Mobile
Digital Platform To Aid In Disposing Plastic Waste
Environmental pollution is one of the most serious global challenges facing humanity today and the leading causes of medical conditions and mortality. Human activities through urbanization, industrialization, mining, and exploration are at the forefront of global environmental pollution. Both developed and developing nations share this burden, though awareness and stricter laws in developed countries have contributed to a larger extent in protecting their environment. Despite the global attention towards pollution, the impacts are still being felt due to its severe long-term consequences.
Africa is blessed with natural and mineral resources, exploitation of these resources has led to extreme pollution of the environment in many of the countries, population growth and urbanization due to developments have also contributed immensely to the current pollution in Africa.
In recent decades, poor plastic products disposal has led to the accumulation of plastic waste in the environment, majorly polythene bags, plastic bottles among other plastic products, leading to a rising state of plastic pollution. Plastics can be categorized in primary plastics, such as cigarette butts and bottle caps, or secondary plastics, resulting from the degradation of the primary ones.
According to the United Nations (UN, 2019), more than eight million tons of plastic waste end up in the oceans annually, leading to negative effects on marine wildlife, fisheries, and tourism. This pollution comes mainly from household waste, which is poorly recycled, dumped in landfills, or abandoned in nature, the waste is carried by the winds, pushed by the rains into sewers, streams, rivers, and finally in the oceans. Natural disasters such as floods can be considered as other causes of plastic pollution as well.
United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Nairobi in collaboration with @iLabAfrica Research and Innovation Centre of Strathmore University has come up with a digital platform to aid in the education and sensitization of people on the effects of environmental pollution while also highlighting the best ways of waste disposal.
Through the project, the Digital Learning Unit at @iLabAfrica has developed a mobile application that offers the general public animations detailing the simple acts of improper waste disposal and how far they go towards affecting humans, wildlife, and marine life, creating a public health concern because diseases become more common.
Victor Malombe, Digital Learning Assistant at @iLabAfrica says that the platform is available for both android and apple phones and seeks to fill a knowledge gap while also supporting the ban on plastic bags in the country. “The UNEP project application is basically in support of plastic ban in the country by creating relevant content that showcases dangers posed by plastic products to the environment. Some
of the animations detail how a locally dumped plastic ends up in the ocean, affecting fish which are later consumed by people thus endangering their health and well-being” says Mr. Malombe.
Data from UNEP indicates that environmental pollution has been on a steady increase in many African countries, demonstrating the need for efficient and sustainable solutions to help control the situation. One solution is the development and mobilization of technologies that either offer education to the masses or provide alternatives to plastics as demonstrated by the collaboration between @iLabAfrica and UNEP.
With the rise in mobile penetration across Africa, mobile applications and emerging technologies will be powerful tools in the dissemination of content, messages aimed at educating the masses on various environmental issues which are negatively affecting human life and other important ecosystems.
Plastic waste pollution, aggravated by inefficient waste collection and limited recycling capabilities, has been prevalent across Africa. However, the continent has a growing, youthful population that values improving the quality of life and readily adopts technologies aimed at controlling this menace.
This makes Africa suitable as a testing ground to investigate the effectiveness of new technologies for solving environmental challenges. In addition to consumers pushing brands to be more environmentally responsible, a business case also exists in Africa that enables brands to invest in technologies that promote a circular economy. As such, a trend for plastic waste remediation efforts in Africa that relies principally on consumer engagement to create a plastics circular economy has emerged.
A healthy environment plays a key role in realizing many of the Sustainable Development Goals, with less than 10 years left to 2030, the world needs to pick up the pace and put greater efforts into finding better solutions to pollution and climate change to truly transform societies and economies.
To know more about this project visit www.ilabafrica.ac.ke
Digital transformation & e-Governance forum in Kenya
Strathmore University’s Research and innovation Centre, @iLabAfrica took part in a high level discussion on 10th September 2021 that sought to understand the state of digital transformation, e-Governance and cyber security in the country while also offering insights on best practices going forward.
The forum brought together top government officials, industry experts and major policy players in the technology sector such as @iLabAfrica Director Dr. Joseph Sevilla, leading Entrepreneurship expert from University of Nairobi Prof. Bitange Ndemo, Policy researcher from Strathmore Business School Mr. John Sergon, Kedi Välba-TalTech University Alumni & African Regional Manager, Aktors – Estonia.
Through the session the experts in the quest for digital shift in the country deliberated on how the country was fairing and how best it can improve so as to leverage with leading technology countries such as Estonia which has been lauded globally for its strong online systems and Processes.
In his presentation, Dr. Sevilla highlighted that @iLabAfrica was at the forefront of driving a shift to strong digital systems in the country by offering opportunities, research and training in modern areas of technology such as cybersecurity, e-health, data science, digital learning, Internet of Things (IoT) while also trying to address major societal challenges using technology.
