Get involved: Mapping community-centered AI tools for climate action in the Global Majority

Denisse Albornoz
20 April 2026

Across the Majority World, communities, grassroots organizations, and non-profit actors are building AI systems to address climate justice. However, many remain overlooked or underrepresented in global conversations about AI and climate.


As part of our AI for Climate Action initiative, which explores how AI technologies can be  re-imagined and re-directed by centering locally developed, and community-centered models in Majority World contexts, we will conduct research to explore AI adoption in the context of climate action. Over the next two months, we will map twelve case studies of AI tools developed, adapted or led by non-profit organizations, local researchers, grassroots cooperatives and other non-state or community actors to address climate challenges.

Mapping AI for climate action in the Global Majority

Our approach to finding and selecting these case studies is guided by a climate justice lens. By mapping these cases, we aim to understand and highlight how communities most affected by climate change are at the frontlines of innovation, exercising agency and developing grounded, locally relevant responses in contexts of injustice. We are particularly interested in less documented but meaningful cases of AI adoption and adaptation that showcase what a community-centered approach to AI can support climate action in contexts of crisis but also of possibility.

We are looking for cases that are:

  • Based in Latin America, Africa, and Asia (with a focus on South, Southeast, and Southwest Asia)
  • Led by community-based actors throughout the AI lifecycle. This includes a form of meaningful participation in the design, development, deployment or decommissioning of the tool
  • Using AI tools or systems that are responsive to specific cultural, social, and infrastructural contexts. This includes AI tools used in environments with limited access to hardware, infrastructure, or reliable connectivity (e.g. frugal AI, TinyML or small AI, low-tech or edge AI, minimal computing or similar)
  • Designed or adopted to contribute to climate action. This may include, but is not limited to, environmental monitoring, climate adaptation tools, climate education, advocacy efforts, or other approaches addressing climate challenges.

After identifying the case studies, we will conduct in-depth interviews with practitioners, developers, and researchers, to understand not only the characteristics of the tools they have chosen to adopt, but also the stories, relationships and negotiations behind these choices. We will pay close attention to whose knowledge informs these systems, makes decisions about their use, and how benefits and risks are assessed and governed across the AI lifecycle.

Get involved: Share initiatives with us

If you are working on or experimenting with AI for climate action, or if you know of initiatives we should learn from, we invite you to participate in this research. Even if you have only heard of a case through word of mouth, or if an initiative is still in development, we would love to learn about it. You can share an initiative by completing our survey [available in: ES, PT, FR] or by sharing this call in your networks doing relevant work.

SURVEY

Get involved: Searching for consultants

We are also seeking three experienced qualitative researchers to support this work. 

These roles involve conducting multilingual desk and primary research across three target regions: South Asia, South East Asia and South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA). Consultants will draw on their contextual knowledge to identify relevant case studies, conduct interviews, and synthesize findings into case studies in regionally relevant languages. 
You can find more information about the Terms of Reference here.

Denisse Albornoz

Denisse leads The Engine Room's community-centred research design.

Call for applications: UXD support for internet freedom tools supporting social justice

Denisse Albornoz
9 April 2026

At The Engine Room, we work to build an ecosystem of digital tools that are values-aligned and reflect the needs of activists and targeted communities across the Global Majority. As part of this work, and as a service provider for OTF’s User Experience & Discovery (UXD) Lab, we conduct no-cost UX research projects to improve the usability and accessibility of open source, privacy-preserving internet freedom tools that provide protections against surveillance, censorship, and repression to those advancing social justice on the ground. 

We are currently selecting tools for our next UX research cycle. If you are an open-source tool developer seeking to improve the usability and accessibility of your tool, this opportunity may be relevant to you.

What is the OTF UXD Lab? 

The UXD Lab is dedicated to improving the user experience design of internet freedom tools by helping projects better understand the needs of their user communities, and supporting them to make their tools more usable and accessible to diverse audiences.

OTF supports technology-focused projects that advance internet freedom, and counter repressive online censorship and state surveillance. Such projects include circumvention and anti-censorship tools, privacy-enhancing technologies, and tools that support resilience during internet shutdowns, among others.

The Engine Room at the UXD Lab

At The Engine Room, we have provided over ten years of user experience (UX) research. As we have said in the past, we strongly believe that resource-constrained human rights defenders, activists, and journalists, especially those in repressive environments in the Global Majority, should be primary user groups for internet freedom tools. Based on our experience, these groups can provide crucial feedback to the developers and designers of internet freedom tools, providing evidence on what works, how, and in what context. 

