Bright ideas: A cellphone database for dairy
farmers and a strain of sweet potato that can help fight child blindness.
These are just two of the imaginative new ideas that are tackling
Africa's old problems
1. Hippo water roller
Idea: The Hippo water roller is a
drum that can be rolled on the ground, making it easier for those without
access to taps to haul larger amounts of water faster.
Problem: Two out of every five people
in Africa have no nearby water facilities and are forced to walk long distances
to reach water sources. Traditional methods of balancing heavy loads of water
on the head limit the amount people can carry, and cause long-term spinal
injuries. Women and children usually carry out these time-consuming tasks,
missing out on educational and economic opportunities. In extreme cases, they
can be at increased risks of assault or rape when travelling long distances.
Method: The Hippo roller can be
filled with water which is then pushed or pulled using a handle. The weight of
the water is spread evenly so a full drum carries almost five times more than
traditional containers, but weighs in at half the usual 20kg, allowing it to be
transported faster. A steel handle has been designed to allow two pushers for
steeper hills. "Essentially it alleviates the suffering people endure just
to collect water and take it home. Boreholes or wells can dry out but people can
still use the same roller [in other wells]. One roller will typically serve a
household of seven for five to seven years," said project manager Grant
Gibbs.
Verdict: About 42 000 Hippo rollers
have been sold in 21 African countries and demand exceeds supply. Costing $125
each, they are distributed through NGOs. A mobile manufacturing unit is set to
begin making them in Tanzania. Former South African president Nelson Mandela
has made a "personal appeal" for supporting for the project, saying
it "will positively change the lives of millions of our fellow South
Africans". Monica Mark
2. The iCow app
Idea: To harness the power of
cellphones to encourage best practice for dairy farmers and increase milk
production.
Problem: Small-scale dairy farmers
often living in remote areas don't have access to valuable information about
latest prices of milk or cattle, and they may not keep accurate records of
important details such as their cows' gestation periods or their livestock's
lineage—often resulting in inbreeding and disease.
Method: Created by Kenyan farmer Su
Kahumbu, iCow is an app that works on the type of basic cellphones farmers own.
Each animal is registered with the service, which then sends SMS reminders to
the farmer about milking schedules, immunisation dates and tips about nutrition
and breeding or information about local vets or artificial insemination
providers. UK-based foundation the Indigo Trust helped fund iCow's development.
Its executive Loren Treisman says: "It's exciting to see a technology-driven
project targeting such an unexpected constituency. Farmers have been empowered
to improve their own lives through accessing critical agricultural information
as opposed to depending on aid. What particularly excited us is that as a
social enterprise, the iCow team have a sustainable business model which will
enable them to expand rapidly and maximise their reach and impact without
dependence on ongoing funding."
Verdict: "The wonderful thing
with iCow is that by the time you have used the app and adhered to all the
instructions, your cows end up healthier, bigger and stronger. They can easily
fetch you more money in the marketplace. Every smart farmer will use
iCow," a small-scale farmer based in the cental highlands of Kenya told Forbes
magazine. Ian Tucker
3. Farmer managed natural regeneration
Idea: Farmer managed natural
regeneration (FMNR), which restores existing trees on drought-stricken land, to
improve Senegal's dwindling harvests.
Problem: Senegal is suffering its
third drought of the decade, resulting in reduced crops and inflated food
prices. The World Food Programme assisted more than nine million people in the
Sahel region of West Africa this year, including 800 000 in Senegal.
Method: Attempts to tackle the
resulting problem of soil fertility have largely flopped so far. Trees planted
as part of reforestation schemes have seen only a 5% success rate and fallowing
is not an option, with 80% of African farmers owning under two hectares of
land, which need to be utilised year in, year out. This puts the emphasis on
reinvigorating the stumps of nitrogen-fixing trees, which were formerly cleared
to maximise crop space. Farmers are thus encouraged to prune the stems and
branches of trees like Faidherbia albida, giving new life to the vegetation
already there.
