyan data labelers. It will highlight the journey of organizing for fair and ethical AI work, emphasizing worker-led solutions, accountability, and dignity in digital labor.
Bio:
Joan Kinyua is the founding President of the Data Labelers Association of Kenya (DLA) and a digital rights advocate focused on labor justice in AI. A former data labeler herself, Joan has been instrumental in developing Kenya’s first Model Contract and Voluntary Code of Conduct for AI data workers. Her work centers on amplifying worker voices in shaping ethical and equitable AI systems.
Nagla Rizk
Women, AI and Work in the ME & Africa: Feminist Perspectives from the MENA Observatory
Abstract:
Drawing on insights from the MENA Observatory on Responsible AI, the talk will explore how AI is impacting women’s work in the ME and Africa, noting the opportunities and examining the risks, advocating for the adoption of a feminist lens to harness the transformative power of Feminist AI.
Bio:
Nagla Rizk is Professor of Economics and Founding Director of the Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) and its Middle East and North Africa Observatory on Responsible Artificial Intelligence at the American University in Cairo’s Onsi Sawiris School of Business,
Nagla’s area of research, teaching and advocacy is the economics of knowledge, technology and development, with focus on responsible data, Artificial Intelligence and inclusion; the future of work, gender and the platform economy; copyright and innovation in Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Nagla leads the Middle East Chapter of the Global Index on Responsible AI and the North Africa hub of the Open African Innovation Research Partnership (Open AIR),
Nagla also has a record of policy impact in Egypt in the area of open source technologies, regulation of ride sharing and advocacy for the right to information. She is member of the Technical Secretariat of Egypt’s National Council for Artificial Intelligence and is a major contributor to Egypt’s AI Strategy. She also served as the Knowledge Economy Expert for Egypt’s Vision 2030 Development Strategy.
Nagla has received a number of awards, including being recently named by Leading Women Africa as one of 19 African women leading the global AI Transformation.
She is a member of ITU Academic Advisory Body on Emerging Technologies and the Meta AI Governance Working group for Africa, the Middle East and Turkey (AMET) and the Global Academic Network of the Center for AI and Digital Policy (CAIDP).
She founded the Open Data for Development Node for the Middle East and North Africa, led the MENA Hub for Feminist AI Research (f<a+i>r) network and was head of Egypt’s team within the Fairwork action research initiative, led by the Oxford Internet Institute.
Nagla has a record of membership in several other international committees and organizations. Examples include the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Councils, the Paris Peace Forum Digital Rights in Society Working Group on Algorithmic Governance, the Scientific Advisory Committee of Feminist AI Research (f<a+i>r) network, the Open for Good Alliance, Inclusive AI Commons and the Data Governance Working Group of the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI).
Call for papers