Agriculture – Page 8

Agriculture, Health, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile Africa Report 2011: Regional Hubs of Excellence and Innovation

This report draws on primary research (including questionnaires sent to key mobile stakeholders in Africa) as well as secondary research (reports and articles from AfricaNext, BizCommunity, Dataxis Intelligence, International Telecommunications Union, Africa Analysis, Voice of America, TMCNet, BizCommunity, Computerworld Zambia – see full list at end of report).

In 2008, imports of data enabled phones exceeded that of non-data enabled phones in many African markets. In 2009, the undersea cables hit East and Southern Africa in a big way. In 2010, mobile operators became serious about data availability and cost packaging for everyday Africans. 2011 is expected to bring a new type of data-enabled mobile user in Africa, and brings the mobile web to center stage.

McKinsey estimates Africa’s gross domestic product at about US $2.6 trillion, with US $1.4 in consumer spending. Africa’s population growth and urbanization rates are among the highest in the world.

Yunkap Kwankam and Ntomambang Ningo, authors of the paper titled “Information Technology in Africa: A Proactive Approach,” maintain that African countries can bypass several stages in the use of ICTs.

On the technology front, Africans can accelerate development by skipping less efficient technologies and moving directly to more advanced ones. The telecommunications sector continues to attract a flurry of public and private investment.

Alex Twinomugisha in Nairobi, manager at Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative, says telecom investment in sub-Saharan Africa is coming not only from foreign sources but also local banks. But the investment should be in software and services as well, not just cabling infrastructure.

To learn more about the state of mobile in Africa, download the entire report here.

February 16, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

One Tablet Per Child: Walter Bender Discusses Future of OLPC

While listening to Walter Bender, founder and executive director of Sugar Labs, speak last week at USAID’s Mobiles for Education (mEducation) Monthly Seminar Series in Washington, DC, it was difficult to decide if he was more interested in discussing the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)program’s new XO 3.0 tablet, or the educational philosophy that has spurred its development.

By the end of his presentation, however, it was clear that both are inherent to launching an effective and sustainable program utilizing the new technology. As former co-founder of OLPC, Mr. Bender now focuses his time and energy on developing and improving Sugar, an open source desktop environment which promotes learning through connectivity, collaboration, and what Mr. Bender calls “off the grid accessibility”, the ability to take the computers into virtually any learning environment.

And the new tablet promises to do just that. Upon first look, the tablet doesn’t seem much different from the original laptop besides being thinner since there’s no keyboard. The lack of keyboard is a feature that Mr. Bender seemed torn about saying that keyboards are needed for developing writing skills but that the device should evolve with the introduction of new technologies, tablets being the big new innovation in mobile computers.

The easily recognizable bright green and white rugged exterior is still present but now the 8-inch screen is protected by a green silicone cover. The child-friendly tablet was designed with the same consideration for durability, cost, and conservation of power that has made the OLPC program so well known, but now it features solar panels on the inside of the cover to power it in addition to the power adapter and hand-crank powered battery from the previous laptop.

Of course, the education-specific user interface of Sugar still remains and can be baffling to anyone not already familiar with it’s icons, a wide array of small visual representations of each activity that doesn’t resemble Microsoft’s or Apple’s familiar icons. But in Sugar’s design lies Mr. Bender’s philosophy and aim: a simplicity so intuitive that children can understand it as well as modify it and create new programs for their own use.

As exciting as the introduction of the new tablet was for the small group of attendees at the seminar, Sugar was the focus of the discussion and one that Mr. Bender talked passionately about. Designed on OLPC’s principle of “Low floor, no ceiling”, it’s designed for inexperienced users, providing a platform, or low floor, on which to explore, create, and collaborate without any limits to its possibilities.

