During the East Africa Data Governance Conference, join Data Values advocates, Erick Sande Oduori and Lydia Furaha Hesketh, for a breakout session to explore how communities are not only data subjects but also data producers, interpreters, and stewards.
Drawing on the Data Values project, the session will spotlight community-led data initiatives that challenge top-down governance by centering representation, accessibility, consent, and collective ownership. Participants will hear from practitioners working with persons with disabilities, grassroots groups, and civil society organisations that use participatory data methods to influence policy, improve service delivery, and hold institutions accountable.
Rather than presenting a single solution, the session will surface tensions, trade-offs, and unresolved questions: Who decides what is counted? What does “representation” mean when data is aggregated, anonymised, or automated? How can participation be built into systems rather than added as an afterthought?
Through a dialogue circle, this discussion will invite participants to reflect on how participatory data governance can be operationalised in real-world contexts. The aim is not to slow innovation, but to reshape it so trust, fairness, and accessibility are treated as core design principles rather than external safeguards.