Tag Archive for: africa

Eric White, Integra LLC’s Lead Economist and Managing Associate, will join a panel next Wednesday, May 15th at the World Bank Info Shop. At the event, entitled“Breaking the Rural – Urban Divide”, panelists will be discussing two books released by the World Bank Press; Structural Transformation and Rural Change Revisited and Financing Africa’s Cities. As a co-author of the former, Mr. White will take part in a discussion about the structural transformation process, from both a rural and urban perspective.

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This past January the  Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) presented the draft of their National Broadband Strategy for public review. The strategy outlines a comprehensive plan for bringing communications services and ICT business development to all of Kenya. Expected to cost US$ 2.4 billion, 70% is budgeted for national infrastructure while the remainder will be used for capacity building and content development. Funding will be a combination of public and private sources and will include accessing Kenya’s capital markets. Read more …

USAID Report

A key recommendation by a USAID report that was released in June and titled “Emerging Technology and Practice for Conservation Communications in Africa” is for international development agencies to institutionalize good practice in the use of ICTs for Conservation. The report noted that while the conservation community has a wealth of experience in harnessing ICTs and communications among its many members, the distribution of this expertise is uneven.

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Photo Credit: The Economist

I participated in a very informative event this week in Washington DC where a researcher was sharing his experience on “Weather-Index based Crop Insurance for Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia”. As I listened to the discussion as an agricultural information specialist, my concern was what is the role of mobile technologies in this?

According to the researcher, Dr. Shukri Ahmed a Senior Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the concept of crop insurance has a long history from Asia with the leadership of India. However, due to the challenges associated with insurance in general and access to credit to smallholder farmers, the idea somehow waned. But according to Index Insurance Innovation Initiative (I4), there is overwhelming evidence that uninsured risk can drive people into poverty and destitution, especially those in low-wealth agricultural and pastoralist households. There is therefore a re-emergence of insurance for smallholder farmers across the globe.

The speaker gave a detailed background to the study in Ethiopia and the importance of partnership in the design and implementation of the study. The difference, however, with this new approach to crop insurance for smallholder farmers is the use of index (indices) to support the insurance service, and intervention against emergency situation. But at the same time the study is targeting farmers that are relatively better off and who are already engaged in the market but are not investing in insurance due to the anticipated risks. The outcome of the pilot study is expected to help protect the livelihoods of smallholder farmers, who are vulnerable to severe and catastrophic weather risks particularly drought, enhance their access to agricultural inputs, and enable the development of ex-ante market based risk management mechanism which can be scalable in Ethiopia.

Dr. Shukri Ahmed, Senior Economist at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Unbanked or Branchless Services

Adding another concept to an already very complex issue that tries to combine weather, insurance, credit/finance, and smallholder farming, should be carefully considered. But the key question is whether mobile technologies can play a catalytic role in this entire complex system?

Among the reasons for choosing a given area for the pilot study, include availability of Nyala Bank branches, the vulnerability of yields to drought, the availability of nearby weather stations, and the willingness of cooperatives in the area to purchase the new product. As the pilot study progresses, the possibility of scaling the project across the country is high. But what will be the implications for the absence of banks in the rural farming communities in a country that has an approximately one bank loan per 1000 adults? Can Mobile Banking help understand why smallholder farmers under-investment in agriculture?

A success story of mobile banking by  the Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) in Bangladesh was recently highlighted by the GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked. Interestingly, the story pointed out how DBBL learnt from Kenya’s famous mobile money program M-PESA. Kilimo Salama (KS) is an innovative index-based insurance product that insures farmers’ inputs (seeds, fertilizer, pesticides), and outputs (crop harvests), in the event of drought or excessive rainfall. It uses weather stations to collect data and implements SMS-based mobile technologies to administer and distribute the payouts. Mobile technologies will not only help with the financial transactions such as seen in Kilimo Salama’s case but also in support of the weather stations for timely and accurate decision making for pay-outs.