Exploration is key to Mr. Bender’s philosophy. Designing Sugar and the computers from a “constructivist” perspective, he referred to Swiss developmental psychologist, Jean Paiget, and his learning theory of “learning by doing” when discussing the intuitiveness of the system. “We want to raise a generation of independent thinkers and problem solvers, “ he said after displaying a picture of students taking apart and fixing one of OLPC’s laptops. “Every deployment has students who repair computers and they are designed so that students can fix them themselves.”

Already deployed in over 30 countries, the largest and most well known example is Uruguay with the largest saturation of one laptop per each of 395,000 children in primary school from grades 1-6. Now in its third year, Mr. Bender highlighted a few examples of how kids are becoming empowered through the technology and developing their own programs. Kids like 12 year old Augustine who created his own program called Simple Graph, one that creates just that. Mr. Bender said that innovations like this are examples of how students are becoming self-sufficient. “These are key indicators that something different is happening, something good.”

Walter Bender giving an example of how to create your own program

Photo Credit: Chrissy Kulenguski

But this portfolio assessment, one that emphasizes qualitative over quantitative results and what Mr. Bender calls a powerful and primary assessment tool, is one of several points for criticism of the OLPC program. Others include not providing enough, or any, teacher training and support when introducing the laptops and not being able to meet the original goal price of $100 per laptop that was set when the program first started.

More recently, a new low-cost competitor, the Aakash tablet, has entered this developing market. The Android-based computer has gained a lot of attention since it was first developed by the Indian government as part of the country’s aim to connect 25,000 colleges and 400 universities in an e-learning program and made available at subsidized prices. In accordance with OLPC’s open source philosophy, chairman Nicholas Negroponte already offered full access to OLPC technology at no cost to the Indian team of developers.

Sharing ideas and new innovations is also one of Mr. Bender’s learning goals for the OLPC program: to have students learn through “doing, reflecting, and collaboration”. He believes that the new XO 3.0 tablet has a prominent role in the emerging market of mobile computers for education. Though what that role will be exactly in the coming years of new innovations and innovators, has yet to be seen.

February 15, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Environment, Environment, Environmental Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

3 Essential Environmental Education Apps

With a wealth of options available to educators and practitioners alike, here are some of the best inexpensive mobile apps for young professionals and civic groups responsible for moderating the local environment and climate change.

Easy

SPARKvue – Winner of Tech & Learning Magazine’s 2010 Award of Excellence, SPARKvue brings real-time measurement, data visualization, and analysis to science education everywhere . Using Bluetooth interface, the application can connect to over 70 PASCO sensors for measuring pH, temperature, force, carbon dioxide levels, and many more. The app can be used by students to inquire, explore, and display data.

Moderate

Environmental Formulator – Environmental Formulator was created for environmental engineers and contains conversion formulas and 40-area calculations. Major areas covered in the program include: Air Quality, CFC, Cogeneration, Cost Benefit, Beach Pollution, Lake Pollution, River Pollution, Soil Pollution and Waste Conversions.

Difficult

eChartBook- Environmental Correction Chart Calculator – Designed to replace paper, the eChartBook Mobile offers access to Halliburton’s environmental correction algorithms wherever you are for a complex array of sensors. The application also includes a number of useful general charts and tools for determining water saturation, borehole salinity, formation dip calculations, and cross plots.

February 15, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Nigeria to join Zambia for e-voucher: who’s next?

Photo Credit: OGALA

A new plan using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to facilitate smooth delivery of inputs to farmers will soon be implemented in Nigeria.

“With this system, we can trace if somebody is supplying bad fertilizer, supplying sand instead of fertilizer; we know where it comes from as opposed to the old system,” said the Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina.

According to the minister, farmers will from now get fertilizer and seed allocation through their mobile phones. Adesina made this known on Sunday in Abuja while fielding questions at a News Agency of Nigeria forum, where he said the strategy was couched in the new fertilizers voucher scheme. The system is designed to ensure transparency and good governance in the distribution of fertilizers and ensure that the fertilizers and seed companies functioned as business entities, not as contract from government.

