At the heart of our work is a simple but urgent challenge:
Public services don’t always reach people as they should, especially those who need them most.
As Open Cities Lab marks 10 years (yes, ten already 🎉), we’ve seen how complex service delivery environments can quietly reinforce inefficiency and erode public trust.
Misaligned service design.
Fragmented data systems.
Digital infrastructure that doesn’t quite connect.
In these contexts:
• Governments operate under real constraints
• Residents face barriers to accessing services with dignity
• Civic actors struggle to engage systems meaningfully
So we start with the problem.
Because when we rush to solutions, we risk building systems that look impressive but fail the people they’re meant to serve.
We’ve refreshed our website, and with it, we want to re-introduce who we are and where we’re headed.
At Open Cities Lab, our vision is simple but ambitious:
𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗿𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲, 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗱𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲.
We believe: • Better cities start with people. • Digital and physical infrastructure should work together. • Data should inform decisions. • Public services should be designed around how people actually experience them.
Across societies, we see fragmented systems and residents struggling to access services that should be basic. But we also see opportunity: to co-design solutions, build local capacity, strengthen civic actors, and create shared digital infrastructure that governments can own and sustain.
Our refreshed website puts this long-term vision front and centre. Before exploring our products or use cases, we invite you to start with the “why.”
🔗 Follow the link in our bio to explore our vision and the new website.
For African organisations building DPI in practice, one challenge surfaces again and again:
Systems are delivered, but long-term maintenance and local ownership are harder to sustain.
That’s why we’re building the DPI Implementation Network, a growing community of African-owned tech implementers of Digital Public Infrastructure that is built by Africans, for African realities.
This network exists to:
• Grow local implementation capacity
• Reduce dependency on short-term vendors
• Support sustainable, maintainable DPI
• Share real, on-the-ground lessons from implementation
New year, new opportunities! ✨
Open Cities Lab is looking for a Product Manager to join our team in Jan/Feb 2026.
If you’re passionate about using data, digital systems, and product thinking to help cities serve residents better, this could be the role for you.
You’ll work alongside governments and cross-functional teams to shape data strategies, deliver impactful tools, and support more transparent, responsive, and inclusive urban governance.
🔗 Learn more and apply, follow the link in our bio.
No spam. Just honest reflections, useful resources, and stories from our work with cities across Africa.
Subscribe to the Open Cities Lab newsletter and stay in the loop.
🔗 https://lnkd.in/dYU8E2Mv
No spam. Just honest reflections, useful resources, and stories from our work with cities across Africa.
Subscribe to the Open Cities Lab newsletter and stay in the loop.
Follow the link in our bio. 🔗
As we start winding down for the year, we've been reflecting on 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 - one of those truly serendipitous moments in the OCL calendar. It was a "divide-and-conquer" type challenge to be everywhere, all at once - but we did it!
The stages, conversations and impact we experienced was humbling, and a testament to a decade of showing up for African cities in a real, human way. So this article is a celebration of a team that presented Africa (and OCL) in the most impressive way.
It was OCL showing up in full colour for what we so wholeheartedly believe in: A team trusted to work with many others to build African cities where every resident regardless of income, identity or location can access essential services they need with dignity and ease. A team that's passionate about locally grounded digital public infrastructure (DPI) that enables long-term institutional change and supports African cities as they lead their own digital futures.
So, here's a story of 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴: 3-7 November, 2025.
🔗 link in bio
At the MijiBora DPI Side Event, we brought together people who care deeply about better cities to explore what digital public infrastructure can unlock for African cities.
Here are a few of the reflections that stayed with us, as we explored what sustainable service delivery really means, and why translating national DPI ambitions into local government action matters.
@ukinsouthafrica
Earlier this month, on the sidelines of the Global Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) Summit, we gathered with eGov Foundation, @ukinsouthafrica , and 10 South African municipalities for a hands-on MijiBora DPI Side Event.
For most residents, local government is government - the place they turn for water, electricity, housing, safety, and support. It’s where service delivery succeeds or fails.
That’s why, when we talk about Digital Public Infrastructure, we focus on the municipal level. This is where DPI becomes real, where systems meet people, and where partnerships matter most.
Through MijiBora, we’re co-creating digital systems that cities can own, adapt, and sustain, long after external support ends.
We’re building a community of practice where African municipalities learn together, share tools, and collectively benefit from open-source, interoperable digital infrastructure.
Better DPI. Stronger cities. Real impact for residents. 🌍
Earlier this month, OCL’s Product Manager for MyCandidate and MyRep, Ella Alcock, stepped onto the global stage at the World Democracy Forum in France to share a story that began with a simple question:
Why is it difficult to find clear, easy-to-read information about who’s contesting in local government elections, especially for young and first-time voters?
Back in 2021, as South Africans prepared to vote, we noticed that many people didn’t know who their contesting councillors were, or even which ward they lived in. Essential information was buried in lengthy PDFs, making meaningful participation difficult for many people.
So, we built MyCandidate.
A straightforward idea - type in your address and instantly see who’s running, what they stand for, and which ward you’re in, quickly gained traction among thousands of people across South Africa. For many, it was the first time they felt confident in their vote.
As MyCandidate expanded to Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe, a pattern emerged: young people aren’t apathetic, they just need accessible, trustworthy tools to participate.
But then came the next question: what happens after election day?
That’s how MyRep was born. A civic data platform that carries the democratic relationship forward. It turns scattered municipal records like council minutes or meeting attendance reports into searchable information that helps residence track councillor performance and helps reps communicate openly with their communities.
MyRep is currently being piloted with the eThekwini Municipality and forms part of OCL’s broader vision to build open and interoperable civic tools across Africa through shared infrastructure across Africa.
We’re incredibly proud of Ella, proud of this work, and excited for the work ahead. 🌍
We are proud to unveil the Planetary Compendium, a joint undertaking between Berggruen Institute and Dark Matter Labs.
The Planetary Compendium is an evolving wunderkammer of planetary governance. This living archive maps the shifting architectures, imaginaries, and experiments shaping how life on Earth may be organized, sustained, and represented.
Co-developed by Berggruen Institute and Dark Matter Labs, the Compendium brings together historic precedents, emerging experiments, and speculative futures to trace pathways that include the planetary. New and existing entanglements—legal, ecological, technological, spiritual, and beyond—describe our shared condition. This joint initiative invites thinkers and practitioners alike to analyze, sense, and design within the planetary and its extended entanglements as a lived reality.
𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵: Virtual, 18th November 2025, 6pm CET
𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: /87z8jw64 (link in bio)
𝗘𝘅𝗵𝗶𝗯𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Zurich, 22nd November 2025, 6pm CET
𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: /hedfmzob (link in bio)
