Nancy Hafkin is a pioneer of networking and development information and electronic communications in Africa, spurring the Pan African Development Information System (PADIS) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) from 1987 until 1997. Nancy Hafkin played a role in facilitating the Association for Progressive Communications's work to enable email connectivity in more than 10 countries during the early 1990s, before full Internet connectivity became a reality in most of Africa. The APC (headquarters in Johannesburg) established the annual Nancy Hafkin Prize for innovation in information technology in Africa which recognises outstanding initiatives using information and communications technology (ICTs) for development.
Nancy Hafkin edited Cinderella or Cyberella?: Empowering Women in the Knowledge Society, which was published in 2006 - a collection of essays discussing ways that information and communications technologies empower women.
In 2012, Hafkin was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society.