Hackathons are useful platforms to foster early childhood development (ECD).
This is according to the organisers of a hackathon event that took place in Cape Town over the weekend. The event was co-hosted by the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a specialised unit at the UCT Graduate School of Business, and ECD social innovation fund, Innovation Edge.
Hackathons - also known as hack days or hack fests - are events where computer programmers collaborate intensively with a diverse group of people on specific software projects for a limited amount of time.
According to the event organisers, hackathons are fast emerging around the world as a powerful mechanism to surface co-created, technology-enabled innovation to tackle specific business and social challenges.
The concept has been gaining ground in SA, with bodies like the Bertha Centre, GovHack and Silicon Cape leading the way, the organisers note.
Teaming up
Over the weekend, these three players teamed up with Innovation Edge, which funded the day, and other partners including the Department of Psychology at Stellenbosch University, Ogilvy, RLabs, Codex and MTN, to focus the power of the hack on the area of ECD.
Sonja Giese, director of Innovation Edge, says advances in technology offer exciting possibilities for addressing challenges within the early learning space.
She hopes ECD and technology innovation will improve communication with parents about their child's development, strengthen early learning practices, and provide educational resources for children living in marginalised communities.
According to the Bertha Centre's Camilla Swart, who conceptualised the event with Mark Tomlinson from the University of Stellenbosch, research shows the first few years of a child's life are crucial to laying a solid foundation for lifelong health and intellectual development.
"Poor access to good nutrition, a lack of responsive care and a dearth of early stimulation through play are some of the key challenges ECD centres in the country continue to face, and it was to these issues that the hackathon turned its attention," she adds.
Dr Francois Bonnici, director of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship, says latest research shows investing in ECD offers a high social return. "However, the sector is fraught with complexity and we need innovation to surface new approaches to scale impact."
On the day, small teams of coders, ECD specialists and creative thinkers worked together for eight hours to find practical and low-cost technology solutions to these challenges.
App appeal
The most innovative idea and R10 000 cash prize went to the team working on an app called Cr`eche Connect, which seeks to enable parents to rate a day-care centre's effectiveness. The team, made up of individuals from NGO, South Africa Education and Environment Project, RegenAfrica, Western Cape ICT, NextGen pioneers, Business Connexion, UCT ICT4Dev and CodeX agreed they would use the money to incubate the idea further.
"There were so many good ideas. But the judges really liked the Cr`eche Connect idea, which was based on the concept of Trip Advisor for cr`eches," Swart says.
"In low income communities, informal cr`eches can have variable quality assurance. Being able to rank the facilities will help parents find the best cr`eche for their child and increase quality in the sector. This idea was designed to empower parents."
Other ideas included mobile referral systems for clinics, apps to identify developmental delays, and ways to share knowledge and communicate across cr`eches to improve quality. "There were funders, government officials and businesses who showed great interest in picking up the other concepts, so some ideas will be taken further."
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