Aid on Spreadsheets

Pulse Lab Kampala - collecting radio data - Pulse Lab Kampala

The proposed intervention will support the Pulse Lab Kampala, which is part of the UN Global Pulse, a worldwide initiative to increase the use of big data for decision-making within aid and development. UN Global Pulse has so far worked to generate data from the use of the mobile phones and social media like Facebook and Twitter. Although the mobile network and internet access is growing rapidly in Africa is still the radio the most used medium on the continent. Therefore, the Pulse Lab Kampala has now taken the initiative that, for the first time ever, generate data from radio broadcasts. The intervention will result in an open-source platform and technology for the collection of data from radio broadcasts will be produced, which in turn enables real-time compilation and interpretation of what is said in radio broadcasting around the country. The information will be clustered around themes central to both Swedish development assistance and general development in the country such as gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence. Initially, data will be collected for the three main languages; English, Buganda and Acholi. Through the method it will be possible to better base development initiatives on areas that citizens themselves identify as main concerns. Once the platform is designed it can be used in several countries in Africa and the demand is high. The Swedish support channeled through the Resident Coordinators office at the UNDP in Uganda. In addition to UNDP and the UN Global Pulse the universities of Makerere and Stellenbosch which have previous experience in the technology to translate speech to text are part of the implementation set-up. The Swedish contribution amounts to 2.3 million Swedish krona during 2015

The main outcome of this project is to expand the scope of innovative sentiment analysis in Uganda to put the voices of the people at the centre of the development processes.

Project ID

SE-0-SE-6-5118008501-UGA-22040

Activity status

4 - Post-completion

Aid type

C01 - Project-type interventions

% to Uganda

100.00

Organisations

Funding

Sweden

Extending

Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency

Implementing

United Nations Development Programme

Accountable

UNDP/UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMEN

CRS code	%
Information and communication technology (ICT) (22040)	100.0