Verdict: FMNR is an inexpensive way
for farmers to make improvements with the resources they already have,
increasing millet harvests from 430kg to 750kg a hectare, and saving money on
fertilisers, with restored trees producing leaf litter (forming humus) and
giving shade to livestock (for manure). It gives the ecosystem a holistic
boost, encouraging wildlife like bush pigeons and rabbits to return, and
providing welcome human benefits such as wood cuttings for cooking and new food
sources such as tamarind. Mina Holland
4. Portable water pumps
Idea: Portable irrigation
technology helping sub-Saharan smallholder farmers grow crops out of season.
Problem: When it comes to food supply,
Africa faces enormous instability due to unpredictable climate and poor
resources. Only 6% of Africa's cultivated land is irrigated, limiting the
volume of crops that can be grown out of season, but increased access to
irrigation systems stands to increase food productivity by up to 50%.
Method: Kick Start, a not-for-profit
organisation that specialises in irrigation technology, is making portable
water pumps accessible to farming communities across Africa—most significantly
in Kenya, Tanzania and Mali. These cost anything from $35 to $95 but, putting
the emphasis on entrepreneurship, Kick Start are selling the pumps to farmers
rather than giving them away.
Solution: Kick Start told The Atlantic
that, since 1991, their pumps have lifted 667 000 people out of poverty,
helping to "create an entrepreneurial middle class, starting with the
family farm". They have pumped new revenues equivalent to 0.6% of the GDP
in Kenya alone. MH
5. The Cardiopad
Idea: A computer tablet diagnoses
heart disease in rural households with limited access to medical services.
Problem: Cardiovascular diseases kill
about 17-million worldwide annually. In many African countries, those at risk
often have to spend huge amounts of money and travel hundreds of kilometres to
reach heart specialists concentrated in urban centres. The Cameroon Heart
Foundation has noted a "sharp spike" in heart disease among its
20-million-strong population, which is served by fewer than 40 heart
specialists.
Method: A program on the Cardiopad,
designed by 24-year-old Cameroonian engineer Arthur Zang, collects signals
generated by the rhythmic contraction and expansion of a patient's heart.
Electrodes are fixed near the patient's heart. Africa's first fully
touch-screen medical tablet then produces a moving graphical depiction of the
cardiac cycle, which is wirelessly transmitted over GSM networks to a
cardiologist for interpretation and diagnosis. "I designed the Cardiopad
to resolve a pressing problem. If a cardiac exam is prescribed for a patient in
Garoua in the north of the country, they are obliged to travel a distance of
over 900km to Yaoundé or Douala," Zang says.
Verdict: At the Laquintinie, one of
the country's biggest hospitals, cardiologist Dr Daniel Lemogoum said that, in
a recent survey, three in every five persons who uses the Cardiopad has been
diagnosed as hypertensive, or at risk of heart diseases. "These are people
who would not necessarily have been aware they are hypertensive. It means
sudden deaths might be preventable." MM
6. Nigerian computer tablet
Idea: The Inye computer tablet that
can connect to the internet via a dongle surmounts the price and infrastructure
barriers in one go.
Problem: Tech-savvy youths, who make
up the bulk of the continent's population, face being left behind by a growing
"digital divide". While much of Africa has skipped the desktop
internet era and gone straight to mobile tech, big name brands retail in price
ranges that remain out of reach for a majority in sub-Saharan Africa.
Infrastructure is also straining under rapid population growth, and wireless
and broadband technology is not yet widely available in many public places.
Method: Co-founders Saheed Adepoju
and Anibe Agamah, aimed to plug a gap in affordable mobile devices with the
Inye tablet in Nigeria. They say its strongest selling point is its
price—currently around $315. Run on Android systems, it can be connected to the
internet via widely used dongles rather than wirelessly. IT provider Encipher
also offers add-on bundles from games to specifically tailored apps. Local
developers are designing apps that address issues such as HIV, water and
sanitation and education.
Verdict: The group is now retailing
its Inye 2 model to popular demand. Long-term, there are plans to expand beyond
Africa's most populous country. MM
7. Ethanol cooking oil plant
Idea: Refining locally sourced
cassava into ethanol fuel to provide cleaner cooking fuel.
Problem: Forests in Africa are being
cut down at a rate of 4m hectares a year, more than twice the worldwide average
rate. Some of this is fuelled by demand for wood and charcoal, which the UN
estimates is still used in almost 80% of African homes as a cheaper option to
gas. The smoke from cooking using these solid fuels also triggers respiratory
problems that cause nearly two million deaths in the developing world each
year.
