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Digital Addressing for Urban Inclusion: Unlocking Access Through Google Plus Codes
Millions of urban Pakistanis living in low-income settlements are excluded from essential services—not due to distance, but because they lack a formal address. This project introduces Google Plus Codes as a transformative solution, giving identity and visibility to 10,000 unaddressed households in Karachi and Rawalpindi. By pairing community-driven engagement with tech-enabled implementation, the initiative empowers residents, engages youth, and builds a replicable model for public and private sector adoption. In doing so, it lays critical infrastructure for improved access to healthcare, logistics, emergency services, and economic opportunity—reimagining how cities include their most underserved.
Partner: Google
Location: Karachi, Rawalpindi
Timeline: 2023 – 2025
Areas of focus: Digital addressing, youth engagement, service delivery integration, public awareness, and urban inclusion.
Objectives: This project aims to assign Google Plus Codes to 10,000 households in underserved urban areas while training local youth as digital addressing ambassadors. By integrating these codes into public and private service systems, it seeks to improve access, visibility, and inclusion for communities previously off the map.
Our Approach:
Project Story
Community Mapping & Stakeholder Onboarding
Mobilizing youth, local leaders, and authorities to identify underserved households and establish cross-sector ownership of digital addressing.
Digital Address Code Assignment
Generating and distributing Google Plus Codes to 10,000 households in Karachi and Rawalpindi using open-source geolocation tools.
Community Awareness & Branding Campaign
Launching targeted outreach in schools, community centers, and digital spaces to normalize digital addresses and boost civic adoption.
Institutional Integration & Partnership Building
Forging collaborations with service providers to embed Plus Codes into logistics, emergency response, and healthcare systems.
Impact Measurement & Model Scaling
Analyzing adoption metrics and documenting a replicable model for scale-up in other unaddressed urban settlements.
Policy Advocacy & Public Sector Engagement
Presenting evidence to local governments, urban planners, and national stakeholders to integrate digital addressing into policy frameworks.
Google Plus Code Installation
Our team joining forces with members of the community to install the Google Plus Codes door to door.
Community discussions
Local residents gather to discuss the rollout of Google Plus Code address plates—ensuring community buy-in and shared ownership of digital inclusion efforts.
Installation by the community
A community team installs Google Plus Code address plates in Rawalpindi, helping unaddressed households gain visibility, access to services, and a digital identity.
Field ready!
Our field team organizes freshly printed Google Plus Code plates—ensuring accuracy and readiness before installation in unaddressed urban neighborhoods.
Community Involvement
Our team actively engaged with passersby to explain Google Plus Codes, and as people began to understand the real-life benefits, like easier deliveries, emergency access, and service inclusion, more and more chose to adopt the system.