Open Data working group- The role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in tackling environmental crimes and corruption

In this session of the Open data working group, we are honored to feature Romi Sigsworth, Research Consultant with the ENACT programme at the Institute for Security Studies and Fernanda Odilla, Lecturer at the University of Bologna and a member of the Horizon Europe-funded project.

About our speakers:

Romi Sigsworth is a Research Consultant with the ENACT programme of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). Her recent paper, Harnessing artificial intelligence to address organised environmental crime in Africa, explored how AI is being used in Africa to provide intelligence on organised environmental crime, craft tools to assess its impact and develop methods to detect and prevent environmental criminal activities. It discusses the challenges and opportunities AI poses for policing environmental crime in Africa, and proposes recommendations that would allow AI-powered policing to make a real difference on the continent.

She was previously the Gender Specialist at the ISS and a Senior Researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation. She has an M.St. in Women’s Studies from the University of Oxford.

Fernanda Odilla is a lecturer at the University of Bologna and part of the Horizon Europe-funded project RESPOND, which focuses on new approaches for combatting political corruption and undue influence. She holds a PhD in Social Science and Public Policy and a Masters in Criminology from King’s College London. Her research focuses on control of corruption and new technologies, including AI, in the context of anti-corruption, integrity and quality of government.

Prior to her academic career, she worked as a multimedia producer for the Brazilian desk at the BBC in London and as a reporter for daily newspapers in Brazil. She is the author of The Digitalisation of Anti-Corruption in Brazil (Routledge).

Session details:

The meeting will be held in English on Zoom. It is open to current members of the Countering Environmental Corruption Practitioners Forum and its Open Data Working Group, as well as those potentially interested in joining.

• Date and time: 28 January, 16:00 CET, 10:00 ET, 22:00 SGT

• Register here