Method: CleanStar Mozambique, a
partnership between CleanStar and Danish industrial enzymes producer Novozymes,
has opened the world's first sustainable cooking-fuel plant in Mozambique.
CleanStar has steered clear of monoculture crops in favour of sustainable
farming methods. One-sixth of the final yield comes from locally harvested
cassava, which requires farmers to plant in rotation with other edible crops to
keep the soil fertile. A Sofala Province-based plant transforms the products
into ethanol, which is sold on the local market along with adapted cooking
stoves also produced by the company.
Verdict: "City women are tired of
watching charcoal prices rise, carrying dirty fuel, and waiting for the day
that they can afford a safe gas stove and a reliable supply of imported
cylinders," CleanStar marketing director Thelma Venichand said. "They
are ready to buy a modern cooking device that uses clean, locally made fuel,
performs well and saves them time and money." The plant aims to produce
2-million litres of fuel annually, and reach 120 000 households within three
years. MM
8. Refugees United
Idea: Danish brothers David and
Christopher Mikkelsen founded Refugees United in 2008 after they helped a young
Afghan refugee in Copenhagen search for lost family members. Realising the
futile paper trail that many refugees were faced with when looking for missing
relatives, the brothers wanted to find an easier way that refugees could trace
their families.
Problem: There are 43-million forcibly
displaced people worldwide with hundreds of thousands of refugee families
scattered across the globe. Before 2008 all family tracing was done by refugee
agencies, which still rely on paper forms and postal systems to try to locate
people. There was no online global data bank that could be accessed or used by
refugees themselves.
Technique: Refugees United is an online
search tool, where refugees can create a free profile and start their search
for family via an online database using the internet or a mobile phone. It
works through an open-source model, partnering with not-for-profit refugee
organisations including the Red Cross and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) as well
as corporate tech partners such as Erickson and Google.
Verdict: More than 100 000 people are
registered on the Refugees United family tracing platform. It is available in
dozens of different languages and contains searchable information on refugees
from more than 82 countries. It is currently helping 15 000 people trace family
in the Kakuma refugee camp, home to 80 000 refugees and asylum-seekers, in
Kenya. The main challenge is actually reaching the refugees, often the poorest
of the poor, who don't have ready access to computers or cellphones. Annie
Kelly
9. DIY aid supplies
Idea: To make Africa
self-sufficient in emergency relief supplies.
Problem: For a continent so in need of
quick, affordable emergency relief, not to mention so riddled with
unemployment, there's a cruel irony about the provenance of emergency supplies.
Smaller African manufacturers have traditionally been unable to compete with
Chinese prices, or to meet the vast demand for emergency goods within Africa.
As a result, aid agencies such as Unicef have forged links with foreign
producers better able to produce these supplies at the scale, cost and quality
required. Yet this inevitably requires longer lead times and higher transportation
costs than sourcing goods locally—and Africans lose out on the work.
Method: Advance Aid is an organisation
that wants to make aid destined for Africa available within Africa, from
blankets and mosquito nets to basic cooking equipment and hygiene kits. The
organisation acts as an intermediary between large aid agencies and African
producers, putting together packages of aid supplies sourced locally. This has
been very effective in Kenya, where Advance Aid have supplied 5 000 locally
sourced emergency kits to World Vision and another 14 000 jerry cans to
Catholic Relief Services, who distributed them in Dadaab, the refugee camp near
the Somalian border.
Founder David Dickie says: "Aid is not working. I'm trying to turn
the market on its head by creating jobs in Africa. Building this capacity in
Africa will make a real difference to agencies, to the beneficiaries of the aid
and to local businesses … [It] is a very efficient way of bringing together the
development and humanitarian agendas."
Verdict: Advance Aid's work in Kenya
in 2011 marks the first time that emergency relief goods produced in Africa
have been provided for an African emergency, with 80% of goods sourced within
the country. It put $1.5-billion into the Kenyan economy and brought orders to
12 local manufacturers. MH
10. Sickle cell disease research
Idea: To carry out scientific
research on sickle cell disease (SCD) and show that large-scale, cutting-edge
genomic studies are possible in Africa.
