From data scarcity to local action: The Kivu Citizen Observer network as an asset for community-led awareness raising

In many low- and middle-income countries, disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation are constrained by data scarcity, limited institutional capacity, and difficulties accessing affected areas. These challenges are particularly acute in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where insecurity, remoteness, and scarce resources hinder monitoring of natural hazard disasters. The Kivu Citizen Observer (Kivu CO) network provides a case study of how citizen science can address these challenges while supporting community-led awareness-raising and evidence-informed policymaking.

Established in 2019, the Kivu CO network mobilizes representatives from the Civil Protection, also deeply rooted in their community, who have been trained to collect real-time information on floods, landslides, wind and hail storms, lightning, and earthquakes using smartphone-based reporting tools connected to an online platform. To date, more than 1.200 disasters have been documented across North and South Kivu provinces, generating the first continuous, geo-referenced dataset about natural hazard disasters occurring in the region. These data are compiled into a WebGIS and regular analytical reports disseminated by local scientists to the Civil Protection, local authorities, NGOs, and other research institutions, supporting disaster response, land-use planning, and risk communication.

Beyond filling critical data gaps, the network strengthens awareness-raising capacity. Citizen observers share their knowledge about hazard processes and how to reduce their impacts; they also act as trusted intermediaries between communities, scientists, and institutions, enhancing awareness, preparedness, and local ownership of risk-related information. At the same time, the initiative highlights key challenges for citizen science in resource-constrained settings, including sustaining volunteer engagement, ensuring participant safety, and integrating community-generated data into formal decision-making frameworks. Citizen science in this context is not an exact replica of what is developing in northern countries.

As such, the Kivu CO experience demonstrates that citizen science can function both as a robust data-generation mechanism and as a catalyst for inclusive, locally grounded adaptation and policymaking in fragile contexts.