“Wiki-Bike believes that bicycles would be invaluable tools to improve living conditions in Africa, reducing poverty, improving access to health care, education, potable water, and combating climate change. They’ve just announced the African Bicycle Design Contest with the aim of producing a bicycle that is well-suited to the the needs of future bicycle riders in Africa.

The guidelines are pretty straightforward; the vehicles should be durable, sustainable, and able to be produced locally. 5 finalists will be chosen to have your ideas prototyped; then the best prototype will be delivered to Kenya, where the winning designer will train and assist a local team in the bicycle’s production. To compete, get your entires in by September 30th.”

Calling all East and Southern African mobile phone app developers.

Chembe Ventures, a company I founded, is sponsoring a competition on Vodafone’s Betavine Social Exchange. The competition is designed to encourage innovative mobile solutions to assist low-income residents in urban communities address a specific or general security problem. One prize of US $ 5,000 will be awarded to the winning entry.

* Entrants must be registered as a developer in the Betavine community

* Entries need to be written in English

* Entries must be designed for deployment in one of the following countries: Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa or Tanzania.

Entries must provide solutions under one or more of the following headings:

* early warning notifications of criminal activity, violence or other security threats

* assistance for families, communities at risk of crime

* reducing crime, preventing the spread of violence

* location, identification and assistance of victims of violence or crime

For more information on how to enter the competition and to read the full brief please visit the Betavine Social Exchange.