The old system of fertilizer distribution in Nigeria according to the minister, whereby government bought and distributed fertilizers, was laden with corruption and inefficiency and also led to rent seeking and exploitation of farmers. It is expected that the implementation of these electronic voucher scheme using mobile phones and biometrics will ensure authenticity of the provider and the user for effective monitoring of the inputs.

This comes barely 2-weeks after my recent piece on The Myth of E-Voucher Schemes for Enhanced Fertilizer Use which lamented on the future use of ICTs within the agricultural value chain for input delivery. The post cited the Zambian experience which shows that e-voucher system empowers smallholders to obtain subsidized inputs from private firms (giving the firms, in turn, an incentive to expand and improve their business).

I look forward to seeing similar developments in other countries like Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania that are still stuck with the paper voucher to the disadvantage of the smallholder farmers.

See here for full article.

February 14, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Environment, Environment, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Data Basin: A Mapping Tool for All

Data Basin, an online system, is quickly growing in popularity among practicing educators and community groups that wish to tell compelling stories with graphics. Data Basin connects users with spatial datasets, tools, and expertise through a user-friendly platform where “individuals and organizations can explore and download a vast library of datasets, upload their own data, create and publish analysis, utilize working groups, and produce customized maps that can be easily shared.”

In a presentation on its potential, Jame Strittholt, Data Basin’s founder and Conservation Biology Institute‘s Executive Director called it Google Earth on steroids meets Facebook, allowing groups to communicate with each other by integrating conservation data, mapping, and people. The site contains groups for specific topics and issues and centers for targeted geographies. The core functions of Data Basin are free and a fee-based consulting service is available for those who wish to take full advantage of its features or store significant amounts of data. Currently a great variety of biological, physical, and socioeconomic data is available. Maps can be kept private, within groups, or open to the public.

Data Basin was created out of the need for a central access point for environmental conservation related datasets that people can explore. The tools are easy to understand and use, making it an excellent resource for nonprofessionals or those unfamiliar with ArcGIS. Data Basin was implemented by the Conservation Biology Institute in partnership with ESRI.

February 14, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Environment, Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Pollution Prevention

Air Quality at Your Fingertips

Amobilefuture released a free app called Pollution that features realtime air quality on an interactive geolocative regularly updated map for more than 1,380 cities worldwide. The app takes advantage of 100,000 base stations worldwide, allowing anyone to track measured exposures to electromagnetic, air and water pollution. It also monitors pollution and emissions to soil. It provides detailed lists of nearby pollutant facilities, with discharge details and volumes. The app’s purpose to to inform about the potential presence of pollutant sources in a comprehensive way.

February 10, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

How Design and Collaboration Can Improve mHealth

We have all seen or heard of an organization developing and implementing an innovative solution and then one or two months later the product is in the corner of the health clinic. It has not been used since the organization finished its initial training. While the outsiders who came in saw it as innovative, it clearly did not resonant as a solution to the users. But why? It seemed so obvious to the developers that this product would solve a glaring problem. Why wouldn’t these health workers want to use this application?

Photo Credit: Tecca

But not to worry. This is something that all organizations and companies deal with. Do you remember Windows Vista, Nokia’s N-Gage, and HP’s TouchPad? Well, each company would hope that you do not. There is an endless list of failed technology products and services. With the movement of leveraging high tech products in international development, especially in global health, failure has become a part of the dialogue in the sector. So much so that MobileActive began hosting FailFaire, where organizations utilizing technology in their projects can come and speak about their “failures.” The idea is to learn from mistakes that others have made. In the most recent FailFaire in New York, many of the stories were focused around design and collaboration issues. Not simply physical design issues (like there were too many buttons on the device), but multiple issues that the designers and implementers did not take into account.

While design has been on the forefront minds in the corporate world for many years (see iPhone and IDEO), design in the social sector is a relatively new idea. In order to decrease the number of failures, organizations have created partnerships with design firms. They are bringing user-centered design to the social sector. Below are some examples:

Reboot has worked with United Bank Limited (UBL) in Pakistan and the Gates Foundation to expand branchless banking via mobile phones.

