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Africa, Agriculture, Food Security & Rural Development, Areas of Expertise, Economic Growth, Integra News, Where we work

Eric White, Integra LLC’s Lead Economist, to join panel at the World Bank Info Shop!

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.

USAID: ICT for Conservation Good Practices Should Be Institutionalized

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.

January 14, 2013/by actualize

Agriculture, Food Security & Rural Development, Areas of Expertise, Information and Communication Technology for Development

Mobile Innovations for Agricultural Development: An Uncertain Trajectory

Photo Credit: The World Bank

There is no doubt that the current surge in mobile innovations for agricultural development is defying the normal progressive growth of agricultural technologies over the past decades. For centuries, innovations in agricultural technologies have been progressively slow. The emergent of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their innovative use to support agricultural extension and advisory services has, however, changed the history forever. According to the World Bank report Information and Communications for Development 2012: Maximizing Mobile, close to 6 billion mobile phones are in use today, a jump from less than 1 billion subscriptions in 2003. About 77% of the 6 billion subscriptions is located in the developing nations in which 70% of the world’s poor whose main source of income and employment comes from the agricultural sector.

Agricultural Technologies and the Future In her 1991 paper “Beyond Tractors: The History of Technology in American Agriculture,” Deborah Fitzgerald, Professor of the History of Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS) at MIT, argued that the history of agricultural technology is in a very nascent stage of development, and it is difficult to predict the outlines of a more orderly, systematic future. Barely 20 years after her observation, the developments in mobile technology for agriculture have confirmed her argument. Little is known about any prediction of the current growth of mobile technologies, especially in the world’s poorest regions. It is also becoming more difficult to predict what the market will look like in the next decade given the fast pace at which the technology is growing.

So Why This Sudden Spurt? The 2nd chapter of the World Bank report referenced above titled “Mobilizing the Agricultural Value Chain” has identified a number of factors that are driving the increased adoption of mobile phones for agriculture in the developing nations:

Improved accessibility and affordability through expansion of mobile networks.
Increased capacity or bandwidth availability on mobile networks as the technology evolves.
Increasing data-enabled mobile devices with increasing affordability.
Innovative development of remote wireless sensors and identification technologies.
Increasing availability of specialized mobile services targeted to specific agricultural functions.

These and other factors, such as wide ownership of mobile phones, instant and convenient service delivery, increasing functions, and falling prices of mobile handsets, will continue to drive its adoption.

Looking into the Future of Mobile Innovations for Agriculture

Photo Credit: American Public Health Association

According to USAID, innovations must lead to substantial (not incremental) improvements in addressing development challenges. But this does not seem to be the case in the mobile agricultural sector. The role of mobile agricultural projects in addressing development challenges in the developing nations is yet to be empirically tested in most countries. Anecdotal results have been reported here and there, but there is little to cite about any substantial impact on agriculture and rural development. An interesting trend with the mobile innovations for agriculture pointed out by the report is that, the applications are usually designed locally and for specific target markets, with localized content specific to the languages, crop types, and farming methods. It continues that while these local designs may offer exciting opportunities for local content and applications development, they may also limit the economies of scale realizable from expanding from pilot programs into mass markets, potentially hindering the spread of new and promising applications and services. So while development practitioners are careful not to repeat the traditional “technology transfer” approach in the ICTs for development sector, they are also faced with the limitations of scalability of the locally developed mobile applications for agriculture.

Is Reverse Innovation a Possible Solution to Limited Scaling of Locally Developed Mobile Apps? The local app development market in the emerging economies is being boosted by the proliferation of Technology Hubs & Parks in these countries. But what are the approaches to development of applications within these hubs? How can we learn from the past challenges with technology transfer and the current scaling limitations of locally developed apps for agriculture? The concept of reverse innovation developed by Vijay Govindarajan, and Chris Trimble and explained in details with practical applications in their book, “Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere”, could bring these two challenges together. A key component of the concept is about building Local Growth Teams (LGTs). Within the mobile agricultural sector, LGTs comprising of ICT developers, marketing specialists, and content developers in the emerging economies with strong link with global market could be developed. This will ensure that locally developed ICTs apps with inexpensive models and limited infrastructure to meet the needs of developing nations, can be easily repackaged as low-cost innovative goods for Western buyers. This could address the scaling challenge brought up by the report and at the same time limit the traditional diffusion of technologies from the developed to developing nations.

