Current ICT initiatives and projects - Malawi

ICT Initiatives are currently ongoing at national level in the area of eGovernment (eGovernment Programme, Electronic Legislation enacted in 2016), Education and eLearning (Computers for African Schools Malawi, Pan African eNetwork), eInfrastructure (Regional Communication Infrastructure project, Malawi Sustainable Development Network Programme, MACRA Infrastructures projects, Malawi Research and Education Network, ESCOM Fibre Optic project), Digital Repositories (Malawi Library and Information Consortium, National Digital Repository), eHealth, eBanking, physical addresses and post codes, Biodiversity Information for Development (BID) and the Land Information System.

A fully-fledged Ministry of ICT was established in 2016 comprising of two technical departments namely; Information and E-Government with the mandate of providing policy direction and guidance in the production and dissemination of public information; coordinate and manage ICT development and services. The Ministry intends to provide an enabling environment for the development and usage of information and communication technologies.

eGovernment Programme

An eGovernment programme has been conceptualised as part of the Malawi Information and Communications Technology (ICT). The overall aim is to promote the country's socioeconomic development, supporting the aspirations of Vision 2020, with priority being given to ICT activities contributing to poverty reduction. The eGovernment element focuses on the modernisation and improved efficiency of public services. Specific strategies have been designed to:

- Improve productivity, efficiency, effectiveness and service delivery through institutional and organisational reforms

- Modernise the public service through the development and utilisation of ICT to support its operations and activities

- Promote e-government through government to-government, government-to-business, and government-to-citizens initiatives

- Promote the use of ICT to facilitate the decentralisation of government services and operations, and support the delivery of business and government services in rural areas

- Improve the basic skills of public officers by ongoing training

- Develop and enforce standards and best practice to guide the delivery of services to the public.

With funding from the Chinese Government of about USD135 million, the Department of eGovernment is implementing a number of ICT projects in the country over a 4 to 5-year period from 2013. The projects include establishment of a data centre, provision of e-services such as e-immigration, e-national registration and identification system, sharable geographic information system, electronic document management system, e-Learning platform for the public sector, enhanced electronic communication systems, electronic marketing systems and electronic security systems.

Some of the software systems and applications undertaken within the e-Government initiative include a computer based Integrated Finance Management System (IFMIS), funded by the World Bank which aims to provide timely and accurate financial information while enforcing standardised integrated financial management reporting system for government Ministries and departments. The Payroll and Human Resource Management System purchased by the Government aims to overhaul the locally developed government establishment, personnel, payroll, pensions, loans management (PPPAI) that was initiated in 1998-99. Tithe Road Traffic Department's Traffic Management Information System (MalTIS) facilitates motor vehicle registration, issuing of driving licences and road permits.

The Malawi Immigration Department has also introduced a computer based system machine readable passport issuing system which is a fully integrated turnkey passport issuing system incorporating state-of-the-art biometric enrolment, issuing software, and Toppan digital passport printers. In addition, the Department has launched a new ICT innovation border control system in at its international airports, called the Integrated Border Control System, as part of its objective for computerise all its border posts.

Source of funding : Malawi Government, China and other development partners

Geographic scope and timeframe : National, Phase 1 2008 - 2013, Phase 2 2013 - 2017

Electronic Legislation Project

An eLegislation project is currently being funded under RCIP aimed to set up a responsive ICT Legal framework to facilitate competition, development and participation of Malawi in the Information Society and more particularly the legislation, among others, purports to

(a) ensure that the development, deployment and exploitation of ICT within the economy and society and related legal provisions shall balance as well as protect community and individual interests, including privacy and data protection issues;

(b) address ethical issues in the use of ICT to protect the rights of children and the under-privileged;

(c) define favourable tax policies that promote ICT products and services that originate from within Malawi and provide a responsive and efficient regulatory environment, promote economic subsectors, assets accumulation and tax activities that arise from ICT use.

The Government expects to create an adequate, enabling and favourable environment for information and Communication Technology (ICT) users by developing an electronic legislation, which awaits input from institutions prior to passing it into law. The focus area includes 'legal recognition of electronic messages', which the Bill acknowledges does not exist in the current legal framework. The Bill also addresses issues of protecting the public from cybercrime, eWaste and maintaining a secure space where data and intangible money could be stored, shared and legally and securely transferred. The Bill also has a provision for the establishment of Malawi CERT to lead in cybersecurity.