In our UX research, we are very intentional in placing context and community perspectives at the center of our methodology and analysis. When approaching usability and accessibility, we take a community-centered approach, recognizing that barriers to technology extend beyond technical usability to include structural inequalities and vulnerabilities faced by populations most impacted by injustice. We focus on understanding these structural barriers, such as limited connectivity, restricted access to devices, low digital literacy, and heightened risks in surveillance-heavy environments. By taking these realities into account, we are able to provide more holistic recommendations, including product improvements, community outreach strategies, further research needs, and other context-specific considerations.

Last year we provided UX support to a variety of tools that support documentation for human rights defenders, a privacy and security-oriented operating system, open-source platform for mobile device forensics and digital investigations, and a secure platform for aggregating, displaying, and sharing data on digital security threats and attacks facing global civil society, connecting them to users in Latin America, Africa, South East and South West Asia and North Africa. 

UX research services

Within the UXD Lab, The Engine Room works under the User Discovery category to provide the following services:

  • Exploratory research: We can work with you to better understand the needs of a specific community in relation to a particular context, time, or type of threat or harm to internet freedom that could be addressed through technology.
  • Secure user research: We can explore your current user base, how tools work in specific contexts, and how your organization can best reach specific communities. This may involve interviews, focus groups, journey and systems mapping, as well as audience analysis and early adopter mapping.
  • User testing and feedback: We can develop and facilitate user testing and feedback sessions that inform platform design decisions and help you better understand those using your tool.
  • Support in designing sustainable user feedback flows: We can design sustainable and meaningful feedback systems for the communities most in need of your products and services.

This research could be a good fit for your team if, for example, you are wanting to understand how the tool is landing in specific contexts facing risks, reach potential users in a different or new context, particularly in the Global Majority, or overall, get a better and holistic understanding of current user needs, and others. 

How to receive support

You can learn more about the UXD Lab on their website and apply for support via the UXD Lab Support Request form. If you would like support filling out this form or have any additional questions about the process, you can contact us directly at uxdlab@theengineroom.org.

Denisse Albornoz

Denisse leads The Engine Room's community-centred research design.

Help Us Map Responses to Tech-Facilitated Intimate Partner Violence Affecting Young Women and LGBTIQ+ Activists

Denisse Albornoz
10 July 2025

We are excited to share that we are starting a new project in partnership with the Numun Fund to map organizations and community responses addressing technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV), specifically intimate partner violence (IPV) affecting girls, young women and LGBTIQ+ activists in the Majority World.


WHY THIS WORK MATTERS

TFGBV includes a range of harms, including harassment, stalking, non-consensual image sharing, doxing, and threats enabled or amplified through digital technologies. As internet and smartphone access grows in the Majority World, these forms of abuse are becoming more pervasive. According to UN Women, up to 85% of women globally have witnessed or experienced online violence, with 58% of young women reporting harassment on social media. 

Their frequent use of digital platforms makes young women especially vulnerable to TFGBV. This project is particularly concerned about the ways in which digital tools are being used to extend intimate partner violence (IPV). Women who are or have been in abusive intimate relationships can experience higher levels of TFGBV as current and former partners are, in many cases, the perpetrators of TFGBV. Perpetrators are leveraging new technologies such as GPS tracking, recording technologies and sensors to surveil, control and create an environment of intimidation.  

For LGBTIQ+ communities, the situation is even more complex. Currently, there is a limited understanding of how technology is used in IPV scenarios affecting queer communities. This is in large part due to a culture of silence especially in contexts where LBTQI+ identities are legally criminalised or socially punished, and a  lack of recognition that violence in non-heteronormative contexts is different and requires different forms of support. The issue is especially alarming as trans women are reported as experiencing the highest rates of online violence. 

This mapping hopes to gather insights from organizations on the ground who can offer expert perspectives not only on key challenges surrounding tech-facilitated forms of abuse affecting young women and LGBTIQ+ individuals in relationships, but also on how technologies can be leveraged as a site of response to bring targeted and safe access to support for survivors.

ABOUT OUR RESEARCH

We want to hear directly from community-based groups, especially those who may not have high visibility but are making a significant impact on the ground. Through this research project, we are hoping to:

  • Identify established and emerging organizations and community groups addressing tech-facilitated intimate partner violence in the Majority World.
  • Understand emerging needs and challenges they face, in light of new emerging technologies, and evolving understandings of intimate partner violence affecting girls, young women and LGBTIQ+ communities. 
  • Document the strategies used to support survivors, with an emphasis on understanding how technology is being used as a site of response to tech-facilitated IPV. 

