OpenUpSA

02/10/2026

Disinformation often hits marginalised groups hardest. Blessing Oladunjoye, Founder of the BO Foundation for Inclusive Media (BOFIM) in Nigeria, shares how The Verifiers programme is training journalists and disability advocates to spot it and respond accurately, and why BOFIM is pushing for laws that protect these communities to be enforced.

🎥 Watch the full video: https://youtu.be/3IZ8yHQjIjQ
📰 Read the full profile: https://democracyinnovation.africa/profile/the-right-to-representation/

This video is part of our DDISA Profile Series, where we share the stories of organisations that the DDISA Fund prgramme supports across Sub-Saharan Africa.

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation Civic Tech Innovation Network

01/10/2026

In Nigeria, the BO Foundation for Inclusive Media (BONews) is working to change how women and persons with disabilities are seen and heard in media. From fact-checking training with The Verifiers to assistive technology and advocacy, their goal is simple: Participation, not just representation.

📰 Read the full profile: https://democracyinnovation.africa/profile/the-right-to-representation/
🎥 Watch the video: https://youtu.be/3IZ8yHQjIjQ
📚 More DDISA profiles: https://democracyinnovation.africa/

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation Civic Tech Innovation Network

30/09/2026

Check out Gabriella Razzano's new concept paper for the DDISA Fund, examining the relationship between funders and the organisations that report to them.

The paper argues that impact data can become a source of strength for African non-profits when they control how it is collected, analysed and shared. It also makes the case for funders to send learnings back to grantees, and for organisations to pool data and infrastructure so the whole sector can learn together.

📍 Read it here: https://democracyinnovation.africa/policy/data-sovereignty-and-impact-power/

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation Civic Tech Innovation Network

As part of our work on the DDISA, OpenUp have been developing capacity-building resources for our beneficiary organisations. An important aspect of capacity-building is not just skills that help us improve our output, but also skills that help us build our institutions. In relation to the second are...

21/09/2026

The second DDISA Profile Series feature is out now! It looks at DDISA grantee organisation Smart Aid Initiative's fellowship for young women in Kaduna State, covering digital skills, online safety and civic participation. Follow for more on work supporting community-led digital democracy across Sub-Saharan Africa.

📰 Read it here: https://democracyinnovation.africa/profile/digital-access-for-her/
🎥 Watch here: https://youtu.be/je-ziP7L860?si=7DE9UNduuzgFsopw

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation Civic Tech Innovation Network

Recent Nigerian household survey data revealed that multidimensional poverty index scores were highest amongst rural and northern regions of the country, citing a need for improved access to education, economic opportunities and upgraded infrastructure. Established in 2017 and primarily active in No...

18/09/2026

South Africa is becoming a major hub for data centres, but this growth raises real questions about who benefits and who bears the cost. Civic Tech Innovation Network, one of our partners in the DDISA Fund, has made a submission to the South African Human Rights Commission looking at the human rights risks of data centre expansion, from water and energy strain to land rights and community consultation.

📍 Read the full brief here: https://democracyinnovation.africa/policy/data-centres-and-human-rights/

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation

14/09/2026

Curious how satellite imagery and climate data can be put to work? Join us next week on 18 September 2026 for a lunch session where we'll walk through two OpenUp tools built for exactly that: GIBSON, which lets you browse NASA satellite imagery, and Climate Observer, which tracks climate trends across Africa. We'll demo both live and leave plenty of time for questions. 🌍🌦️❄️🔥

🔗 Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdmnDGCAyrZMQqNaTB5v1K7lt_zUFUCW2ED_oyh4L1UHIUhDA/viewform

🕐 12:00 – 13:00 SAST
📍 Google Meet

Open to researchers, journalists, civil society, government and anyone else interested, no experience needed.

Africa Data Hub

10/09/2026

What a day for ParlimeterSA! The OpenUp team were in Cape Town yesterday alongside OUTA - Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse and Parliamentary Monitoring Group - PMG to mark the platform's next chapter, as PMG steps in to take custodianship going forward.

It was wonderful seeing so many people in one room who care about this work: Civil society groups, people from Parliament itself, academics and journalists – all there to think through what ParliMeter has achieved and where it can go from here.

Dr Rachel Fischer of OUTA and Rashaad Alli of PMG both spoke to that journey, as did our Executive Director Gabriella Razzano, who covered the importance of access to information for participatory democracy, designing for democracy and more. Shaun Russell, Project Manager at OpenUp, also joined a panel discussion on what should be preserved from ParliMeter's first phase.

📍 Full statement here: https://www.parlimeter.org.za/post/parlimeter-enters-its-next-chapter

08/09/2026

Watch this short clip from our first DDISA Fund grantee profile! The Demography Project in Kenya trains citizen scientists to carry portable sensors tracking air quality, noise and water sources, feeding an open platform called Uhai that turns those readings into evidence communities can act on.

🎥 Watch the full video: https://youtu.be/w-8RorqrfuI
📰 Read the full profile: https://democracyinnovation.africa/profile/turning-environmental-data-into-community-action/

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation Civic Tech Innovation Network

04/09/2026

The DDISA Fund has launched a new profile series on its grantees! First up is The Demography Project in Kenya, training citizen scientists to track air quality, noise and water sources using portable sensors that feed into Uhai, an open data platform.

Written by OpenUp's communications intern, Zepranzah Njoki, based in Kenya. More profiles to follow keep an eye on our DDI African Innovators site at https://democracyinnovation.africa/!

📰 Read it here: https://buff.ly/WcrCVR1
🎥 Watch the video: https://buff.ly/1DVyqpj

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation Civic Tech Innovation Network

For the Demography Project, the COVID-19 pandemic and the drought that hit Kenya in 2021 revealed a problem that went beyond water shortages and public health – that communities often did not have enough local environmental data to understand what was happening around them.