Innovative Solutions
From the community
Equal Rating Innovation Challenge
Winner: Gram Marg
Open source low-cost hardware prototype utilizing Television White Spectrum to provide affordable access to rural communities.
“We purposefully had a broad call for innovation in this Challenge. We hoped we would find a team with the ingenuity to create a low-cost and scalable solution, the humility to experiment and iterate, and the vision to imagine a way to change people’s lives for the better. Gram Marg delivered fully on all three.”
Mitchell Baker, Executive Chairwoman, Mozilla Foundation
Runner Up: Afri-Fi
Model to make Project Isizwe financially sustainable by connecting brands to an untapped, national audience, specifically low-income communities who otherwise cannot afford connectivity.
P2P Cooperative
Cooperative that enables communities to set-up networks to get access to the internet and then supports itself through the cooperative fees, and while co-creating the knowledge and respecting the local cultures.
Freemium Mobile Internet (FMI)
A new business model for telecommunication companies to provide free 2G to enable all the benefits of the open web to all.
Zenzeleni
Bottom-up telecommunications co-operatives that allows the most disadvantaged rural areas of South Africa to self-provide affordable communications at a fraction of the cost offered by other operators.
Agriculture
Farmers.ng
Farmers.ng aims to build and equitable marketplace by directly connecting rural Nigerian farmers living in technology underserved areas to urban buyers via SMS.
The 21st Century Digital Farmer!
Mobile ICT training for rural smallholder farmers so they can gain agricultural and economic intelligence to better farm and sell. Focus on mango producers throughout Kenya.
Commerce
Moriah Haulage Track
Marketplace via app to enable reliable and affordable hauling services in West Africa. App connects producers and distributors and provides real time availability, location, and status.
PayConnect
Africa’s online lending service, which provides quick loans to online shoppers, employees, and the unbanked within 1hr of application without request for a collateral. PayConnect seeks to promote financial inclusion with fair and favorable loan terms.
Community
Building resilience in refugee communities
Go is a mobile website and Android App designed to empower communities with information. Our core goal is to create a community based approach to helping low-income and marginalized communities. We envision a world where neighbors help neighbors prepare for disasters, improve access to critical resources, and overcome chronic challenges.
E- Cocoa Centers
Construction of internet enabled community public space and centers for rural populations in the “Cacao-Route” of Caracas, Venezuela. Build community (education), support economic empowerment (direct commercialization), scale the natural social ties (visibility) that connect these groups.
Mozilla Level Playing Field Project
Project will produce five functioning examples for the expansion of fair and equal access to the internet into currently offline communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The initial outcome will be an additional 250,000 people connected to the internet, which could be scaled to connect 100 million people.
Zyxt: Accelerator for Rural Community Network
Enable rural communities to launch and operate their own financially-sustainable ISPs using an accelerator model with 0% loans and training. Focus on last-mile connectivity and self-sustainability.
Education
Learning Tree Nigeria
An innovative e-learning resource portal that prepares candidates for major examinations using the Computer Based Test (CBT) model. Currently in market with 100k active users.
Smart ICT
“SMART ICT- connect my School Program” provides students with an easy access to high-speed internet in their schools by raising funds through educational programs for workers held after school hours.
The MUDIA project
Online platform to build the skills and independence of young people, particularly students, and ultimately connect them with local, national, international job opportunities. Benefit to job seekers and employers.
Health
Homedika
In-home healthcare services, fully inclusive and round the clock. In addition to providing consistent access digitally, propose to provide a wide range of services ranging from phone and video consultation, medical care at home, emergency services, medicine delivery.
Kasha
Consumer technology platform operating in East Africa that sells and delivers women’s health products confidentially using any type of mobile phone. No internet required, no smartphone required for someone to browse through products, order, pay and get products delivered. Focused on promoting women’s empowerment for health and self-care while providing direct access to quality products and information.
Smart Medicine Everywhere (SME)
Business model to distribute smartphones on credit (no upfront charge) for healthcare providers to connect with fellow practitioners to get best practices, further education and training, access to top medical resources, and ultimately serve the poor, unconnected, sick better.
Technology
Infrastructure - Planning and Realization
A web-based planning system using open geospatial data (e.g. OSM) and optimization algorithms to calculate the installation plan, installation cost and materials of new infrastructure (fiber,copper and wifi, as well as water pipes and cables). Integrated multimedia tutorials help teach best practices.
Network in a Box (NIAB)
Plug-and-play configurable networking solution for deploying a wireless network to people in pre-defined small-range coverage areas. Requires only basic networking knowledge.
NoConnect
Android app that will connect all devices using a wireless p2p mesh network and enable message and data sharing protocol. It’ll work without any network and even if one of the devices is connected to internet, the other devices will be able to access it.
Tribal International Carrier
Provide bulk wholesale internet capacity to each of the 576 federally-recognized Indian nations by lighting a new rural backbone network on acquired and constructed fiber. The goal is to provide high capacity connectivity to local ISPs at costs consistent with the costs in major urban markets.