Our client, Masakhane Research Foundation, is reclaiming African languages and advancing digital equity through their natural language processing (NLP) community, ensuring that African people and communities are not left out of AI and other technological advances. African languages make up almost one-third of the world’s languages yet remain starkly underrepresented in global technological ecosystems. Mashakane (and their African Language Hub for AI) is on a mission to change this. Masahkane which means we build together in isiZulu uses participatory approaches to build African language technologies, and strengthen and spur NLP research, by Africans, for Africans. By reclaiming and centering African languages, cultures and identities, Mashakane harnesses the power to shape African narratives, build critical technologies and create our own solutions.

The Challenge

Mashankane has grown from an informal community in 2019, to a formally registered not-for-profit research entity  with over 4,000 members across 48 African countries. With this growth came the need for a shared vision and direction, and a strategic plan that could:

• Align the diverse and multidisciplinary network around a shared vision for the future.
• Establish an ambitious strategic pathway and sustainable organisational structure.
• Attract values-aligned funding for the movement and for projects on the community agenda.

How we helped

We led a participatory strategy design process rooted in Masahkane’s values of inclusion, community-building, participation, African-centricity and sustainability. The process started with a community survey to understand collective insights, aspirations, strategic entry points and strengths. We then came together with a diverse group of Masahkane community members – linguists, computer scientists, leadership team and researcher – in Killifi, Kenya to facilitate an intensive 4-day work week. 

We anchored the process in a strategic wireframe that included defining: vision, mission, values and principles, a theory of change (desired outputs, outcomes, impact), strategic pillars, partnerships and resources. The work week was dedicated to co-creating each component of this framework. We started with mapping the journey so far, using appreciative inquiry and storytelling to surface the most relevant insights. Through collective visioning the group crafted a compelling vision, mission and refreshed their existing values and principles. By reviewing different topics surfaced by the groups in an open space, we identified the three strategic pillars that became the central content of the strategy: community building, research and institutional strengthening. To explore strategic potential we used a scenario planning method to stimulate critical thinking about risks, opportunities and pathways. The group also spent time sketching out their operational model, including mapping their aspirational community engagement process and developing key personas for the type of members that should make up a generative and diverse community. Importantly, having articulated the strategic components, we spend time considering the ways of working necessary to make the strategy real. Following the work week, we documented all the outputs from the process and ran a series of community validation and consultation sessions to refine the content developed. This was finally pulled together in the final 5-year strategy document.

The impact

We handed over a comprehensive strategy document that now lays the foundations for Masahkane’s next 5 years. This document covered their strategic direction, their planned activities and a five-year budget. The strategy provides Masakhane with the organisational clarity and roadmap for the future – it is a tool for securing funding, engaging partners, establishing hiring and other operational needs, and staying anchored in the organisation’s values. In the 6 months after the work week, Masakhane secured multi-million dollar in multi-year funding. 

“The team gave so much to us, in terms of working to tailor the tasks and facilitation needs for our physical event, and the writing and development of a strategy. Having people outside of our organisation, gave us perspective on how we could grow and who we would need to hire to get there. Discussions, operations and execution is smoother now that we have the strategy as a guiding document. We are still working to operationalise it, but it is a relief to have a guide that can keep us on track and to help us note progress. Engaging with new potential partners and funders is much easier given that we can direct them to our strategy document for them to learn about the organisation and our priorities. Producing this document helped in terms of building faith with funders…[w]e have managed to enter into a multi-year collaboration with a team of funders and our strategy has been the basis of structuring the new endeavour…a good number of our envisioned activities are funded. A win is a win, and the ecosystem is certainly winning.”

– Kathleen Siminyu, Masakhane Research Foundation Leadership Team