Oversights: Mobile Solutions for R&D and Data Collection? I would like to recap my recent work on “Mapping ICTs Along the Agricultural Value Chain” for USAID’s Global Broadband and Innovations (GBI) program. Two key components of the value chain, which seem to be overlooked, are ICTs for agricultural research and development (R&D), and ICTs for data collection to inform monitoring and evaluation (M&E). Firstly, mobile technologies for agricultural R&D are emerging, but due to the traditional under-estimation and under-investment in agricultural R&D in developing countries, little attention is being paid to its potential. There is huge potential in the use of mobile technologies to support the work of agricultural researchers, agricultural science students, extension staffs, and farmers to facilitate access to scientific knowledge and exchange of information between and among these actors. Unfortunately, this has been overlooked by this important report. Secondly, mobile technologies are being used along the agricultural value chain for data collection in order to inform policy and decision-making. The report did mention briefly the importance of mobile in agricultural data collection, for example the work of Grameen Foundations Community Knowledge Worker (CKW) program in Uganda and the Reuters Market Light (RML) in India. But in addition to these programs, there are host of new mobile applications that are being used in this area that need to be acknowledged. Examples include iFormBuilder, EpiSurveyor, Open data Kit, among others. These new mobile applications are essential for the work of extension staff – both public and private to facilitate their work. Most importantly, timely and accurate data through these applications will lead to actions that will benefit the smallholder farmer in a number of ways, thereby increasing their productivity.

Conclusion The growth of mobile technologies for agriculture has outpaced the speed of past technological developments within the sector. While the invention of tractors in the 1800’s was acclaimed a significant breakthrough for agriculture, not even the green revolution in the 1900’s can be compared to the extensiveness and intensiveness of mobile technologies for agriculture. The World Bank report reference in this post has done excellent job by carefully selecting experts in the field of ICTs for development to delve into a number of cases worth following. Specifically on the second chapter that deals with mobile technologies and agriculture, I believe practitioners, researchers, technology developers, policy makers, and users of agriculture and mobile technologies should look critically into the recommendations given at the end – business models, ICT skills and the supporting infrastructure to insure the growth and sustenance of the revolution.

August 3, 2012/by actualize

Areas of Expertise, Information and Communication Technology for Development

“Maximizing Mobile” Report Eyes the Future of M4D

In 2008, Jeffrey Sachs said to the United Nations Millenium Project that “mobile phones and wireless internet end isolation, and will therefore prove to be the most transformative technology of economic development of our time.” Well, as the new World Bank report “Maximizing Mobile” shows, Sachs may not have been too far off the mark. However, despite the promising statistics there are still some daunting challenges in the field of m4d that must be overcome.

The report shows some very encouraging mobile statistics. Between 2000 and 2012, the number of mobile phones in use worldwide grew from less than 1 billion to over 6 billion (check out this great info-graphic). The number of mobile subscriptions in low and middle-income countries has increased by over 1,500 percent between the years 2000 and 2010, moving from 4 subscriptions per 100 people up to 72 subscriptions. Indeed, the mobile sector as a whole has become an increasingly significant economic force in developing economies, with mobile revenues as a proportion of gross national income (GNI), rising from 0.9 percent in 2000 to 1.5 percent in 2010.