The eLegislation and Cybersecurity Act was enacted in 2016 and its objective is to set up a responsive information and communication technology legal framework that shall facilitate competition, development of information and communication technology and the participation of Malawi in the information age and economy and in particular

Source of funding : World Bank

Geographic scope and timeframe : National, enacted in 2016

Education and e-Learning projects

The Malawi ICT policy includes the promotion of ICTs in education systems at all levels in order to improve both the access and the quality of education, improve management of education systems and improve ICT literacy. It also has a few innovative initiatives in this area, committed largely to the promotion of integrated library and information services and networks. Both public and academic libraries have embarked on projects to implement integrated library management systems using open source softwares such as Koha and Dspace.

The Computers for African Schools Malawi has been active for the past decade. It incorporates academic and business representatives and is implemented by the British Council and Ministry of Education. It provides ICT training to teachers, provides computers and printers to schools and develops the ICT Curriculum for schools.

Source of funding : Malawi Government, British Council, India and other development partners

Geographic scope and timeframe : National, 2005 - 2010

Malawi urgently needs to expand the number of its health professionals to meet service delivery needs. In response to this, the Government has significantly increased the number of students taking medical and healthcare courses and challenged the Colleges to meet this requirement by adopting new methods of teaching. Researchers from University of Edinburgh are collaborating with Malawi's Medical, Nursing and Health Science Colleges to help them to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to design teaching and learning resources for delivery in new ways using CD, DVD and mobile phone. This process has involved three Train-the-Trainers workshops in Malawi facilitated by University of Edinburgh staff. The first, in April 2017, focused on the development of storyboards for a series of Virtual Patient (VP) scenarios. These are effective in contextualizing learning and stretching student learners.

Some libraries have embraced ICT to support the delivery of information. This is being achieved through the use of different computerised systems. Institutions including National Library service, LUANAR and National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST) have implemented "D-space" as a digital repository. All the documents are being uploaded into D-space for archiving.

Malawi National Examination Board (MANEB) in partnership with the National Bank of Malawi, Airtel Malawi Limited, Telekom Networks Malawi Limited, NICO Technologies and MACRA is upgrading its ICT System, which will ease the data handling of the Malawi School's examination and other office work related to the writing of the examinations. Over time the registration for examinations will also be implemented electronically.

The Pan African eNetwork

An example of an e Learning initiative is the Pan African eNetwork, a Tele education connectivity which enables 5 African regional leading universities including the University of Malawi (Chancellor College) to be connected to a hub through satellite to 53 remote virtual classes distributed in all the 53 countries. Seven universities from India are connected via IPLC to the Hub located in Africa. India hosts the Tele education LMS portal comprising the University Tele-Education delivery system software that incorporates the e-learning, content management KMS (knowledge Management System) and digital library solutions. This project provides eServices with a priority on tele-education and telemedicine in order to build capacity. The Government of India has established the eNetwork through 3 centres in Malawi - eLearning at Chancellor College, Telemedicine at Kamuzu Central Hospital and e-VVIP at the State House. Free technical support was provided for five years as part of the project.

Source of funding : Government of India, Government of Malawi

Geographic scope and timeframe : Zomba and Lilongwe, 5 years [2009 - 2015]

The Regional Communications Infrastructure Project (RCIP)

RCIP is a Government of Malawi led intervention in the ICT sector, which aims to support policy and legislative reforms and to provide affordable Internet capacity to the nation.

The project is being funded by the World Bank and aims at facilitating the provision of a wet portion (submarine cable) solution to dry portion (overland) connectivity to eligible countries. It is managed by the Privatisation Commission, in partnership with MACRA and the eGovernment Department.

Under the Enabling environment activity, the project intends to review the Communication Act of 1998; build capacity amongst its agencies especially those involved in the policy and regulatory supervision of the ICT sector.

By September 2013, the Last Mile Connectivity Initiative, which is the third phase of the project was implemented. The initiative saw 145 sites being connected against a target of 100 and these included Teachers Development Centres, Teachers Training Colleges, District and Regional information offices. The second phase of the project, which was completed by November 2013 saw the provision of Internet connectivity, terminal equipment, ICT equipment to all 30 District and Regional Information Offices in the country.

