Nanjira Sambuli is a researcher, policy analyst and advocacy strategist interested in and working on understanding the unfolding impacts of ICT adoption and how those impact governance, media, entrepreneurship and culture, with a keen focus on gender implications.
Nanjira is a Commissioner on the Lancet & Financial Times Global Commission on Governing Health Futures 2030, a board member at The New Humanitarian, Development Gateway and Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL), and co-Chair of the Transform Health Coalition. She is also a Ford Global Fellow.
Nanjira also advises the World Economic Forum on its Preparing Civil Society for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Technology and Social Justice initiatives, the <A+> Alliance for Inclusive Algorithms and is on the Advisory Board for Latitude: Rethinking Power Relations – for a decolonised and non-racial world (Goethe-Institut).
Nanjira led policy advocacy to promote digital equality in access to and use of the web at the World Wide Web Foundation (2016-2020) and managed the Foundation’s Women’s Rights Online work. She previously worked at the iHub in Nairobi, where she provided strategic guidance for growth of technology innovation research in the East Africa region.
She served as a panel member on the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation (2018-19), as a member of DFID’s Digital Advisory Panel (2017-2019), as a trustee at UK Citizens Online Democracy (mySociety) (2016-2019) and as a deputy on the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel for Women’s Economic Empowerment (2016-17). In recognition of her work, Nanjira was named one of New African Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Africans in 2016, and BBC’s 100 Inspiring and Influential Women in 2019.
