Datum Africa Initiative Launches Dedicated Website

Datumafrica.org now serves as the home of the Datum Africa Initiative — mission content, research, programs, and partnerships — clearly separated from the datum.africa data platform.

For years, Datum Africa existed in two forms: a data platform where African contributors built and shared datasets, and an initiative with a distinct mission — advancing open data research, community programs, and institutional partnerships across the continent. These two identities shared a home, and that created friction.

The launch of datumafrica.org resolves that friction. This website is the home of the initiative. It tells the story of our work, publishes our research, opens applications for our programs, and makes it easy for funders, partners, and collaborators to understand what we do and why it matters.

The platform — datum.africa — continues as the technical infrastructure for African open data. Datasets live there. Contributors build and maintain them there. Platform users have their own home, built for their workflow.

Separating these two presences was a deliberate choice. Initiative-facing content — our theory of change, our research publications, our volunteer programs — belongs in a space designed for it. We believe this separation will make both presences stronger.

datumafrica.org will grow as our work grows. New research, program updates, team additions, and partnership announcements will all live here. We have built it to be manageable — content is managed through Sanity CMS, allowing our team to publish and update without technical barriers.

We are grateful to everyone who has supported Datum Africa's journey to this point. This website represents a new chapter in how we communicate our work and invite collaboration.