IDEO.org is assisting Evotech in the further development of their low-cost endoscopy device. It is used during obstetric fistula procedures in developing countries.

Frog Design teamed with the Aricent Group, PopTech, iTeach, the Praekelt Foundation, and Nokia Siemens to design programs to support HIV/AIDS patients as well as expand awareness and knowledge about the disease.

Design Strategy

By focusing on the human-centered design, the product/service takes into account the culture and needs of the targeted consumer. As the pioneer in human-centered design, IDEO wrote a paper in 2010 for the Stanford Social Innovation Review entitled “Design Thinking for Social Innovation.” In the paper, they discuss some of the issues with design in social projects. Along with looking into the culture and needs of the end-users, they mentioned that the project failed because the intervention had not been properly prototyped with the users and receive direct feedback from them. Human-centered design also sees a need to have the intervention fit into the infrastructure of the communities. The overall idea is to have the product/service that solves a problem that the user or community has. In order for this to occur, IDEO sees the solutions coming from focusing on those on the ground instead of the design process occur from outside the targeted community. Along with the design, they also believe that there must be a well thought out distribution and implementation strategy because that can kill a project too. Their most important strategy to the human-centered design process is observing people in their experiences and behaviors. This will tell the designers more than any survey because it can be difficult for people to explain what they need, especially if they do not know what that really is.

Collaboration

In order for the human-centered design to occur, there is a need for greater collaboration in mHealth. mHealth is a complex web of networks as it includes individuals from all areas affected in the sector – mobile operators, ministries of health, telecommunications regulators, community health workers, doctors, technology developers, global health NGOs, etc. As mentioned before, by understanding the problem and how a solution would be used in the field, the technology is more likely to be adopted. The creation process needs to understand all the aspects involved in the usage of the product/service. By creating a collaborating environment, no matter who the end user is (a mother, family, community health workers), the team has the experience and knowledge to look deeply into all the internal and external issues that are causing the problem. Once those are understood, then the group can start to see how the intervention can be both designed and implemented in the field with the end-user in mind. With this focus, there will be a clear incentive for the end-user to utilize the technology. Without understanding how a technology will improve their lives, there will be a low adoption rate. And then the technology becomes useless and another wasted investment.

The process of creating greater collaboration and utilizing a design strategy is easier said than done. Clearly money is an issue when including a design firm in the development of a mHealth product. It would be beneficial to include extra funds in budgets for the design process. The funds should be used to design the look, functionality, and business plan of the mHealth intervention as well as allow for greater collaboration. The end goal of developing a design strategy and increasing collaboration is to create products/services that will solve a problem but also that will be used by the indented users.

February 10, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

“What’s missing is….” ICTs in the Value Chain!

Photo Credit: Ben Addom

“Meeting the Challenges of Value Chain Development: A Learning Event,” was the subject for discussion at the just ended 2-day conference organized by USAID at the Night Conference Center, Newseum, Washington DC.

The learning event was hosted by the USAID Microenterprise Development office with funding from the Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project (AMAP), implemented by ACDI/VOCA and its partners. It was attended by a wide range of actors including donors, private consultants, practitioners, researchers and academics, and administrators.

Activities during the 2-day event included a keynote address, concurrent electives (sessions) covering topics like understanding gender and culture in market systems; engaging the private sector; creating an enabling environment; integrating food security and nutrition; financing value chains; reaching the very poor; facilitating sustainable change; learning and evaluating within dynamic systems; and a final panel session on challenges of value chain development.

My reflections – “What is missing is….”

I would like to state that the event was really an excellent learning event for me due to my interest in the use of the agricultural value chain to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of programs and activities that aimed at reaching the poor and vulnerable.