The project was completed in December 2015 when the construction of the international optic fibre network and delivery of Internet capacity to the VLP at Capital Hill was finalised. Government through the Ministry of Information, Toursim and Civic Education intends to launch the delivery of this infrastructure, which will reduce the costs hampering internet access to broadband in the country during 2016.

The Malawi Government obtained a loan from the International Development Association (IDA) towards the cost of the RCIPMW project.

Source of funding : World Bank, Government of Malawi

Geographic scope and timeframe : National, 2009 - 2015

Malawi Sustainable Development Network Programme (SDNP)

SDNP was a pioneering UNDP funded project that implemented the provision of Internet services in the country. SDNP was put in place to help countries implement Agenda 21 by facilitating access to information about sustainable development and also encouraging participation in decision making for sustainable development. SDNP started its operations in the 1990's and at the moment it is being hosted by the National Commission for Science and Technology after UNDP stopped funding its operations in 2011. Currently plans are underway to have SDNP registered as a company limited by guarantee with NCST as one of the Directors.

SDNP has enhanced the capacity of stakeholders to use computer mediated communications, including the Internet. This has been done through training and the provision of equipment to encourage users to connect.

Furthermore, the project has helped to enhance the capacity for open and participatory decision-making processes, and strives to have a role in encouraging local and community based involvement in sustainable development.

Some of the SDNP services include: Full Internet Services, Installations and Maintenance, World Wide Web Services, Leased Line Access, Wireless network access, Domain Name Services, Domain and Subdomains registration, Gateway Service and the IPv4 and IPv6.

Source of funding : UNDP, National Government

Geographic scope and timeframe : National, 1990-2011

MACRA Infrastructures Projects

Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA) is implementing telecommunications infrastructure development through the establishment of tele-centres in several rural areas of the country through ITU's, World Bank, MACRA and Malawi Post Office support. The majority of Malawians (about 80%) live in the rural areas where access to basic ICT services is not readily available therefore the implementation of the ITU/MACRA/MPC tele-centre project has brought great enthusiasm and uptake of ICT services to the extent that the Government of Malawi is embarking on a "Connect a Constituency" Project to make sure that there is at least one Multipurpose Community Telecentre (MCT) in each constituency. Fifty-six tele-centers were established from 2010 - 2013 to support access to ICT enabled applications i.e. e-education, e-agriculture, e-health etc. Malawi is ensuring that it puts in place enabling policy, legal and regulatory framework to ensure provision of affordable and accessible ICT services to its citizens especially those in the rural areas.

Additionally Malawi has benefited under the ITU disaster relief through ITU satellite phones provided for emergency communication services in the flood-hit districts. The assistance has gone a long way in facilitating easier access to the affected people and providing for their immediate needs. This is due to the anticipated rainy season that causes severe flooding especially in the southern part of Malawi. ITU also paid for the airtime.

MACRA is undertaking research with Chancellor College in relation to the potential uses of TV White Spaces.

With funding from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Commonwealth Telecommunication Organization (CTO) in conjunction with MACRA has developed a National Cyber Security Strategy for Malawi with a log framework comprising of the Vision statement, strategic goals, actions, outputs, time frame, indicators and lead organisations to help the country respond to the increasing threats in the cyber world.

MACRA is also on the drive to develop smart cities starting with Blantyre in an effort to mitigate the negative impact of urban population growth and rapid urbanisation. The aim is that Blantryre will be a smart city by 2020. The smart city will interconnect human capital, social capital, and ICT infrastructure in order to adress public issues and achieve a sustainable development and also improve the quality of life for citizens. It aims to support sustainable development and enhance the quality of life for citizens. MACRA intends to facilitate this initiative through City Councils, the Ministry of ICT and Civic Education, Ministry of Tourism, Telecommunication Operators (Fixed and Mobile Operators, ISPs), Communities in the country. The initial phase of the initiative will foucse on engagement with Blantyre City Council.

