AfriClimate AI

✨🌍 Exciting News from the Heart of Africa ✨🌍 We're thrilled to introduce AfriClimate AI, a vibrant new community at the forefront of blending Artificial Intelligence with climate action to foster a sustainable, prosperous, and resilient Africa. In September 2023, amidst the energy and collaborative spirit of the Deep Learning Indaba in Accra, the seed for AfriClimate AI was planted. Our vision is clear: to harness AI's transformative power to address the critical challenges of climate change, focusing on the urgent issue of climate data scarcity that hampers our continent's resilience and adaptation capabilities. Inspired by pioneers like Professor Wangari Maathai and sister communities such as Masakhane, we are committed to empowering individuals and communities with the knowledge and tools to protect our environment. 🌱Join us in this journey to shape a climate-resilient Africa. Dive deeper into our story and the motivations behind our initiative by checking out our blog: https://lnkd.in/dKvPca23 . #AfriClimateAI #Sustainability #ClimateAction #ArtificialIntelligence #Africa #AI Rendani Mbuvha Amal Nammouchi John Bagiliko Ibrahim Salihu Yusuf Yassine Yaakoubi Santiago Hincapie Sabrina AMROUCHE Brian Halubanza Bunmi Akinremi

✨ Celebrating Our Community Champions! ✨ At this year’s Deep Learning Indaba, AfriClimate AI hosted a workshop where nine brilliant selected community members showcased their cutting-edge work at the intersection of AI and climate resilience in Africa. We are excited to celebrate our three Lightning Talk Award Winners: 🏆 Josiah Kimani PiggyCast: An AI Weather Prediction (AIWP) model that outperforms frontier AIWP models by exploiting their strengths via ensemble learning (stacking). 🏆 Hossein Masoumi Karakani, Ph.D. The Topology of Drought: Geometric Fingerprints of Climate Resilience in African Landscapes 🏆 Koomi Toussaint AMOUSSOUVI Towards Affordable Weather Forecasting in South Africa: Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning of an AI Weather Foundation Model We also extend our congratulations to all lightning talk speakers for their inspiring contributions: Feres Jerbi – Enhancing Solar Reliability in Africa: An AI Framework for Forecasting and Defect Detection Samuel Babalola – Fauna Pulse: AI-Powered Soil Biodiversity Monitoring for Climate Resilience in African Agriculture Barkawi Mansour – GeoAI for Climate Resilience: An Early Warning Tool to Monitor Agricultural Drought in the Sahel Region Ronnie Atuhaire – Explainable Spatial-Temporal Ensemble Modeling for Predicting Food Security with Knowledge Distillation Mbuotidem Awak – Did AI Get It Right? Comparing Flood Hub’s Forecasts with Media-Reported Flood Events During Nigeria’s 2024 Rainy Season Assala Benmalek – Towards High-Resolution Methane Emissions Detection in African Oil & Gas Fields Using Open Satellite Data 🌍 Together, these talks reflect the innovation, diversity, and passion of Africa’s growing AI for Climate community. A special thank you to our co-founder John Bagiliko, who led this activity, and to the entire AfriClimate AI team and judges for making this possible.

🌍 What a week in Kigali! The AfriClimate AI team had an incredible time at Deep Learning Indaba 2025, where Africa’s brightest minds came together to shape the future of AI. Here’s a glimpse of what we were up to: ✨ We launched Forecast4Africa, our Google.org funded flagship project bringing open, locally adapted weather forecasts to African communities. https://lnkd.in/dkVCG_24 ✨ We officially opened 3 full research positions on Forecast4Africa and we’re hiring! https://lnkd.in/dSXztyhZ ✨ Our weather benchmarking project, fully led by community members, shared their latest results. ✨ Rendani Mbuvha, our co-founder, joined leaders across the continent panel to share insights on funding opportunities. ✨ The AfriNet team returned as last year’s ideathon winners, to share their progress and achievements. Our co-founder and AfriNet lead Sabrina Amrouche presented the AfriNet results and insights. Browse the notebook here https://lnkd.in/dQAkzimg ✨ We hosted ten lightning talks from inspiring community members and celebrated three award winners. ✨ We launched a brand-new Zindi challenge in collaboration with TAHMO and Google DeepMind. Pre-register here https://lnkd.in/dzHzfFJm ✨ We hosted a vibrant networking event sponsored by GIZ Rwanda, connecting researchers, policymakers, and innovators and our community members. ✨ We ran a full-day workshop on AI for a Climate-Resilient Africa with talks, tutorials, builders table and community discussions. ✨We joined the IDRC roundtable, an informal engagement with Canada’s High Commissioner in Rwanda, sharing updates on AI4D projects and hearing valuable perspectives from the development and diplomatic side. Thank you to our amazing speakers, partners, volunteers, and the entire Indaba community. Together, we are building an African-led ecosystem for Climate AI. What a week, and this is only the summary! Rendani Mbuvha John Bagiliko Santiago Hincapie Amal Nammouchi Patience Chizoba Mba Ibrahim Salihu Yusuf Shruti N. Aya Salama Betsy Muriithi-Ochieng' Pape Malick D. Josiah Kimani Koomi Toussaint AMOUSSOUVI Hossein Masoumi Karakani, Ph.D. #AIforClimate #DeepLearningIndaba #ClimateTech #AfricaInnovation #AfriClimateAI

