AI and Education in The Global South

Programme

17:30 Welcome by IDA Global Development

17:40 Education and development challenges in the Global South by (Speaker TBC), Red Barnet (Save the Children Denmark) 

18:20 AI in the Global South – realistic opportunities and limits by Mathias Esmann, Head of Partnerships, AI for Education.

18:40 Break with sandwich and networking

19:10 Perspectives from the field – Sierra Leone by EducAid. A concrete case from the classroom: how AI is being deployed in Sierra Leonean schools, what has worked, what has not, and what it takes to scale responsibly.

19:40 Panel discussion and audience Q&A with all three speakers — on impact, opportunities, risks, governance, and next steps.

20:00 The event ends Closing remarks and invitation to future IDA Global Development events

Participation is free, but registration is required.

Background

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly transforming education systems worldwide. While much of the public debate is driven by experiences from the Global North, the implications for education systems in the Global South are profound and distinct. Limited resources, teacher shortages, linguistic diversity, infrastructure gaps, and unequal access to quality education present both major challenges and unique opportunities for AI-enabled solutions.

This event brings together a development perspective, a technology-partnership perspective, and a practitioner perspective from Sierra Leone to examine what AI realistically can — and cannot — do for education in the Global South.

About the speakers: 

Mathias Esmann – Head of Partnerships, AI for Education

As Head of Partnerships at AI for Education, Mathias works at the intersection of frontier AI and education systems in low- and middle-income countries. In his talk he will cover:

• Where AI is already delivering measurable learning gains in the Global South — and where the hype outpaces the evidence.
• Perspective, opportunities and possibilities for AI to make a significant impact on Education. 
• The practical challenges of deploying AI in contexts with limited connectivity, low-bandwidth devices, and linguistic diversity (including underrepresented African languages in today's large language models)
• Data, bias, and governance: whose knowledge is encoded in the models reaching classrooms in Accra, Freetown, and Nairobi? And what about learners who dont have access to a classroom?
• How donors, ministries of education, and technology partners can collaborate to build solutions that are affordable, locally owned, and scalable
• Concrete examples from AI for Education's partnership portfolio