The Internet Governance Lab is pleased to welcome Emir Sfaxi, a Fulbright Fellow at American University, as a fellow and global scholar. Mr. Sfaxi has dedicated his career to public policy, ICT, and governance, and is a public policy consultant focusing on digital development, open government, and data analysis. He is currently finishing his M.S. in Development Management at AU’s School of International Service.

During the Fall 2018 semester, Mr. Sfaxi participated in Cyber Flashpoints, a joint course taught by Lab Faculty Director Dr. Laura DeNardis and Lab Faculty Fellow Professor Jennifer Daskal of AU’s Washington College of Law. The course focused on major privacy issues, cryptocurrency, censorship, and the Dark Web. During this course, Mr. Sfaxi concentrated his research on the use of digital identification for development.

Mr. Sfaxi is an Independent Reporting Mechanism researcher working primarily on the Middle East and North Africa region on open government-related issues. Before coming to the U.S., he worked as a consultant at Ernst and Young managing a $100 million fund dedicated to entrepreneurship and job creation. Additionally, he oversaw the "Ta3mal" project, a combined effort between Microsoft, Silatech, and the Tunisian government to reduce unemployment by connecting employers and applicants through IT.

Mr. Sfaxi has dedicated much of his career to accelerating programs for youth, including his advisory role at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, where he was instrumental in the implementation of several programs designed to combat the radicalization of young Tunisians. In 2016, he participated in the United Nations Youth Advisory Panel and has provided counsel to other similar programs.

In addition to his advisory and managerial roles, Mr. Sfaxi has shared his expertise and experiences with communications in Sada, the Carnegie Foundation's publication for Middle East analysis, Al-Jazeera English, the Middle East Eye, and various French media outlets. He has also given presentations in Washington, DC at The Carnegie Foundation, The Project on Middle East Democracy, the Middle East Institute, American University, and George Washington University.

He holds a M.S. in Computer Science from the National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technologies in Tunisia.