My conversation with Dr Shukri about the possibility of integrating mobile money into the project to address the challenge of absence of banks in rural Ethiopia, revealed the huge untapped market for Mobile Banking in that country. However, the success of such services depends on a convincing business case for both the banks and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). Most importantly, however, is the state of telecommunication infrastructure and regulation in the country. These need to be in place for services and applications to thrive. With this huge investment

Outside Ethiopia, I believe it is time for African countries to take advantage of the increasing mobile phone penetrations in the continent beyond social networking to general development applications such as for agriculture, health, education, and rural development.

To listen to the audio recording of the event, visit Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

In June 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Marking the 20th Anniversary of the Earth Summit, Rio+20 provided an opportunity for the world to reaffirm commitments to poverty erradication, sustainable development and environmental protection. Below, we explore various outcomes of Rio+20:

Rio+20 logo

Photo credit: Voices of Youth

1. New Sustainable Development Goals

As a replacement for the Millennium Development Goals which end in 2015, the governments of Colombia and Guatemala have proposed Sustainable Development Goals. These goals would link environmental and human development concerns within broad categories such as changing consumption patterns, combating poverty, and advancing food security. While negotiations in Rio did not agree to specific themes, terms or commitments, an “open working group” of 30 nations was appointed to determine priorities for the pledge by September 2013.

2. Words, Words, Words

From cries of disgust and disappointment—Greenpeace deemed the summit “a failure of epic proportion” — to careful phrased optimism about sustainable development, Rio+20 was a war of words. Promises were made, fingers pointed, and cries of injustice abound, but in the end the most important words were found within “The Future We Want”.  A non-binding communiqué ratified by all UN members that resulted in no financial commitments or concrete benchmarks.

Instead, much of the conference discourse centered around the dominant buzz word and concept of “the green economy.” We at Integra recently blogged about inclusive green growth efforts and sustainable development initiatives of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

Graphic displaying the Zero Hunger Challenge spectrum of milestones

Photo credit: UN

3. An Initiative to End Hunger 

At the conference, UN General Secretary Ban Ki Moon launched the Zero Hunger Challenge, an initiative that aims to put an end to hunger, ensure resilient food systems, increase productivity and income of smallholder farmers, especially women, and eliminate food waste.  The UN campaign is supported by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, the World Food Programme, Unicef, the World Bank, and various governments.

 4. An Appreciation for the Energizing and Influential Power of Sideshow Events

More than 3,000 fringe events took place outside of the negotiations, producing significant outputs and exciting commitments. Passionate and innovative individuals, committed grassroots organizations, and forward thinking corporations were able to mold policy and influence international agreements in new and exciting ways. These outside movements energize and influence negotiations, and are an important reminder that individuals still have incredible influence on the state of the world.

5. Innovative Pledges from Unlikely Sources

While government negotiators could not agree to binding pledges, various corporations, individual states and industry groups committed to bold and creative ways of approaching the challenge of sustainable development. Some of the more interesting pledges include:

Grenada announced its transport and electricity sectors will only use clean energy sources by 2030.

Unilever promised to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2020 and find sustainable sources of beef, soy and palm oil to prevent the deforestation now stemming from production of these three major crops.

Eight international development banks agreed to invest $175 billion to sustainable public transport systems over the next decade.

European PVS industries made a commitment to recycle 800,000 tons of PVC each year through the VinylPlus programme.

Microsoft will roll out an internal carbon fee on its operations in more than 100 countries, part of a plan to go carbon-neutral by 2013.

Map of the world in a field

Photo credit: UNEP

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was strengthened with more funding, stronger powers to initiate scientfic research, a leadership role in coordinating global environmental strategies, and a vote of confidence for the organization’s much publicized transition to a focus on creating a green economy backed by strong social provisions.

