Tado Radio

The Tado Radio is a listening radio capable of advanced functionality that transforms the listening process for users, making them active as opposed to passive listeners. This is achieved through interactive controls and an assortment of features that enable gathering of quick and timely feedback from users.

Listening / community radios are common place in rural sub-Saharan Africa with residents tuning into a variety of programming that is vital, educative and important. Radios have proven to be a cost-effective mode of information dissemination.

However, with rapidly changing environments and constant inflow of one-way information, the listeners are mostly passive and have no direct way to contribute to conversations that help shape policy and other issues in their community.

The Tado Radio provides a unique platform to equip millions around the world with the tools required to contribute to meaningful conversations affordably and in turn shape their communities for better.

Numerous studies have documented the linkage between civic inclusion, lowered corruption levels, development in communities and better government service delivery. However, this is only limited to the urban centers where legislators can easily be accessed and policy is effortlessly debated through different fora that is only accessible to persons of specific income levels.

In Uganda, 84% of the population lives in rural areas with limited access to energy resources, internet and broadcast channels like Television. This greatly stifles their participation in civic matters.

Listening / community radios are common place in rural Uganda with residents tuning into a variety of programming that is vital, educative and important. Radios have proven to be a cost-effective mode of information dissemination.

Due to advancement in technology, the radio’s place is being threatened by mobile phones that come embedded with radios. The mobile phones also provide functionality that enables 2-way communication. However, the rural outlook is different. With unreliable or no energy in rural areas, listening to radio on phone becomes a luxury that many cannot afford and hence resort to using the traditional radio. The Tado Radio seeks to promote civic inclusion by rethinking the traditional radio and enhancing on its capabilities.

We are serving the rural population who live off-grid, have limited access to energy and live on under $5 a day. They are the most affected by policy changes and yet contribute the least to their formulation.

We conducted research with Barefoot Law Uganda in previously conflicted areas of Northern Uganda. Our goal was to understand how best to promote civic inclusion of the masses on matters that are of national and local importance. Specifically, we wanted to understand how energy inclusion can lead to increased civic participation.

Despite a high penetration of feature phones and the presence of affordable battery recharging technology, civic participation is low. Factors that attributed to this include: lack of airtime to call in during radio talk shows and no way to revisit content shared.

Through a Human Centered Design (HCD) approach we have carefully observed radio usage patterns and are actively working with the pilot group to refine the solution. The radio comes equipped with interactive buttons that listeners can use to quickly respond to poll requests without the need for airtime. It also allows for recording of content that can then be revisited at a later stage for purposes of clarity and comprehension.

The Tado Radio is a new kind of radio that’s capable of a host of functionalities geared towards reducing the barriers for civic participation. From content recording, to instant feedback (voice or textual); the radio provides a voice to the masses that is not only affordable but trans-formative to policy generation around the world.

To put this into perspective, let us assume a legislator is live on radio talking about budget allocations to his constituents. If he/she wanted to hear back from those listening in, the listeners would either have to call the radio station phone number or use their phones to send messages. While this works, it limits participation to only those that have mobile phones. Even with mobile phones, there’s no guarantee that they will have airtime to interact with the programming. Even when they have airtime and are able to participate, the feedback / response is often times overwhelmingly, making it almost impossible to be addressed by the programmers at that instant. Immediately after the programming, all information is lost and there’s no concrete follow up on issues raised. For the typical rural listener that is probably engaged in farming, their listening is mostly passive and there’s no way to save the content for later listening.

With the Tado Radio, things would play out much different. The listener will be able to record the program at the tap of the button and listen to it later. For live programming, the listener can quickly respond to polls by tapping buttons on the radio. For complex feedback, the listener can easily record a voice note of under 60 seconds and have it relayed to the radio station instantly. The radio is built with an assortment of technologies that ensure its affordability and ability to function with minimal energy (i.e. 2 AA size batteries). The host of features is controlled by a microprocessor equipped with a GSM and GPS modules for connectivity and positioning respectively. The radio comes with multiple transmission modes that include: GSM (regular phone network), LoRaWAN (Long Range Wifi) and custom mesh networks.

Community radios have long been the preferred mode of mass information dissemination i.e. broad cast media. This is mostly attributed to the low cost of the receivers (the radios) coupled with constantly decreasing overheads in setting up commercial radio stations.

Numerous governments, development agencies and regular companies have leveraged radios to reach citizens, beneficiaries and customers respectively. Content ranging from security information, to educative information, adverts and regular entertainment is broadcasted on a regular. However, given the design of the radio, this communication is mostly one-sided; making it impossible for the listeners to actively participate or react to whatever information is being shared. To address this bottleneck, radio producers are leveraging phones to complete the loop. Listeners can text in or call in during live programming and contribute.

However, this mode of setup presents numerous challenges in resource constrained settings who happen to be the majority consumer of radio programming. Due to limitations in phone battery, coupled with the difficulty with recharging in energy deficient locations; listeners are not quick to contribute this way. In some cases, the phones come fitted with radios but are not practical because of energy constraints and the limitedness of sharing phones which are considered private.

