CDAC Network Community of Practice

Artificial intelligence

Interested in the opportunities artificial intelligence (AI) poses for more efficient and effective delivery of humanitarian aid, or its potential to empower community-led action? Concerned that the sector has rushed to embrace AI without considering possible impacts on crisis-affected communities?

CDAC Network offers members access to a Community of Practice to advance consensus-building, thought leadership and collective learning on AI and crisis-affected communities. We also host the Standards and Assurance Framework for Ethical AI (SAFE AI) Project.

Together, we’re seizing this window of opportunity to ensure that AI is used safely and accountably in humanitarian settings and that its design and governance are driven by crisis-affected people - keeping the community-in-the-loop.

To join CDAC Network and access the AI Community of Practice, contact info@cdacnetwork.org

AI resources
AI resources
Upcoming events
Upcoming events

AI Community of Practice resources

  • The governance gap in humanitarian AI: addressing the structural gap between global frameworks and operational reality

    The first instalment of the SAFE AI Framework

    Click Here

  • From experimentation to engagement: on the paradox of participatory AI and power in contexts of forced displacement and humanitarian crises

    Paper by CDAC Network and colleagues submitted to ACM FAccT conference in 2025 and published on arXiv

    Click Here

  • Community in the loop: addressing power dynamics in participatory AI for crisis-affected communities

    CDAC Network presentation at India’s 2026 PAIRS: Participatory AI Research & Practice Symposium

    Click Here

  • The signal code: a human rights approach to information during crisis

    Study by the Signal Program on Human Security and Technology at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative (HHI)

    Click Here

  • CDAC - MERL Tech event recap

    Accountability in the age of humanitarian AI — A conversation hosted by the MERL Tech Initiative and CDAC Network

    Click Here

  • SAFE AI Framework

    Humanitarian AI Glossary: build better, safer, and more effective partnerships.

    Click Here

  • SAFE AI Framework

    Addressing power dynamics in participatory AI for crisis-affected communities

    Read Bio

  • SAFE AI Framework

    How-to note: Co-designing AI solutions with crisis-affected communities

    Click Here

  • SAFE AI Framework

    Co-Design vs. User-Centred Design for AI Solutions

  • CLEAR Global

    Guide: Co-creating digital tools with crisis-affected people

  • Save the Children

    Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Child Protection: An Ethical Roadmap?

  • Nesta, CDAC, DFS and HLA

    Online course: Community crisis intelligence: elevating community voices with AI

Upcoming events

  • April AI Community of Practice

    23 April 2026 | 14.00 GMT

    Space to share tools and approaches across Network members and beyond. SAFE AI update with focus on The Governance Gap. 

    Click to request your invite

    Click Here

  • PAIRSxAfrica @ RightsCon: Shaping African AI through participatory governance

    4 May 2026 | 08.30 CAT | RightsCon, Lusaka

    Working toward decentralising power and redistributing the benefits of AI through participatory methods? Join us at the latest Participatory AI Research and Practice Symposium as we gather to redefine how AI serves the African continent.

    Click to register

    Click Here

  • RightsCon: Humanitarian AI is here – how do we keep it accountable? 

    6 May 2026 | 10.30 CAT | Room A104, RightsCon, Lusaka

    Join CDAC Network at RightsCon.

    Click to register

    Click Here

CDAC AI updates

  • Why we urgently need a humanitarian manifesto for AI

    Click Here

  • The clock is ticking to build guardrails into humanitarian AI – CDAC article for The New Humanitarian

    Click Here

  • In the age of AI, how do we scale digital opportunities and secure safer information landscapes for people caught in conflict?

    Click Here

  • Who shapes global narratives in today’s AI-enabled world – and what do conflict-affected communities and humanitarians need to know?

    Click Here

  • The digital frontier: ICRC’s Director-General on the information landscape in conflict

    Click Here

  • Start ups, trust and letting go: technology and power in aid

    Click Here

  • Algorithmic injustice: a relational ethics approach – from CDAC keynote Dr Abeba Birhane

    Click Here

  • Artificial intelligence and machine learning in armed conflict: a human-centred approach – from CDAC member ICRC

    Click Here

  • Language AI for social impact: a playbook on how to use language technology for community engagement – from CDAC member CLEAR Global

    Click Here

  • International humanitarian law and policy on techplomacy – from CDAC member ICRC

    Click Here

  • The AI digital divide: an African perspective – from CDAC member Internews

    Click Here

  • Public interest infrastructure – from CDAC member International Media Support

    Click Here

  • Harnessing AI for child protection: an ethical roadmap? – from CDAC member Save the Children

    Click Here

  • Reframing AI governance through a political economy lens – from CDAC member WACC

    Click Here

  • Humanitarian AI revisited: seizing the potential and sidestepping the pitfalls – from expert Sarah Spencer

    Click Here

  • Massive open online course (MOOC): Humanitarian action in the digital age

    Click Here

  • A framework for the ethical use of advanced data science methods in the humanitarian sector – Data Science & Ethics Group

    Click Here

  • Podcast on the complex relationship between AI and humanitarian aid – from expert Sarah Spencer

    Click Here

Join our community

To join CDAC’s Participatory AI community of practice, you must work for a CDAC Network member organisation. Please get in touch by filling in the form or contacting info@cdacnetwork.org.

To contribute a CDAC member organisation’s resource to our AI portal, contact info@cdacnetwork.org.