MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name

Wood fuel usage traceability app

One-line solution summary.

App will be generated for rural households to feed-in daily woodfuel usage. Then data used by government to track usage and know the extend at which forest resources are endangered

What is your solution?

The concept is an app called wood fue usage traceability app (WUT) that shall be used to track the usage of wood fuel in mainly rural communities. The app will be a no data operation app that operates without data. House house will feed in their woodfuel usage into the app daily. The obtained data shall be analyzed and submitted to the responsible government bodies for example the National environment management authority, National forest authority and the ministry of water and environment at large. They will use the obtained data to know the energy demands and supply in different part of the country, also help to extend the necesary energy sources and also monitor the rate at which forests are endangered. We shall use GIS and remote sensing for mapping changes in the ecosystems.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

In uganda, only 18% of the rural areas is connected to the national electricity grid. Although this is mapped, there has not been a clear approach to show the need for such a clean energy source. With this percentage, it means there is high use of local energy sources such as wood fuel, which are endangering the forest reserves and also releasing alot emission that increase the climate change rate. What the future holds is the depletion of such resources due to the high pressure on them and climate variations leaving the rural areas with no energy sources thus suffering more with the impact brought by climate change.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

The solution is looking at rural communities. The rate at which clean energy sources especially Hydro electric power is extented to them is limited. These people rely on natural resources such as wood fuel for their energy sources which are proon to depletion hence leaving them with nothing. The solution will create a communication in terms of need to the government, which will help extend energy services to them

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

I personally live in a rural setting, secondly i have volunteered with umuntu for sustainable communities which visit rural communities and help meet their basic needs. I have discussed with my team and we have the capacity to develop the idea to the maximum

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Taking action to combat climate change and its impacts (Sustainability)

Our solution's stage of development:

Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution—in other words, what have you accomplished to date?

Because we are just at the stage of developing our idea which we believe will be effective

Where our solution team is headquartered or located:

Kampala, Uganda

Team Lead:

Tamale Paul