In Kenya, an app originally designed to monitor land tenure issues is one of five winners of the 2018 BridgeBuilder Challenge – a global competition that recognises ideas that address urgent community challenges.

The TIMBY – This Is My Backyard – app is helping western Kenya’s Sengwer people to fight illegal forced evictions in their homeland, Reuters reports.

According to TIMBY founder Anjali Nayar, the app’s ability to geo-reference videos, pictures and audio files enables people to record and report activities, such as illegal logging and evictions, providing ‘true and verifiable information for journalists, in courts and other circles’.

The password-protected and encrypted application is the result of a collaboration between activists, technologists and app designers and offers governance, health, conservation and election monitoring, and land-reporting facilities.

TIMBY and the four other winners were selected from an international pool of 675 submissions. The US$1 million prize will be shared among them.

9 October 2018
Image: Anjali Nayar