FRIDA Awards for Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago

30/06/2016

The Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean has selected two projects to receive the 2016 FRIDA Awards, a program designed to recognize innovative practices that have contributed to the region’s social and economic development.

This year, awards were presented to AgriNeTT by the University of West Indies (Trinidad and Tobago) and Mexicoleaks (Mexico).

AgriNeTT is a project by the University of West Indies of Trinidad and Tobago which brings ICTs to the country’s agricultural sector.

The project promotes the use of digital tools within the producer community and agricultural institutions to help them lead the agricultural sector’s economic growth and increase its competitiveness. AgriNeTT aims to improve agricultural productivity and the income of small farmers, particularly that of women, youth and families.

The AgriNeTT team has developed open data platforms with multiple web and mobile applications: Agrigastos, a financial management tool for production units; AgriPrecio, which provides updated market price information; AgriMapas, an application that recommends different crops depending on soil types; and AgriDiagnostico, a pest diagnosis system.

The other winner of the 2016 FRIDA Awards was Méxicoleaks of Mexico,  an independent whistleblowing platform for revealing information in the public interest in Mexico. Méxicoleaks is an alliance of media outlets and NGOs working together for a more democratic Mexico and offers a platform where whistleblowers can leak information safely and anonymously. Since its creation, the partners behind Méxicoleaks have published 27 news stories based on13 leaks, making public information regarding embezzlement in the public real estate loans system, systematic mass destruction of pre-Hispanic ruins, as well as other cases of corruption.

FRIDA is the Regional Fund for Digital Innovation in Latin America and the Caribbean. This LACNIC initiative is supported by the International Centre for Development Research (IDRC) of Canada and the Internet Society.