Beyond statistics, the report points to some very interesting trends that must be kept in mind as we move forward in any mobile for development work. First and foremost, “Maximizing Mobile” marks a change in dynamics for the Bank’s approach to ICT: a shift away from its traditional supply-side focus on connectivity to a new demand-side focus on mobile applications and the ways ICTs are used. Indeed, the report posits that much of the industry is shifting from hardware to software and services – as it is no longer about the phone, but rather how the phones are used. Though true,

As for challenges, the report provides useful inside into the obstacles and constraints that mobile still faces. Generally, the most common constraints to the supply side of mobile service provision are a lack of available spectrum and inadequate backbone networks. The largest constraints on the demand side remain a lack of affordable mobile devices and broadband services, as well as a dearth of local applications and content available to users. The bank goes on to underscore the importance of partnership programs between government, business, and NGOs and the role they can play in surmounting these obstacles.

When it comes to content creation, no one is better placed to construct relevant and localized applications and services than those who need them. The Bank points out, quite rightly, that “new mobile applications that are designed locally and rooted in the realities of the developing world will be much better suited to addressing challenges than applications transplanted from elsewhere.” The report highlights the emerging trend of the crowdsourcing that has arisen out of social networking, increased connectivity and the subsequent demand that often results. Local content portals have been popping up all over the world in order to satisfy local demand for various types of news and information previously inaccessible. Indeed many mobile innovations (multi-sim card phones, low-cost recharges, mobile payments) increasingly originate in poorer countries.

There are many opportunities in the field as we move forward. Tapping into and fostering local talent for mobile application development is an important next step and should remain a priority, as use and development of smart phone applications is likely to rise as market pressures continue to drive down prices. Cross-sector partnerships between governments, firms, and NGOs will be necessary for creating the necessary solutions to both supply and demand-side obstacles. Sachs may very well have been correct, but we still have many challenges ahead before mobile’s full potential can be realized.

July 31, 2012/by actualize

Areas of Expertise, Environment & NRM

Did We Get “The Future We Want” from Rio+20?

In June 2012, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Marking the 20^th 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:

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.

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.

July 24, 2012/by actualize

Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

A Framework to Extending Financial Inclusion throughout Africa via ICT

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.

April 23, 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, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

ICT in Education 2011: The quest to find true cost of edutech projects

Policy-makers, development specialists, and educators around the world generally agree that information and communications technology (ICT) can greatly enhance learning and more efficiently and effectively deliver educational services. In 2011, technology-based education (“edutech” or “ICT4E”) experts talked a lot (and debated a lot) about how to successfully implement ICT initiatives for education in developing countries.

Cost of implementation continued to be a top issue of concern, but the debate shifted from being solely focused on the cost of gadgets (“hardware”) to taking into account the total cost of implementing ICT education solutions. This includes teacher and student training, support and maintenance, and the cost of replacing the hardware. Many in the ICT4E field have opposed the fascination with developing the cheapest educational device possible, a mentality that grew in the late 2000s with projects such as One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). Now-a-days, ICT4E’ers argue that what is needed is not to try and reach the unfeasible goal of getting a laptop into every primary school child’s hands, but for each classroom to be equipped with a “learning system,” such as a teacher-centric computer connected to low-power projector.

Photo credit: www.techmean.com

While acknowledging that hardware is not the main cost in implementing edutech projects, it’s still interesting to see how low the costs of education gadgets can get. The ICT4E sector saw several new low-cost gadgets unveiled this year.

The education gadget that has perhaps received the most press this year is India’s Aakash, launched in October and developed by the company Datawind and the Indian Institute of Technology. DataWind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli recently gave a talk about the device at the World Bank, discussing its functionality, cost (subsidized at $35, unsubsidized around $60), and how it fits into broader sustainable business models of ICT adoption in the developing world. Many are critical of the Aakash; similar low-cost devices had been promised for India before and failed, and some questioned whether the tablet could really be considered “educational.”

Though Literacy Bridge piloted its $10 Talking Book in 2009 in Ghana, the non-profit has expanded the reach of the audio device as well as contributed to ICT in education strategies throughout 2011. The organization claims their device is “the world’s most affordable, durable, audio device” designed to reach people who are not literate and live without electricity. The gadget enables teachers to reach more students; for instance, they can record readings of instructional materials onto the device and create interactive audio lessons like quizzes or games.