 

Workers begin laying the ACE submarine cable in Penmarc'h, France, October 2011Bandwidth problems in West Africa may soon become a thing of the past when the Africa Coast to Europe (ACE) broadband submarine cable comes online this December. The US$700 million will interconnect a total of 23 countries in Europe and West Africa, including two Integra and GBI clients, Nigeria and Ghana. This massive infrastructure project aims to bring high-speed broadband internet to these developing countries in order to reduce the digital divide and serve as “a vector of social development and economic growth in Africa.”

Led by the France Telecom company, this broadband system will extend over 17,000 km to from Brittany in France to Cape Town in South Africa. Parts of Europe and 16 West African countries will be interconnected by the submarine cable. Connectivity will extend even to the landlocked nations of Mali and Niger who will be connected via their own terrestrial links.

The cable itself has an initial 1.92 terabytes per second (Tb/s) capacity that can be upgraded to a whopping 5.12 Tb/s. ACE will use cutting edge fiber optic technology developed by Alcatel-Lucent that offers a higher quality of high-speed broadband than satellite at a lower cost. Utilizing new wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM)technology, the ACE stations can be upgraded without any actual modifications to the cable itself. This is a significant increase in the broadband capacity for these countries. Gambia for example, is estimated to have an increase in capacity by a factor of 16.

Increasing bandwidth capacity is crucial for enabling increased broadband penetration rates within a county. In 2011, the Broadband Commission for Digital Development issued a report that identified broadband as a “tool of unprecedented power” in helping countries meet the millennial development goals in 2015. Additionally, a report from the World Bank showed that a 10% increase in broadband penetration in developing economies correlates with a 1.38% contribution to economic growth.  With ACE online, West Africa will be able to access a plethora of new opportunities.

Cover for the eTransform Africa: Financial Services Sector Study

Photo Credit: Vital Wave Consulting

A report was recently released, through the eTransform Africa initiative, explaining and outlining a framework to leverage ICTs to increase financial inclusion across the continent. Written by Vital Wave Consulting and entitled eTransform Africa: Financial Services Sector Study – Sector Assessment and Opportunities for ICT, it was released as a part of a larger initiative that was commissioned by the World Bank and the African Development Bank (and supported by the African Union) to explore how ICTs can improve business models in key sectors in Africa. The sectors include: agriculture, climate change adaptation, education, health, ICT competitiveness, public services, trade and regional integration, as well as a report on cross-cutting issues.

The goal of each sector report is to share knowledge and provide an actionable framework for how ICT can be utilized by traditional and new organizations in the for-profit and social sectors, including African Governments themselves and members of the international development community.

For the Financial Services Sector Study, the creators of the report decided to focus specifically on how ICT can improve financial inclusion. This focus was driven by the fact that less than 20% of households in Africa have access to formal financial services. The reason for these low numbers includes the high percentage of population who live rural regions, poor transportation infrastructure, and limited communications infrastructure.

Opportunities and Challenges

The report identifies three major challenges areas to the utilization of ICT to expand formal financial services to the unbanked: 1) Consumer/End User, 2) Governing/Regulatory, and 3) Market Maturity and Underpinning Infrastructure.

For “Consumer/End User”, the challenges include: transient and remote populations; understanding of consumer needs; general and financial literacy of consumers; increasing trust in banking institutions; and, small and medium enterprise (SME) access to capital. In order to combat these challenges, the report states that initiatives have already started which include mobile payment systems, the development of products specifically for the local consumer, and innovative solutions to expanding capital to SME.

For “Governing/Regulatory”, the challenges are: lack of identification documents; moveable assets; fragmented collateral data; and, corruption. Currently there is a push to battle these challenges by increasing identification through SIM registration and developing collateral registries.

Finally, for “Market Maturity and Underpinning Infrastructure”, the challenges are focused around: the implementation and use of IT banking information systems in microfinance institutions (MFI) and high interest rates. To solve these challenges, the report states that SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) can be utilized to cut down IT costs and increasing the amount of credit bureaus can offer lower the interest rates offered to members.

