Innovation and Equity for E-Participation in South Africa

• Workshop Preparation & Literature Review: Conducted policy analysis and background research on digital participation.
• In-Person Workshop: Brought together practitioners from public, private, and civil society sectors to analyse South Africa’s IDP process and identify challenges and opportunities for technology-assisted public participation.
• Project Plan Development: Structured a vision for an “Augmented Participation” initiative to integrate technology into local governance.
• Blogpost Publication: Published insights on e-participation through the OpenUp platform to share findings with a broader audience. Read here. 

The Lab demonstrated the importance of balancing digital and in-person engagement to foster meaningful public participation. Moving forward, the team plans to conduct further research into the ethical deployment of AI and other emerging technologies in governance. A proposed Phase I research study will assess the role of generative AI in augmenting civic participation, inform policy recommendations, and build an evidence base for developing AI-driven public engagement models in South Africa. Future steps include securing funding for an in-depth research paper, additional workshops, and partnerships with municipalities and community-based organisations.