The winners of the annual Stockholm Challenge, a competition for outstanding ICT developmental projects, were announced last week at the Stockholm City Hall in Sweden, with Africa pulling in three of the seven winning projects.
Ulla Skiden, project manager for the event, says the challenge brought to light many successful African ICT projects.
"Out of 151 projects entered this year, 124 were from Africa, most of which were excellent," says Skiden.
The Stockholm Challenge was created in 1993 to mark Sweden's entry into the European Union and to encourage ICT development. The jury had the task of choosing winners in the categories of culture, economic development, education, environment, health and public administration.
The programme focuses on ICT for development in underserved communities throughout the world. The aim is to find examples of how ICT benefits people and their communities, says Skiden.
"The challenge looked closely at projects which are having a wide impact, and sustainable business models."
An additional award, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Challenge Award for African projects - worth 10 000 euros and sponsored by the Swedish Programme for ICT in Developing Regions (Spider), was introduced this year.
Success
The open source KiLiNuX localisation project from Tanzania was the winner in the education category, competing against 192 teams, the highest number of entrants in one category, Skiden confirmed.
The project translates the Linux desktop into Swahili, a language spoken by 70 million people and understood by an additional 25 million.
"This project aids the learning processes for many people living in Central and Eastern Africa as they can now learn in their own language," says Alberto Escudero-Pascual the project's developer. He explains that the translation can be extended to many African languages which will encourage community development.
The environment category was won by the African Conservation Network, a project based in Tanzania which links independent environmental organisations through an Internet forum and builds knowledge through shared experiences.
"This project is an excellent example of a common network database that links people together, as well as providing a forum to inform people of environmental issues at all levels," says Skiden.
The winner of the WSIS award, for the most innovative African project all round, went to the Online Fish Trading Platform for East Africa, based in Kenya.
The project provides an online auction and mobile messaging system for local fishermen and fishing co-operatives at a global level.
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