This project is part of our ongoing effort to uplift community-led responses at the intersections of gender and technology. We are currently providing direct support to organizations who are leveraging technology to amplify marginalized voices, foster safer digital spaces, and strengthen collective responses to gender-based violence, both online and offline.

Through this research we hope to gain a better understanding of the emerging needs of organizations addressing TFGBV and IPV across the Majority World, identify opportunities for solidarity and collaboration across the ecosystem and ensure our support initiatives are grounded in local realities.

GET INVOLVED: PARTICIPATE IN OUR SURVEY

If you are part of a social justice organization, collective, or activist working in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia or the SWANA region to address technology-facilitated intimate partner violence we invite you to participate in our survey. 

The survey takes about 15–20 minutes to complete and is available in English and Spanish. All responses will be handled confidentially and with care, with no identifying information shared without consent.

We are especially hoping to include emerging or “less visible actors” whose work may not appear in search results but are leading on meaningful and impactful work on the ground. If you know of any such organizations, we would greatly appreciate your help in connecting with them.

Fill out the survey form here available in English and Spanish by July 30.

If you are interested in this topic and would like to learn more or collaborate, please reach out to Denisse at denisse@theengineroom.org. We look forward to learning more about your work and building new connections!

Denisse Albornoz

Denisse leads The Engine Room's community-centred research design.

Meet us in Chile for a discussion about emerging technologies and cyberfeminisms

Denisse Albornoz
25 October 2024

Leer en español

In November, Denisse, Nathaly, Bárbara, and Paola will be in Santiago, Chile, participating in LACIGF and facilitating a space for inspiration and co-creation around the tensions and challenges that cyberfeminism faces with the rise of emerging technologies.

Internet Governance Forum

From November 7, we’ll be at the Latin America and Caribbean Internet Governance Forum (LACIGF). The event will address challenges related to emerging technologies, human rights, gender, diversity, sustainability, among others. At The Engine Room, we approach this space with curiosity and the desire to continue connecting with ideas that help us keep reimagining a digital space that is fairer, more inclusive, and rooted in trust, hope, and joy.

The team wil be exploring new ideas and questions:

  • Nathaly would like to hear more about how we are developing strategies and questions that allow us to envision internet governance that incorporates a healthier relationship to, and care for, the environment and for other species.
  • Paola is interested in exploring and proposing ways to reimagine the design and use of technologies from the South to achieve equitable and sustainable societies, and reflecting on where there are opportunities for collaboration across the Global Majority.  
  • Bárbara is especially interested in conversations around the intersection of gender and diversity and excited to connect with other individuals and organizations in the region who are considering internet governance from a feminist perspective.
  • Denisse has been reflecting on how we can think about emerging technologies from a perspective of care, and is looking for cases where these have been used in this way; for example, to monitor the health of the ecosystems we inhabit or to preserve community knowledge.

We invite you to explore these and other topics with us! If there’s a space where you think we should be— whether as speakers or participants — please don’t hesitate to reach out at hello@theengineroom.org.

Join us to reflect and create Zines for a Cyberfeminist Pluriverse

After LACIGF, we invite you to join us to continue the conversation around emerging technologies, this time from a cyberfeminist perspective.

On November 9, we’ll be on the Patio of Mezcla Cafetería from 11am to 2pm to share a morning of inspiration and collective creation around how we can continue building a feminist internet in the face of the challenges posed by new technologies and the surveillance, extraction, and control they make possible.

We will reflect and share prompts on three themes:

  1. “Emerging” Technologies: Reflections on new technologies that challenge, surprise, or excite us, as well as on what technologies might “emerge” or be possible from a cyberfeminist standpoint.
  2. Bodies and Territories: Reflections on the material dimension of the internet and how we feel the impacts of new technologies on our bodies and territories.
  3. Knowledge and Practice: Reflections on other ways of developing and coexisting with digital technologies and the different forms of know-how that should be central to the worlds we seek to build. 

With the reminder that “other worlds are possible” and in collaboration with the collective Hambre Hambre Hambre, we will design and co-create zines to record our questions, everyday resistances, and the futures we imagine from our diverse ways of being, inhabiting, and resisting in the world.

If you would like to share a provocation in this space or simply participate in the reflection and zine creation, you can find more details and sign up in our registration form.

We’ll see you in Santiago!

Denisse Albornoz

Denisse leads The Engine Room's community-centred research design.