Recommendations

Given the goal of the report to assist government agencies, policy makers and donors – the recommendations were classified into two areas: 1) Market Maturity and 2) Addressing the specific challenges listed above (by consumer, government, and private sector). Since Africa is such a diverse region – with wide variance in terms of culture, socio-economics, governmental structures, and infrastructure – the authors smartly classified their recommendations. Government agencies and donors can locate the appropriate segment and then seek the relevant advice.

The authors created three segments – or categories – to classify recommendations based on degree of market maturity: 1) Formative State (new and developing market with limited adoption and competition), 2) Scaling State (adoption rates starting to pick up and regulation being implemented in order to generate competition), and 3) Desired State (mass adoption of products/services and a competitive environment). Agencies and donors then can see which opportunities are available in their current state to increase financial inclusion, such as: mobile banking, product diversification, identification, SME access to capital, backend systems, credit bureaus, and collateral registries. It gives them a framework to analyze their current financial services industry and access where the gaps of inclusions are.

While the policy recommendations focus on how governments should move forward strategically in each country, the donor recommendations focus on these actors’ greatest resource – money. The donor recommendations use a similar structure (formative, scaling, and desired states), but there were a few opportunities that continue to show up throughout the research. These include: “reducing private sector risks by underwriting the risk of ‘first mover,’ reducing shared costs by underwriting supporting systems that are common among all financial service players, and leveraging limited donor resources to drive private and consumer action towards desired financial service sector goals.”

A Must Read

This report is a great read, especially for those who are interested in how ICT can be leveraged in financial services in developing countries. The report’s appendixes are especially interesting as they include extensive information about policies and products currently in use in mobile banking throughout the continent.

But, the best aspect of the report is that the authors truly understand the complexity of both the financial services sector and the diversity of African nations. Having read and written about many similar reports, there seems to be a lack of understanding that there are countless variables that must be accounted for when providing recommendations. Simply because an idea or best practice worked in one region does not mean it is the universal truth.

Vital Wave Consulting did a great job developing a framework for government agencies and donors, who are both experts on the regions, to analyze their own markets and see which opportunities they have not taken advantage of yet or where the possible challenges are. Instead of giving detailed advice, the report builds a framework for government agencies and donors to analyze their markets and gain insight into how ICT can improve financial inclusion in their country.

The following is a guest post by Billy Jack from Georgetown University’s Economics Department and Tavneet Suri from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

Man talking on cell phone next to an M-PESA to up standNew data from the fourth round of a survey of Kenyan households confirm what every visitor to this East African nation knows: the spread of mobile technology and its adoption by broad swathes of the population continues.  Probably the most successful of all the innovative mobile solutions is M-PESA, Safaricom’s mobile banking product that allows users to send money across the country (and recently, beyond) in an instant, as well as providing a safe and secure savings instrument, and a convenient bill payment capacity.

Launched in March 2007, M-PESA was originally going to be “banking for the unbanked” and “financial services for the poor.”  While members of the economically marginalized population did adopt the service early on, the first rounds of our survey showed that up-take was nonetheless concentrated amongst those who were relatively better off.  It was natural to ask whether M-PESA would show the same pattern of adoption as so many other promising technologies in the developing world – from hybrid seed to insecticide-treated bed nets, from seat belts to solar panels – with those at the bottom of the pyramid struggling to exploit the potential benefits.

Through technological efficiency, user-friendly design, marketing acumen, an explosion of cash-in/cash-out agents, regulatory largesse, and perhaps some luck, M-PESA is now used by 86 percent of households outside Nairobi.  Of particular importance however is the changing pattern of utilization, as adoption spreads to the lower strata of the socio-economic ladder.

