Salwa Toko

Salwa Toko (born October 1975) is a diversity and digital literacy activist. She is President of the Conseil National du Numérique (CNNum).

Salwa Toko
Toko in 2019
BornOctober 1975
NationalityFrench
Alma materSciences Po
EmployerConseil national du numérique

Early life and education

Toko was born in the 5th arrondissement of Paris.[1][2] Her mother is of Moroccan and Syrian heritage and her father is from Nigeria and Benin. Her grandmother fought for women's rights in Arab countries.[3] Toko grew up in Mali and attended high school in France.[4][5] Whilst she had initially intended on studying medicine at college, she switched to law and specialised in international law. Toko completed her specialist science training at Sciences Po.[6]

Career

Toko was appointed Director of a television channel in Benin in 2000.[6][7] Toko founded the Senegal the Africatic school which helped young people integrate internet in their work.[6] Toko returned to France in 2009, where she joined the Fondation Agir Contre l'Exclusion (FACE).[3] FACE looks to connect the business world with education. In 2014 Toko established WiFilles, a group within FACE that looks empower women in digital literacy.[5] As part of WiFilles Toko trains teenage girls in digital skills including computer programming, web development and robotics.[8][9] The girls are recruited from middle school.[10] The organisation has been recognised by François Hollande, who awarded Toko the program La France s'engage, a €200,000 prize, and supported by Orange S.A.[4][11]

In April 2018 Toko launched Becomtech, an EdTech organisation that supports women after their baccalauréat, Becomtech offers three to five week coding programmes across France and is funded by Total Foundation and Maïf.[4][7][12]

Toko was selected by Mounir Mahjoubi as the President of the Conseil National du Numérique (CNNum) in 2018.[13][14][15] Her role is to reflect on major issues facing the French tech sector. She has called for people to consider laws to protect workers on zero-hours contracts, and has said that Uber and Deliveroo workers can be considered the precursors to robots under current employment law.[16][17] She was inducted into L'Académie des Sciences Techniques Comptables in 2019.[18] She was selected by E-commerce magazine as one of the top women in technology in 2019.[19] In France only 10% of engineering students are women and only 3% of cyber security specialists are women.[20] In her capacity as President of CNNum Toko advocates for more diversity in technology.[21][22]

References

  1. Bembaron, Elsa (2018-10-05). "Salwa Toko, une présidente du Conseil national du numérique engagée". Le Figaro.fr (in French). Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  2. "Salwa Toko : " l'économie collaborative doit aller dans les territoires défavorisés pour " formaliser " l'économie informelle "". ConsoCollaborative (in French). 2019-05-21. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  3. "Salwa Toko : "il faut un espace numérique plus inclusif et humain"". start.lesechos.fr (in French). 29 January 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  4. "Qui est Salwa Toko, la nouvelle présidente du Conseil national du numérique ?". La Tribune (in French). 17 May 2018. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  5. "Salwa Toko, le numérique au féminin". La Croix (in French). 2017-01-11. ISSN 0242-6056. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  6. "Salwa Toko, fondatrice du programme Wi-Filles | Est Ensemble". www.est-ensemble.fr. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  7. "TOKO Salwa | Les rendez-vous de l'histoire". www.rdv-histoire.com (in French). Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  8. "Salwa Toko – Les interconnectes" (in French). Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  9. "Salwa Toko: " WI-Filles, c'est être une Geek et une fille tout simplement "". MeltingBook (in French). 2017-08-21. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  10. JDD, Le. "WiFilles, le code informatique pour toutes". lejdd.fr (in French). Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  11. "Salwa TOKO". Le printemps des fameuses (in French). Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  12. "Qui est Salwa Toko, nouvelle présidente du Conseil national du numérique ?". RTL.fr (in French). Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  13. "Le Conseil national du numérique reprend du service" (in French). 2018-05-29. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  14. "TOKO | CNNum | Traducteur et éclaireur des transformations numériques". cnnumerique.fr. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  15. "Rendez-vous de Bercy 2019 : les intervenants". www.economie.gouv.fr (in French). Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  16. "Salwa Toko : "On considère les travailleurs de plateformes comme des précurseurs de robots"". Libération.fr (in French). 2019-06-07. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  17. "Salwa Toko: " Souhaite-t-on créer une société à trois vitesses, constituée de salariés, d'indépendants et de travailleurs au statut hybride ? "" (in French). 2019-04-27. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  18. Entretiens de l'Académie : Salwa Toko, retrieved 2019-11-21
  19. "Le top 10 des femmes entrepreneuses digitales en 2019". www.ecommercemag.fr/ (in French). Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  20. "Femmes des Diasporas Africaines et Numérique - JNDA Bordeaux 2019". Comm'un déclic | Julie Beraut (in French). 2019-04-17. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  21. "Salwa Toko (présidente du Conseil national du numérique et de l'association Becomtech) : " Les équipes mixtes sont plus performantes "". Les Echos (in French). 2018-07-02. Retrieved 2019-11-21.
  22. JDD, Le. "WiFilles, le code informatique pour toutes". lejdd.fr (in French). Retrieved 2019-11-21.
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