Data Zetu Intiaitive

Data Zetu (“Our Data” in Swahili) aims to empower communities to make better, more evidence-based decisions to improve their lives.

Active

Tanzania

[They ran a competition for designers to create khanga cloth patterns based on data (the khanga is a traditional cotton clothoften adorned with sayings or shout-outs). The project built the capacity of designers to speak data, and ended with a fashion show showcasing the winning designs. The first place winner (Danford Marco) created a design to reflect that 1 out of every 2 married women have faced some kind of abuse from their husband. A staggering statistic, and a stunning design to bring attention to the problem. This kind of creative approach to building data capacity is an example of a very different process, one that is inclusive, builds capacity, and gives ownership of the data to the people it is about. View at Medium.com Listening campaigns convening thousands of Tanzanians and community leaders across 14 wards to understand and deconstruct daily issues at the top of their minds. Workshops and trainings with community organizations and local government leaders to help them find, clean, and share datasets that address pieces of the challenges identified by communities. Digital and offline tools—such as graffiti data visualizations in urban centers and online platforms—that make information about those challenges more accessible to community members.