Reframing Rio is an ambitious multi-media project, which aims to trigger a new global debate about the urgent need to re-set the world on more sustainable pathways.

Run by tve, together with IDS and IIED, and supported by CDKN, the project reaches out to European, national and global, audiences through a wide-ranging package of broadcast television, print and online publications, social networking and educational resources. The media outputs are being produced in partnership with European and developing world producers, broadcasters, journalists, young film-makers and photojournalists.

One exciting element of Reframing Rio is the ‘Life Apps’ 25 minute documentary films.

Taking its cue from the extraordinary growth in mobile communications and ICT in the developing world, ‘Life Apps’, mobile phone apps for development or social good, are being used to explore the needs of ordinary developing world citizens across a range of environment, development and societal themes.

The Life Apps documentaries follow the progress of five young digital entrepreneurs from developing countries as they go on the road, researching and developing new ‘Life Apps’ for a better, more sustainable world. They investigate what communities need and want, and how mobile communications can help deliver the information and connectivity that people need on the ground.

In India, Sanchin Gaur, an award-winning software engineer and expert in mobile security, heads to Andra Pradesh, one of India’s most climate-challenged regions. There, he discovers that while farmers are struggling, sometimes to the point of suicide, with unreliable rainfall, crop failure, soil problems and debt, they are also constantly inventing solutions to combat these problems. Sanchin decides that an app could help these farmers share their solutions with one another – both spreading innovative ideas and sparking new ones.

Watch Sanchin’s journey here: