Mission and vision

Mission

Kobo’s mission is to host and maintain KoboToolbox and to support open source data systems and technology for humanitarian action, development, environmental protection, peacebuilding, and human rights.

Vision

Humanitarian, development, environmental, peacebuilding, and human rights actions will be informed by high quality and up-to-date data that is generated by and with stakeholder communities and produced using accessible and secure technologies.

Values

• Accessibility: We maintain and support open source tools that are intuitive to use and accessible to all organizations promoting social good. Providing quality tools and services to local actors and volunteer networks, who are often under-resourced, is key to achieving our vision.
• Compatibility: We strive to maintain and contribute to open source projects and standards to ensure compatibility with other tools and to enhance the flexibility of our platforms while minimizing the fragmentation of tools. Building transferable skills, mutual support, and compatible tools is key to achieving our mission.
• Ground truth: Our work is guided by the knowledge and input of our advisory council, by the social impact organizations who use our tools, and by the stakeholders we serve.
• Respect and inclusiveness: Kobo is dedicated to protecting the human rights, autonomy, and dignity of all persons, including our team members, our partners and users, and the communities we serve.

Diversity

Kobo is committed to diversity at all levels of the organization, and we value the benefits that diversity can bring to our board and team. Diversity promotes the inclusion of different perspectives and ideas, mitigates against groupthink, and improves oversight, decision-making, and governance. Diversity includes experience, geography, age, gender, visible minorities, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, sexual orientation, and other social identity groups.

Kobo is also committed to fostering an inclusive culture, based on merit and free of conscious or unconscious bias. At all times, we seek to maintain a board and advisory council composed of dedicated individuals with diverse representation of experience, skills, and backgrounds who collectively reflect the strategic needs of Kobo and the context in which we work.