The Tado radio addresses the gaps identified by re engineering the radio from ground up; marrying the best of the radio and the mobile phone. Through buttons on the radio, listeners can quickly interact with content in an affordable and sustainable manner.

Listening radios can be compared to blue tooth speakers that have long been an entertainment gadget since the advent of smart phones. No one ever thought they would be disrupted until the Amazon Echo came along.

In the same spirit, we ensured to not deviate from the original design of the radio but rather maintain the look, feel and overall presentation. We only focused on the internal components of the radio, re-engineering them to provide the desired functionality.

The Tado radio is equipped with a micro-chip, a GSM transmitter (regular network), a GPS transmitter (location services), a memory chip (storage) and additional surface buttons (to facilitate user interaction). Currently we have 4 sets of buttons that serve to register user feedback, capture audio and record live content for later access. Recorded content is saved to the on-board memory chip and can later be accessed via a knob on the radio.

We leverage the GSM network to transmit data back and forth. The location transmitter is there to help curate particular content for the listener that may not necessarily be aired live.

The setup we are utilizing ensures a low energy foot print that can run for several weeks without the need for battery replacement. Device energy is also supplemented by the mini solar panels that make up the body of the radio. Radio stations have a web-dashboard that allows them manage schedules and programming. They can also view reports and gauge listener sentiment per topic / program being aired.

Recent advents in technology are enabling numerous development nations leap frog the development cycle. Connectivity enables everyone to actively participant and collectively contribute towards a common goal. Mobile phones are at the forefront of this.

However, mobile phones still remain out of reach of many. Even for those that own mobile phones, usage is limited to social activities like chatting with friends, financial activities like sending money, and enabling trade. While mobile has been adopted for civic engagement, we have observed that participation is only for limited periods of time and usually catalyzed by donor project initiatives.

On the other hand, radio listener-ship in rural areas is at an all time high. 100% of the respondents we interviewed attributed radio to being a fast-efficient way to get information on a range of topics. 80% of the respondents indicated that they had access to a smart phone (both directly and indirectly) and less than 20% actively engaged with radio programs that were civic in nature i.e. calling or texting the station to voice their views. 70% of the respondents expressed willingness / interest in airing their views but were unable to. Airtime (money loaded onto phones) was a major constraint. We believe that increased sales of the Tado radio will eliminate the airtime barrier and in turn lead to increased participation, ensuring civic inclusion. This was witnessed during experiments we ran that automatically reimbursed whoever called / texted in during live programming.

The Tado Radio is relatively new. We currently have only 10 families that are actively using and providing feedback to the design team.

In one year, we will be serving 1,200 individuals directly (radio owners) and 5,000 indirectly (averaging 4 persons listening at a time).

In 5 years, we will be serving 500,000 individuals directly (radio owners) and 2 million indirectly. This will be made possible through partnerships with distributors to resale the radio in the different regions.

Over the next 2 months, we will focus on addressing feedback from the pilot and incorporating recommendations into the radio design. We will also use this period to sign up additional radio stations within our pilot region. After the 2 months, we will then embark on a marketing campaign to increase on sales in the target regions i.e. radio talk shows, co-hosting events with development partners, etc.

In the longer term, we want to setup a franchise model that allows different businesses to resale the product on our behalf. This will greatly increase on product penetration at the grass roots.

We also plan to partner with established solar companies like mKopa and Fenix to add the Tado radio to their product portfolio. This will collectively bring in millions of potential customers.

Currently, we do not have the capacity to manufacture radios at scale and enjoy economies of scale.

We also lack in-roads to some of the development agencies that could greatly leverage the Tado radio for their activities and in-turn generate larger impact.

The team is composed of mostly engineers. We will need expertise in marketing, product branding and communications to help improve on our narrative and make the product more appealing to the end users.

For the financing gap, we anticipate that being shortlisted by Solve will draw us closer to the intended target. From funding and access to experts to numerous other opportunities - the solve community presents a unique opportunity to some of the identified barriers. We are also actively engaging investors and applying to numerous opportunities.

The marketing aspect will be outsourced to partner development agencies whose work aligns with civic participation.

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Full time staff: 5

Part time staff: 3

Contractors: 2

Challenges experienced by those living in resource constrained environments are best experienced first-hand. Often times we read about the need for inclusion of the underserved communities but never really grasp the extent of it. The team at Tado is hands on, living within the communities we serve and learning from first hand interactions with the intended beneficiaries.

Through a human centered design (HCD) approach, we immerse ourselves into the lives of the target communities, understand their pain points with civic inclusion and together brain storm solutions that will promote increased participation.

The team is composed of hardware and software engineers, solar technicians, researchers, journalists and content specialists who collectively bring several years of experience to the table. The different disciplines are key towards adapting Tado radio to the different contexts we encounter. We understand that change doesn’t happen overnight, that’s why we are committed to building out technologies / solutions whose impact is long lasting.

New technologies and solutions require an initial boast of capital to test and iterate on design. This requires funding from multiple sources. The team consists of committed individuals who have run social ventures in the past and are capable of pulling resources (contacts, financing) to ensure the success of the project. 

