Inclusive data narratives - decolonising data for Africa
Channel: csvconf
Date: 2023-05-31

Presented by: Inclusive data narratives - Florence Akara

Universal access to data and tech can only be achieved by engaging from the bottom up. The challenge, however, lies in the narrative it holds for many Africans, particularly in rural areas. Colonization taught our African forefathers to survive, and this was passed down through generations. To openly engage with tech and data is not a usual thing in our community, the survival mode is to prevent it from infiltrating our communities, particularly the rural ones. Tech and data are categorised as skilled professions, and many, even myself, find ourselves apprehensive about the potential threats, and weaknesses we could expose ourselves by engaging in it. In East Africa, people are daily victims of data infringements and fraud, women in particular. It doesn't help that most data and tech programs are often led by non-locals and men;  ineffectively distancing the women, and local communities from feeling like active participants or collaborators in any tech or data agendas. Because they are often expensive, data and tech are perceived as inaccessible for the lower economic communities, and a luxury for most people in general. Governments themselves don't have adequate resources to properly train and engage local communities, which means its access is inevitably limited. The lack of locally accessible, free or affordable data and tech, fails to match the need for legitimate equitable access. This results in fewer people engaging in data, because of a lack of adequate information to make informed decisions about the type of data they are comfortable sharing, its storage and usage - outweighing much interest in engaging in it. Sharing stories, and developing a new narrative for data inclusion in Africa, abolishing the hierarchies of who can use data, by enabling local actors to equally access them without cost barriers. Spotlighting women and girls in particular, engaging without fear of online exploitation, or abuse, prioritising feminist values so they do not shy from self-marketing, and building their capacity so they can adopt it to their communities, will alleviate a significant barrier to the data inclusion agenda. Better access to tech and data will result in significant improvements to impact investment and achieve SDG impact. My initiative, collabo254 is working to invest in local organisational development, ensuring that their capacity,  particularly in updating its use of basic, free tech tools to collect data. Designed from my own experience running a nonprofit for over 5 years, and forced to learn to self-design from google suites tools and another free basic tech, to fit our local team needs, and user challenges and align with our model of reporting to better manage records of our impact without breaking the bank.  The idea is to make data and tech not appear as threatening and work with local faces and names, so that communities can see themselves represented in data spaces, to alleviate the fear of actively engaging.