Pioneering research and skills
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Tackling sanitation challenges A mobile phone App designed to give people in Africa the power to improve sanitation in their communities could help prevent the spread of diseases, which contribute to the high rates of child mortality. The App, called Taarifa, is the brainchild of doctoral researcher Mark Iliffe at the RCUK-funded Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute, University of Nottingham. Taarifa is a novel mobile phone app which allows people to input and share their own sanitation problems using SMS, web forms, email or social media. The reports can be monitored by local authorities and acted upon to carry out repairs, improvements or new infrastructure, giving citizens the power to affect changes in their own communities. This community won the chance to travel to Silicon Valley, California, for meetings with venture capitalists and other investors who could help turn the idea into a sustainable business with maximum impact across the world. Currently Taarifa is deployed in Ghana with future deployments planned across Africa, South East Asia and the UK.
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