Nanjira Sambuli

Nanjira Sambuli is a researcher, policy analyst, and strategist examining the gendered impacts of digitalisation and ICT adoption across governance, diplomacy, media, entrepreneurship, and culture, with a particular focus on Africa. She currently serves as Senior Advocacy Officer for Africa at the Gates Foundation, where she advances work on inclusive financial systems and digital public infrastructure. She is also a nonresident scholar (and former fellow) in the Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a Ford Global Fellow.

Sambuli’s career spans research, policy, and ecosystem-building at the intersection of technology and society. She previously led policy advocacy at the World Wide Web Foundation (2016-2020), championing digital equality in access to and use of the web. Earlier, at iHub Nairobi, she contributed to shaping the growth of technology innovation research across East Africa.

She has held a range of global leadership and advisory roles, including board positions at Development Gateway and the Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL), and The New Humanitarian. Her contributions also include serving as a Diplomacy Moderator at the Geneva Science and Diplomacy Anticipator (GESDA); Commissioner on the Lancet & Financial Times Global Commission on Governing Health Futures 2030; panel member on the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation; member of DFID’s Digital Advisory Panel; trustee at mySociety; and deputy on the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel for Women’s Economic Empowerment. She has further advised initiatives such as the Carnegie Council’s AI and Equality Initiative and the A+ Alliance for Inclusive Algorithms, and serves on the International Advisory Board of EPFL’s EssentialTech Centre.

Sambuli’s work has earned global recognition, including being named among New African Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Africans (2016), BBC’s 100 Women (2019), CIO East Africa’s 30 Most Influential Women in Tech (2020), and Apolitical Foundation’s 50 Influential Researchers shaping 21st-century policymaking (2022).