Technology + Governance, Community-Led.

We work at the intersection of AI, peace, and participatory governance—creating frameworks where communities shape the technologies that affect their lives rather than being shaped by them.

Our Approach

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Our Approach *

  • We don't build AI for communities—we support communities building their own governance frameworks and technical capacity.

  • Every research project includes fellows embedded in communities, workshops that produce actionable frameworks, and infrastructure that people can actually use.

  • We create spaces for communities in Kenya, Malawi, and the Philippines to learn from each other's innovations, not just from Western models.

  • We work with universities, traditional authorities, and civil society over years, not extractive one-off research visits.

Our Ongoing Projects

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Our Ongoing Projects *

🎙️ Malawi Voice Data Commons

Democratizing Crisis Response Through Voice

Winner of Microsoft's New Commons Challenge, this project enables any Malawian to report emergencies by speaking in their own language—no literacy, internet, or English required. Working with UNDP, Mozilla Foundation, Ushahidi, and four Malawian universities, we're building voice infrastructure that communities control.

🏔️ Indigenous Knowledge Data Collaborative

Centering Indigenous Sovereignty in the Digital Age

Partnering with Kalinga State University and traditional councils in the Philippines, we're building a community-controlled platform where Indigenous communities preserve and share traditional knowledge on their terms—flipping the typical extraction model where researchers take knowledge and communities get nothing.

🌏 Participatory AI Governance Research

Documenting Power, Building Alternatives

We're examining how AI concentrates power and developing community-led oversight mechanisms across Kenya, Malawi, and the Philippines. This isn't just research—we're embedding fellows in communities and hosting workshops that create practical governance frameworks.

🌱 AI Empower

Bridging the AI Gap for Climate Action

In partnership with CIV:LAB and Unified Ground, we're developing participatory frameworks and toolkits that help environmental justice organizations safely adopt AI while maintaining community agency. Through deliberative co-design and harm prevention frameworks, we ensure AI serves communities rather than extracting from them.

Get involved.

We're looking for partners who share our commitment to participatory governance:

🔬 Researchers in the Global South leading their own inquiries

🤝 Funding partners who understand that community work operates on community timelines

💻 Technical contributors who recognize that technology is never neutral

🌍 Communities interested in shaping AI governance on their own terms