Opening the Door to Civic Participation in Cape Town
When city governments make decisions, the people most affected don’t have a way to make their voices heard. Turn.io, with support from The Rockefeller Foundation, set out to change that in Cape Town, collaborating with the city’s data analytics hub to build South Africa's first AI-powered platform for residents to participate in local government — in their own language and on their own terms.
The team built three WhatsApp-based AI products to support that goal:
- An alert system for Cape Town’s ward councilors, using AI to translate relevant technical data into up-to-the-minute messages.
- A multilingual platform for residents to submit issues via voice or text, which AI then organizes into relevant city service categories.
- An interface for the public to submit comments on local policy.
The results are showing access is just a first step to something greater: By giving more people a way to communicate, the platform improved the quality and diversity of the feedback, gave leaders a clearer picture of local needs, and fostered public trust — all while modeling what the future of using AI for good can look like.
This project is a big step forward in making it easier for residents to get in touch with the city, to let us know what services they need, what needs fixing, and more. We pledged to digitize more city services, and we’re doing just that. By using technology that meets people where they are — on platforms they already use and in the languages they speak — we are making it possible for thousands of residents to engage in a meaningful way with the city.