Our data, which is representative of most of Kenya outside the capital (where M-PESA is ubiquitous), shows a growing share of lower income households using M-PESA.  For this population, median per capita consumption is low, a few cents less than $2 per day; and the bottom 25 percent of the population live on $1.10 per day or less.  Our survey, which tracked the same households over a four-year period, found that in 2008, households with consumption above the median were nearly three times as likely to use M-PESA as those in the bottom quartile.  In particular, half of those in the top half used M-PESA, while only 18% of those in the bottom quarter did so.  Utilization among those in the second poorest quartile was intermediate, about a third (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: M-PESA use by daily per capita consumption

Figure 1: M-PESA use by daily per capita consumption

M-PESA has grown in all strata of the population, and while those at the top remain more likely to use the service, the gap between the top and bottom has narrowed substantially, partly due to the steady increase among the poor, and partly due to saturation among the better off.  But concentrating on the gap between rich and poor is less informative than focusing on the simple fact that nearly three-quarters of the bottom quartile have adopted a service that five years ago did not exist.  If anything, high rates of adoption by the better off have helped sustain the product, thereby facilitating access by the poor, as the pricing structure does not distinguish between services provided in cosmopolitan Nairobi and remote Turkana, or between remittances sent across the street or across the country.

Similarly, because of the correlation between income and bank access, M-PESA was initially used more by the banked population than the unbanked.   Indeed, in 2008 just one-in-five of the unbanked population used M-PESA, but since then while the number of households with bank accounts has remained relatively stationary, the share of this unbanked population who use M-PESA has shot up to 75 percent (see Figure 2).  Again, focusing on the divergence between the unbanked and the banked populations (fully 96% of the latter are now M-PESA users) is of limited utility: the fact that so many of the unbanked population have access to a modern electronic financial tool is what’s important.

Figure 2: M-PESA use by banked status

Figure 2: M-PESA use by banked status

Figure 2: M-PESA use by banked status

Finally, very recently Safaricom has revised the M-PESA tariff schedule.  Until now, the cost to the sender of sending money was a fixed 30 shillings (about 40 cents), plus the cost of withdrawing the money, if the recipient wished.  This made small transfers of a few dollars relatively uneconomic, while apparently benefiting those who could send larger amounts.  The fee structure has however been revised, with users able to send up to 50 shillings for a charge of just 3 shillings, and from 50 to 100 shillings for 5 (see http://www.safaricom.co.ke/index.php?id=255 for a complete listing).  This reform could well expand the benefits accessible by those at the bottom of Kenya’s pyramid even further.

Photo Credit: M-Farm

M-Farm is an award winning mobile solution for agribusinesses and farmers currently being piloted in Kenya. It is an SMS and web-based application focused on improving weaknesses in the value chain. It is a transparency tool for Kenyan farmers to get information pertaining to the retail price of their products, buy their farm inputs directly from manufacturers at favorable prices, and find buyers for their produce.

Why M-Farm?

The M-Farm solution was developed based on the marketing challenges of rural farmers in Kenya. Smallholder farmers unaware of the market of the various commodities, produce in excess and are faced with the problem of getting the worth of their produce. Poor information on farm inputs and lack of access to these inputs such as fertilizer, seed, agrochemicals and other equipments are huge obstacles to increasing farmers’ productivity. The inability of the farmers to transport their produce to regional markets after harvesting also leads to the exploitation by middlemen who offer meager prices for the produce, and even delay payments for the commodities.

M-Farmers’ Approach

The M-Farm solution aims at giving farmers a voice by connecting them with each other in a virtual space for access to affordable farm inputs and also be able to sell their produce collectively. Specifically, the solution works through:

  • Price Information: M-Farm enables farmers to inquire current market prices of different crops from different regions and/or specific markets
  • Group Buying: M-Farm is able to aggregates farmers needs/orders and connect them with farm input suppliers
  • Group Selling: M-Farm enables farmers to sell collectively and connect them with a ready market thereby increasing their productivity.

M-Farms’ Solution

The M-Farmer solution has taken advantage of the on-going phenomenal growth of mobile technology across Africa. With access to the Internet yet to have impact on rural farming in these areas, M-Farm has adopted an SMS-based solution for achieving its goal.

