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Across Latin America and Africa, civil society faces information disorders, shrinking civic space, restrictive government policies, and collaboration between Big Tech companies and governments that enables increased surveillance. Upcoming elections in 2026 may take place amid anti-NGO legislation, restrictive cybersecurity laws, and uses of artificial intelligence that put civil society under pressure. To help organizations and collectives prepare for this critical election period across both regions, the Engine Room is launching an open call for support.
At The Engine Room, we support partners in navigating digital security and responsible data challenges through our Cybersecurity Assessment Tool and Light Touch Support. As part of that work, we’re excited to host our first Ask Me (Us) Anything: Cybersecurity Edition.
Through our support work at The Engine Room, we’ve been hearing growing questions from communities about AI, including its risks, opportunities, and how to use it responsibly. As part of our ongoing support for civil society organizations using the Cybersecurity Assessment Tool (CAT), we hosted a community call exploring practical and political approaches to AI safety from Global Majority perspectives.
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.
As the climate crisis deepens, influenced by extractive Big Tech infrastructures, groups from the Majority World impacted by these technologies are developing small, resource-efficient, community-centered climate solutions to pressing environmental challenges. Over the next year, we will center those groups in a full-cycle initiative exploring how locally driven, climate resilient AI technologies are designed and developed, and how they can be adopted in care-based and responsible ways.
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.
