As an environmental engineer, Hannah Kates simply wished to scrub up air pollution. However with each profession transfer, it was obvious that if you need actual affect, it is advisable go additional upstream. Now, as an American constructing free civic tech instruments in Lagos, her greatest problem isn’t the code; it’s convincing Nigerians she’s not attempting to rip-off them.
Hannah Kates was “by no means that huge on know-how, particularly not pc science,” partial solely to particular missions and outcomes she cared about with know-how as an enabling instrument. This might sound unusual coming from somebody who now builds knowledge instruments and maps transportation methods. However for Kates, know-how has at all times been simply that; a instrument. “It’s at all times simply been one thing that’s required to realize the result I need,” she explains.
That end result? Making cities work higher for the individuals who dwell in them.
The engineer who wished to scrub sewage
Kates grew up in Florida and studied environmental engineering on the Georgia Institute of Know-how, Atlanta. Her aim was refreshingly literal: “I wished to discover ways to clear up air pollution. I wished to discover ways to clear sewage. These are issues on the planet. Let me discover ways to resolve them.”
After graduating, she labored for engineering consulting companies, doing precisely what she’d skilled for. However one thing felt off.
“After I labored in engineering for some time, I began to understand the significance of coverage and concrete planning selections which can be made manner earlier than the engineers become involved,” Kates explains. “After we acquired concerned as an engineering consulting agency, we had been employed to focus inside a selected field on sure issues that individuals had already prioritised for us.”
She couldn’t perceive why sure neighbourhoods acquired constructed, why they related to the sewer system the best way they did, and why some points had been prioritised over others. “As an engineer, you’re actually simply executing on another person’s imaginative and prescient,” she says.
If she wished actual affect, she wanted to go additional upstream.
Following issues to their supply
Kates went to graduate college in New York Metropolis to review city planning and coverage. For 4 years, she labored within the New York Metropolis authorities’s digital innovation crew, attempting to affect selections earlier than engineers acquired concerned.
It ought to have been excellent. However she found two new issues.
“To begin with, issues transfer very slowly, which could be fairly discouraging,” she says. “After which I realised that loads of occasions individuals are making selections primarily based on what they assume is true and intestine emotions, somewhat than actual knowledge.”
Even worse, “folks will simply roll out insurance policies however then by no means really research the affect to see if it achieved the targets they wished or not.”
Kates discovered herself in countless conversations with different public servants about agreed upon good concepts that yielded no matching outcomes. “It feels extra tangible to have the ability to produce a knowledge evaluation or piece of software program somewhat than simply having conversations for years,” she says.
So she realized to code; not in school, however years later, out of pure frustration. She was doing repetitive knowledge evaluation in spreadsheets till she realised that writing code might automate and streamline her course of fully.
Know-how wasn’t fascinating to her. However fixing issues was. And code occurred to be the quickest method to resolve them.
“The site visitors in Lagos is horrible. Everybody is aware of this. The roads are actually congested, and the waterways are an underutilised useful resource that individuals might use to bypass a few of that site visitors.”
— Hannah Kates
In 2021, Kates and her husband decided that will change the whole lot: they moved to Nigeria.
They’d met at a college membership known as Engineers With out Borders and had labored on a water distribution mission in Cameroon. “We each [have] at all times been occupied with discovering methods to focus our careers in that route,” Kates defined.
To determine on Nigeria, they’d accomplished what solely an engineering couple would: Created a spreadsheet rating system.
“We’re metropolis folks,” Kate explains. Lagos stood out for a number of causes: It’s the largest metropolis in probably the most populous nation in Africa. “I believe Nigerians are extra culturally just like Individuals in comparison with different locations in Africa; extra direct, which is useful. The time zone distinction wasn’t unhealthy. And crucially, the large tech ecosystem was actually interesting to each of us.”
The language issue was notably vital. Kates and her husband had labored in Vietnam, the place they didn’t converse the language. “We had been capable of expertise firsthand how limiting that may be. We had pals who spoke English, however as a result of it wasn’t their native language, there have been nonetheless sure [times] the place it was simply tougher to attach on a deeper degree.”
