Fraunhofer Portugal Aicos and “Android for Developing” was highlighted in “Information Economy Report, 2012”

Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, and “Android for Developing” was highlighted in “Information Economy Report, 2012”, recently published by United Nations Conferences on Trade and Developmment – UNCTAD.

The pilot project was launched in Mozambique in 2010 between Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS and some local partners, aimed at fostering the joint development of high technology products that can respond to local demands and thereby have a potential to become commercially viable.

Together with Centro de Informática da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, PT Inovação and SAP Research South Africa, Fraunhofer Portugal Aicos invited university students to submit ideas for mobile applications, 25 proposals were received. The fourth most promising ones in terms of marketing were given financial, technical and project management support over a period of six months to help in the implementation of software prototypes. The winners were presented at the AFRICOMM, in South Africa.

Throughout 2013, the project is being replicated in Zambia together with MachaWorks, a local NGO, targeting mobile solutions and working with rural communities as part of a Global Research Alliance Project. The approaches will involve the close participatory integration of end users in the design and implementation phases.  

The “Information Economy Report 2012” provides an in-depth analysis of software industry developments in developing countries.

According to Ban Ki-Moon, secretary-General of United Nations, “information and communications technologies continue to transform our society. In recent years we have seen dramatically improved access to mobile telephones, the internet and broadband connectivity throughout the developing world. These trends are gradually helping to dismantle barriers towards the goal of an “information society for all” agreed by world leaders at the World Summit on the Information Society”.