Who we are

Ushiriki Labs is a social systems design lab working with communities across Africa and the wider Global South to build the technologies, civic power and responsible markets the 21st century demands.

What we do

Ushiriki builds the scaffolding (research, policy frameworks and methods) that lets communities, policymakers and practitioners design better systems together. Through our Technologies, Civic Power and Responsible Markets labs, we turn this knowledge into tools that make communities the architects of the systems that govern their lives, not their subjects.

Why we do it

The old models bet on markets and states, and left people to absorb the consequences. We are betting on people: communities with the knowledge, tools and power to redesign how technology, governance and value work. Ushiriki means participation in Kiswahili, and it is our method: we design social systems alongside the people who live in them.

What we value

Africa and the wider Global South are sites of knowledge production, not just subjects of study. We build from where we stand and invite the world to meet us here.

Those who live with a system understand it best. We treat communities as knowledge co-producers, not data sources, and we hold that no system is working if it treats people as disposable.

We build support that people can climb on, then step back. Ushiriki’s end goal is for communities to one day no longer need us to do what we helped make possible.

We refuse the false choice between analytical rigour and political commitment. Our work is held to the highest standards precisely because it is meant to change things.

Today’s crises are connected, and so are their causes. We look at how technology, power and markets interact, rather than treating problems in isolation.