Nancy J. Hafkin

Nancy Hafkin "has been a pioneer and innovator in the area of networking, development information, and electronic communications in Africa, working primarily with the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa. Dr. Hafkin's work on African networking helped build Africa's ICT framework through partnerships with governmental, nongovernmental and development institutions. At UNECA she served as coordinator for UNECA's African Information Society Initiative and team leader for promoting information and communication technologies for development. Dr. Hafkin also served as chief of the Pan African Development Information System and chief of research and publications at the African Training and Research Center for Women. She played a central role in facilitating the Association for Progressive Communications’ (APC) work to enable email connectivity in more than ten countries during the early 1990s before full Internet connectivity became a reality in most of Africa. In 2000 the APC established the Nancy J. Hafkin Information Society Prize to encourage and recognize African initiatives in information and communication technologies. Prior to her work in Ethiopia Dr. Hafkin was an assistant professor in history and African studies at Boston State College. She has a Ph.D. in history and African studies from Boston University and a B.A. from Brandeis University. She is fluent in French and Amharic and has good comprehension of Portuguese and Swahili. She is Director of Knowledge Working, a consultancy on information technology and international development."

She is a director of Pact.