Developers in Southern Africa, with bright ideas in the field of climate change solutions, have until the end of March to submit their applications to the Apps4Africa Climate Challenge contest.
The competition encourages participants to tackle local climate change challenges through Web and mobile apps, in categories such as agriculture, early warning and disaster preparedness, resource management, transport, food security, and health and sanitation.
Countries falling within this region include Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, SA, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Winners will receive cash awards of $15 000 (first prize), $7 000 (second prize), and $3 000 (third prize), as well as technical and business support from partners such as TED and Indigo Trust.
Last month saw the awards for the East African set of applications, with the first prize going to national supply chain management system The Grainy Bunch, which monitors the purchase, storage, distribution and consumption of grain across Tanzania.
The Mkulima Calculator team from Kenya won second prize, for an application aimed at helping farmers to know when and where to plant crops using climate and weather data.
Third place winner was Agro Universe, a Web and mobile-based app from Uganda that enables farmers of agricultural products or livestock to alert community members so they can buy and sell goods from each other. The aim is to create a regional marketplace for products that may have no buyers in the immediate area, but that may be in demand further out.
“In the context of climate change applications, there's been a recent recognition of the role that indigenous knowledge can play in addressing these challenges, and there's an opportunity for African developers to integrate or augment their local traditional solutions with mobile applications.”
With industry estimates suggesting there are more than 500 million mobile phone subscribers on the continent, regional developers are also well placed to make a significant impact, says Thinyane. “The proliferation of mobile phones in Africa in particular means they provide a key opportunity to accelerate development through the provisioning of mobile application solutions.”
He adds that the IT and mobile app development space is a level playing field where the game is open to all, and encourages developers to get involved.
“The best solutions for African challenges most likely will be by Africans, which says two things: one, that we cannot expect anyone else but us to come up with the solutions; and two, that we have a responsibility to come up with the relevant solutions.”
Entries from Southern Africa are open from 1 February to 30 March in the following categories: agriculture (distribution), early warning and/or disaster preparedness, resource management, forestry/deforestation, transportation/traffic/emissions, food security, livestock, and health and sanitation.
For more information, visit Apps4Africa.org.
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