Archipelago Books & Knowledge

Turning fragmented
knowledge
into strategic decisions

AI-Augmented Intelligence

An independent strategic intelligence and institutional consulting service for Small Island Developing States, Africa and South-East Asia.

Our Services About ABK
Archipelago Books & Knowledge
Knowledge Structuring & capitalising institutional knowledge
Intelligence Strategic monitoring & analytical publishing
Advisory Institutional design, governance architecture & AI integration
Vision & Missions

Governing by knowledge,
not by urgency

Vision

ABK's vision is to be the reference partner for island institutions that want to govern by knowledge rather than by urgency.

We transform the knowledge dispersed within your institution — reports, projects, archived expertise, local and oral practices, staff experience, citizens feedback — into an accessible, structured and actionable foundation for decision-making and better public service delivery. Beyond your institution's walls, we connect it to the knowledge landscape of island worlds and the trends that shape them, improving the service to the citizens and amplifying the voice and influence of your organisation in regional and international spaces.

Our Three Missions
Mission 01

Optimize and value what you already know

Every project, programme and conference produces knowledge. Lessons learned, citizens feedback, local practices, oral knowledge, field experience — most of it disappears at the end of a cycle. ABK recovers it, structures it and puts it to work for the next decisions: better-informed strategies, fewer repeated mistakes, stronger institutional continuity, a solid foundation for a better public service and for convincing partners and donors.

Mission 02

Know the trends that matter for your institution

The trends that matter for your institution — political, regulatory, financial, institutional but also social and public opinion — exist before they become visible. ABK tracks them for you: Small Island Developing States (SIDS) institutions, island territories, regional organisations. The result: decision-makers better positioned to deliver a better service to the public, make informed decisions and set themselves as cutting-edge organisations that anticipate rather than react.

Mission 03

Act on knowledge, lead with intelligence

Knowledge is only valuable if it translates into action. ABK supports institutional decision-making, including by accompanying institutions integrating AI in their vision, organisation and systems: how an organisation structures itself, coordinates its actors, capitalises on its experience, proactively values its data and knowledge using the latest AI technologies, and governs its knowledge over time.

ABK transforms dispersed knowledge into decision-making power.
Our Values

What guides our work

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Situated Respect

Respect for island and local contexts, for local knowledge, for the people and institutions we work with. Every engagement begins with listening — and remains grounded in the realities of island worlds, not generic frameworks. We work from within contexts, not above them. Island realities are not approximations of continental models — they are systems in their own right.

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Intellectual Integrity

Our analysis is independent. Our recommendations serve our clients' interests, not external agendas. We say what we observe, even when it is inconvenient — and we stand behind our work.

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Methodological Rigour

Strategic intelligence without rigour is noise. Knowledge management without method is accumulation. Every ABK product and service is grounded in robust sourcing, structured methodology, and honest assessment of what the evidence supports.

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Transformational Engagement

We commit to results, not only to deliverables. Our engagements are built around what actually changes for our clients: better decisions, stronger institutions, knowledge that endures beyond the project cycle.

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Knowledge Sovereignty

We strengthen the capacity of island institutions to own, structure, and use their knowledge. We do not extract knowledge — we help build systems that retain it.

What We Do

Three service lines,
one strategic intelligence operation

01
ABK Knowledge Services

Capitalisation, Institutional Memory & Knowledge Audits

We help island institutions recover, structure and deploy their knowledge — from project portfolios to documentary foundations — including through AI-powered institutional memory tools.

Main Offers

  • Capitalisation des projets et portefeuilles SIDS — structured knowledge transfer at programme close
  • Mémoire institutionnelle IA-powered — Knowledge Compass: makes institutional documentation searchable and living through RAG chatbot technology (AI-powered)
  • Audits des knowledge management systems — diagnostic of institutional knowledge systems for island actors

Products & Add-ons

  • Audits des fonds documentaires — gap analysis and collection strategy
  • Knowledge Box — complete capitalisation kit (templates, preconfigured databases, video tutorials)
  • Conference Intelligence Report — strategic synthesis, actor mapping, SIDS implications
02
ABK Intelligence & Publishing

Strategic Monitoring & Analytical Publishing

Customisable intelligence products — powered by AI — that track political, institutional and financial trends shaping island worlds, paired with substantive analytical publishing.