We are extremely honoured to have been identified by Le Point as on of the "5 real-life examples of AI born in Africa that could inspire the world."

Sometimes, being African is both a gift and a challenge. We carry the weight of wars, weak infrastructure, and health crises that often make us feel stripped of our true identity. Too often, we let others profit from who we are, and we surrender our sovereignty twice: first by doubt, and second by dependence. But now, more than ever, Africa must create african solutions to african problems. Not by waiting for answers from “other skies,” but by building on what we already know, in the places we live, with the knowledge we share. This year at Deep Learning Indaba, the theme “Urunana” is more than a slogan; it is a call. A call for us, african researchers in AI and ML, to come together, bring what little or much we have, and face our challenges collectively. As Lerato D. Mataboge said: “the collective ambition is to make AI the great bridges for shared prosperity across the continent...” 🤝 Hand in hand, “Urunana” reminds us that collaboration is the seed of transformation. We may have to run beyond our borders to unite, but when we do, the future is ours to shape. Have time to listen to : Yousra Farhani, Luis Serrano 🍉, Google DeepMind, Max Welling, IBM, Google, EqualyzAI, Verena Rieser, Dina Machuve, Sanmi Koyejo, Ilenna Jones, Vukosi Marivate, AfriClimate AI, Agnes Kiragga Have to connect to: Angela Kiisa, Dorothy Kabarozi from Uganda, Amisi FIKIRINI, Elie Mulamba, MUHIGIRI Ashuza from DRC, Chelagat Pauline Gechure, Ashley Yigo, Wangechi M., ivy lagat, Kevin Obote from Kenya, Ana Cecilia Mangue Ondo Nguema from Equatorial Guinea, Laissa Ellis, MBA from Haiti, Nankyer Sarah Joseph MSc, ABD, Frank-Felix Felix, Olanrewaju Lawal from Nigeria, Arix ALIMAGNIDOKPO, Fèmi ZANNOUBO, Alim BACHABI from Benin, Nematou Kabore from Burkina Faso, Charles Abdoulaye NGOM fron Senegal, Chryssie Irishura, Estella V. from Burundi Elshaday Desalegn from Ethiopia, Ruvimbo Mambinge from Zimbabwe and other from the big Deep Learning Indaba Thanks for the organizers of this big AI party, see you to Nigeria in 2026... #DeepLearningIndaba #Urunana #ArtificialIntelligence #AfricaRising #AIForGood #DLI2025 #Kigali #AfricanUnion #Rwanda #Nigeria

✨ After a full morning of inspiring sessions from thought-provoking keynote talk, to lightning talks from our community and a hands-on tutorial on the latest findings from the AfriNet Project, we’re excited to kick off the afternoon with the Builders Roundtable: Open Ongoing Actions for a Climate Resilient Africa. This session brings together leading builders and researchers who are actively developing and deploying Climate AI solutions on the ground across Africa: Dr. Betsy Muriithi-Ochieng' (iLabAfrica, Strathmore University) Kwame Duah (TAHMO) Wanjiru Catherine (IBM Research) 🔹 Moderated by Amal Nammouchi (Karlstad University, AfriClimate AI). Join us as we explore what it really takes to move from research to real-world impact, and how African innovators are shaping the future of climate resilience. 📍 University of Rwanda, Lecture Room A 🗓 21st August 2025 | ⏰ 2:30–3:55 PM GMT+2 #ClimateTech #AIforClimate #DeepLearningIndaba #AfricaInnovation #ResilientAfrica

We’re live at the Deep Learning Indaba 2025 🎉 Our AfriClimate AI Workshop is running all day today, bringing together our community to explore how AI can power a climate-resilient Africa. A huge thank you to our dedicated organisers and volunteers who made this possible ! your energy and hard work are what keep this community growing 🌍 Rendani Mbuvha Amal Nammouchi John Bagiliko Patience Chizoba Mba Ibrahim Salihu Yusuf If you’re at Indaba, come by and join the sessions, connect with us, and be part of the conversation!