viii The framework is guided by the broad principles of transparency, accountability of institutions and actors, the inclusion of stakeholders, equity among citizens and fair competition amongst market players. The principles guiding the framework include trust, accessibility, interoperability, security, quality and integrity, representivity and non-discrimination. As the framework emphasises, transversal collaboration needs to be underpinned with mechanisms to stimulate demand for data, which includes incentivising innovative data communities, and, on the supply-side, ensuring the quality, interoperability, and relevance of data in both the public and private sectors and civil society. As the framework suggests, there are several regional processes, mechanisms and instruments that can and should be leveraged in the continent’s efforts to develop a cohesive data policy framework. These include the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which provides an opportunity for cooperation on a number of important aspects of the policy framework. Collaboration between national and regional stakeholders is also necessary for African countries to become more competitive in global policy setting forums where regulations for the global data economy are set and where African states have largely been “standard takers”. It is recognised that different African states have different economic, technical, and digital capabilities, and the recommendations and actions need to be read in this light. It is nevertheless envisaged that the different demands of building a data ecosystem will be progressively realised by countries. At the same time, there are several areas that can be attended to independently of economic or technical capabilities, including establishing regulatory independence, promoting a culture of trust and ethics, building collaborative frameworks for relevant sectors, developing transparent, evidence-based and participatory policy and regulations, participating in collaborative regional processes and mechanisms, and ratifying the AU Convention on Cybersecurity and Personal Data Protection. The Framework presents a set of detailed recommendations and arising actions to guide member states through the formulations of policy in their domestic context, as well as recommendations to strengthen cooperation among countries and promote intra-Africa flows of data. The main high-level overarching recommendations are included here. It is recommended that Member States: • cooperatively enable data to flow on the continent while safeguarding human rights, data protection, upholding security and ensuring equitable sharing of the benefits; • cooperate to create the necessary data capabilities to take advantage of data-reliant technologies and services, including the capacity to govern data so that it benefits African countries and citizens and enables development; • promote transversal data policy and agile regulation to navigate the emergence of new dynamic data-driven business models that can foster intra-Africa digital trade and data-enabled entrepreneurship; • create co-jurisdictional frameworks for the coordination of autonomous competition, sector, and data regulators to regulate the data society and economy effectively, formulate, implement, and review data policy in a dynamic, forward-looking and experimental way; • develop national legislations on personal data protection and adequate regulations, particularly around data governance and digital platforms, to ensure that trust is preserved in the digital environment;