The website was launched on July 15, 2009 as an online collaboration tool for users to share and build upon ideas to solve some of the challenges facing rural African communities.
The ARC community features ideas and insight from returned and current U.S. Peace Corps Volunteers, members of the African Diaspora, development professionals, and academic scholars.
There are four primary categories in which most ideas fall into: Agribusiness, Communication, Post-Harvest Losses, and Water Resources.
Posts can range from one sentence ideas that prompt the creation of more detailed projects, to comprehensive business plans from established organizations.
At the close of the fourth round, ARC judges will deliberate over the ideas, selecting the final winner in December 2009.
The $12,000 prize went to a Ugandan Innovator, co-founder and Executive Director of Toro Development Network (ToroDev), Johnstone Baguma Kumaraki.
[3] The project is supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as part of the foundation's Agricultural Development initiative to provide millions of small-holder farmers in the developing world with tools and opportunities to boost their yields, increase their incomes, and build better lives for themselves and their families.