Biography

Shamira Ahmed is the executive director of the Data Economy Policy Hub (DepHUB), the first independent think-tank founded by an indigenous African woman in South Africa. She is also the founder of Artificial Intelligence for Circularity Exchange (AI4CE), a platform created to promote diverse perspectives for an AI-led just green-digital "twin transition" to support the circular economy model (CEM), in Africa. The DepHUB is a founding partner of the South African AI Association (SAAIA) and a member of the Digital for Development (D4D) Hub Civil Society & Academia Advisory Group (CSAAG).

Shamira is a policy entrepreneur, experienced quantitative economist, and interdisciplinary public policy and research specialist. She has a track record of leading multi-country research projects, managing the data value chain, and producing high-quality knowledge outputs, which includes co-authorship of public interest knowledge outputs such as the African Union Commission's Data Policy Framework. Shamira has worked in multicultural, multidisciplinary, and dynamic work environments in the transnational policy-knowledge ecosystem for more than a decade.

As a Policy Leader Fellow, her work will focus on the multidimensional aspects of multilateral data governance for sustainable digital development, with a focus on the digital trade protocols of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement.

Research projects, clusters and working groups

• Digital transformations and Society
• Environmental challenges and climate change governance
• Inequality, welfare and social justice

Fields of expertise