By making community understanding in the Global South available and accessible, we help our partners develop decisions, products, and services that reflect the reality of the people they aim to serve

These insights should be a freely available public good where possible, and our innovative approach to data collection and analysis allow for increased efficiency that makes this feasible.

Our insights are accessible through a suite of data visualisation tools including interactive dashboards, data storytelling, trackers, and reports, meaning the right data tool can be used by each stakeholder.

Combining these two areas is catalytic for the data's impact, and it's critical that the insights we gather improve the lives of those that share with us.

There must be a two-way data value

The data we collect must be directly beneficial to the communities that we collect it from. To achieve this, we build fairly rewarded panels across the Global South, with incentives including compensation through mobile money or airtime, and personalised insights shared back to communities, helping them track their progress against peers and learn from top performers. Where relevant, personalised insights are shared through an interactive chatbot interface that allows for questions and delivers bespoke recommendations – with robust safeguards in place.

Cross-cutting, longitudinal insights, across geographies and demographics are needed to make timely progress in these fast-moving markets

Across sectors, a clear theme has emerged: while valuable, current market insights are too infrequent, collected on three to five year cycles. This is not regular enough for rapidly changing markets, particularly given the acceleration of climate change and an ever-shifting geopolitical landscape.

Information access also needs to be low-friction for the communities we work with. Conversational AI, responsibly governed, can open doors to interactive insight delivery built around the existing mobile communication platforms these communities already use. Combined with big data, we will deliver personalised, timely information at regular intervals that support communities in need to adapt and build resilience.

To build foundational infrastructure for evidence-led decision-making, we must put communities first

The communities most affected by the policies, programmes, and products built for them are rarely the ones shaping them. We believe that has to change.

Putting communities first is not a methodology. It is a commitment to designing research, tools, and insight systems around the rhythms, languages, and lived realities of the people they are meant to serve. It means reaching people where they are, in the languages they speak, on the platforms they already use, and asking questions that matter to their lives, not just to the organisations funding the work.

When communities are active participants in the production of insight rather than passive subjects of it, the data becomes richer, the findings become more actionable, and the decisions made from them carry greater legitimacy.