Farmers in Kenya simply SMS the number 3535 to get information pertaining to the retail price of their produce, buy their farm inputs directly from manufacturers at favorable prices, and find buyers for their produce. Also, M-Farm has a contract with a local exporter, who buys the produce directly from the farmers using their mobile devices thereby minimizing the transportation challenge. This gives farmers access to a reliable and guaranteed market that enjoys stable year-round prices while eliminating middlemen and lowering transaction costs.

Below is a 2-minute clip on the winning of M-Farm’s IPO48 competition featuring Jamila Abass, a co-founder and CEO of MFarm Ltd (K) and other team members.

 

Access to M-Farm is by subscription with a free 30-day trial for users. For more information on M-Farm, visit here.

Photo Credit: TV Pro Gear

An initiative being co-led by Conservation International (CI), the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa and the Earth Institute (EI), Columbia University, has been launched with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Africa Monitoring System (AMS) tool will track, monitor and diagnose agricultural productivity, ecosystem health, and human well-being in African landscapes with near real-time data to better understand the opportunities and trade-offs of increased agricultural production. The system will provide tools to ensure that agricultural development does not degrade natural systems and the services they provide, especially for smallholder farmers.

The three-year $10 million dollar grant was announced by the co-chair of the foundation, Bill Gates in Rome at the 35th Session of the Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) held in February. The grant lays the foundation for a new integrated monitoring system in five regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania, Ghana, Ethiopia, and two other countries to be determined, where agricultural intensification is targeted to meet the needs of Africa’s growing population.

Dr. Sandy Andelman, a vice president of Conservation International who will serve as Africa Monitoring System executive director said, “We face this enormous challenge that boils down to this key question: How are we going to feed nine billion people on the planet without destroying nature, especially in the face of climate change which in itself brings vast uncertainty. The answer is that we can no longer afford to make decisions without really seeing the full picture of what is happening to the planet.”

The Africa Monitoring System (AMS)

The success of the system will depend on the accuracy and timeliness of the data collection process which will happen at multiple scales to create the most accurate possible picture. This will include

  • A household scale, using surveys on health, nutritional status, household income and assets;
  • A plot scale to assess agricultural production and determine what seeds go into the land, where they come from, what kind of fertilizer is used, what yield of crops they deliver, what happens after the harvest;
  • A landscape scale (100 km2) measuring water availability for household and agricultural use, ecosystem biodiversity, soil health, carbon stocks, etc.; and
  • A regional scale (~200,000 km2) that will tie everything together into a big picture, to see the scales at which agricultural development decisions are made.

The raw data will be fully accessible and synthesized into six simple holistic indicators that communicate diagnostic information about complex agro-ecosystems, such as:  availability of clean water, the resilience of crop production to climate variability or the resilience of ecosystem services and livelihoods to changes in the agricultural system. The near real-time and multi-scale data will be pooled into an open-access online dashboard that policy makers will be able to freely use and customize to inform smart decision making.

“Rather than having a set of data over here for one issue, and other sets of data over there for other issues, what this system will essentially do is assemble the different puzzle pieces into one clear image that will allow decision makers to transparently see the parts and their sum in one centralized location”, Andelman explained.

CI Chairman and CEO Peter Seligmann praised the grant as a landmark moment in conservation which would inspire others.  “We are honored to be entrusted by the foundation to shepherd their largest investment to date in examining the relationship between agriculture and the environment, and I could not be more encouraged or appreciative for their leadership, concluded Seligmann.”

CI, CSIR and Earth Institute will collaborate with governments, other non-governmental organizations, the academic community, the private sector and key international partners over the next three years to design and implement the Africa Monitoring System. This period will represent Phase 1 (three years) of a three-phase process (10-15 years) to create an Integrated Global Monitoring System for Agriculture, Ecosystem Services and Human Well-Being, and developers expect to mobilize additional resources to leverage the Foundation’s investment.

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