AI for Civic Data: A Practitioner’s Bootcamp

Agentic AI tools, such as Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and OpenAI Codex, are profoundly changing the way we work with data. For those working in civil society, international cooperation, and the non-profit sector, this shift is both an opportunity and a challenge. On one hand, these tools can significantly accelerate data collection, cleaning, analysis, visualization and communication. On the other, when used without rigour, they can produce errors, biased outputs, or results that are difficult to verify, with real consequences for vulnerable communities and public accountability.

This is why we at ImpactSkills, in partnership with Open Cooperazione and Civic Literacies, are launching “AI for Civic Data”: an intensive training programme designed to meet exactly this need. Our goal is to offer structured, hands-on training to data-adjacent professionals in the non-profit sector, including but not limited to: M&E officers, data communicators, consultants producing evidence for advocacy or programme design, NGO staff maintaining open data,  who are looking for a solid grounding in agentic workflows.

Designed as a professional bootcamp with a strong practical focus, the programme runs over 20 hours across 5 sessions in two weeks, between late June and mid-July, plus an onboarding session and two mentoring sessions between the final lecture and Final project submission. 

The bootcamp will provide participants with the opportunity to integrate agentic AI tools into data collection, verification, analysis, and communication processes through concrete workflows directly applicable to their own professional contexts. The bootcamp goes beyond technical skills — fluency with agentic CLI tools, and data acquisition techniques — and aims to build methodological rigour, where every step is documented and traceable, as well as critical and ethical competence: evaluating AI outputs for accuracy and bias, and protecting the privacy of the data they work with.

The bootcamp will be led by Cédric Lombion, a civic tech and open data practitioner with over a decade of international experience. Throughout his career, he has designed, managed, and fundraised for global data literacy projects, working alongside civil society organisations, governments, journalists, and citizens across sectors as varied as government transparency, environmental justice, public health, and investigative journalism. Since 2015, he has been a coordinator of the international School of Data network.

The bootcamp will be held online, in English. This is a  deliberate choice aiming at opening the programme to an international community of civic tech and cooperation professionals from a wide range of geographic and sociio-political, economic and cultural contexts. At the end of the programme, each participant will develop a final project tied to their own professional work, building a concrete, shareable portfolio of the skills they have acquired.

Curious to explore the bootcamp further?

You can visit the bootcamp page here.

On 9th June, between 17:30 until 18:30 CET, we are hosting a free webinar to present the course: a chance to meet Cédric, explore the programme in detail, and ask any questions you may have.