This blog post is third in a series highlighting the work of the 2024 Charles F. Kettering Global Fellows for Advancing Inclusive Democracies. CFK Global Fellows is an initiative of the Democracy around the Globe focus area with the goal of fostering an international community of partners to promote and defend inclusive democracies.

Thinking about democracy can seem like a luxury for those struggling to provide food for their families. This is a challenge that Courteney Mukoyi, a member of the 2024 CFK Global Fellowship for Advancing Inclusive Democracies, encountered in his work in Zimbabwe. A self-described human rights defender, Mukoyi is the founder of the Justice Code Foundation, which uses civic tech to protect and advance human rights. 

To develop a focus for his fellowship project, he took a deep dive into the issues within two adjacent communities, the city of Mutare and the village of Penhalonga. Mukoyi discovered two critical challenges this area was facing: lack of food and persistent drought. Zimbabwe is among several countries severely affected by climate change. Flash floods and heat waves have contributed to long-term drought that has degraded much of the country’s farmland. Vegetal and environmental damage from urban mining, deforestation, and urban farming are also rising concerns, and there are few ongoing efforts focused on environmental rehabilitation. 

The situation led Mukoyi to experiment with a new approach to the issue, and to democracy, one that would allow citizens to engage civically while helping resolve issues that make accessing and growing food difficult. He needed to connect the dots between the persistent droughts, opportunities for citizen engagement, and democracy itself. “It was a difficult task to take the principles of democracy and apply them to a climate change project,” he said. 

To help address the problem, Mukoyi developed ARDHI, a tech tool that uses open-source platforms to find satellite images of Mutare and Penhalonga. Available images show how much vegetation has been lost in recent years. ARDHI then uses an algorithm to create images that predict how much vegetation will be present in the future if conditions continue. The name ARDHI, which comes from the Swahili word for “land,” was chosen by Mukoyi to reflect the tool’s purpose of helping people protect their land. 

Mukoyi sought community-based organizations to mobilize community members, and later, leaders. The intended goal was to raise awareness of the problem and to promote sustainable practices in the two communities. By providing past, present, and predicted future images of the impact on local lands, Mukoyi hoped to empower citizens to better understand how climate change affects their daily lives. He knew that it wasn’t enough for people to recognize the importance of climate issues; it was also necessary for them to see that they could address these issues if they acted together as a community. This was the democratic lesson. He and a small team of colleagues convened with residents three times. 

Despite this work still being in its early stages, Mukoyi has already seen an impact. One of the organizations he worked with to hold the public meetings has now initiated a climate justice program. And there are community-based organizations now working on mineral resource governance, climate change, and the environment within the two communities. They are using the ARDHI platform. 

Mukoyi’s underlying goal for this project was to promote “thick democracy,” a democracy where citizens have avenues to effect change. In working toward this democratic goal, his project sought to empower the citizens of Mutare and Penhalonga, helping them gain greater control of their environmental, social, and economic circumstances. 

Lisa Boone-Berry is the content development specialist for Democracy around the Globe.

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The Charles F. Kettering Global Fellowship for Advancing Inclusive Democracies is a six-month program designed to promote leadership in global civil society and to nurture and support those working to build inclusive democracies around the world.