Neema Iyer

Neema Iyer (born 1986), is a technologist and artist. Iyer was raised in Nigeria by parents who are Tanzanian and Indian. She is the founder of Pollicy, a feminist technology collective focusing on how STEM disciplines can create social change and revitalize African societies, Iyer has been a trailblazer for ethical digitalization in a nation where two-thirds of the population remain offline. Such is her influence that Meta appointed her to its Global Women’s Safety Advisory Board, where she helped produce the ‘Afrofeminist Data Futures’ report on how Facebook’s data could help women across the continent.

QUOTES

• "We all hold the piece of knowledge that can be instrumental in designing a better future."
  • Neema on female Changemakers in STEM by CEOMagazine
• "The misuse of user data has been linked to the unethical manipulation of wide swaths of the population, like interfering with democratic elections and protests."
  • Neema on digital extractivism
• "Preventing harmful AI practices will require risk assessments, pathways for public consultation, and Afrofeminist frameworks that center on ethics. Developers need to constantly research impacts, but also create a future with beneficial tech."
  • Neema on the dangers of AI
• "This sounds cliche, but I’m just always driven by this need for social justice. I do feel like, on one hand, that digital tech has the ability to transform people’s lives in terms of improving their life experiences and how they interact with governments, how governments provide services, how you receive education, how you receive entertainment, and how you work."
  • Neema on Medium
• "Some of my proudest moments in STEM have been around conducting vital research on our technological and data ecosystems to put our needs, challenges and solutions on the map." Neema speaking on her proudest moment as a scientist
• There have been many advances in e-government across many of the countries that we work in, but there is still a very, very long way to go, not just in the digitalization of services and service design, but in even making sure that all citizens can then access these digital services.” Neema speaking to dai-global-digital
• “I would love for Global North-based organizations to not view organizations within Africa and the expertise that they hold as ‘local.’ There is a massive imbalance in power whereby Global North-based organizations can set up shop in Africa and run the show with little context or care, and establish themselves as experts. However, within this worldview, Africans can only be experts, if that, within their own community.Neema speaking on the the role of africa in the Global scene
• “I’m proud of the breadth of feminist technology research that we have put out in our short existence and in pushing for these issues to be at the forefront of technology development, research, and deployment. My favorite projects, as an artist, are the ones that deal with art: painting murals across Kampala based on citizen data, creating an interactive fictional game on digital safety for women in East Africa, curating short stories on speculative fiction by young Africans, and when I can, creating the illustrations and visuals for our reports.”Neema speaking on some of her proud moments
• we have our feet firmly on the ground in Uganda, across Africa, and now, across the world.”Neema speaking on her plans to make pollicy a global company
• I've always been a feminist and grew up with those ideals. The more I studied these spaces, the more I realised that there is a very significant gender digital divide. For reasons such as costs, safety, access, education, skills, and patriarchy, among others, women are not getting to use data and digital platforms in the same way. This was where we saw the need to bring in this gender element that if you just apply a one size fits all, it's not gonna work. So that's how technology and feminism came together.Neema speaking with digital earth in an interview
• I think there's many different ways people can understand feminism. I think some people would say feminism is equality, right. But that doesn't really make sense because human beings are not equal at all. So I think for me, I really think of feminism as the freedom to really live your life in the way you want. To live it free from fear and to live it in a way where you can make the most of whatever opportunities are out there.Neema speaking on feminism and African women
• Extractivism refers to colonial practices that have existed over the last several hundred years with the goal of wealth and resource accumulation, regardless of the oppressions that geographically separate taker and giver. Digital extractivism is a form of extraction that’s made possible by digitization and exacerbated through borderless capitalism. Neema speaking on the challenges of the digital sector in Africa