No invitation needed: a resource for communities on making digital accountability a reality
By Ellie Kemp and Milena Haykowska We are very excited to share that “How to hold organizations accountable for their use of digital technology: a guide for crisis-affected communities” is now out. In a world where tech solutions are built with little input from the communities they affect, this resource helps anyone touched by an […]
Voice isn’t failing LMICs – the data is
Why the data behind voice technology matters A few weeks ago, ICTWorks raised a valid alarm: voice-only interfaces are often failing small businesses in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). At CLEAR Global, we’ve spent years documenting that the problem isn’t the interface, but the foundational data. Voice technology is currently built on a digital divide […]
Lessons from advancing African language AI and insights on data scaling for African Automatic Speech Recognition
Despite substantial increases in investment and research efforts in African language AI, the state of technology for African languages still lags behind major languages like English, French, or Mandarin (Adebara et al. 2025), as well as languages of other Global South regions like India. In this article, we present the results and key learnings from […]
UNICEF and CLEAR Global map the future of language technology in West and Central Africa
Across West and Central Africa, hundreds of millions of people speak languages that barely exist in the digital world. No smartphone operating system, no autocorrect and no translation tool that works reliably in Fulfulde, Lingala or Dioula. To understand the potential for solutions, UNICEF commissioned a comprehensive mapping and language technology landscape from CLEAR Global. […]
The language barrier at the heart of climate action
Sustainable solutions to the climate crisis can’t be designed from the top down. They will come from communities, from the people living on the frontlines of rising seas, failing harvests, and extreme heat. But a global crisis demands a truly global conversation, and right now that conversation is being held in a language most of […]
The Translator Access Pilot is open for volunteers
The past two years have brought exceptional challenges to the nonprofit sector. Reductions in aid, a surge in humanitarian need, and increasing pressure on activists’ rights and freedoms have left many organizations stretched to their limits. The organizations feeling this most acutely are often local and national ones: those closest to the communities they serve, […]
Tarjimly becomes part of CLEAR Global’s mission for language access
We are very excited to announce that Tarjimly is joining CLEAR Global, becoming the newest addition to our suite of tools to promote language access across the world and strengthening our impact. A shared vision for breaking language barriers Since our founding, CLEAR Global has been committed to helping people to get information in their […]
When health information speaks your language: a movement to translate medical knowledge for all
Access to reliable medical information can be a matter of life and death. Yet for billions of people worldwide, health information remains locked behind language barriers. This is the challenge that Wiki Project Med Foundation (WPMEDF) set out to address when they launched MDWiki, a collection of health care articles ready to be translated into […]
The future of language technology and why industry partnership matters
By Britta Aagaard The digital divide runs along linguistic lines. While billions of people now carry powerful computing devices in their pockets, most of the world’s 7,000+ languages remain locked out of the digital revolution. The technology that powers our voice assistants, translation apps, and search engines works beautifully for English, Mandarin, and maybe a […]
Half of the world can’t participate in solutions for the climate crisis because of language barriers
The monsoon rains came early to Pakistan in 2022, transforming rivers into roaring torrents that swallowed entire villages. In Nowshera district, as floodwaters receded and displaced families sought help, language became an invisible barrier as devastating as the floods themselves. Pashto-speaking families who had lost everything found themselves unable to navigate the very systems meant […]