Malawi Library and Information Consortium (MALICO)

MALICO was established on 7 May 2003 and launched its VSAT Network, giving academic connectivity from north to south of Malawi in 2005, leveraging 4 VSATs purchased with the support of OSISA, World Bank and Dossani Trust. It pioneered the establishment of the Malawi Research and Education Network. It contributes to the subscription of eResources and the production of local and relevant content for Malawi's repositories. Workshop have been organised in Malawi to develop Open Access policies for research organisations.

MALICO's objectives include:

- To encourage national, regional and international cooperation among information stakeholders,

- To influence information policy at the national level,

- To work for adequate ICT infrastructure for members, especially sufficient internet bandwidth

- To assist in the development of appropriate ICT skills at all levels,

- To facilitate access to electronic journal articles in international databases,

- To organise and digitise Malawian content,

- To provide information consultancy.

Current activities include establishment of a national digital repository at the National Library Service and subscription to international e-resources for the academic community.

MALICO has been working with organisations like INASP (International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications) and EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries). INASP aims at improving access to, and production and use of, research information and knowledge for sustainable development. Through INASP funding, MALICO has developed a four-year strategic plan from 2014 -2018 so that the consortium follows a clear road map and becomes self-sustainable. Although there are many areas in which the consortium needs strengthening, the strategic plan covers some of the areas deemed to be a nexus between previous and future activities of the consortium such as training of trainers in information literacy, library marketing and advocacy and licensing and negotiation skills.

MALICO in collaboration with EIFL, an organization that works with libraries in more than 60 developing and transition countries has enabled access to knowledge for education, learning, research and sustainable community development. Some of MALICO's benefits from EIFL include:

- Licencing- t hrough central negotiation with publishers, EIFL negotiates highly discounted prices and fair terms of use to increase access to scholarly material that is essential for research and education.

- Open access : EIFL advocates for the adoption of open access policies and mandates. EIFL also builds capacities to launch and sustain open access repositories.

- Copyright and libraries : EIFL seeks to address these issues by promoting fair and balanced copyright laws that support libraries in providing access to knowledge.

- Free and open source software for libraries : EIFL supports the deployment of free and open source software and provides the necessary training, enabling libraries to achieve significant cost savings.

Sources of funding : MALICO members, INASP, EIFL

Geographic scope and timeframe : National, ongoing

Malawi Research and Education Network (MAREN) - Malawi NREN

The Malawi Research and Education Network (MAREN) is a non-profit national organization formed in October 2005 with the aim of establishing sustainable communication and networking among research and education institutions in Malawi. Its main mandate is to offer a single focus for pursuing excellent Internet connectivity for the Tertiary Education and Research Sectors in Malawi. MAREN has assisted its member institutions to renumber their networks to be identified globally as research and education institutions. The availability of national and international fibre is a catalyst for the implementation of the physical network. It builds on the head start offered by the Malawi Library and Information Consortium (MALICO) VSATs network but aims to go further by providing fast fibre connectivity linked to neighbouring countries, to the rest of Africa and to the EU academic network (GEANT).

MAREN was registered as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee in late 2009 and has now set up its own Secretariat with full time personnel based at Chancellor College. The National Commission for Science and Technology, University of Malawi and Mzuzu University are represented on the board of Directors. Currently MAREN has been involved in the following activities:

- Completed the development of a fibre campus for the University of Malawi sites: College of Medicine and related medical research complexes, Blantyre Campus of Kamuzu College of Nursing and the Malawi Polytechnic.

- Working with ESCOM, the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi, to utilise the two fibre strands given to MAREN for academic connectivitybetween Blanytre and Lilongwe.

- Working with MACRA, Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority, for harmonious regulatory conditions for academic connectivity

- Working with EU and UbuntuNet Alliance for research and education networking for the implementation of the EU AfricaConnect Project

- Collaborating with MISPA on the activities related to theMalawi Internet Exchangeand hosting it at Malawi College of Medicine.

- The Malawi National Grid Initiative will be another of the early outcomes.

Through UbuntuNet Alliance MAREN is a beneficiary under the Africa Connect and Africa Connect 2 eInfrastructure projects.

Source of funding : UbuntuNet Alliance, MAREN members, Malawi Government, RCIP

Geographic scope and timeframe : National, ongoing

ESCOM (Electricity Supply Cooperation of Malawi) Fibre Optic project

ESCOM has laid fibre-optic cables that will connect Mozambique with the Zambian border town of Mchinji to ease communication problems. The cable networks connect Tete in Mozambique and Mchinji provide services ranging from voice, data, fax and radio communication system.

