Prof. Fola Adeleke is the Executive Director and co-founder of the Global Center on AI Governance. Fola leads our knowledge hub, the African observatory on Responsible AI. He holds a PhD in international investment law and human rights from the University of Witwatersrand and completed his post-doctoral research as a Fulbright Scholar at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, Columbia University and the Human Rights Program, Harvard University.
Fola is also an Associate Professor at Wits Law School South Africa and an Atlantic Senior Fellow on Social and Economic Equity at the London School of Economics. Fola currently serves as a Commissioner for the Lancet Commission on AI and HIV and as a Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission, Nova Scotia, Canada. Fola is an NRF rated researcher in South Africa and his research focuses on data protection, transparency, international investment law and corporate accountability
Fola previously served as a co-chair of the Trust and Regulation workstream for the development of South Africa’s National AI Strategy under the National Advisory Council on Innovation. Fola has also served on various advisory teams including in the development of Nigeria’s AI strategy and the African Commission and People’s Rights study on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights in Africa. He also led the development of the Global Partnership on AI’s report on Governments as a Provider of Data for AI in 2023.
Fola is the course coordinator and convenor for the Artificial Intelligence (AI), Ethics, and Policy in Africa Certificate Program at the University of Cape Town and Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights Certificate Course at the University of Pretoria. Fola is a member of the Nova Scotia Bar, Canada and he has received several honours in the past including as Mo Ibrahim Residential Fellow for Governance and Development: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 2015.
List of selected research outputs
Monograph
- International Investment Law and Policy in Africa: A human rights-based approach (Routledge 2018)
Book Chapters
- Fola Adeleke & Gus Van Harten (2023) ‘Minimum Standard of Treatment’ in Investment Law Standards (Oxford University Press)
- Fola Adeleke, (2022) ‘Rethinking the Role of Business Enterprises in the Fight against Inequality: A South African Perspective’, in Business and Human Rights Law and Practice in Africa (Eds. Damilola Olawuyi and Oyeniyi Abe) (Elgar Online)
Journal Articles
- Adeleke F. Reinstating trust in elections in the era of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Data & Policy. 2025; Vol 7, https://doi.org/10.1017/dap.2025.14
- Leah Junck, Fola Adeleke, and Rachel Adams, 'Generative AI as a Modality of Interdependencies: Imagining Tech Futures in Majority World Settings', in Philipp Hacker, and others (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Foundations and Regulation of Generative AI (online edn, Oxford Academic, 22 Apr. 2025), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198940272.013.0012
- Adeleke, Fola. “'Bridging the AI Divide: Advancing Language Equity and Data Governance for Generative AI in Africa.” In Oxford Intersections: AI in Society. Ed. Philipp Hacker. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945215.003.0047
- Fola Adeleke, Gabriella Razzano (2024) Algorithms and Administrative Justice in Africa: A case study from Nigeria Development Vol 67, Issue 1-2, p14–21 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41301-024-00407-5
- Fola Adeleke (2023) Navigating the challenges of business funding for research. International Inequalities Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK. https://doi.org/10.21953/lse.3ifxgpzpqm68
- Rachel Adams, Fola Adeleke, et al (2021) Protection of Personal Information Act Code of Conduct for Research. S Afr J Sci
- Rachel Adams, Fola Adeleke, (2020) Protecting Information Rights in South Africa: The Strategic Oversight Roles of the South African Human Rights Commission and the Information Regulator, Oxford Journal of International Data Privacy Law Volume 10, Issue 2, 146–159.
- Fola Adeleke, (2019) Illicit financial flows and inequality in Africa: How to reverse the tide in Zimbabwe, South African Journal of International Affairs’ (2019) Vol. 26. No. 3.