Salwa Toko (born October 1975) is a diversity and digital literacy activist. She is President of the

Conseil National du Numérique The Conseil national du numérique (French Digital Council, abbreviated CNNum or less commonly CNN) is a French independent advisory commission created on 29 April 2011 by the French presidential decree n°2011-476. It was reorganized and expanded ...

(CNNum).

Early life and education

Toko was born in the

5th arrondissement of Paris The 5th arrondissement of Paris (''Ve arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of Paris, the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''le cinquième''. The arrondisseme ...

. Her mother is of Moroccan and Syrian heritage and her father is from Nigeria and

Benin Benin, officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It was formerly known as Dahomey. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its po ...

. Her grandmother fought for women's rights in

Arab countries The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

. Toko grew up in

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

and attended high school in France. Whilst she had initially intended on studying medicine at college, she switched to law and specialised in

international law International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of Rule of law, rules, norms, Customary law, legal customs and standards that State (polity), states and other actors feel an obligation to, and generall ...

. Toko completed her specialist science training at

Sciences Po Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...

Career

Toko was appointed Director of a television channel in

in 2000. Toko founded the Senegal the Africatic school which helped young people integrate internet in their work. Toko returned to France in 2009, where she joined the

Fondation Agir Contre l'Exclusion Fondation Agir Contre l'Exclusion (FACE) is a private foundation in France. The aim is to help young people from humble backgrounds to join the private sector. Overview It was founded by Martine Aubry in 1993.Élisabeth Laville, ''L'entreprise vert ...

(FACE). 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. As part of WiFilles Toko trains teenage girls in digital skills including computer programming, web development and robotics. The girls are recruited from middle school. The organisation has been recognised by

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. Before his presidency, he was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), First Secretary of th ...

, who awarded Toko the program ''La France s'engage'', a €200,000 prize, and supported by

Orange S.A. Orange S.A. (; formerly , stylised as france telecom) is a French multinational telecommunications corporation founded in 1988 and headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux, near Paris. ''Orange'' has been the corporation's main brand for mobile, ...

In April 2018 Toko launched Becomtech, an EdTech organisation that supports women after their

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

, Becomtech offers three to five week coding programmes across France and is funded by Total Foundation and Maïf. Toko was selected by

Mounir Mahjoubi Mounir Mahjoubi (born 1 March 1984) is a French entrepreneur and politician of La République En Marche! (LREM) who served as a member of the National Assembly from June to July 2017 and from 2019 to 2022. From 2017 until 2019 was the Secretary ...

as the President of the

(CNNum) in 2018. 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 Uber Technologies, Inc. is an American multinational transportation company that provides Ridesharing company, ride-hailing services, courier services, food delivery, and freight transport. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, a ...

and

Deliveroo Deliveroo is a British multinational online food delivery company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It operates in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar. It formerly ...

workers can be considered the precursors to robots under current employment law. She was inducted into L'Académie des Sciences Techniques Comptables in 2019. She was selected by

E-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) refers to commercial activities including the electronic buying or selling products and services which are conducted on online platforms or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile co ...

magazine as one of the top women in technology in 2019. In France only 10% of engineering students are women and only 3% of cyber security specialists are women. In her capacity as President of CNNum Toko advocates for more diversity in technology.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toko, Salwa 1975 births Living people French computer scientists French computer programmers French activists Sciences Po alumni