To broaden our impact, we have partnered with development organizations that are championing redesign of service delivery through community engagement powered by technology. Pollicy Uganda develops digital tools to amplify two-way interaction between government and citizens. Through the partnership, we are exploring ways to encourage more participation through the use of the Tado radio. 

Barefoot Law Uganda provides pro-bono legal services to those that cannot afford. They leverage social technologies (Facebook, Twitter, SMS, voice) to engage beneficiaries. Radio broadcasts were recently added to their communication channels and through the partnership, we are exploring ways to promote increased participation from the beneficiaries.

Our key customers are persons that live in rural areas and have limited access to energy. Their livelihood is predominantly derived from agriculture or related activities. These include: women (all age groups), young men, disabled and similar groups who are normally excluded from civic engagements that affect their communities.

We are providing them an affordable, alternative way to voice out their opinions about issues being discussed. The radios retail for $15 and come equipped with the ability to send short voice notes, quickly respond to polls, record content for later listening and charge mobile phones with ease.

We are currently in pilot phase and heavily relying on in-kind contributions from the team to build out the project. However, we are actively raising money through grants and investment to accelerate version 2 of the hardware.

However, the plan is to sustain-ably generate revenue from sales of the radio and associated services e.g. radio advertisers that need information on who's listening in when their ad plays.

Design of a subscription based model for radio stations is in the works i.e. those that require real-time visibility of their listeners and additional insights to improve on their programming.

Development agencies that want to run quick polls on numerous issues are equally turning to the Tado radios and paying a premium for the service.

The MIT Solve community boasts of top solvers, funders, industry experts and hosts of other professionals, who collectively bring immense value to an early stage venture like Tado Radio. The events present numerous networking opportunities.

Through being granted admission to the community, we envision sharing our expertise and equally engaging members on different fronts. From potential consumers of the product, to social venture capitalists and experts that can help improve the product.

The Funding opportunities presented by Solve are well tailored to the challenges being addressed by the solvers. This greatly cuts back on our fundraising time and ensures that we are focused on building the business and improving the product.

Over the years, MIT Solve has become a household name in so many circles. We anticipate that the exposure that comes with being a solver will go a long way in enabling access to new partners and markets.

We believe in the potential of Tado Radio and the numerous possibilities it presents in bridging the civic inclusion gap. However, as entrepreneurs – often times you need to be reassured that whatever you are solving matters. Acceptance to the solver class is a validation of sorts that we are onto something. This is will equally do wonders for the team’s morale, thereby increasing productivity. 

 Finally, we look to learn from the different solvers addressing numerous challenges. The solvers that have dedicated their lives to making the world a better place!

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MIT Design Lab

UNHCR

Sloan School of Management

The Tado radio makes it possible to affordably collect vast amounts of data on numerous issues being broadcast. From location, to interest / disinterest in a topic, to short voice notes expressing opinions about particular subjects, the Tado radio is a source of both quantitative and qualitative data that can be used to inform humanitarian missions, government policy and other development strategy.

A pilot study conducted by the UN Global Pulse in 2017 demonstrated that the state of healthcare service delivery or the levels of acceptance of host communities towards refugees can be deduced from radio content. Through application of AI and machine learning techniques to data streams being generated by the Tado radio users, a lot more can be deduced.

The AI innovations prize will go a long way in enabling the team realize this potential.

The 2 way communication provided by the Tado radio can be leveraged for Education. Through educative programs made by experienced teachers, students in rural / hard to reach areas can access this content, interact with it and actively provide feedback to the teachers. This presents a unique opportunity for learning humanity disciplines and select science modules that do not require active experimentation during the lesson.

The GM prize would go a long way in ensuring that the right educational content is generated as per the national curriculum, distributed to partner radio stations and aired as per the agreed schedule. Tado radio owners can then tune in, give feedback / interact with the content and optionally record content for playback at a later stage.

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Refugee communities are often marginalized and not included in the general decision making process by the host community. 

The Tado Radio provides a unique opportunity for refugees to contribute to discussions without necessarily identifying as refugees. The Tado radio eliminates any bias that may come about as a result of identifying as a minority group.

According to UNCHR, Uganda is host to at least 1.4 million refugees; one of the largest in the world! Deployment of the Tado Radio in some of the identified areas would go a long way in promoting engagement and fruitful dialogue.

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The Tado radio is sparking change through innovation, disruption, and transformation of the existing community radio use-case. When it comes to rural community engagement, mobile phones have long been thought to be the defacto channel. However, with careful observation of communities in developing countries like Uganda, you realize that radio is king.

The Tado radio is rethinking the traditional radio, making it smarter and more reliable for a fraction of the price. This in-turn gets the users more engaged in affairs and issues that impact them.

The Morgridge Family Foundation Community-Driven Innovation Prize presents a unique opportunity for the team to bring the Tado radio to thousands of households in rural communities. The funding will be used to fast track the development of version 2.0 and go towards community outreach in the different target communities.

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