Development charity launches technical advice app

A new app with the potential to help millions of people in the developing world has been launched today by International development charity, Practical Action

The ‘Practical Answers’ app is the first of its kind and will allow development practitioners to access more than 2000 practical ‘how to’ guides on a wide range of topics from building a wind turbine to making a clay pot fridge. These guides are already used by millions and will enable practitioners to advise and share information with poor communities and help improve their lives.

The app has a useful offline feature, which means information can be downloaded over a Wi-Fi connection and then accessed out in the field where internet and mobile signal access can be scarce. Users can also submit questions for technical advice which will be answered by the charity’s team.

Users can search within a range of themes including agriculture, construction, disaster mitigation response and recovery, energy, environment and adaptation to climate change, water and sanitation.

The app was developed and tested by Practical Action’s Nepal team and is already being used by development practitioners working in the field.

Sachin Sapkota, Digital Manager at Practical Action Nepal said: “The app was built to provide our users with the power of our knowledge in their hand held devices. It is often the case that people have mobile phones but don’t have a laptop or a PC, particularly farmers and field workers, so we hope this app will help us reach the last mile. It really has the potential to change millions of lives for the better.

“The app is far more productive and consumes less internet bandwidth than the website and this was very important to us to ensure the app is useful for low end mobile phone users.”

The FREE app is available for both apple and android users. For Apple devices download from the Apple Store or for Android use the Google Play Store.

You can watch the app in action here.