The cables were laid on ESCOM's power lines throughout Malawi to build the networks that form the country's national fibre-optic backbone. They provide voice, data, fax and radio communication systems. The project commenced in 2008 and by 2012 there was 2,112 kms of fibre optic cable laid in urban areas This increased to 5,176 kms of fibre optic calbe in 2016 due to increased private sector investment and RCIPMW project interventions.

In addition, the cables will also provide ESCOM with a communication system linking the power generation center with control centers and, eventually, with the regional office. At the end of the project ESCOM will have enough bandwidth to lease to ISPs (Internet service providers), mobile service providers, television companies, and government and education institutions.

Through a partnership between Huawei Technologies and Escom, Malawi is undertaking a massive fibre network project with investment of $23 million to lay fibre across 28 districts within the country improving internet access and speeds while integrating government operating systems such the Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (Ifmis), Human Resources Management Information Systems (HRMIS), National Registration Bureau (NRB), Malawi Traffic Information Systems (Martis) and the immigration Department. The funding is a concessional loan with China for the Malawi National fibre Backbone Project. The connectivity, which will be via aerial fibre, using ESCOM electricity transmission poles, will have drop points at Capital Hill in Lilongwe, Government Office Complex in Blantyre and government offices in Zomba.

Currently, the state owned company Escom has been split into two companies, Escom for distribution of electricity and Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) which is now responsible for generation of power to improve the efficiency of power availability.

Source of funding : Malawi Government through ESCOM, China-Huawei

Geographic scope and timeframe : National, 2008 - ongoing

National Digital Repository (NDR)

In 2009, the National Library Service (NLS) began collaborating with the Institute of Development Studies (IDS, UK) on the Malawi Development Exchange (MDE), a project to facilitate the widening of access to development information in Malawi, by collecting and disseminating Malawian research. MDE, based at the NLS, has established procedures and processes for collecting and digitising research documents and is making these available through a website with a supporting online community or related professionals. NDR is implemented by MALICO.

Additionally, MALICO, with the support from the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) and eIFL.net, developed a proposal for the establishment of a digital repository for research in Malawi.

The National Digital repository of research from Malawi aims at collecting research outputs from Malawian institutions and building their capacities in global knowledge sharing. It is envisaged that the increased accessibility and visibility of Malawian research outputs will increase their impact on policy and bring more transparency to research institutions. A second aim is to link to, learn from and utilise the related work, ensuring close collaboration, identifying opportunities for further collaboration and avoiding duplication of effort.

The project also includes a training component for technicians, researchers, non-governmental organisations and policy makers to enable them to repackage their research for different audiences to input such and on how to use the repository.

Efforts by the University Libraries, the National Library Service, the National Commission for Science and Technology and the National Archives are also underway to have the Students Degree Projects; Past Exam Papers; Theses and Dissertation; the Malawiana Collection; local scientific papers and the Presidential speeches digitised. This will increase visibility and accessibility of Malawi's local content on the Internet that has few information resources on Malawi's content at the moment.

Source of funding : Institute of Developmental Studies, UK; Malawi Government

eHealth Projects

The College of Medicine is undertaking research related to magnetic resonance imaging in Malaria research to support common neurological disorders and improving clinical services for patients receiving care at the teaching hospital. Complex scans are sent to Michigan State University over VSAT for further investigation. The MRI Scan is also serving neighbouring countries such as Zambia and Mozambique to detect issues related to malaria and brain disease, spinal cord, heart and great vessel, head and neck diseases etc.

The Ministry of Health is leveraging DHIS2 to collect aggregated health indicators at district health office level. The system was customised with support of Technical Assistance through donor financial aid. The Malawi government sustains the day to day running of the system.

A number of NGOs (Baobab Health Trust, D-Tree, Luke International) who are working in partnership with the Ministry of Health to deploy eHealth projects with support from PEPFAR.

