“We believe that through empowering citizens, building trust and accountability in civic space, and supporting the building of capacity within government, CSOs and the media, we will enable participation in decision-making, evidence-based urban intervention, and inclusive co-design that will improve the lives of residents in urban spaces.”
Richard Gevers, OCL Founder & CEO
Open Cities Lab (OCL) was born out of a desire to implement dynamic living solutions to problems faced by urban communities in South Africa and to contribute to developing a vibrant, inclusive society where all residents and stakeholders have an active role in decision-making and implementing positive social change. Our work over the past nine years has evolved around these core pillars to support the development of communities that are inclusive and are centred on building towards deliberative democracy across Africa.
We understand that as our core problem statements is that residents have lost trust in public processes and often do not have access to critical information, forums or structures to be involved in decision-making.
Our role is to move plans and interventions out of the static and inefficient long reports that gather digital dust on officials' shelves, and into problem-focused, user-centred interventions that are crafted in such a way that acknowledge vulnerability and build in inclusion and sustainability.
We’re all about ‘big civic’ and ‘small tech’, meaning we are more focused on people and the impact of our projects on them rather than the technological solution. We prioritise transparency in society, which is why open data (data that is freely available to everyone) is so important to us. It allows for decision-makers in government to be targeted and policy influenced to affect positive change.
We do this through offering our expertise in data strategy, data science, machine learning, technology development, UX/UI design, engagement and action research. Products include data portals, analytics, dashboards, data pipeline mapping and automation, and most importantly, data capacity building.
Open Cities Lab believes that through:
we will enable participation in decision-making, evidence-based urban intervention, and inclusive co-design that will improve the lives of residents in urban spaces.
A consequence of this will be that African cities will become inclusive, build participatory democracy, and allow everyone, especially the most marginalised, to access their rights.