Ushahidi's 2025 End of Year Report

2025 marked a turning point in how data and AI shape decisions. As systems accelerated across climate, governance, and development, it became increasingly clear that many were built on incomplete realities, often missing the voices of the people most affected.

For Ushahidi, this raised a central question: as AI informs decisions at scale, whose voices are shaping those systems?

 

The gap is structural, not social

Communities are already sharing lived experience through voice notes, images, and messages in local languages. The challenge is not participation, but infrastructure. Most data systems still prioritise structured inputs, dominant languages, and stable connectivity, excluding large populations and producing partial evidence.

 

Building infrastructure for community voice

In response, Ushahidi focused its 2025 efforts on Distant Voices, an AI-powered platform designed to collect and analyse community-generated data across languages and formats while preserving context, consent, and trust.

Distant Voices enables people to communicate naturally through channels they already use. At the same time, it helps institutions identify patterns and emerging themes at scale, with insights that remain traceable to real voices.

 

Evidence from practice

In 2025, Distant Voices was tested through two climate resilience pilots.

• In Nigeria, more than 9,500 community submissions captured local experiences of climate impact and adaptation.
• In Siaya County, Kenya, over 103,000 voices were collected and integrated into county planning processes.

Across both contexts, participation increased, insights deepened, and institutional engagement improved when data reflected lived experience.

 

From pilot to platform

By the end of 2025, Distant Voices had moved from prototype to platform, supported by global recognition and strategic partnerships focused on responsible AI.

Looking ahead, our priority is to scale this infrastructure responsibly by expanding access, strengthening ethical governance, and supporting institutions to integrate community-generated data into decision-making.

 

📘 Read the full 2025 Annual Report to explore the evidence, pilots, and partnership opportunities in depth. https://bit.ly/end-of-year-report-2025