“At our Centre, we look at how we can take advantage of technology to solve local problems, I am happy to see how Estonia has achieved a smart system, for us we have so far worked with county governments to help them automate their revenue collection systems and issuance of documents such as permits, making it possible for citizens to conduct such activities remotely using their mobile phones.
“We will also be travelling to other countries in Africa to implement similar systems because this comes with great efficiency and all transactions can be easily tracked” said Dr. Sevilla.
The @iLabAfrica Director further indicated that the Centre has been working with local partners to build on expertise in the different areas such as cybersecurity where jointly with BCK Kenya and ACPM IT they have set up a Security Operations Center, offering real time IT security services to companies and helping them detect and address threats immediately.
Ms. Välba while sharing her experience from Estonian background reiterated the importance of education, training and a digital mindset by the public as key factors to aid in a successful shift to e-Governance.
“Education is key in the process, TalTech and Strathmore University will train and educate people on how digitization makes life easier, it is important to begin at the primary level. Technology is always the easiest part, the biggest role is change management, mindset and having like-minded people with a digital mindset” said Ms. Välba.
With the rise in mobile penetration across the country and increased reliance on mobile money services, it remains critical for the government to embrace secure systems that protect citizens’ data while offering efficiency.
“We have more than three million people who rely on mobile money services daily, are our infrastructures safe? Data is borderless, transformative, invasive and can also be scary, the key issue in national security is ensuring safe systems free of attacks” said Mr. Sergon.
Former Industrialization Principal Secretary Prof. Ndemo noted that for the country to achieve sustainable e-Governance there was need to fully embrace emerging technologies such as block chain and Artificial Intelligence (AI) which are able to address most of the challenges faced in the country especially on fake academic papers to ward off unqualified persons from contesting public offices during elections.
Whereas e-Governance comes with increased transparency, efficiency and productivity to the citizens, its implementation in many African countries continues to face numerous hurdles such as limited capacity in terms of training, infrastructure, lack of political goodwill and financial constraints, it remains to be a key pillar of the industrial revolution 4.0.
Research and Innovation Hubs such as @iLabAfrica of Strathmore University continues to play major roles in ensuring successful adoption of technologies such as e-Governance by offering training, research and innovation for full actualization of the digital transformation in Kenya.
The event culminated with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Strathmore University and TalTech University, Estonia, an agreement that will see the two institutions jointly working together in the development of a curriculum to offer e-governance related training in Nairobi, Kenya.
Cashless revenue collection system launched in Busia.
@iLabAfrica, Strathmore University, launched a cashless revenue collection system in Busia County. The system, a project under @iLabAfrica’s outsourcing and consulting unit, dubbed County Pro was launched on the 10th of April 2019. The launch, which was spearheaded by Busia’s County Governor, Hon. Sospeter Ojaamong, is set to collect revenue and seal leakages that have led to a decline in the county’s revenue collection.
In his statement the governor applauded @iLabAfrica for contributing to a course that seeks to seal loopholes and maximize revenue collection in the county.
“I thank @iLabAfrica from Strathmore University and the vendors of the County Pro system for effecting the cashless system in partnership with Safaricom,” Ojaamong said.
Busia County now aims at attaining and realizing its potential of collecting Sh1.5 Billion from the various revenue streams through the system.
Implementation of the System
Busia County has already procured 100 P.O.S (Point of Sales) Devices to its 7 sub-counties and training done to all the Revenue Collectors in the specific sub counties.
@iLabAfrica, through the County Pro vendors, is taking part in the implementation process in two steps; the Gap Analysis Report which is going to ensure that the county has the prerequisite infrastructure that is: Computers, Printers and the Internet, for the program to kick off and the Modular Process of Implementation which is going to make sure that the Backend System of the structured revenue and P.O.S (Point of Sales) system of the unstructured revenue are up and running.
Once the systems are operational, data that is obtained from the P.O.S system, which will include parking tickets and market receipts, shall be directly synchronized into the Backend System of the Structured Revenue of the county government.
Monitoring and Evaluation
This system will be monitored on a daily basis using the User Support System. Through this system, Revenue Collectors can contact the County Pro Developers through calls and e-mails and make their cases regarding any queries on the system.
Quarterly Site visits will also be done to assess the success of the system. This is also meant to enable the creators of County Pro address any vital issues concerning the system’s workability.
@iLabAfrica has been at the forefront of technological advancements with projects just like ‘County Pro’ to help solve notable issues facing the counties and country through the use of technology
County Pro has replicated the same system in Kiambu, Taita Taveta and Kisumu Counties which are now yielding positive results in terms of revenue collection.