Problem: Every year, 300 000 children
worldwide are born with SCD, a genetic blood disorder that can result in severe
anaemia. Seventy percent of these children, or 210 000, are born in Africa.
Tanzania has one of the highest annual birth rates of SCD in the world and
without treatment up to 90% of these children will die in early childhood.
However, many of these deaths could be prevented by early diagnosis and
treatment. A better understanding of the genetic and environmental mechanisms
of the disease will lead to improved diagnosis and therapies.
Method: Dr Julie Makani from
Muhimbili University in Tanzania is working with the Wellcome Trust to conduct
a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in order to better understand the
genetic and environmental factors affecting SCD. The Muhimbili Wellcome Programme
originally aimed to follow 400 children but is now following 2 500, making it
one of the largest, biomedical SCD resources in the world. Makani says that the
work "provides validation that it is possible to conduct genomic research
in Africa".
Verdict: Professor Lorna Casselton from
the Royal Society says: "SCD has a severe toll on Africa, and high-quality
research to lessen the burden is much needed. Dr Makani stands as a role model
for other young African scientists wishing to make a difference." Olivia
Honigsbaum
11. M-Pepea
Idea: To offer emergency credit
through cellphones to people who don't have access to credit cards or bank
loans.
Problem: Credit cards are still rarely
available to Kenyans and bank loans are only authorised for large amounts of
cash or as investments for buying homes or starting businesses. Often the only
source of emergency cash is loan sharks, increasingly big business in Kenya,
with borrowers signing ambiguous photocopied contracts and tying themselves
into interest rates of 50% or more. M-Pepea was launched to try to bridge this
gap.
Method: M-Pepea, set up in late 2010,
provides its customers with emergency funds within a few hours. It partners
with Kenyan businesses, with employees then able to use M-Pepea to get immediate
loans of up to 20% of their monthly salary. The money is accessed through their
cellphones, with M-Pepea sending a special pin code to be used in cash
machines. Money can also be collected at branches of Safaricom, one of Kenya's
largest cellphone operators, and then deducted from the borrower's pay packet
at the end of the month. M-Pepea charges around 10% interest rates on the
loans, which are paid in full at the end of the month.
Verdict: M-Pepea has currently
partnered with 20 businesses and has around 300 subscribers, and is hoping to
have increased this to 20 000 by the end of 2013. Its partnership with
Safaricom is encouraging but the company has run into problems with businesses
defaulting. "We're still in our initial phase, but we've seen how positively
people have responded to the service," says David Munga, M-Pepea's
33-year-old founder. "If, like many Kenyans, you've found yourself at the
side of the road with a broken car, no credit card and no money in the bank,
it's a way of getting yourself that money without having to get into
trouble." AK
12. The Tutu van
Idea: The brightly coloured
"Tutu Tester" van is a mobile clinic that incorporates screening for
tuberculosis (TB) and HIV into a general health check-up in order to overcome
the stigma associated with these diseases.
Problem: South Africa is at the centre
of an epidemic of TB/HIV co-infections. An estimated 5.7-million people are
infected with HIV and, fuelled by HIV, the country's rate of TB has increased
over the last 20 years to the point where it now has the third highest TB
burden in the world. In the case of HIV, voluntary counselling and testing (VCT)
is vital for preventing and treating the disease. However, data from the
Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation conducted in communities most affected by HIV shows
that VCT is often inaccessible or inadequately performed. This results in
missed opportunities for prevention and increased morbidity and mortality—hence
the need for new control strategies to keep the epidemic in check.
Method: The Tutu Tester is a mobile
clinic that takes sophisticated testing equipment and trained staff (including
a nurse, a counsellor and an educator) into areas without adequate health
facilities. By framing TB and HIV screening within a battery of other healthy
living tests, including pregnancy, diabetes and hypertension, people are
encouraged to get tested for the diseases. Dr Linda-Gail Bekker, a leading
scientist working with the foundation, says that data from these screens shows
that "the increase in TB has quite clearly tracked the increase in HIV
rates". Further, the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV
has also led to a decline in the incidence of TB. This suggests that ART
programmes, if sufficiently implemented, may greatly assist in reducing TB
mortality.