An observation that I made from the sessions that I attended is that, while contributing during the question and answer (Q&A) sessions, participants mostly used the phrase “what I think is missing from the presentations is that….” to point out some loopholes in the sessions. These missing links observed by the participants are in one way or the other related to the individual interests and experiences of these contributors with respect to the subject under discussion. As an agricultural information specialist, I also think that what was prominently missing during the entire 2-day event is the absence of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in facilitating communication between and among the value chain actors in the system. This, I think, is one of the challenges to the development of the agricultural value chain.

Why the need for communication tools within the value chain?

In her keynote address to the conference participants, Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, the Deputy Coordinator for Development for the Feed the Future, the U.S. global hunger and food security initiative, asked the conference participants to explore how to create synergies between programs and activities being designed and implemented.

Synergies will result when stakeholders within the value chain work together so that their combined actions lead to outcomes greater than the sum of their individual effects or capabilities. In order for this to happen, an effective communication system is needed to facilitate exchange of resources between and among the individuals and organizations within the value chain. Not integrating ICTs into the communication process in this information age can be disastrous. Unfortunately, this was clearly missing at the sessions, something I believe is the reflection of what is on the ground.

Another important component of the value chain that calls for incorporation of ICTs, is its systemic nature. Several contributions during the event have alluded to the complex nature of the agricultural value chain, and the increasing dependence of the key stages of the chain – R&D, production, market, and M&E, on each other as a prerequisite for a reasonable return on investment.

From my years of experience working with the agricultural value chain and assessments and analysis carried out on ICT solutions for collaboration and coordination, I believe specific ICTs solutions are necessary for each of the stages within the value chain. The World Bank’s eSourcebook that was launched recently has briefly touched on some specific examples of applications of ICTs in agriculture across the world. These solutions when strategically deployed can have significant impact on internal communication within the institutions involved in the value chain as well as external communication with other partners.

An assumption and “aha” moment!

I have observed that either the organizers of the event, the presenters or both who might have had extensive experience with the agricultural value chain system, assumed that all participants knew what the value chain is. But my conversation with few people during the networking time and also observation during some of the discussions revealed that it was not the case. A number of participants at the event actually had little experience on the agricultural value chain and were there to learn – a learning event.

On the other hand, one revelation that I got from the session “integrating food security and nutrition” is that while value chain approaches aim at increasing income by targeting the productive population, food security approaches target the vulnerable population and aim at improving their nutrition and food security situation.

Participants at the closing panel session (Photo Credit: Ben Addom)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) works with a variety of implementing partners to accomplish its strategic objectives in microenterprise development. The vision of the Agency for microenterprise development involves addressing the needs of poor people within the context of globalization and dynamic domestic and global markets to help them harness the resources they need to participate meaningfully in markets (often through market linkages to larger firms). The microLINKS website hosts a number of innovative, interactive learning tools and thousands of resources to serve a global community of practitioners by helping to link knowledge with practice. Visit the Microlinks site for detailed information on this event – slides, recording and other resources as well as future events.

February 10, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Open Education 101: Changing What You Know and How You Know It

If new developments in information communications technologies (ICT) are the bridge for the digital divide, what is the content — and, more importantly, the quality of it — that is going to be delivered?

This question, at the heart of developing any ICT4Education program, seemed more relevant and crucial yesterday while listening to US Under Secretary of Education, Martha Kanter, give her keynote speech at the Open Source Higher Education event at the Center for American Progress here in Washington, DC.

Kanter clearly understands the potential value and opportunities for open educational resources (OER) as well as the government’s role in facilitating and monitoring their use. A long standing advocate for open education and government policies to make it sustainable, she and a panel of experts from several universities and OER interest groups discussed how these resources can impact the affordability and access to education in the US.

Giving a brief description of the current OER field, External Relations Director at MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW), Steve Carson, used The Hewlett Foundation’s definition of OER as “high-quality, openly licensed, online educational materials that offer an extraordinary opportunity for people everywhere to share, use, and reuse knowledge.” MIT’s OCW Consortium, a community of over 250 universities that offers roughly 17,000 courses in 20 languages, is just one of several examples of how institutions and education professionals are using this technology to build networks and pool information and resources that can be continually reviewed and revised, essential to setting high standards for the quality of the materials.

