+254 720 898 222
Divyam House No. 2, Cedar Road Off Lantana Road Westlands
05 June 2026 | 8:00 AM -9:30 AM (EAT)
The Edge Hotel and Convention Centre - Nairobi, Kenya
When a community health promoter (CHP) in Baringo wants to make the case to her county government for better maternal health services, she shouldn't need a laptop, an internet connection, or a statistics degree. She should be able to pull out her phone, any phone and find the data she needs in seconds.
That is exactly what GROOTS Kenya is building. And at the Global Data Festival (GDF) 2026, we will be showing the world how it works.
Session title: Power in Your Palm: Turning Gender Data and Statistics into Real-Time Grassroots Action Through Inclusive Digital Public Infrastructure
Session type: Training and Lab Hands-on Skill Building and Demonstration
Duration: 90 minutes
Who should attend: National statistical offices, civil society organizations, government planning departments, digital public infrastructure designers, gender equality advocates, and data governance professionals and anyone who believes data should serve the people it represents.
Gender data has never been more available. Governments, international agencies and civil society organizations have invested heavily in producing statistics on gender-based violence, women's land ownership, unpaid care work, school enrollment and employment. Kenya, through the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), maintains some of the most comprehensive gender datasets on the continent.
But availability is not the same as access.
The grassroots women leaders, ward administrators and community champions who could use this data most powerfully are often the last to reach it. Official statistics live in bulky reports, behind institutional websites, or in presentations delivered to audiences who already have power. The people this data is meant to represent are frequently locked out not because the data does not exist, but because the path to it assumes internet access, digital literacy, and institutional connections they do not have.
At GROOTS Kenya, we believe that gender data which cannot be reached by the people it represents has not yet fulfilled its purpose.
iDATA (Innovating Democratized Access to Timely Analytics) is a USSD-based gender data platform co-developed by GROOTS Kenya and KNBS, with technical support from AU Innovation.
USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is the technology that already powers M-Pesa, Kenya's mobile banking revolution. It works on every GSM phone including basic feature phones without any internet connection. A user dials a short code, navigates a simple menu, and receives real-time information directly on their screen.
iDATA applies that same technology to gender statistics. By dialing into the platform, a grassroots advocate can instantly retrieve indicators such as:
The data comes directly from KNBS-validated national datasets, not a shadow system or a workaround, but official statistics made genuinely accessible. The platform was co-designed with grassroots women leaders to ensure the menus, language, and indicators reflect what communities actually need to make their case to decision-makers.
Our 90-minute session is built around doing, not just watching. Here is what participants can expect:
Opening (10 minutes): We frame the gap between gender data production and grassroots access, and explain why a USSD solution not an app, not a dashboard is the right answer for communities in remote and offline settings.
Live demonstration (20 minutes): Our lead facilitator, Dennis M. Njunge (Programmes Coordinator, GROOTS Kenya), will dial the iDATA USSD code live in the room, projected for all to see. Participants with basic feature phones are invited to dial in at the same time. No internet connection will be used at any point. You will watch and experience, gender data arriving in real time.
Behind the platform (15 minutes): Representatives from KNBS and AU Innovation will walk participants through how official gender statistics are structured, validated, and curated for public access. This section speaks to data governance, update cycles, and the institutional accountability that makes iDATA reliable and trustworthy.
Applied Advocacy Lab (25 minutes): This is the heart of the session. Participants will work in small groups to retrieve a gender indicator from the USSD platform and design a real-time advocacy intervention targeting a specific decision-maker. Groups will produce a short pitch and selected teams will present to the room. GROOTS Kenya grassroots champions community women leaders who have already applied gender data in their own advocacy with county governments will be in the room as co-facilitators and living proof of concept.
Replication Clinic (15 minutes): We close by answering the question every participant will be asking: Can we do this where we work? A facilitated discussion will cover the technical architecture, the national statistical office partnership model, the co-design process, and governance requirements for replication. Participants from different sectors and countries will map where they sit in a potential pathway to scale.
iDATA is not just a Kenyan story. It is a model for what becomes possible when official statistics meet inclusive technology and grassroots co-design.
The same infrastructure that delivers M-Pesa to 30 million Kenyans can deliver gender data to women leaders in Kitui or Kakamega. The same principle applies in Tanzania, Ghana, Ethiopia, Bangladesh anywhere grassroots advocates are trying to shift policy without reliable internet access.
The partnership at the heart of iDATA between a national statistical office, a grassroots women's organization, and a technology implementer is itself replicable. This session will give participants not just inspiration, but a concrete framework for how to build those partnerships in their own contexts.