Verdict: There is still a stigma
attached to HIV and TB. But as Liz Thebus, a healthcare worker at the Tutu
Tester says: "The outside world does not know whether someone wants to be
screened for HIV or diabetes. They are in that respect much more
anonymous." OH
13. Orange sweet potato
Idea: Breeding sweet potatoes to
contain betacarotene, to help in the fight against childhood blindness.
Problem: More than three million
children in Africa suffer from blindness caused by vitamin A deficiency; in
Uganda it is estimated that 28% of children are deficient. Currently aid
agencies combat this problem by giving children vitamin A supplements, but
addressing this issue with a locally grown food would be more sustainable.
Method: A new strain of sweet potato
was conventionally bred which contains between four and six times as much
betacarotene as a regular sweet potato—betacarotene is converted by the body
into vitamin A. The OSP (orange sweet potato) was distributed to 10 000 farming
households in Uganda; at the end of the two-year study vitamin A deficiency in
non-breastfeeding children aged between 12 and 35 months fell from nearly 50%
to 12%. Dr Christine Holz from the International Food Policy Research Institute
who led the project said: "Overall, these results add to the growing
evidence base that OSP provides large amounts of vitamin A in the diet."
Verdict: Similar results were obtained
from a sister project in Mozambique; now the scheme is being scaled up to reach
225 000 households by 2016. IT
14. Speaking Books
Idea: A range of easy-to-use audio books designed to get potentially
life-saving health messages out to millions of isolated people struggling with
depression and mental health problems.
Problem: In 2003, Zane Wilson, the
founder of the South African Depression & Anxiety Group (Sadag), the
country's largest mental health initiative, was horrified at how suicide rates
among young South Africans were spiking. Mental health carries a huge social
stigma across Africa and information booklets designed to help people with
depression or mental health problems simply weren't working, especially in
remote communities with high illiteracy rates. People weren't getting the help
they needed—a 2009 study showed that only a quarter of the 16.5% of South
Africans suffering from mental health problems had received any kind of
treatment.
Method: Speaking Books created a
range of free books with simple audio buttons talking the user through each
page. The first Speaking Book, voiced by South African actress and celebrity
Lillian Dube, was called Suicide Shouldn't Be a Secret and focused on
how depression is a real and treatable illness, encouraging people to get help
when they need it.
Verdict: Speaking Books have now
produced 48 titles in 24 different languages and are now used in 20 African
countries across the continent. The books now tackle a number of critical
healthcare issues outside of suicide prevention such as HIV and Aids, malaria,
maternal health and clinical trials. Speaking Books has also expanded to China,
India and South America. "The situation we face in rural South Africa is
the same in any other African country—low literacy compounded by lack of access
to services and affordable healthcare," says Wilson. "This means that
patients are often not able to get help for many health problems. We believe
that this interactive, durable, high-quality, hardcover book engages the user
or patient, and allows them to build self-confidence and skills with a simple
action plan". AK
15. Narrative exposure therapy
Idea: Narrative exposure therapy
(NET) for Uganda's former child soldiers, encouraging storytelling to help come
to terms with their experiences.
Problem: Abducted and forced into
conscription by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), over 25 000 Ugandan children
were pushed into violent atrocities during a civil war that lasted 22 years,
often killing their own families. The majority were left with severe
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—with symptoms including depression,
flashbacks and suicidal thoughts. Moreover, hostility from their former
communities has left countless child soldiers alienated, making PTSD a longer,
lonelier battle.
Method: NET was introduced to Ugandan
child soldiers as a means of making conscious their deeply repressed traumas.
The technique highlights the importance of story, creating a kind of fiction
from real-life experience as a vehicle for coming to terms with it. Nick
Taussig, co-founder of the Mtaala Foundation—a charity that sets up educational
communities in Uganda, empowering Ugandans to help their own youth—says that
narrative exposure, though not a new concept, appeals to Ugandan culture,
"There's a strong oral tradition in Uganda, and these treatments build on
that by committing the children's stories to paper, investing them with added
meaning."
Verdict: A study of 85 former child
soldiers conducted by Bielefeld University, Germany, demonstrated that 80% of
those who underwent NET showed clinical improvements. MH -
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2012
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