About
Fazila is a South African researcher and policy analyst with an interest in how innovations in the digital economy contribute to societal inequality and how this can be addressed through social impact solutions.
Her interest in social impact technology dates back to the early 2000s, when she worked at an NGO providing ICT training and technical support to non-profit organizations. Over the past two decades, she has focused on promoting social causes through internet platforms, with a particular emphasis on reducing inequality.
A significant achievement in her career was the establishment of the South African Civil Society Information Services (SACSIS), a Web 2.0 start-up, which she founded in 2008. SACSIS was an online platform for policy dialogue and a commentary service that published social justice op-eds by academics and civil society activists for the mainstream media. By the mid-2010s, due to the disruption caused by social media platforms, legacy media outlets faced significant sustainability challenges. As a small non-profit media outlet, SACSIS couldn’t survive the disruption and ceased operations in 2015.
Following SACSIS' closure, Fazila felt the pull of a PhD to reconnect to her roots as a researcher and policy analyst, which is where her career started 20 years ago.
She recently completed a PhD thesis examining the intersection of automation, unemployment, and inequality in South Africa. While her study was initially inspired by a need to understand the threat of automation technologies, it developed into a broader review of the digital economy in South Africa, exploring the intersection of innovation and inequality more generally. A major theme in her study was a critique of the Fourth Industrial Revolution as a theory of change emanating from the influential World Economic Forum, which has emerged as a significant force in digital policymaking in South Africa.
You can learn more about Fazila and contact her via LinkedIn.