Furthermore, the Government of Malawi and UNICEF established an air corridor to test potential humanitarian use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), which will run for a maximum distance of 40 km. It became fully operational in April 2017. The corridor is designed to provide a controlled platform for the private sector, universities, and other partners to explore how UAS can be used to help deliver services that will benefit communities. The Humanitarian UAS Testing Corridor will facilitate testing in three main areas from 2016 - 2018:

- Imagery - generating and analyzing aerial images for development and during humanitarian crises, including for situation monitoring in floods and earthquakes

- Connectivity - exploring the possibility for UAS to extend Wi-Fi or cellphone signals across difficult terrain, particularly in emergency settings

- Transport - delivery of small low weight supplies such as emergency medical supplies, vaccines and samples for laboratory diagnosis, including for HIV testing

Source of funding : Malawi Government, Michigan State University, PEPFAR

Geographic scope and timeframe : National, 2009- current, UNICEF project (2016 - 2018)

Mobile Innovations and eBanking

The two mobile service providers (Airtel and TNM) introduced Mobile Money and mobile bill payments - Mpamba and Airtel Money. To use the service one has to register for the mobile money service. The service has been extended to enable client to pay bills as well. These services support citizens who do not currently have acceess to traditional bank accounts to deposit, withdraw and transfer cash using a text message.

Banks are using ICT to provide Internet banking to its clients to support funds transfer and to support real-time access to bank balances online. Some banks have implemented mobile SMS alerts to inform clients of transactions on their accounts.

Digital Migration Project

The Digital Migration project started in the 2010/11 at an estimated cost of US $ 10 Million and is funded by the Malawi Government under Public Sector Infrastructure Program (PSIP). The overall aim of this project was to improve communication between government offices, improve ICT governance, improve access to government information and services, and reduce infrastructure costs by providing reliable, fast and adaptive ICT infrastructure and ICT systems and an enabling environment that will facilitate provision of e-services thereby enhancing public service delivery. The project will target 3 core enablers of digital development i.e. digital ecosystem, digital connectivity and digital platform and services.

Under the digital platform and services the main goal was to introduce an Active Digital Television signal in Malawi and with a target of smooth migration from analogue to Digital Terrestrial Television Broadcasting. It was an ITU driven project and Malawi is the signatory to the ITU June 17, 2015 Migration Agreement.

The Malawi Digital Broadcasting Policy was approved by Government in July 2013. The network was commission on 31st December 2013. The project aspired to reach out to 90% of the Malawian Population. As at September 2017, the network is carrying 20 TV channels and 13 Radio channels.

Source of funding : Malawi Government

Geographic scope and timeframe : National, 2010 - Current

Malawi Internet Governance Forum

Malawi launched the Internet Governance Forum on 23 July 2014 following a consultative meeting with academia, private sector and NEPAD Secretariat. Internet Governance affects a wide range of social and political issues including IP, cyber security, privacy and domain management. The overall objective of the Malawi Internet Governance Forum (Mw-IGF) is to establish a multi-stakeholder process that will shape the development of Malawi's Internet economy by: increasing awareness and build capacity at national level; facilitate consultation with relevant stakeholders; make recommendations in relation to emerging issues; shape national policy and contribute to strengthening the multi-stakeholder dialogue model for Internet Governance in the SADC region and Africa.

Physical Addresses and Post Codes for Malawi

The postal sector is implementing a project addressing physical addresses and post codes for Malawi. It aims is to improve mail delivery and utility service provision in Malawi. MACRA was designated as secretariat for this project. The post code component will be implemented first and then physical addresses assigned.

In 2016/17 financial, MACRA launched a pilot project with selected areas in Blantyre city (Chinyonga, Namiwawa, Ndirande and Lilangwe). During 2017/18 the project will move into two sites for Lilongwe and two pilot sites for Mzuzu.

Biodiversity Information for Development (BID)

Malawi became a participant of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in January 2015 with NCST as the node for Malawi GBIF. This project aims to mobilise biodiversity data in Malawi and share it with the GBIF network portal so that it can be easily accessible globally via the internet. The biodiversity data is being shared the "Integrated publishing toolkit (IPT)" which is being hosted at NCST. Biodiversity data is also being managed centrally through the use of this publishing toolkit.

Land Information System

Malawi is a beneficiary in the World Bank funded projects focused on Land information implemented through the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS). The LandInfo App is used for collecting information on soil and climate characteristics in order to make informed decisions on agricultural production and sustainable land management practices.