Tope is currently working with SDDirect as a regional specialist on the FCDO-funded Digital Access Programme to help create more inclusive, safe and secure digital access for excluded and underserved communities in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Indonesia and Brazil. Her work with clients on similar themes includes a digital inclusion diagnostic and strategy development to bridge the digital divide for underserved communities and people with disabilities in the context of COVID-19; research to understand the digital gender gap and the related economic impacts; as well as stakeholder engagement and advisory services for major internet-based organisations.
Tope is the Founder/Director at TechSocietal Consulting, a social enterprise specialising in technology policy and programme management for social good. TechSocietal engages with technology and digital policies, programmes and products to promote human rights, freedoms, and gender and inclusion. Tope's consulting experience involves work with clients from global internet-based organisations, consulting firms, and international aid organisations in the areas of research, advocacy, gender mainstreaming, programme management, capacity building, diagnostics, strategy development, and stakeholder engagement.
Tope worked previously as the Chief Operating Officer and as the Africa Programs Director at Paradigm Initiative (a pan-African social enterprise with presence in eight African countries running digital inclusion and digital rights advocacy programmes) where she led the design, implementation and expansion of programmes for the development of public policy for internet freedoms throughout Africa. In these roles, she organised both the yearly bi-lingual Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum for six years, with participants from 30 African countries, and the annual 'Tech for Good Day' in Nigeria in association with Microsoft to empower the third sector to use technology to solve social problems. Tope is an advocate for women’s rights in the digital space and has worked on projects with the Worldwide Web Foundation which involves research and policy advocacy on mainstreaming gender in national information and communications technology (ICT) policies.
Tope works with such regional and international networks as the Alliance for Affordable Internet, the IGF Best Practise Forum (on gender and access), the African Internet Rights Alliance and the Net Rights Africa Coalition to advance digital access and opportunities. She is an alumna of the Harvard Kennedy School, the Lagos Business School, the Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria and the University of York.
