The Listening Engine
The Global Majority Data Project doesn't just make existing data searchable. It connects to 60 Decibels' active global survey network to create a continuous listening engine — one that can be pointed at the world's most pressing questions, at scale, in real time.
Proof of Concept
In April 2020, as COVID-19 began reshaping economies and health systems worldwide, 60 Decibels showed what a global listening engine can do.
Within weeks, we added six COVID-related questions into all active surveys across geographies. The result was one of the fastest global views of how underserved and marginalized populations were experiencing the pandemic — shared publicly through global reports and interactive dashboards, deep dives into specific populations like Kenyan farmers, and partner collaborations with organizations like Mercy Corps AgriFin — helping funders, investors, and operators respond in real time.
The Global Majority Data Project takes this proven model and makes it permanent, scalable, and available to any partner who needs to listen.
How It Works
Phase 1 creates a privacy-preserving, AI-enabled foundation that allows approved users to query millions of past interviews through a simple, natural-language interface — powered by Signal, 60 Decibels' data platform — and receive aggregated insights and de-identified excerpts.
Foundations, policymakers, researchers, and investors can explore patterns in natural language. This allows leaders to incorporate lived experience into strategy discussions immediately — before commissioning new research.
"How are rural households in East Africa describing access to primary healthcare?"
"What themes emerge in how women entrepreneurs talk about financial stress?"
"Where are climate shocks most closely associated with income volatility?"
60 Decibels maintains a network of ~2,000 trained researchers conducting ~200,000 interviews per quarter across dozens of countries. Because this infrastructure is already in motion, we can add targeted questions on priority topics into upcoming survey waves — at global scale and with rapid turnaround. Partners can shape the questions being asked, continuously expanding the shared evidence base.
Partners use the existing dataset to sharpen hypotheses and identify knowledge gaps — then deploy targeted new questions across a broad, comparable base. Within weeks, fresh insights flow back into the system, enriching the shared dataset and informing deeper studies where needed.
This is research leverage. Instead of starting from zero with bespoke studies, partners start with a searchable base of millions of lived-experience interviews, surface patterns immediately, refine their questions, and then add targeted modules into an active survey infrastructure reaching ~200,000 people per quarter.
Faster learning. Sharper design. Research dollars focused where deeper inquiry will matter most.
See example use cases →