Ideas Lab Voices

Cross-cutting perspectives from our expert network exploring new ways of thinking about Africa’s technological futures.

Ideas Lab Voices platforms early ideas and exploratory work from ATFL’s extended network of Fellows and experts, spanning disciplines, geographies, and sectors.

This platform creates space for experimentation, sense-making, and intellectual risk-taking—surfacing ideas that may later inform new projects, debates, and directions across ATFL’s work.

Ben Phillips

Ben Phillips – Geologic Data as Climate & Development Infrastructure
Ben’s fellowship explores what Africa can learn from global subsurface and geological mapping efforts—and where targeted investments in foundational data could unlock cross-cutting benefits. Drawing on his experience leading major Earth science and geophysics initiatives, he examines whether shared, Africa-fit geological baselines could support multiple priorities at once, from clean energy and critical minerals to groundwater, agriculture, and carbon storage.
Jabri Ibrahim

Money, Power, and the Political Economy of Expertise
Jabri's fellowship examines how development sector norms shape agency, accountability, and effectiveness in Africa. His work explores questions including the missing role of African philanthropy and the rise of the "consultant state," and recommends pathways toward more accountable, Africa-centered approaches to problem-solving.