Bolstering Data Protection in Africa
Tanzania and Malawi
As technology becomes more embedded in our daily lives, the amount of personally identifiable data – including our names, addresses, birthdates, and identification numbers – that we share has increased exponentially. ICNL supports the efforts of our partners to promote strong data protection laws to help keep personal data secure and provide transparency about how it is used.
Our partner in Tanzania, JamiiForums, was a driving force behind efforts to adopt the country’s first data protection act. With technical assistance from ICNL, JamiiForums drafted a model bill on data protection that served as the basis for Tanzania’s Personal Data Protection Act, which came into effect in May 2023. In Malawi, we shared our analysis of the Data Protection Bill with our partner Youth and Society (YAS). YAS used our analysis as it engaged in the legislative process to improve the bill, which was adopted in February 2024.
ICNL continues to support our partners’ efforts to make sure that these laws are implemented properly. In Tanzania, JamiiForums is educating stakeholders about the new law’s provisions and drawing on international best practices to push for improvements to the law and its implementing regulations. YAS plans to work with civil society organizations and state actors to identify best practices for implementing the law in Malawi. Through these collaborative efforts, ICNL and our partners are helping to build robust data protection frameworks in Africa and across the globe, ensuring that personal data is safeguarded and citizens’ privacy rights are upheld.
