Alison Gillwald (PhD) is the Executive Director of Research ICT Africa (RIA), an African digital policy and regulatory think-tank based in South Africa. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance. A former broadcasting and telecommunications regulator she has published widely on and been actively involved in internet and data governance. She recently co-led the Data Justice workstream of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) and was commissioned

to provide background research to UNESCO’s Guidelines on Platform Regulation. She serves on the Digital Inclusion Roundtable of the UN Secretary General’s Digital Cooperation Roadmap. Alison leads RIA’s technical assistance to the African Union Commission on the AU Data Policy Framework and the implementation plan. She authored the background paper for the UN Women CSW 67 this year, using RIA data to measure and analyse intersectional digital inequality which linked it to data injustice and its manifestations in AI.