Peer-Assisted Smartphone Learning to Support Participatory App-Design with Pastoralist Communities in Northern Kenya
In pastoral regions of northern Kenya, participatory design processes offer new opportunities for inclusive digital innovation. However, despite familiarity with numbers, limited reading and digital literacy pose fundamental challenges to meaningful engagement among pastoralists.
This presentation explores how peer-assisted smartphone learning can bridge digital literacy gaps among Borana and Rendille pastoralists participating in the co-design of a rangeland monitoring application. Two local teams, consisting of livestock keepers and other community members were involved in the > 6-month co-design process. Data to assess the process were collected through interviews, workshops, and Most Significant Change sessions.
The presentation will highlight how this incremental digital engagement created “layered impacts”: building individual confidence, strengthening community information flows, and enabling meaningful participation in technology co-design. Participants developed transferable skills that prepared them for using the rangeland monitoring app while improving collective decision-making and emergency communication.
This case study offers valuable insights into Progressive Participatory Design approaches and demonstrates how peer-supported learning can foster inclusive digital innovation in communities with limited literacy. The findings contribute to understanding how technology design can be truly participatory and culturally responsive.
