South Africa: Shifting people from being subjects of data to authors of their own data

When data excludes the people it describes

For more than two decades, Dr Mélani Prinsloo has worked in research and insight generation in South Africa. In 2005, while running her research company, Infusion, she began to notice a persistent structural imbalance in the research industry. Large budgets were routinely spent on understanding affluent consumers and upper‑income markets in great detail. In contrast, far less rigorous and systematic research was conducted among poorer and marginalised communities, despite the fact that they make up the majority of the population and are most affected by public policy and economic change.

This imbalance created a distorted evidence base. Decisions in both the public and private sectors were often made using incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate information about lower‑income communities. Myths about population size, access to services, and living conditions persisted. The people most affected by policy decisions were frequently the least visible in the data used to design them.

Re‑thinking how research is done

Recognising this gap, Mélani and her team began shifting towards community‑based participatory research. Rather than researching communities from the outside, they worked directly with residents as contributors and validators of their own realities. The results were immediate. The quality and depth of insight improved, and trust between researchers and communities grew. People recognised themselves in the data being produced, and the information generated reflected lived realities rather than assumptions.

As the value of this approach became clear, and the need to make such insights more widely accessible grew, the Centre for Democratising Information (CDI) was formally established in 2010. CDI’s purpose was to ensure that high‑quality, community‑rooted evidence would not remain available only to institutions with large budgets, but could support inclusive development more broadly.

Over time, this work expanded beyond traditional research projects. Communities were not only contributing data, but validating it, using it, and drawing on it to advocate for resources and recognition. These participatory systems laid the foundation for what would later become 

Wakamoso.

When digital systems deepen exclusion

As economies and governments increasingly relied on digital systems and algorithm‑driven decision‑making, another challenge became visible. People without structured digital records were being quietly excluded from services, funding, employment opportunities, and recognition.

This exclusion was not deliberate. It was structural. Without data, people effectively did not exist in the systems shaping decisions about them. Wakamoso emerged in response to this challenge. It is the digital manifestation of nearly two decades of community‑based research practice. 

Wakamoso is a people‑powered data platform that enables individuals, particularly those historically excluded from formal systems, to create their own digital records using low‑barrier tools such as WhatsApp. Its objective is simple but transformative: to shift people from being subjects of data to authors of their own data.

What has changed

What has changed is not only how data is collected, but who controls it. Instead of communities being researched once and forgotten, Wakamoso enables residents to create digital assets such as CVs, affidavits, profiles, and records that they can use beyond a single project. Communities document their own lived realities, while organisations build baselines that are cumulative and reusable rather than one‑off. Decision‑makers gain access to real‑time, verified, geo‑tagged information. Communities gain visibility, voice, and ownership.

In projects such as the Uitsig and Steurhof baseline surveys in the City of Cape Town, local residents were trained and paid to collect data within their own neighbourhoods. The Uitsig survey corrected misconceptions about population size and sanitation conditions, preventing costly planning errors and demonstrating how participatory verification can improve decision‑making.

Through SAWID, Wakamoso is now supporting the development of a national registry of social workers, aiming to understand the lived realities of approximately 9,000 unemployed social workers in South Africa. This work goes beyond statistics. It creates connection, recognition, and collective evidence that can be used for advocacy.

The relationship between people and data has shifted from extractive to collaborative.

How the change came about

This shift was driven by three deliberate changes in approach. First, research moved from once‑off projects to a shared evidence layer. Instead of treating each baseline as isolated, cross‑cutting questions were embedded across multiple initiatives. Each survey still responded to immediate needs, such as urban planning or programme monitoring, but also contributed to a growing, cumulative evidence base. Data became shared infrastructure rather than a disposable output.

Second, data collection shifted from external enumerators to community‑based field teams. Local residents were trained and remunerated, improving trust, reducing costs, and stimulating local economic participation.

Third, control shifted from centralised ownership to a multi‑tenant data commons. Wakamoso allows organisations to operate in secure workspaces while contributing anonymised insights to a broader dataset. Individuals retain agency and consent, while systems benefit from better information.

Evidence of change

Before Wakamoso, communities were researched sporadically. Data was fragmented. Baselines were rarely comparable. Many people had no digital record beyond an identity number. Research budgets limited frequency and depth. Now, research has become a conversation. Communities contribute continuously through WhatsApp. Individuals receive tangible digital assets. Baselines are reusable and cumulative. Data collection costs are dramatically lower than traditional models. What was once a report has become a living evidence system.

Evidence includes the City of Cape Town baseline surveys, the SAWID social worker registry, a UNDP-Mozambique pilot under the Build Back Better initiative, and shared evidence layers for tenure security. These are not theoretical models, but live field environments.

As one Uitsig resident reflected:

“For the first time, we saw our own data on the screen. It was not someone else explaining our community to us. It was our voices.”
— Community member, Uitsig

A municipal official noted:

“The Uitsig survey corrected assumptions that could have misdirected planning. The speed and cost‑effectiveness were remarkable.”
— City of Cape Town representative

And from the SAWID social worker registry process:

“We were able to move from assumptions to factual based on the data supplied by the Wakamoso survey on unemployed social workers.”
— Vatiswa Moea

Sustaining the shift

Sustaining and scaling this change requires partnerships grounded in a shared commitment to data equity. Addressing data exclusion demands collective effort and a concern for the wellbeing of people who remain invisible in current systems.

By placing data creation in the hands of communities themselves, Wakamoso is helping to build more inclusive, responsive, and human‑centred systems — where people are no longer reduced to statistics, but recognised as authors of their own realities.