Alison Gillwald

Alison Gillwald, PhD, is the founding director of Research ICT Africa (RIA), where she is currently the Emeritus Distinguished Fellow. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, where she runs a doctoral program in digital and data governance. As RIA's knowledge partner to South Africa’s G20 Presidency, she served as a technical advisor to the Digital Economy Work Group and the High-Level Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance, and Innovation for Sustainable Development. She also co-chairs the T20 Task Force on Digital Transformation. She was appointed to the International Telecommunications Union Academic Advisory Body on Emerging Technologies in 2025. Alison led the RIA team commissioned by UNESCO to prepare the position paper on information integrity for the Brazilian G20 and served on the Brazilian T20 leading the track on Digital Inclusion. Alison led RIA’s technical assistance to the African Union Commission on the AU Data Policy Framework, Implementation Plan and capacity self-assessment tool. She has been active in the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), most recently co-leading the Algorithmic Transparency in the Public Sector project and previously co-leading the data justice project.