When the COVID-19 pandemic hit our continent, it became apparent that some gaps, particularly the shortage of healthcare workers, existed across different African countries. The Africa CDC PACT Project, a brainchild of the health committee at the African Union (AU), sought to ensure that Africa was not left behind in matters of health. The project…
The Restore Data Rights initiative was born out of necessity; we realised that personal digital rights were being exploited with the COVID-19 pandemic as a catalyst. We presently comprise of six partners across Africa; Paradigm Initiative (Nigeria), Africa Digital Rights Hub (Ghana), Tom Moultrie (Professor of Demography, University of Cape Town) (South Africa), Media Rights…
We are excited to release Census.ke, a new platform for all of the census 2019 data currently released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, the principal agency of the Kenya Government for collecting, analysing and disseminating statistical data, and the custodian of official statistical information. The Bureau is also responsible for the coordination of…
Public participation should not be just a way of ticking a box Communities in Lamu are united in its fervent opposition to the proposed coal plant that is to be established there. We went to the coastal town and met with various members of the community who were categorical in that they were not adequately…
As the world agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals in September 2015 – to end poverty in all its forms by 2030, it issued a clarion call to leave no one behind. There have been questions globally about what “leave no one behind” means in practice. We have opted to read the statement literally –…
We are happy to release our first Think Piece of the year – Open Lessons: Organised Communities are an important ingredient for Citizen Engagement. Through this Think Piece, we draw from the lessons that we have learnt while working on the Global Goals for Local Impact programme over the past year – especially having encountered some…
Happy new year! We hope that this year will be for you (and for us), a year of prosperity and great impact. We have been fairly quiet these past few months because most of the work that we do, is in Kenya. In Kenya, we have had a prolonged electioneering period. We conducted general elections…
At the Open Institute, we have grown to believe that the power to fight inequality in all its forms lies in people. It is in people that the possibility of wide acceptance and tolerance abides. It in people that the ability of the world to change and find its better self lies. It is for…
Sometimes, our blog posts are so high level that we forget to give the interesting minutiae and details of our experience when we go every week. We are currently working in Lanet Umoja location working with women groups to collect SDG 5 data in partnership with Civicus Datashift and with the leadership of Chief Kariuki…
One thing that always, always strikes me when I go for community meetings in places like Lanet Umoja is how far removed they are to the high levels of government, academia and the UN. They are a far distance not just in kilometres but also – and especially – conceptually. The beginnings of the meetings…
