Data4Communities

Data4HumanRights

Data4Communities

Data4Communities equips communities to use data analytics and technology to document their local realities and improve living conditions

Nairobi, Kenya

KEN

Not registered as any organization

Data4Community tackles the systemic exclusion of marginalized communities from knowledge production and policy-making by addressing critical skill and information gaps. In resource-constrained settings, those without formal education are often locked out of essential expertise in data collection and analysis. Consequently, communities enduring hardships lack the tools to document their realities, advocate for themselves, and hold power to account. This includes slum residents facing evictions and people displaced by conflict, a growing global crisis that disrupts formal education and livelihoods (see World Bank on Fragility, Conflict & Violence). Globally, over 1.1 billion people live in informal settlements, including 70% of urban youth, and nearly over 122.6 million people worldwide are forcibly displaced by conflict. Traditional research models privilege external experts over lived experience, resulting in incomplete data that undermines advocacy and enables impunity, especially as plummeting response rates and dwindling funding jeopardize traditional census efforts. Converging crises—including climate change, migration, and economic instability—compound vulnerability, with young adults increasingly seeking self-learning resources to document and transform their situations while also generating income. Our solution bridges this divide through open-source, community-driven training programs that equip local data collectors with the skills to produce credible, actionable evidence.

Data4Community is an open-source digital training platform designed to directly address the exclusion of marginalized communities from knowledge production and decision-making. In environments where formal education and traditional resources are scarce, our solution equips community members with practical skills in data collection, analysis, and visualization. These tools are critical for accurately documenting lived realities and challenging systemic inequities. Our modular curriculum teaches participants how to design effective surveys, manage and analyze data using accessible digital tools, and apply geographic information systems for spatial mapping. Delivered through hands-on, community-led sessions in simple, local languages with visual aids and interactive exercises, our training is tailored to meet the needs of individuals with limited literacy and numeracy. This approach ensures that those who are often left behind in traditional research models can generate credible, actionable evidence. By empowering local data collectors to document issues such as evictions, displacement, and infrastructure neglect, our solution democratizes data skills, allowing communities to shift from being passive subjects to active authors of their narratives, thereby transforming local insights into powerful tools for community-led transformation. It also creates skill-based pathways for sustainable livelihoods, fostering a shift in how communities can drive social justice and reshape their futures.

Data4Community currently serves marginalized populations in the slums of Nairobi, Lagos and Salvador (Brazil), with plans to expand into fragile, conflict zones. These communities, at times lacking formal education, are excluded from knowledge production and policy-making and face recurring hardships such as forced evictions, neglect, and economic instability. “Rich data, rich stories” is at the heart of our work. In Nairobi, communities have used their training to document and legally challenge the demolition of their homes, capturing the eviction process through data journalism. In Lagos, after training 40 slum community mappers, mapped evidence is now used in court to support claims for compensation during ongoing evictions. Our open-source, community-driven training equips individuals with essential data collection and analysis skills, empowering them to produce credible evidence that influences local advocacy and policy. Our open-source training delivers dual benefits: equipping communities with data skills to produce credible evidence for advocacy while simultaneously improving the employability of successful trainees as skilled data collectors. As global crises intensify—from climate change to migration and economic instability—self-directed learning models become increasingly vital. By transforming community members from passive subjects into active knowledge producers, we help convert overwhelming challenges into pathways for meaningful, community-led transformation.