Civic engagement
that works
over feature phones
and 2G
Built for African governments and donor programs. Reach every citizen — not just smartphone owners — through USSD, SMS, and offline-first engagement tools.
Governments can't hear
the people they serve
Today's civic engagement platforms assume smartphones, app stores, and reliable broadband. In African cities and rural areas, that's the minority. Existing tools built for European and North American cities leave out the citizens who need a voice most.
Go Vocal, Zencity, and Ushahidi were not built for USSD, feature phones, or intermittent 2G. They cannot reach the 55% of citizens who don't have smartphones — leaving governments with skewed, urban-biased feedback and donors with incomplete impact data.
55% excluded from digital civic tools
Most engagement platforms require a smartphone or data plan. The majority of citizens in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Ghana are locked out.
Governments make decisions on incomplete data
County governments receive feedback only from digitally connected, urban residents — creating systematic blind spots in policy and service delivery.
Donors lack verified impact metrics
NGOs and international programs spend on outreach they cannot measure. No channel to reach offline communities means no evidence of reach.
Three capabilities that
no other platform offers
Every citizen. Every network. Even offline.
Barazer runs natively over USSD — the universal protocol accessible on any mobile phone with any carrier, no data plan required. Citizens dial a short code (e.g. *384#) on a basic Nokia or any feature phone, and their responses flow into your dashboard in real-time. No app install. No smartphone. Works on 2G and even with zero airtime balance.
- USSD, SMS, and IVR channels built-in
- Offline-first sync — responses queue and upload when connectivity returns
- Multi-language support (Swahili, Hausa, Yoruba, Luganda, + more)
- Zero data cost for citizens
The only platform built
for the last mile
Go Vocal, Zencity, and Ushahidi were built for Western cities or crisis mapping. None of them work on a Nokia 3310. Barazer was designed from day one for African infrastructure realities.
| Capability | Barazer | Go Vocal | Zencity | Ushahidi |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works on feature phones (USSD) | ||||
| Zero data cost for citizens | ||||
| Offline-first data sync | ||||
| African language support | ||||
| Real-time sentiment analytics | ||||
| Multi-tenant white-label | ||||
| Built for African markets |
Live in four weeks
Provision a USSD short code
We register a short code with mobile carriers in your country — e.g. *384#. Citizens dial it for free from any mobile phone.
Design your engagement flow
Build surveys, consultations, or feedback forms in our visual editor. Supports branching logic and multi-language responses.
Launch and monitor in real-time
Responses stream into your analytics dashboard. View sentiment trends, geographic breakdowns, and topic clusters as citizens engage.
Generate reports for stakeholders
Export evidence-ready reports for county assemblies, parliament, donor agencies (USAID, DFID, EU), or internal decision-making.
Start with a pilot.
Scale with confidence.
Every engagement starts with a fixed-price pilot onboarding — $2,500 covers full deployment, configuration, staff training, and your first live survey or consultation.
Barazer Pilot Onboarding — $2,500
One-time implementation fee. Full deployment, USSD number provisioning, analytics setup, and staff training. Go live in 4 weeks.
Municipality
City or ward-level councils
- Up to 50,000 citizens reached
- USSD + SMS engagement channels
- Basic sentiment analytics dashboard
- 1 language + English
- Monthly reports
- Email support
County
County governments & programs
- Up to 500,000 citizens reached
- USSD, SMS, IVR + offline sync
- Full sentiment analytics + geo mapping
- Up to 5 languages
- Weekly reports + API access
- Dedicated success manager
- White-label branding
National / Donor Program
National governments, NGOs & international donors
- Unlimited citizen reach
- All channels + custom integrations
- Advanced analytics + donor reporting
- Unlimited languages
- Real-time dashboards + API
- Multi-country multi-tenant
- SLA + enterprise support
- USAID / DFID reporting templates
Reach every citizen.
Not just the connected ones.
Start with a pilot. $2,500 covers full deployment, training, and your first live consultation. Go live in four weeks.
Book a Pilot Deployment — $2,500