Geneva, capital of digital standards: why Africa must take a seat at the table where the rules are written

Geneva is often described as the world capital of diplomacy. It is less well known that it is also one of the main centres of digital governance. It is where global connectivity, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, data, intellectual property and digital trade are discussed. From 22 to 25 September 2026, a delegation of African business leaders, regulators, public officials and experts spent four days there, at the initiative of CIO Mag and the Geneva Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services (CCIG).

On the programme: Campus Biotech, WIPO (intellectual property), the ITU (telecommunications) and the WTO (trade), four places where rules are made that then apply to the whole world. A strong conviction emerged, according to the detailed account published by CIO Mag: Africa must be present where the standards, norms and principles that will shape its digital future are decided.

« Geneva is one of the few places in the world where international organisations, businesses, researchers and public decision-makers meet. African players have every right to a place in building the rules that will shape the global digital economy. »

Vincent Subilia, director general of the CCIG (our translation)

At the ITU, standards make markets

The ITU, the United Nations specialised agency for digital technologies, has for more than 160 years coordinated the standards that allow networks and equipment to communicate with each other anywhere in the world. Together with its member states, it also allocates frequencies and satellite orbital positions, scarce and strategic resources.

Discussions with its experts covered universal connectivity, infrastructure, next-generation satellites and AI. The lesson that struck participants most fits in one sentence: whoever defines today’s standards often shapes tomorrow’s markets. Taking part in standardisation work means taking part in writing the rules of the game. Regulators and operators in the delegation also discussed imminent issues, such as the arrival of satellite operators and the management of universal service funds, the funds financed by operators to pay for coverage of unprofitable areas.

Why it is concrete

An example helps to understand. The standards that define 5G, the way a phone connects to a satellite or the format of a digital ID card are decided in technical working groups where industry and countries that are already very present hold most of the seats. If African constraints, such as the cost of equipment, irregular power supply or mobile money uses, are not defended there, equipment designed to these standards will be less suitable and more expensive for the continent.

AI: move the algorithms rather than the data

At Campus Biotech and in AI research centres, the delegation discovered digital health and data analysis projects. One idea drew particular attention: moving algorithms to the data rather than data to the algorithms. In practice, instead of centralising sensitive medical data on a single server, often abroad, the analysis program is sent to where the data is, and the data never leaves its country of origin.

For African officials, this approach, often called federated learning, opens a way to reconcile innovation, digital sovereignty and data protection. It would, for example, allow hospitals in several countries to contribute to research without exporting their patients’ records. Trust, the experts insisted, will become the first success factor for AI projects, well ahead of the power of the models.

At WIPO, protecting to create value

At WIPO, discussions focused on protecting innovation. In an economy where value increasingly rests on intangible assets, protecting an invention, a brand or software becomes strategic. The experts presented the mechanisms for securing an innovation in several countries at once. For growing African start-ups, this is an often neglected subject, until the day a foreign competitor registers their brand or copies their product.

Africa already has two regional intellectual property organisations: the African Intellectual Property Organization (OAPI), for many French-speaking countries, and the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), for many English-speaking countries. They make it possible to protect a brand or patent in several countries through a single procedure. Knowing these tools better, and linking them with the international systems managed in Geneva, is among the skills digital entrepreneurs have an interest in acquiring early.

At the WTO, digital trade

The final stop took the delegation to the WTO, where discussions covered digital trade, skills and innovation. According to the account, the participants’ presentations, on cybersecurity, digital services, government transformation, AI, cloud or digital identity, impressed their counterparts. The message the delegation wanted to convey: Africa is no longer just a market to be conquered, but a source of expertise and solutions, some of which can inspire other regions.

The meetings that matter

Several upcoming deadlines directly concern Africa. The ITU conferences that allocate frequencies decide, for example, which bands will be available for 5G, 6G or satellites, and on what terms. The e-commerce negotiations at the WTO cover issues such as the taxation of digital services or the flow of data between countries, which directly affect African states’ tax revenue and sovereignty. International work on AI defines principles that national regulators then adopt.

On each of these files, an African position prepared in advance, with quantified studies of the impact on the continent, carries much more weight than a general statement. It is in-depth work that requires experts, time and budgets, but its effects are measured over decades: a standard adopted today can remain in force for twenty years, and all that time steer the price of the equipment Africans buy.

From presence to influence

A study visit is not enough to carry weight in global digital governance. Influence is built over time, through regular presence in working groups, solid technical proposals and alliances between countries. African countries have an asset: they make up more than a quarter of the member states of most of these organisations. Coordinated, they can tip decisions. Scattered or absent, they merely apply rules written by others. Digital diplomacy, the participants point out, starts with an occupied chair at the right table, and continues with solid proposals, defended consistently year after year.