1  

 United  Nations  Development  Programme        November  9,  2015  

Project  Brief  Key  Goals,  Challenges,  Stakeholders,  Methodology,  Guiding  Principles,  Seeding  Ideas,  Resources  

VIVAMUS

 

  2  

 

Key  Goals  Invitees will be given raw data to create mobile applications, information systems and innovative methodologies that can be used by vulnerable key stakeholders to receive early warnings, take action, save lives, build productivity and adapt to the new challenges posed by a changing climate.

• Create prototype mobile and information-system-based applications and technological solutions to share actionable weather and climate information with a variety of stakeholders, sectors and end-users.

• Connect technology with people to bridge the last mile. • Build scalable systems that react to more frequent storms, increase in lightning,

erratic weather patterns and long-term climate change. • Create technological solutions that are built for Africa and solve local

challenges. • Design and develop next-generation applications to improve on existing

systems and methodologies to use climate information and reach end-users. • Leverage existing information, networks and human capacity to seed

innovation. • Communicate existing

climate information in an innovative and easy-to-understand manner to catalyze action, improve productivity, save lives and empower end-users.

 

  3  

Challenges  The applications and innovative ideas should meet on-the-ground realities in Africa’s most economically vulnerable countries. Existing challenges include:

• Communicating across multiple regional languages, cultural barriers and ethnic differences

• Gender- and generation-based differences in the use of information • Communicating via feature phones or through smart phones with limited

mobile data plans • Power outages and reduced access to electricity in rural areas

• High rates of illiteracy particularly amongst the most vulnerable • In some cases, large events that block attainment of development goals, such

as war and drought. • Limited ability of national climate services to transmit weather information to

end users • Lack of trust from local populations on existing weather data • Reduced amount of existing local weather data sets • Limited areas of transboundary cooperation • Inconsistent technical capabilities

Stakeholders  Climate and weather information can be used by almost anybody to build productivity, make better decisions or simply move away from dangerous fast-moving weather like floods and lightning. Reaching end-users requires engagement with a diverse group of actors who can aid in disseminating early warnings and sharing information.

End Users Vulnerable Farmers. This target group is comprised of vulnerable farmers, pastoralists, fishers and rural enterprisers. This target group has multiple needs for weather information – better information can be used to take action in the case of disaster, increase productivity, reach markets, plan crops and build overall productivity. Reaching them can save lives, increase productivity and reduce risk. Reaching this group can be a challenge as Internet communication is virtually

 

  4  

impossible, literacy is low, and there are regional and village-level cultural and linguistic differences. Vulnerable Communities. This group is comprised of community leaders, farm cooperative leaders, village leadership, regional politicians, children, teachers, and other community members that do not work directly in farming or fishing. Policy Makers. This group is comprised of national leaders, National Hydro-Met Services, parliament, the executive branch and ministries, along with regional cooperation entities. Private Sector. Climate and weather information can be used by the private sector to optimize productivity and reduce risk. Some areas of the private sector that regularly use tailored climate information include: resource extraction, energy production, banking, insurance, tourism, large-scale agri-business and aviation.

Actors Actors can be used to share information, technology, early-warnings and more with end users. Some top country-level actors include: Country-level Actors. Telecommunications, electronic media, radio, television, Met Services, community leaders, first responders, NGOs, education, health- and agricultural-extension agencies, Early warning/disaster management centers, brand ambassadors, UNDP-supported Climate Information and Early-Warning System projects, universities and research entities. Global Actors. This group of actors and influencers includes large cooperate entities, donors, climate change practitioners, international think tanks and global thought leaders.

   

 

  5  

Methodology  Climate Action Hackathon strives to foster an open environment where ideas – both big and small – can be explored. With this in mind, it will be up to project participants to address what problems they wish to work on, which technologies and methodologies they wish to use, and how they wish to disseminate and share their final product. The Day 1 briefing will provide specifics on challenges, available datasets and methodology. Participants will be given weather and climate datasets from satellite feeds, National Meteorological Services and other sources to build their application and system. An online workspace will allow for collaboration with virtual participants. Internet connectivity is provided, but large servers will not be available.

