The Artificial Intelligence For Sustainable Development (AI4SD), Project Lead, Prof. Jerry John Kponyo, has cautioned against the development and deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions without transparency and stakeholder inclusion.
Speaking at a panel session of the 10th Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals (STI Forum), held today, May 7, 2025, Prof. Kponyo stressed that “it’s always important that we don’t approach AI from the perspective of a black box.”
Prof. Jerry John Kponyo, AI4SD project lead speaking during the panel discussion
The STI Forum 2025, which continues until Thursday, May 8, is centred on the theme: “Advancing sustainable, inclusive, and evidence-based science and technology solutions and innovations for the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs for leaving no one behind.”
This year’s session centres on five key SDGs, health, gender equality, economic growth, life below water, and global partnerships.
Prof. Kponyo’s intervention highlighted the trust gap between developers and end-users of AI solutions, particularly in developing contexts.
A photograph of the panelists
He called for structured stakeholder engagement, arguing that AI must be co-developed with those it intends to serve.
“You cannot sit in the lab and then develop a solution and go and dump it on them and expect that they will use it
“It is important that you involve them through stakeholder engagement in the development process so that right from the design stage, there is an input from them,” he said.
He explained that building trust in AI depends on transparency and openness
Prof. Kponyo also raised concerns about the exclusion of persons with disabilities in AI design. “Most of the AI solutions that we see around, have not taken into consideration the vast majority of persons with disability
“Globally 1.2 billion of the world’s population live with disability. That’s 15% of the world’s population,” he noted
According to him, when these groups are excluded, the deployment of technology risks widening existing gaps.
“At the end of the day, it widens the gap even further because such people haven’t been taken into consideration. But what we are saying is that it is always important that in deploying such solutions, we are leaving nobody behind,” he added.
On scaling and uptake, Prof. Kponyo noted that “there is a lot of skepticism as far as AI is concerned,” which is why education remains a core strategy.
He explained that communities like smallholder farmers need to be convinced that the technology adds value. “If you are introducing technology and you cannot convince them that by injecting technology the organic enhances productivity, there is no way that they will adopt your technology.”
Prof. Kponyo argued that building capacity must begin at the basic education level.
“Before they come to the university, they would have gone through the basic level, they would have gone through the senior high school, it is important that in transforming our society and making it an AI-aligned society, we need to begin to tackle it from the basic level.”
He called for the integration of coding in early education.
The AI4SD project laed also emphasized the importance of collaborative learning across the continent. “The AI for development in Africa has a network of labs… ensuring that what is happening in Ghana is not unique to Ghana, but we are sharing our knowledge with other colleagues in other parts of Africa and outside.”
By promoting south-south learning, he said, such partnerships help to ensure AI development is relevant, scalable, and inclusive.
The STI Forum 2025 is being held under the theme: “Advancing sustainable, inclusive, and evidence-based science and technology solutions and innovations for the 2030 Agenda and its SDGs for leaving no one behind.”