Main Offers

  • Veille stratégique personnalisable — AI-powered strategic monitoring with analytical summaries, tailored to your institution's priorities

Strategic Briefs

  • Governance Models for Regional Island Organisations
  • Blue Economy Governance Models
  • Inter-Island Cooperation Mechanisms
  • Island Parliamentary Systems
These products integrate field contacts, interviews, weak signals, and non-indexed sources — beyond what automated monitoring can reach.
03
ABK Advisory

Institutional Design & AI-Assisted Knowledge Governance

We translate intelligence into institutional solutions — from governance architecture for regional organisations to supporting island institutions in their AI transition.

Main Offers

  • Institutional design — governance architectures for island institutions and regional organisations
  • Island Digital Scan — digital readiness assessment evaluating an institution or parliament's preparedness for AI integration
  • AI Transition Roadmap — strategic plan for AI integration adapted to island contexts

Add-on

  • Publications & knowledge valorisation — support for publication and dissemination of local and institutional knowledge
AI for Parliaments

Institutional memory meets
artificial intelligence

Parliaments and regional assemblies generate extraordinary volumes of knowledge — debates, reports, committee proceedings, comparative studies, archival records. Most of it remains siloed, under-used, or effectively inaccessible to those who need it most.

ABK's AI for Parliaments offer combines deep expertise in island parliamentary governance with cutting-edge AI tools to make institutional knowledge searchable, usable and living — rather than archived and forgotten.

AI Governance Advisory

Integrating & Regulating AI in Parliaments

ABK accompanies parliaments on two complementary dimensions of their AI journey: integrating AI into their own institutional functioning — from document management to legislative research and committee support — and regulating AI at the national level, equipping parliaments with the knowledge, frameworks and comparative analysis needed to legislate on AI use, ethics and governance for their country.

→ From institutional transformation to national AI legislation — ABK bridges both.

Island Digital Scan

Digital Readiness Assessment

Before deploying AI tools, institutions need to understand their own readiness: document digitisation levels, data governance, staff capacity, infrastructure. ABK's Island Digital Scan provides a structured diagnostic, tailored to the specific constraints of island parliaments and regional assemblies.

→ The prerequisite for any responsible AI integration strategy.

AI Transition Roadmap

Strategic AI Integration Plan

A concrete, phased roadmap for integrating AI tools into parliamentary and institutional work — adapted to island contexts, budget realities, and governance frameworks. Priorities, sequencing, risk assessment, and staff development pathway, co-built with your teams.

→ Grounded in island realities, not generic technology frameworks.

Knowledge Compass

AI-Powered Institutional Memory

A RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) chatbot trained on your parliament's own documentation — debates, reports, laws and legislative texts, regulatory frameworks, comparative studies. Staff and members query the institution's knowledge directly, in natural language. The documentation becomes interrogeable and alive.

→ Designed and deployed by ABK and technical partner for parliamentary contexts.

AI-Assisted Strategic Monitoring

AI-Assisted Parliamentary Intelligence

Customisable strategic monitoring for parliamentary actors: tracking comparative legislative developments, SIDS governance trends, regional assembly practice, international parliamentary norms, as well as social media trends, public sentiment, citizens feedback — delivered as actionable intelligence briefs, not raw data feeds.

→ Built with technical partner using your sources and ABK's curated 150+ source intelligence system.

About ABK

A specialist at the intersection of knowledge, AI and island governance

ABK is not a documentation service. It is a strategic intelligence and knowledge management operation dedicated to the institutions and actors that govern island worlds — and a pioneer in deploying AI tools adapted to island institutional contexts.

Archipelago Books & Knowledge (ABK) was founded on a simple observation: the institutions that govern island worlds — ministries, agencies, parliaments, regional organisations, universities, think tanks, development actors — face a structural knowledge challenge. Their policy agendas are globally significant; the knowledge systems supporting their decisions rarely match that ambition.

