This presentation was given in the International Workshop on Affordable Wireless Connectivity Solutions (AWCS), on December 13th, 2017 in Lagos, Nigeria.

1. © 2017
The project, the reality observed, and the challenges to be addressed
Waldir Moreira, Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, waldir.junior@fraunhofer.pt
International Workshop on Affordable Wireless Connectivity Solutions – Lagos, Nigeria, December 2017
SV4D – SUSTAINABLE VILLAGES FOR DEVELOPMENT
REMARKABLE TECHNOLOGY, EASY TO USE

2. 2© 2017
1. Partners
2. Access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
3. Sustainable Villages for Development (SV4D)
4. Observed Reality
5. Opportunities
6. Current Planning
7. SV4D Pilots
8. Thematic Projects
9. Expected Impact
1. Agenda

3. 3© 2017
Fraunhofer AICOS
 Research Center for Assistive Information and
Communication Solutions (AICOS)
 Located in Porto
 > 80 collaborators
Research Agenda
 AAL (Ambient Assisted Living)
 ICT4D (ICT for Development)
Key Target Groups
 Ageing & Elderly
 Populations in Rural & Developing Areas
1. Partners
Fraunhofer AICOS – Portugal

4. 4© 2017
1. Partners
ARCTEL@CPLP
ARCTEL – Association of Communications and
Telecommunications Regulators of the Community of
Portuguese Speaking Countries
 Established in 2008
 Promotes the exchange of knowledge and
information between its members – official rulers –
aiming to contribute to the development of the
communications’ market and sector
ARCTEL represents the interests of 9 different
Portuguese Speaking Countries
 Angola
 Cape Verde
 Brazil
 Guinea-Bissau
 Equatorial Guinea
 Mozambique
 Portugal
 São Tomé and Príncipe
 East Timor

5. 5© 2017
 ICT development
 Mobile broadband outpaced fixed one (avg. price drop of 50%)
 Half of the world’s population is connected (70% of youth are online)
 However
 67% in developing countries
 30% in
Least Developed Countries
 90% of non-connected
youngsters are in Africa or
Asia and the Pacific
 Gender gap
 Africa: connected women is 25%
lower than men
2. Access to ICT
Today
Source: ITU Facts and Figures 2017

6. 6© 2017
 Initiative targeting different Portuguese Speaking countries to promote:
 Access to broadband Internet;
 Universalization of the use of ICT;
 Digital inclusion.
 On a second layer of goals, we have:
 The creation of a network of living labs driven to R&D of ICT solutions for Development (ICT4D)
 Fostering the implementation of digital services to tackle problems in different domains
 Knowledge;
 Health;
 Education;
 On a third layer, the aim is:
 Promote and enable data and information exchange between the different villages/labs to
accelerate the deployment of R&D proofs-of-concept;
 Enable Big Data and Analytics concepts.
 Economical situation;
 Commerce;
 Freedom;
 Environment;
 Security;
 Government.
3. Sustainable Villages for Development
Goals

7. 7© 2017
Source: facebook.com/comunidade.paises.lingua.portuguesa
 The goal is to interconnect a minimum of 20 laboratories in 15 rural villages of the 9
CPLP[1] countries (Angola, Cape Verde, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea,
Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor).
[1] CPLP – Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (Portuguese Speaking Countries Community)
3. Sustainable Villages for Development
Countries Map

8. 8© 2017
3. Sustainable Villages for Development
SV4D Architecture
SV4D – Sustainable Villages for Development
Agriculture
Hydroponic
Farming
ICT4D Communication
Infrastructure
…
…
…
E-Government
Culture &
Education
Health
Framework for
Occasional Connectivity

9. 9© 2017
3. Sustainable Villages for Development
Ecosystem

10. 10© 2017
 Terrain
 Lack of sustainability
 Cultural
 Administrative Bureaucracy
4. Observed Reality
Challenges

