About us
Our purpose
We aspire to shape new norms for a healthy, sustainable urban future; conspire with and equip Cityzens to be effective change agents; and inspire policy change through data-driven advocacy and storytelling.
What if?
What if we could harness the power of youth, the vitality of physical activity and the potential of citizen science… to make the urban better?
We exist because
Advocacy for climate and health was siloed with missed opportunities to work synergistically to advocate for action that achieves health and climate benefits.
Activists were driven by passion and desire for urgent action but were seldom equipped with opportunities to generate large-scale lived environment data to inform their advocacy efforts and enhance both their self-efficacy and the effectiveness of their engagements with decision-makers.
The scale of the challenge requires radical collaboration but we found that even in the same city, like-minded people were insufficiently connected, an issue critical to amplifying and accelerating action and impact.
Our opportunity
Citizen-generated data can serve as citizen observatories, complementing other data-driven initiatives to inform health, climate, and SDG actions, and advance inclusiveness, openness, and transparency in public policy.
Equipping youth to use citizen science for data-driven storytelling provides income-generating and career advancement opportunities while enabling participation in advocacy for healthy, sustainable urban development.
The future we envision
For Africa: With the youngest population worldwide, African youth can and should lead a data-driven global advocacy movement for healthy, sustainable environments.
For citizen science: Participatory data gathering on planetary health risks and assets can be transformative for inclusive policy change and youth-led activism.
For people using public spaces: Individuals who use public spaces for physical activity, whether for travel or leisure, can act as citizen science advocates for healthy, sustainable spaces while reclaiming public spaces for healthy behaviours.
For technology: Utilising technology to dynamically measure evolving health and climate risks and assets can inform adaptation and mitigation actions.