ABK combines knowledge management, strategic intelligence, and institutional consulting to serve governments, regional organisations, development actors and international institutions working on island governance — with a particular focus on Small Island Developing States. Its three service lines — Knowledge Services, Intelligence, and Advisory — correspond to three moments in the journey from raw information to institutional action.

AI is not a promise for tomorrow at ABK — it is already embedded in our service offer: AI-powered institutional memory (Knowledge Compass), AI-assisted strategic monitoring, and readiness advisory for island institutions navigating their digital transition.

Few advisors combine direct elected office experience, senior governance programme delivery across the Indian Ocean, AI-powered knowledge tools, and a dedicated intelligence practice for island worlds. ABK brings all together.

Languages
FrenchNative
EnglishProfessional
Moroccan ArabicNative
Geographic Focus
Indian Ocean Comoros Seychelles Mauritius Réunion Madagascar Pacific SIDS Caribbean
The Founder

Hamza Fassi-Fihri

Senior Governance & Democracy Advisor · Founder, ABK

Hamza Fassi-Fihri — ABK Founder

Shawiri Project, Comoros (EU-funded)

Governance and democracy advisor with over 20 years of experience working on democratic institutions, governance programmes and island governance across Europe, Africa, the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia.

His background combines 12 years of elected office in Belgium — including Member of Parliament, Speaker and Deputy Mayor of Brussels — with senior advisory roles in international governance programmes and consultancies funded by the EU, US, UN and bilateral donors, including direct advisory work with the African Union Commission. That dual experience — inside democratic institutions and in the field — shapes an advisory practice grounded in how reform actually happens.

His island governance focus developed through field work in Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius and Seychelles, the establishment of the Association of Parliaments of the Indian Ocean Commission (AP-COI), and advisory work for UNDP Indonesia on the institutional design of the Archipelagic and Island States (AIS) Forum. ABK translates that accumulated expertise into intelligence and knowledge services for island institutions.

Selected Experience

COI / AP-COI — Parliamentary governance and inter-parliamentary cooperation, Indian Ocean Commission

UNDP Indonesia — Institutional design, AIS Forum (51-state archipelagic coalition)

African Union Commission — Electoral assistance methodologies and governance advisory

EU programmes (ECES) — Electoral governance, institutional reform and parliamentary strengthening, Nigeria, Kenya and 12+ Eastern, Central and Western African countries

US programmes (NDI & DI) — Political party development and democratic governance, Tunisia and Ethiopia

Comoros — Shawiri project (EU-funded) — Institutional governance and dialogue on youth, gender and civil society

Proprietary Tools — Bibliographic base (1,500+ references, SIDS and Indian Ocean governance) and SIDS strategic intelligence tool

AI Certifications

Generative AI for Governance Professionals — ECES (European Centre for Electoral Support), July 2025

AI and Digital Transformation in Government — Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, with UNESCO, April 2026 (in progress)

Selected Publications

Comparative Study of Parliamentary Systems and Practices of Member States of the Association of Parliaments of the Indian Ocean Commission (AP-COI) — May 2025

Publications & Briefs

Research notes, strategic briefs,
and documentary analyses

ABK publishes thematic notes, strategic briefs, and documentary analyses on SIDS governance, island knowledge infrastructure, and the francophone Indian Ocean region.

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Publications and strategic briefs will appear here as ABK's research programme develops.

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Contact

Get in touch

ABK works with a focused number of partners and clients to maintain the quality and depth of its engagements. Enquiries are welcome from SIDS institutions, research centres, international organisations, and regional bodies.

Email hamza@archipelagoknowledge.com
Website archipelagoknowledge.com
Region Indian Ocean · Global SIDS
Languages French · English · Moroccan Arabic

"Island institutions face a distinctive knowledge challenge: rich oral traditions, dispersed archives, multilingual literature, and donor-driven research that rarely makes it into accessible repositories. ABK exists to bridge that gap — not by adding to the noise, but by helping institutions find, structure, and act on what matters."

— Hamza Fassi-Fihri, Founder, ABK