Empowering consumers through provision of information is one of the
strategies to push them to act and call for positive change in the
society. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Code4Africa, a Kenyan non-governmental organisation, is
currently monitoring Nairobi’s air quality using internet of things
(IoT) enabled sensors.
This will allow them to relay information to consumers in a bid to raise awareness of the toxicity levels in the city.
The
air quality sensors that were deployed in August last year as the World
Health Organisation (WHO) reported that the level of fine particulate
matter in Nairobi is 17 micrograms per cubic metre, which is 70 per cent
above the recommended maximum level.
This pollution is
due to car emissions, open burning of plastics, rubber and litter as
well as the construction boom that has emitted dust. Studies have linked
these emissions cancer, impotence, allergies, heart and lung damage,
and affect our mental faculties.
“Code4Africa is using
civic technologies and open data to build digital democracies that
afford consumers timely and unrestricted access to actionable
information that enables them to make informed decisions and that
supports civic engagement for enhanced public governance and
accountability,” said Code4Africa.
The NGO is seeking
to reduce health implications that are likely to occur in Nairobi with
its gadgets. From its website, sensors. Africa, consumers are able to
see the level of air toxicity, which is updated every day.
They
have been deployed along Nakuru-Nairobi highway near Gitaru, Ruaka,
Kabiria, Westlands, Hurlingham, Jamuhuri and Langata Road among other
locations.
The sensors use IoT network provided by
Liquid Telecom to communicate and receive data which is relayed to the
Code4Africa headquarters in Off Ngong Road, Nairobi. They monitor air,
water and sound pollution to giving consumers information about their
areas.
Empowering people through provision of information is one of the strategies to push them to act and call for change.
In
a case study released in 2011 conducted by environmental science
professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Dara O'Rourke on
the strategies NGOs use to influence global production and consumption,
he found that they launch campaigns that appeal to their concerns.
“NGOs
are no longer waiting for green consumers to emerge or hoping for a sea
change in consumer lifestyles. Instead, they are advancing new
strategies that use existing concerns of consumers to influence
producers, and simultaneously working to expand and deepen these
consumer concerns to demand greater improvements in products and
services,” reported O'Rourke.
He studied a group of
NGOs comprising Press for Change, Global Exchange, Sweatshop and Oxfam
Community Aid Abroad, and United Students Against Sweatshops among other
NGOs in 1997 that launched an anti-sweatshop campaign that sought to
expose the poor conditions of clothes’ factories in Asia.
However,
in a bid to give their campaign more traction and appeal to consumers,
it targeted Nike, which at the time was the number one merchandiser of
sports shoes globally with over $10bn in annual sales.
The
NGOs then started monitoring factories in the producer countries and
transferred the information to consumer countries so as to increase
public awareness in the United States and Europe.
They called for a boycott of Nike products by consumers and lobbied government bodies to require Nike to change its practices.
For
fear that the campaign would lead to sales drop, Nike created a
recycling programme called reuse-a shoe in all its factories globally
and agreed to meet the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration
air quality regulations in all its factories around the world.
It
also reduced the organic solvent content in its shoes by 95 per cent,
phasing out polyvinyl chloride and is currently involved in investing in
developing alternative, more environmentally sustainable products.
- African Laughter
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