Prof. Sope Williams is a professor of public procurement law, a procurement law consultant and the deputy director of the African Procurement Law Unit, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She is an expert in public procurement law and policy in Africa, procurement in the multilateral development banks, gender-responsive procurement, emergency contracting, sustainable public procurement, and anti-corruption law. She has written 4 books: Fighting Corruption in Public Procurement (2012); Public Procurement and Multilateral Development Banks (2017); Public Procurement Regulation for 21st Century Africa (2018) and Public Procurement Regulation in Africa: Development in uncertain times (2020) and over 55 peer-reviewed publications.
She has written two significant policy reports on gender-responsive procurement: for the International Development Research Centre, Canada- Public Procurement and Women’s Economic Empowerment (2023); and for the Open Contracting Partnership, USA - Equity and Inclusion of Women Owned Businesses in Public Procurement in South Africa (2021). She is currently involved in a project funded by the Brookings Institute, USA to provide training on gender-responsive procurement and develop behavioral tools to mitigate public procurement corruption in Nigeria.
She has developed anti-corruption courses for UNODC (2019) and the UN Virtual School (2012) and served as an academic member in the World Bank’s Procurement Technical Advisory Group from 2008- 2011. She is an editor of four international journals and a Vice-Chair of the anti-corruption committee of the International Bar Association. She co-developed and teaches on the LLM and PGDip in Public Procurement Regulation and Policy at Stellenbosch University.
She has an LLM (with distinction) from the London School of Economics (2000), and a PhD in public procurement and anti-corruption law from the University of Nottingham, UK (2011). Her research has been cited by the South African Constitutional Court.