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DATA SCIENCE “Those in darkness drop from sight” How community-driven data initiatives are transforming development outcomes in Africa.
By Jacopo Ottaviani Senior Strategist, Code for Africa
On the southern outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, lies one of the largest informal settlements in Africa. Although many civil society, humanitarian and development organizations have long been active in Kibera, it has largely remained a blank spot on the map; a blank spot that is home to hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps even over a million. The lack of openly available geospatial data and other public sources of information led a group of social activists to create the Map Kibera project. The underlying idea is that without basic knowledge, it is impossible to have informed discussions on how to improve living conditions in Kibera. Gaining such information would improve coordination, planning and advocacy efforts within the community as well as between the community and the government. Implemented in two stages, the project collected basic information and then added a “storytelling” layer, capturing personal accounts and developing a narrative that has given Kibera its own voice. A dedicated website was aptly named Voice of Kibera. In recent years, Africa has seen many such examples driven by non-profit organizations such as Code for Africa, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOTOSM), AfricanDRONE and countless local NGOs. They are united in the goal of “fostering informed societies”, as Code for Africa says in its mission statement. This matters at the grassroots level because it creates visibility for local communities and literally puts them on the map. It also matters at the highest level of decision making. All maps reflect choices about what to include, what to highlight, what to name. When communities map themselves, they define their own priorities and assert their own existence. As the “Ballad of Mack the Knife” has it: “Those in darkness drop from sight.” The challenge of data scarcity Kibera illustrates a broader paradox at the heart of development work: data is essential for effective action, yet the communities most in need of development interventions are often the least visible in official statistics. Across Africa, large swaths of people remain uncounted, unmapped and, consequently, underserved.
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