They visited Lagos a number of occasions earlier than shifting. COVID delayed their plans by two years. However in 2021, they lastly made the transfer.
Kates has now lived in Lagos for four-and-a-half years.
The data hole
When Kates arrived in Lagos, she was struck by a spot she felt extra data might resolve. “The site visitors in Lagos is horrible. Everybody is aware of this,” she says. “The roads are actually congested, and the waterways are an underutilised useful resource that individuals might use to bypass a few of that site visitors.”
The potential time financial savings are huge. Driving from Epe to the Island can take three hours. Taking the ferry? Forty minutes. Generally twenty, relying on currents.
“However I used to be simply actually shocked once I moved right here and realized that lots of people simply by no means even take into consideration the ferries,” Kates says. “They don’t know the place they’re. They don’t know the place they go. It’s simply not one thing that has ever crossed their thoughts. And there’s additionally not loads of details about them on-line, or generally the data isn’t as correct.”
There are different obstacles—many Lagosians are afraid of water, and swimming isn’t broadly taught. However the data hole felt solvable.
“Fixing the data hole downside was one thing that felt fairly straightforward to resolve,” Kates says. So she determined to construct the Lagos Ferry Map.
Digging for knowledge
Kates, alongside her crew of information analysts and subject contractors who acquire knowledge, are constructing the Lagos Ferry Map. “I believe when folks see that you may construct one thing like that with such a small crew, while you’re simply actually dedicated and passionate, and it’s clearly on the market at no cost for the general public, you form of simply have to indicate them that we’re dedicated, we’re on this for the fitting causes,” she explains.
However getting the information isn’t at all times straightforward.
“The contractors face slightly resistance at a number of the ferry terminals once they present up and begin asking questions. The workers working on the facility didn’t wish to give them any data as a result of they wished some type of official approval letter that defined the mission.”
Even after amassing the information, Kates found one thing stunning: Virtually all of the ferries—even government-operated ones—work on a ‘fluid schedule.’
“A few of them say on-line that they’ve a selected departure time, however the actuality is that they nonetheless wait till the boat fills up earlier than they depart,” she explains. “In the event you’re banking on that boat leaving at 7:30 so you can also make it to a gathering on time, and you then realise it’s going to attend one other quarter-hour until the boat fills up, that limits folks’s capacity to actually depend on and belief the ferry.”
She was additionally shocked by how restricted ferry service is on the mainland, the place most Lagosians dwell. “There’s an enormous stretch from Yaba as much as Epe that’s simply fully not served by ferries proper now. I believe that’s simply an enormous missed alternative.”
“The contractors face slightly resistance at a number of the ferry terminals once they present up and begin asking questions. The workers working on the facility didn’t wish to give them any data as a result of they wished some type of official approval letter that defined the mission.”
— Hannah Kates
Constructing the know-how was the straightforward half. The tougher half? Convincing folks she wasn’t attempting to make cash from it.
“When folks hear that I’m volunteering my crew’s time to work on a few of these points, we’re constructing the ferry map on our personal, to not make cash, however as a result of we imagine it’s the fitting factor to do, I undoubtedly get met with skepticism,” Kates says. “Folks simply at all times assume that you just’re solely going to do one thing in the event you’re going to make cash from it.”
This was her actual tradition shock. Not the site visitors, not the warmth, not even the formality of calling folks by honourifics. It was navigating public mistrust.
“If I talked about these sorts of tasks within the US, nobody would query them as a result of individuals are simply a lot extra used to folks doing a majority of these issues out of real curiosity in attempting to make issues higher,” she explains. “That’s additionally a privilege that comes with increased GDP per capita, the place folks can afford to fund ardour tasks.”
Kates’s resolution is easy: present sincerity by means of motion.
“The very best I can do is simply present my sincerity of how and why I’m enthusiastic about this and give attention to the explanation for doing it,” she says. “When folks see that you just’re honest and real, they usually’re capable of see how progress could be made fairly shortly with a small crew, that at all times impresses folks.”
