Proposal

=Problem and Context= __General Information__

“Africa is the world's second largest continent after Asia. It has a total surface area of 30.3 million km2, including several islands, and an estimated total population of 888 million.” (Rural Poverty in Africa). Of the continent’s population, “70% of the continent’s poor people live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for food and livelihood” (Rural Poverty in Africa). Of the rural communities in Africa, “Eastern and Southern Africa… have one of the world’s highest concentrations of poor people” (Rural Poverty in Africa). In addition, “the rural population is poorly organized and often isolated” (Rural Poverty in Africa).

__Mobile Phone Use in African Countries__

Despite the extreme isolation and excessive poverty in these rural areas of the continent, mobile phones are very much in use and growing in popularity, “mobile phones in Africa are used for a wide variety of tasks, from sending money to family members to buying a fish from the market.” (EPROM). Innovation among users has allowed for adaptation of mobile phone technology, which “shows the value of inexpensive, mobile computing for a people representative of the 1.4 billion mobile phone users living in the developing world today” (EPROM). With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that “Subscribers in developing countries, however, now represent the majority of 2.4 billion mobile phone users worldwide”(EPROM). In Kenya, for example, “By the end of 2004 the country had 3.4 million subscribers, and in the last 18 months this number has grown to over 5.6 million, despite the fact that only 200,000 Kenyan households have electricity” (EPROM).

“Africa, with Kenya at its forefront, is currently the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world” (EPROM)

A key objective of developing countries is to provide affordable access to modern energy services in order to support economic and social development of the society, the business sector, and individuals. Electrification is one important intervention to address energy poverty. Affordable access is not simply about connecting households to the grid. The extent to which energy services are actually used depends on their affordability. This article draws on experiences in three countries across different regions of the developing world, which also have different levels of access to grid electricity. About one-third of the Bangladeshi population was connected to grid electricity in 2005, up from about 3% in 1971. Although 71% of urban households have access, but only 20% in rural areas. South Africa has moved from one-third access in 1990 to approximately two-thirds by 2002. Again, urban levels are higher at 80% than rural ones (50%) (Winkler)

Basic Infrastructure such as electrical reticulation and communications, essential pillars for economic growth, has not even been planned for many deep rural communities in South Africa. Geographic loca- tion should not place limitations on access to information and the use of the Internet, which are consid- ered vital to the promotion of learning, training and business development in developing communities (Costello 2002).

__Problem__

With this kind of access to cell phones, and limited access to electricity, we ask the question: where do cellphone users in rural Africa charge their cellphones? We would like to propose a cell phone charger targeted for rural African communities that would allow them better accessibility while keeping the environment and sustainability in mind.

=Target Users=

The target market for our innovative design would be communities in rural Africa that already have a "cell phone culture".

=Innovative Solution= We want to create a sustainable, environmentally friendly, and easy to use source of power designed to increase accessibility in rural communities in Africa. We would like to make use of alternative energy in powering this innovative solution. There are a number of existing solar powered devices that carry out this function, but we would like to make improvements to make the product that we offer better and more efficient..

=Current Inspirations=

The Community Pay Phone “The community payphone, another innovation unique to the developing world, has helped bring mobile phone usage to the poorest areas of Africa. These payphones are owned and operated by entrepreneurs who buy airtime from the network and subsequently sell it to local people who don’t own phones themselves. According to the CCK, over 5,000 of these community phones had been established by the end of 2004. A recent survey reported that 97% of Tanzanians now have access to a mobile phone thanks to the community payphone model, despite the lack of electrical infrastructure for much of the country. The payphones are easy to operate in isolated areas far from the nearest traditional telephone landline, and can be used even where there is no electricity, as they can be powered by either solar or car batteries. Africa’s adaptation of mobile phone technology shows the value of inexpensive, mobile computing for a people representative of the 1.4 billion mobile phone users living in the developing world today.” (EPROM)

Integrated Southern Africa Business Advisory (INSABA)

INSABA developed and delivered adapted tools to identify marketable goods and services which can be produced with different locally available renewable energy sources. The 30 months project included training, business advisory and policy dialogue interventions in Botswana, Namibia, RSA and Zambia. Interdisciplinary Advisory Teams were established in pilot regions of the target countries to support SME in producing and marketing goods and services with the use of RET - whereas energy services are considered as being part of production costs and shall be covered from sales revenues.

References:

EPROM. “Why Africa?” //Entrepreneurial Programming and Research on Mobiles//. Massachusettes Institute of Technology. 2009. Web. 13 Feb. 2012.

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“Rural poverty in Africa” //ruralpovertyportal.org//. IFAD.2009. Web. 13 Feb. 2012

Harald Winkler. Access and Affordability of Electricity in Developing Countries World Development (June 2011), 39 (6), pg. 1037-1050.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421502000599



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