11. 11© 2017
4. Observed Reality
Challenges – Terrain

12. 12© 2017
4. Observed Reality
Challenges – Lack of Sustainability

13. 13© 2017
4. Observed Reality
Challenges – Cultural

14. 14© 2017
 Different entities involved
 Complex hierarchies
 Lack of complete information
 Communication issues
 Poor process handling
 Document loss
 Reactive instead of proactive
 Further delays
4. Observed Reality
Challenges – Administrative Bureaucracy

15. 15© 2017
 Many have experienced with ICT
 Understand how their lives could be improved by ICT
 Use mobile equipment (e.g., feature and smartphones)
5. Opportunities
Citizen’s curiosity and interest

16. 16© 2017
 Optical fiber network with interesting capillarity
 Connectivity can be easily extended to such communities
 Existing digital and media centres
5. Opportunities
Exploit existing infrastructure

17. 17© 2017
 Previous deployments without sustainable planning
 Initiatives abandoned due to lack of resources
 Explore simple business models to cover OPEX
5. Opportunities
Focus on Infrastructure Operation and Maintenance

18. 18© 2017
 ICTs contribute to human development index
 Citizens can take over the control and maintenance
 Guarantee good use of network and protect equipments
5. Opportunities
Human development and training

19. 19© 2017
 Identify project areas / use cases
 Bring connectivity to insufficiently connected villages to extend reach of specific projects/services in
a remote area
 Provide valuable services in that specific region to mitigate the effects of Digital Divide
 Promote sustainability
 Use efficient and low maintenance technologies and concepts (technical sustainability)
 Deploy services over the network to generate revenue and cover OPEX
 Broader Scale Project Value
 Concept of public regional network can be applied to many regions in reference to the original
project
 Decentralized approach of regional networks allows for a quicker, user-driven Digital Inclusion
solutions
6. Current Planning
Current Planning

20. 20© 2017
 Joint effort between Fraunhofer, ARCTEL@CPLP, and regulators
 Govt. agencies, universities, NGO’s
 Collection of software and hardware that compose a broadband communication
network
 Main tasks
 Deploy hotspots to reduce the effects of digital divide
 Schools, universities, hospitals
 Develop services that answer the needs of users
 Involving intellectual resources from the country
 Identify business models to turn these deployments indeed sustainable
 Be capable of generate revenue without demanding a great financial effort from users
7. SV4D Pilots
Who is involved? What is it?

21. 21© 2017
 Spots instead of large areas being covered
 Very inexpensive with a low cost infrastructure owned by a local organization
 Low OPEX investment covered by revenue generated with services offered over the
network
 Efficient and low maintenance technologies easily managed by a local organization
 Low power consumption
 Possibility to adapt existing services to the needs of the target communities
 Malaria Scope
 Epidemiologic Surveillance
7. SV4D Pilots
Advantages vs. Traditional Solutions
 Hydroponic Farming
 ACP Street Libraries – Culture for All

22. 22© 2017
7. SV4D Pilots
Mozambique
 Local administrations
 Schools
 Training centres
 University
 Central Market

23. 23© 2017
7. SV4D Pilots
Cape Verde
 City hall
 School
 Fort
 Salineiro community

24. 24© 2017
7. SV4D Pilots
São Tomé and Príncipe
 Regulator office
 Monte Café community
 Batepa community
 São Carlos community

25. 25© 2017
8. Thematic Projects
Health
Malaria Scope
 Perform automatic detection of malaria parasites using
image processing techniques and smartphones
(cooperation with the National Health Institute
Dr. Ricardo Jorge);
 Develop a mobile-based solution for pre-diagnosis of
Malaria in medically underserved areas;
 Create a low cost alternative to current microscopes;
 First triage framework to provide the correct
medication.

26. 26© 2017
8. Thematic Projects
Health
Epidemiologic Surveillance
 Clinical data collection on isolated populations in
developing countries using mobile devices with lack
of continuous network connectivity;
 Objectives:
 Relate collected data with earth observation data
to predict outbreaks or epidemics;
 Prevent spread of infectious diseases: Malaria,
HIV/AIDS;
 Secure data storage of sensitive information;
 Multiple community health workers sharing a
mobile device.

