Dial ‘n tell

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1. What do you propose to do? [20 words]

Develop an interactive news and information cell phone application (portal) for communities in urban and rural areas of Southern Africa.

2. Is anyone doing something like this now and how is your project different? [30 words]

There is no specific interactive news application designed to reach and receive news from poor and rural communities using mobile technology

3. Describe the real world challenge that you are trying to solve for African media [50 words]

Africa has a large population with multiple deprivations, including poor levels of literacy and low levels access to traditional news and more modern forms of communication. Many people are disconnected from independent sources of information such as the internet. Lack information disempowers people. Access to information is often controlled by language, political interference or socio-economic factors.

4. How and why will your solution work? [100 words]

Mobile technology is widely accessed across Africa via cell-phones. It is estimated that half of Africa’s 1 billion people have a cell-phone. Mobile technology is already a fact of life for most Africans. As is being shown, cell-phones are used increasingly for more than simple telephony:

“A new survey of global financial habits by the Gates Foundation, the World Bank and Gallup World Poll found 20 countries in which more than 10% of adults say they used mobile money at some point in 2011. Of those, 15 are African.”[1]

The development of an interactive, cell-phone based news portal and distribution facility will empower people to access information they otherwise would not be able too. It will also enable users to contribute to the news and share their experiences on a global platform.

We are giving users easy options to access and share news on a technological platform which already exists and to which most have access. The application will include:

·         Language menu

·         Audio News

·         Text Alerts & News

·         User Upload Interface

In addition to easy access to news this provides the user with an opportunity to respond to the news or submit news on the portal, irrespective of their level of education and/or their own language. News and information can thus be submitted in the user’s language of choice and shared across the portal. The application will enable more freedom and democracy of news in Africa.

5. Who is working on it? [100 words]

The Qina Collective is a media and community development co-operative based in South Africa.

The QC Co-op works towards:

1)      Empowered community participation to enhance democracy;

2)      Multi-media & ICT interventions which strengthen peoples centred development;

3      Building the capacity of community organisation to increase sustainable local development;

4)      Cultural education and skills development for social mobilisation and entrepreneurship;

5)      Improving technological access in poor communities for vulnerable groups such as women, non-nationals, youth and the disabled.

The QC Collective worked with communities in:

-          Soweto

-          Rustenburg

-          Potchefstroom

-          Cape Town

-          Mozambique

-          Tanzania

The QC Co-op members are drawn from historically disadvantaged communities, including women and youth. We have the following skills and experience:

·         Programme and software development;

·         Network engineering;

·         Marketing;

·         Community development;

·         Project management;

·         Journalism;

·         Business management;

·         Photography;

·         Website design and graphics;

·         Editing, sub-editing and lay-out.

6. What part of the project have you already built? [100 words]

The first phase of the project has been completed. This focused on understanding concretely the challenges communites face in access news and information.

Information was collected from:

Farming communities

Rural Communities and

 Urban Communities

The scoping was done in 9 province of South Africa( 1 district per province and 4 communities in each district). A rapid assessment survey was done in 6 countries of the SADC region (Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana and Mozambique).

The application design is currently under commission. The portal and the application specification are currently in process of being registered and copyrighted. 

7. How would you sustain the project after the funding expires? [50 words]

Advertising, Subscriptions and Direct funding.

Requested amount from ANIC: R 760,000.00
Expected amount of time required to complete project: 18 months
Total Project Cost: R2,000 000.00

Name: Thapelo Lekgowa
Twitter: @qina
Organization: Qina Collective Co-Operative ltd
Country: Republic of South Africa