This is a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) event, and participants are encouraged to bring feature and smart phones, computers and tablets. A limited number of local-network feature phones will be made available. White boards, plenty of snacks and caffeine boosts, and Internet connectivity will be provided.

A couple of guiding principals • Engage with virtual participants • Build a maximum of six working groups to address specific problems and

leverage subject-matter expertise (for example, a team with individual specialists in IT, IS, mobile application, and web development)

• Respect ideas, listen, engage • Laugh at failure and try again • Remember the goals, challenges and key end-users • Work within the hive to define groups, goals, roles and responsibilities

Seeding Ideas While it is up to the Climate Action Hackathon developers to come up with ideas and build their applications, here are a few seed ideas to get you started.

• Farmer-specific feature phone application to share five-day forecasts, protect crops and livestock from significant weather events, improve farm yields, hit markets, decide on crop planting times and crops to plant, avoid pestilence, apply fertilizer at appropriate times and share best farming practices.

• Health-based application to protect the most vulnerable populations from

 

  6  

extreme weather and weather that can create greater risk of mosquito-borne illness (dengue, malaria, etc.). This application could provide information on what to do in case of emergency or illness and provides early warnings to targeted regions.

• Smartphone application to be used by rural communities and policy-makers with advanced forecasting, crop and health information, with advanced linking to long-term and short-term forecasting.

• Boilerplate Application that can be used by every country to host and share data.

• Crowd-sourced nowcast to share weather alerts within a community, attach to social networks. In this one, the farmers are the information gatherers, attaching their on-the-ground observations to bigger data.

• Crowd-Sourced Weather Information. Local weather measurements to ensure and improve quality control of Met Office forecasts

• Bridge the gap between National Met Service and the private sector. An app for automatically matching private sector information needs with weather information products.

• Information Systems solutions. Bundling and information pipeline. How to get information from satellites, Automatic Weather Stations, data streams and other information sources, into useable form

• Money maker. Basic app that helps key users make more money by hitting markets, planting, harvesting at optimal times.

• Social engagement. Hybrid solutions that bring together technology with human networks and know-how to bridge the knowledge gap.

• Advocacy. Products that share what to do in the event of an emergency, and connect people with better weather information.

• Cooperation between Nations. Systems and platforms to share relevant early-warnings and weather information across international borders.

• Media link. Connecting information gatherers with social and traditional media.

• Your Idea. There are no bad ideas. Innovate, think outside the box, experiment and explore.

 

  7  

Resources There will be opportunities at the hackathon to engage with experts on climate change, sustainable development, communications, public-private partnerships, meteorological technology, meteorology and hydrology. Here are some virtual resources you may wish to check out.

• Similar platforms and last-mile enterprises 3-2-1 Africa, RainCell Africa, TAHMO and Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise

• Free icons and humanitarian symbols • GUIDELINES ON EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS - WMO • A Checklist Developing Early Warning Systems - UNISDR • Case study: Flood early warning systems • A Conceptual Flash Flood Early Warning System for Africa • Information systems in a changing climate: Early warnings • Improving early warning systems for agricultural Resilience • Monitoring, Early Warning and Communication System • CIRDA website • CIRDA Blog

 

  8  

   

About the Sponsors UNDP’s Programme on Climate Information for Resilient Development in Africa (CIRDA) connects ideas, people and technology to build resilience to climate change in 11 of Africa’s Least Developed Countries.

• Benin • Burkina Faso • Ethiopia • The Gambia • Liberia • Malawi • Sao Tome and Principe • Sierra Leone • Tanzania • Uganda • Zambia

UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone. On the ground in more than 170 countries and territories, we offer global perspective and local insight to help empower lives and build resilient nations. The views expressed in this workshop and through its virtual web spaces, social networks and live blogs are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the United Nations, including UNDP, or the UN Member States. Contact  Information  Joost  Hoedjes  johannes.hoedjes@undp.org                            

                                                                                                                                         

 

  9