How some farmers in Senegal, who struggle to read or write, use WhatsApp voice notes to collaborate with NGOs and researchers and learn new farming practices
Jack Thompson / Rest of World : Twitter: @lokimicap , @globalwa , @gquaggiotto , @jack__thompson , @followlori , and @jack__thompson Twitter: @lokimicap : I don't like how Meta collects and handles our data, though I understand the business model, and some $META bulls are obnoxious and cringy. But the company knows how to make money and its products do a lot of good. An example is 👇 https://restofworld.org/... @globalwa : WhatsApp voice notes are revolutionizing farming in Senegal For farmers in Senegal who struggle to read or write, sending voice notes has unlocked a new world of collaboration across the industry. Clever! https://restofworld.org/... #whatsapp #nptech #smallholderfarmers #senegal Giulio Quaggiotto / @gquaggiotto : “I want to open myself to the world, I want to learn so many things; any producer who wants to advance has to be on WhatsApp. We all speak Wolof, Diola, and some Manding that are difficult to write. Voice notes let us carry on the dialogue” https://restofworld.org/... @jack__thompson Jack Thompson / @jack__thompson : An unlikely story about how a function on a phone app can change the face of an industry. For @restofworld I find out how voicenotes are unleashing the collective power of farmers in Senegal, helping them adapt to climate change & the war in Ukraine. https://restofworld.org/... Lori Regattieri / @followlori : “Even though French is the official language of Senegal, most people in the country speak Wolof, Pulaar, or Diola. These languages are primarily oral and not written, said Nick. Nor do they have a phone keyboard adapted to the languages' intricacies.” https://twitter.com/... Jack Thompson / @jack__thompson : Really interesting that low literacy in Africa is as much of a linguistic issue as it is educational - languages like Wolof, Pulaar or Diola are primarily oral & not written. Thanks to Sophie Nick @Com4Dev, @absambodj, El Hadji Abdoulaye Biteye & the many farmers who spoke to me.
Context & Ripple Effects
This story is the on-the-ground proof of a prediction tech reporters made years ago: as coverage of the next billion internet users noted, lower literacy rates in developing markets push product design toward voice, video, and images over text. Senegalese farmers who struggle to read or write — working in languages like Pulaar, Diola, and Manding alongside French — have landed on WhatsApp voice notes as the interface that lets them collaborate with NGOs and researchers on farming practices without a text bottleneck.
First-order effects
- NGOs and researchers gain a working channel to low-literacy farmers: voice notes remove the reading requirement that text-based extension materials and messaging impose, so agricultural guidance reaches people text never could.
Second-order effects
- Meta's push to turn WhatsApp into a paid business messaging platform — aggressively courting organizations onto its messaging products — finds an organic development-sector use case, and other NGOs and ag programs can replicate the voice-note model on the same free infrastructure.
Third-order effects
- WhatsApp keeps consolidating as default infrastructure in markets Meta doesn't have to build for — from conflict-zone communication by White Helmets and UN agencies to niche communities repurposing it for everything from blood donations to prayers — which concentrates civic and development communication on one company's platform and its data practices.
The trend: WhatsApp is evolving from a family-messaging app into the default communication layer for underserved and low-literacy users worldwide, with Meta monetizing the institutional traffic that follows.