27. 27© 2017
Health Logistics
 Low Cost (system) & Efficient (distribution) of
medicaments by using mobile phones;
 Citizen centred approach – Seamless integration of
Citizens in logistics process (through mobile phones /
SMS);
 Real-time Analytics (Consumption, Epidemics,
Warning), Diagnostics (Malaria Scope) and Personal
Health Records (including support for vaccination
programmes).
8. Thematic Projects
Health

28. 28© 2017
Hydroponic Farming
 Low cost mechanism for mobile monitoring of
hydroponic farms in South Africa and Mozambique;
 Improves farm management through monitoring
and control of environmental parameters;
 Real time alarms, short monitoring cycles and
automated reports leading to increased
performance;
 Partnership with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan
University in South Africa.
8. Thematic Projects
Agriculture

29. 29© 2017
Farmers portal of São Tomé e Príncipe
 Create a web portal dedicated to farmers
communities of São Tomé e Príncipe;
 Improve dissemination of premium biologic
products in a multilingual portal;
 E-Commerce fair trade platform to allow
consumers from all over the world to purchase
original products of São Tomé e Príncipe;
 Partnership with local communities of pepper, cocoa
and coffee farmers.
8. Thematic Projects
Agriculture

30. 30© 2017
OurMoz
 Crowdsourcing mobile platform providing real-time
geotagged information about Mozambican cities;
 Aims to improve small commerce and enhance
engagement between citizens and local
stakeholders;
 Partnership with Eduardo Mondlane University,
Mozambique.
1st Place in the #APPS4MAPUTO World Bank
2015 Contest
8. Thematic Projects
eGovernment

31. 31© 2017
 Mobile solution to simplify the administrative
acts that require personal attendance at service
providers’ facilities in Mozambique (administration,
police, pharmacy, bank, etc.);
 Provides citizens with information about the status
of requested goods or services;
 Optimization of the customer service;
 Partnership with Eduardo Mondlane University in
Mozambique.
IZIDoc
8. Thematic Projects
eGovernment

32. 32© 2017
ACP Street Libraries
 Aims to contribute to the development of
culture and literacy in ACP countries mainly by
promoting the creation of new Street Libraries and
the modernization of existing ones;
 Specific objectives:
 Increase access to conventional books;
 Create access to eBooks;
 Collect cultural Heritage;
 Empower cultural artists and entrepreneurs;
 Modernize Street Libraries. With the Financial contribution of the European Union (European Development Fund)
and the assistance of the ACP Group of States.
ACP-EU Support Programme to ACP Cultural Sectors
www.streetlibraries.org
8. Thematic Projects
Education & Culture

33. 33© 2017
Turtles Monitoring System
 São Tomé e Príncipe hosts one of the 11th
populations of marine turtles with maximum
risk of extinction worldwide – the Sada turtle;
 It is important to get information on where,
when and why turtles use coastal marine areas;
 Goal is to use conventional telemetry systems
such as radio transmitters (VHF) and satellite
(via GPS and / or GSM) to track the movement
of turtles across large spatial and temporal scales.
8. Thematic Projects
Environment

34. 34© 2017
 Hotspots will serve people of different ages and literacy levels
 This explains the strategic choices for deployment sites
 The secondary school of Pista Nova serves 1.500 students with the aid of 44 teachers
 The impact in the quality of life of citizens is expected to be very positive
 Easy access to information
 Progress and improvement in the teaching/learning process
 Provide the basis for technological literacy
 Facilitate the access to local government services
 Sustainable development of local communities
9. Expected Impact
We accept no less !!

35. © 2017
The project, the reality observed, and the challenges to be addressed
Waldir Moreira, Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS, waldir.junior@fraunhofer.pt
International Workshop on Affordable Wireless Connectivity Solutions – Lagos, Nigeria, December 2017
SV4D – SUSTAINABLE VILLAGES FOR DEVELOPMENT
REMARKABLE TECHNOLOGY, EASY TO USE