But how are OER programs and policies affecting the developing world? Sally Johnstone, Vice President for Academic Advancement at Western Governors University, spoke about a few exciting new initiatives such as the UNESCO/Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Guidelines on Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education, a new framework for using OER in appropriate ways. UNESCO has also created an OER Wiki allowing the global OER community to share and collaborate on developing new resources, as well as an innovative OER Platform for sharing resources between teachers, learners, and education professionals.

In addition, Johnstone mentioned OER Africa, an revolutionary initiative and first of it’s kind in the region which was established by the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE). Focusing on agriculture, health education, foundation courses, and teacher education, the program supports and develops digital materials to increase equitable and meaningful access to knowledge, skills and learning across the African continent.

It was clear by the end of the panelist’s discussion that open education is changing the way that classes and textbooks are being developed and accessed in America. However, some issues still need to be addressed such as creating standard quality evaluation techniques and developing policies for a sustainable market. The US government has already taken a step in this direction when the Department of Labor and the Department of Education created an education fund in January 2011 that would grant $2 billion to create OER materials for career training programs in community colleges.

Perhaps with more government initiatives such as this, as well as guidelines that encompass both OER and ICT technologies, open education will create more networks and cross more borders to make education accessible on a global scale. When discussing the government’s role in open education, Under Secretary Kanter quoted president Obama from a speech he gave at Macomb Community College in Michigan in 2009. “Even as we repair brick and mortar buildings, we have an opportunity to build a new virtual infrastructure to complement the education and training community colleges can offer. We’ll support the creation of a new online – and open-source – clearinghouse of courses so that community colleges across the country can offer more classes without building more classrooms.”

February 9, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Environment, Environmental Compliance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

What is Ecotourism 2.0?

Photo Credit: MarineBio

By some accounts tourism is the world’s largest industry, accounting for more than 10% of total employment. Tourism can have a negative impact on the environment by leading to the degradation of habitats and landscapes, depleting natural resources, and generating waste and pollution.

As a response to these concerns, ecotourism has grown in popularity because of its emphasis on being ecologically and socially conscious by raising awareness and support for conservation and local culture. Responsible ecotourism includes programs that minimize the adverse effects of traditional tourism on the natural environment and enhance the cultural integrity of the local people. Ecotourism has great potential for the developing world as communities come together and get involved, enforcing their own standards for sustainability.

So what is ecotourism 2.0? Ecotourism 2.0 seeks to fill the gaps that exist in ineffective organizing structures of ecotour communities. There are three main characteristics of ecotourism 2.0:

1. Engagement and Education – tourism doesn’t have to be passive and there can be a take-home message

2. Social Media – access and communication of information

3. Radical Transparency – clear organization within communities and with their visitors

Social media has thoroughly changed marketing techniques, now “people aggregate themselves around causes and products they believe in and age, sex and other demographic information is more and more irrelevant as this new media environment takes over.” It also allows for easy access to specific information and advice from locals, extending the experience beyond a vacation with updated news and reminders of key concepts.

Let’s look at successful social media campaigns:

Laos – Ecotourism Laos‘s website has Google Groups for donor organizations, government agencies, NGOs and the private sector to exchange information on current projects and issues relating to ecotourism development in Laos. The website allows for transparency and easy access to information and recommendation for visitors.

India – Ecotourismkeralam.org provides access to information, specifically contact information for visitors to Kerala, India. Kerala is considered one of India’s most unspoiled corners prone to forest clearing.

Kenya – Eco Tourism Kenya is a multifaceted forum with updates and links to everything related to sustainable tourism.

Lebanon – This Baldati community is an ecotourism e-community for public announcements in the field.

February 8, 2012/by actualize