The USAID Afro-Colombian Indigenous Program (ACIP) launched an interactive augmented reality app to complement and transcend its traditional briefing materials this September at The Social Marketplace event hosted by the Social Responsibility Foundation, in affiliation with the Colombian National Business Association (ANDI).
How It Works
Once you’ve downloaded and launched the ACIP app, which is available for free on the App Store or Google Play, aim your smartphone’s camera at the image above (which was also printed on a handout available at the event). Suddenly, your phone comes alive as tiny people converge on the screen, in the “Avances” [Advances] section. This portion of the app displays data regarding the number of jobs created by the project to date as well as the number of businesses involved. In the app’s second section, there’s a 30-second video about Employability. In its third section, a map of Colombia leaps off of the phone’s display to illustrate how many young people have been made ready-to-work, city-by-city through the project’s workforce development activities.
ACIP staff report that the app has been received positively and that is has effectively complemented traditional brochures in terms of informing and educating various audiences—USAID, the government of Colombia, and VIP visitors about ACIP programmatic areas, specific topics, and target geographic regions.
The project hopes diverse stakeholders—ethnic minorities, business people, young entrepreneurs—will download and use the app to learn more about the project. The ACIP augmented reality app represents exciting new possibilities in terms of how the development community communicates about project goals, efforts, and successes.
Read more about our work in Colombia here.
Read more about ACIP here.
