Nanjira Sambuli is a researcher, policy analyst and strategist interested in and working on understanding the unfolding, gendered impacts of ICT adoption on governance, media, entrepreneurship and culture.
Nanjira is a Fellow in the Technology and International Affairs Program at The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a Ford Global Fellow. She is also co-Chair of Transform Health, and a board member at The New Humanitarian, Development Gateway , and Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL).
Nanjira also sits on several advisory boards including the World Economic Forum’s Technology and Social Justice Initiatives, <A+> Alliance for Inclusive Algorithms and the Carnegie Council’s AI and Equality Initiative . Additionally, she is a Diplomacy Moderator at the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA).
Nanjira led policy advocacy to promote digital equality in access to and use of the web at the World Wide Web Foundation (2016-2020). 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 Commissioner on the Lancet & Financial Times Global Commission (Governing Health Futures 2030), 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, BBC’s 100 Inspiring and Influential Women in 2019 and CIO East Africa’s 30 Most Influential Women in Tech in 2020.
