Sope Williams is a Professor of Public Procurement Law, and the deputy director of the African Procurement Law Unit, at Stellenbosch University. She is an expert in public procurement law and policy in Africa; procurement in multilateral development banks; gender-responsive procurement; emergency contracting; sustainable public procurement; anti-corruption law; and blockchain technologies. She has written four 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), as well as over 55 peer-reviewed publications.

She has drafted some significant policy and research reports for the International Development Research Centre – Public Procurement and Women’s Economic Empowerment (2022); the Open Contracting Partnership – Equity and Inclusion of Women Owned Businesses in Public Procurement in South Africa (2021); United Nations Economic Commission for Africa – Guidelines for Open Government in Africa (2017); the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development – the peer review on the USA procurement system (2011); and the European Union and UNODC – a report on the Nigerian procurement system (2015). She is a regular keynote and conference speaker and has spoken at over 100 international conferences in over 30 countries. Professor Williams 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 to 2011. 

She co-developed, and teaches on, the LLM and PGDip in Public Procurement Regulation and Policy at Stellenbosch University. She is an editor of four international journals and a Vice-Chair of the anti-corruption committee of the International Bar Association. In December 2022, she was awarded the International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award for Academic Research and Education by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the State of Qatar. In 2021, the Open Contracting Partnership identified her as an “anti-corruption champion.” Her research has been cited by the South African Constitutional Court in the case of Shaik v The State (2008). Prior to moving to Stellenbosch, she taught at the universities of Stirling and Nottingham, both in the UK, and the University of Lagos in Nigeria.