Organising partnerships with authorities companies has required the identical persistence and trust-building course of. Public Tech Studio is at present piloting a knowledge assortment partnership with the Lagos State Waterway Authority.
What open knowledge actually means
Earlier than the ferry map, Kates labored on open knowledge tasks at Stears, a knowledge and intelligence publication primarily based in Lagos. That’s the place she refined her philosophy on what ‘open knowledge’ ought to really imply.
“Open knowledge essentially is knowledge that’s made fully out there to the general public,” she explains. “The difficulty is simply that governments present open knowledge in a format that isn’t user-friendly and is tough to entry.”
“It’s not simply placing the information on the market, making a spreadsheet out there for obtain. It’s enthusiastic about how we visualise this knowledge to make it very easy to get the vital insights, make it actually intuitive.”
That is the place her engineering background serves her properly. “I’m only a very visible particular person. I normally simply instantly begin enthusiastic about how I’d wish to visualise the insights from a knowledge set.”
At Stears, she led the information visualisation coaching curriculum. She even briefly managed the advertising and marketing crew as a result of “they wished me to assist implement higher knowledge evaluation practices.”
“Stears actually set the bar for what high-quality data-driven journalism and evaluation seems to be like,” Kates says. “That degree of rigour continues to be a spot within the media trade right here.”
Constructing for the following 5 years
Since departing Stears, Kates has launched Public Tech Studio beneath which the ferry mapping mission sits. Now, they’re engaged on tasks much more formidable than the ferry map.
“Our aim is to offer a holistic view of how all these totally different public transportation companies join with one another—or don’t,” she explains. They wish to map all types of public transport so folks can “be extra intentional about assessing authorities plans to see if deliberate expansions will do a great job of fixing mobility and connectivity gaps.”
However the mission she’s most enthusiastic about may be probably the most basic: inhabitants estimates.
“Nobody is aware of how many individuals really dwell right here, and that’s so vital for principally any work anybody’s doing,” Kates says. “In the event you’re within the personal sector, it is advisable know what number of clients there are. In the event you’re within the public sector or nonprofit, it is advisable perceive how many individuals need assistance or companies.”
A number of analysis establishments have produced inhabitants estimates utilizing satellite tv for pc imagery and machine studying, with densities estimated on the square-kilometer degree. “However these sources aren’t very well-known, they usually’re all printed in these large huge knowledge recordsdata that require geospatial knowledge expertise.”
Public Tech Studio plans to scrub all these estimates, validate which methodologies are most dependable, and “create quite simple aggregated variations that individuals can obtain, the place you may get LGA inhabitants estimates throughout these totally different knowledge sources.”
It’s unglamorous work. But it surely’s precisely the form of upstream problem-solving that Kates has been chasing her total profession.
“Nobody is aware of how many individuals really dwell right here, and that’s so vital for principally any work anybody’s doing. In the event you’re within the personal sector, it is advisable know what number of clients there are. In the event you’re within the public sector or nonprofit, it is advisable perceive how many individuals need assistance or companies.”
— Hannah Kates
The lengthy view
Kates is cautiously optimistic about African tech’s future.“I’m actually nervous concerning the affect of AI on job alternatives for junior tech expertise,” she admits. “It’s going to be a lot simpler for firms to leverage AI to perform the identical work. Coaching folks takes loads of vitality and sources.”
However she additionally sees alternative. “Nigerians are actually fast to undertake new know-how. There are lots of people studying how one can use these instruments and leverage them. I believe there’s hopefully a possibility for Nigerians to truly get forward in comparison with folks in different elements of the world.”
There’s additionally an additional benefit within the civic tech house, “I imagine AI will probably be good for civic tech as a result of it should allow cash-strapped non-profits and advocacy teams to construct tech options extra inexpensively. Hiring high quality software program expertise has been an enormous price barrier for a majority of these organisations. I’m actually bullish on vibe coding. I wish to work with nonprofits to teach them by means of the method of constructing merchandise with AI and displaying them what’s attainable on their very own.”
All in all, Kates is attempting to tempo herself and never “do too many issues directly.” Thus far, the reception to the ferry map has been encouraging.
“I’m actually optimistic,” she says merely.
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