Policy project to tackle AI-facilitated gender-based violence in Ghana
Professor Shazia Choudhry has been awarded funding through the Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN) for a project that will address the ways in which new technologies such as AI are facilitating gender-based violence in Ghana.
Professor Choudhry and co-investigator Aincre Maame-Fosua Evans, a DPhil student in Oxford’s Faculty of History, will work alongside Ghanaian organisations to respond – through policy development – to growing concerns about AI-enabled harms. These harms, such as deepfake sexual imagery, online impersonation and reputational abuse, disproportionately affect women and girls.
Carried out in collaboration with the non-governmental advocacy group LAWA Ghana, the project aims to support the development of a targeted and practical amendment to Ghana’s existing Cybersecurity Act (2020) that takes into account the new risks of AI.
The work will combine comparative legal and policy research with extensive stakeholder engagement and consultation. Key activities will include workshops in Accra and Oxford that bring together representatives from government, law enforcement, academia and civil society.
Beyond legislative reform, the project seeks to build sustainable relationships between stakeholders in Ghana, enabling a coordinated national response to AI-driven gender harms. By strengthening these networks – and by producing a replicable legal instrument and implementation toolkit – the project aims to position Ghana as a leading African jurisdiction in addressing technology-facilitated gender-based violence.
Professor Choudhry said: “AI has exacerbated the existing issue of gender-based abuse, creating new forms of harm that law and policy must ensure they keep pace with. This project is about working closely with colleagues in Ghana to develop robust, practical policy responses that support safer digital environments for women and girls.”
Aincre Maame-Fosua Evans added: “As a Ghanaian, I have seen how technology-facilitated abuse exploits gaps in both law and awareness, with serious consequences for women and girls in my country. This project is about ensuring that Ghana’s legal framework evolves in step with technological change, drawing on local expertise and stakeholder engagement to produce national responses that are meaningful and sustainable.”
The project is funded through OPEN’s Public Policy Challenge Fund and is due to run during the first half of 2026.