The Apps4 Africa Climate Challenge is a competition for innovative program developers in Africa to find technological solutions to everyday problems focusing on climate change in Africa. The brainstorming session I attended brought together members of civil society together with program developers to share ideas on climate change issues, solutions and the best mobile applications that can be used to help combat climate change.

Marieme Jamme, the Chief Executive Officer of Spotone Global Solutions, said that Apps4Africa started in 2009 with the idea of trying to help people in Africa use technology to their benefit. The first challenge was held in 2010 and the winner of the competition was a lady from Kenya who developed a mobile application called iCow to help farmers. After holding the contest in East Africa, the Apps4Africa challenge is now spreading to southern African countries and prize money of US$25 000 is up for grabs to developers who will come up with best application which can be used to reduce climate change.

Building on the recently held United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17) conference in Durban, the Apps4Africa Challenge is trying to develop synergies between policy makers and software developers so that technology can help combat climate change. The entry categories include Agriculture (Distribution), Early Warning and/or Disaster Preparedness, Resource Management, Forestry/Deforestation, Transportation/Traffic/Emissions, Food Security, Livestock Health and Sanitation.

During the brainstorming session, climate change in Zimbabwe was mainly attributed to the lack of alternative resources, funding, government support and too little information. Climate change has affected the southern African region and Zimbabwe has not been spared. The country has faced severe droughts in recent years and floods and changes in weather patterns have affected places in the low laying areas.

The challenge will open the doors for savvy developers in Zimbabwe to come up with the best applications that will be used to reduce climate change. The applications have to be local, user friendly and, if the application wins in the challenge, will be used everywhere in the world.

Interested participants can access the Apps4Africa website for the rules and the application.

This entry was posted on March 8th, 2012 at 12:14 pm by Lenard Kamwendo and is filed under Activism, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.