Literacy Bridge's "Talking Book"

Next year holds some exciting potential for ICT4E developments. Something to look out for soon (originally set to launch this month by a UK charity) is the Raspberry Pi, a tiny and incredibly cheap ($25!) computer that will be used for teaching computer programming to children. The Raspberry Pi Foundation plans for the credit-card sized device, which can be plugged into a TV, to have a number of applications that can be used both the developed and developing world.

Geeks Without Frontiers announced in August that it has developed a low-cost, open source Wi-Fi software technology that could reach a billion people in 10 years. The technology is estimated to be about half of the traditional network cost once it is up and running. Though it is not specifically designed for educational purposes, it could have huge implications for the ICT4E field, allowing many more students and teachers in low-income areas to connect to the Internet.

2011 also brought good analyses of all the low-cost gadgets that have been developed for educational purposes. One article looked at the best devices for education currently available, based on six success criteria for ICT4E projects in developing countries as determined by researchers and practitioners in the field: infrastructure, maintenance, contents and materials, community inclusion, teacher training, and evaluation.

The credit card-sized Raspberry Pi computer

No doubt the debates about the best way to implement ICT4E projects will continue in 2012, as will the search to find the lowest-cost educational gadgets. The field holds some exciting developments for the new year, so be sure to follow the Educational Technology Debate, ICT Works, the World Bank EduTech blog, and GBI’s education sector, among others, to keep up with the latest updates.

December 22, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Extension Service, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Information Revolution Changing the Face of African Ag.

Photo Credit: ECX

A 2-day conference on African Commodity Exchanges has ended in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa with the call for an Africa wide commodity exchange as well as more exchanges in African nations.

At the heart of this conference, even though not upfront, was the key role that information and communication technologies (ICTs) are playing in transforming businesses within the agricultural sector in Africa. The success stories surrounding the operation of the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) system attest to the fact that ICTs can be enabling factors in almost every sector once the necessary steps are taken to integrate these technologies into the sector.

“A sleepy eyed farmer miles away from the nearest road braves the morning chill to load his donkeys with his lentil harvest. On his way to market he checks his mobile to see if the network is reaching him – because receiving a text message now from the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) could save him hundreds of birr,” said the former World Bank economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin who is the CEO of the Ethiopia’s state-owned commodity exchange.

According to Dr. Gabre-Madhin, ECX is as much an ICT revolution as it is an economic transformation. The platform is a communications technology, from the real time price tickers found across the country to the Interactive Voice Recognition mobile telephony for rural farmers, that makes the exchange work. ICT applications currently being used to facilitate exchange of commodities and make information accessible to the users include over 100 price tickers, 20 trading centers, 50 warehouses, 2000 market information kiosks, and 50 data display boards.

Dr Gabre-Madhin stated that access to price information allows farmers to maximize profits and if farmers can get the same information about the national market trends that well-established and endowed exporters and processing firms have, that changes how the game is played. She concluded that with the ECX, the share of the final export price that now goes back to the farmer has gone up from something like 38% to close to 70%.

The conference which was co-organized by ECX and UNDP brought together participants from about 14 Africa countries including Ghana, Zambia, Rwanda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and South Africa with market regulators, policy makers, national and international banks, the US securities and exchanges commission, development institutions, investors, farmer organizations and technology companies.

But while the ECX is being held up as a model, many other African countries disagree with the concept of states controlling the market. But the Ethiopia’s top government economist Newal Gabre Ab insisted that every country is different when it comes to economic policy and in Ethiopia, where farmers are among the poorest in Africa, the success of the ECX is the result of careful state planning.

November 15, 2011/by actualize

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

Innovative Solutions to Water and Sanitation Challenges Emerge from Collaborative “WaterHackathon”

The World Bank and several technology partners held the first global WaterHackathon, inviting computer programmers, designers and other ICT specialists to develop solutions to water and sanitation (WASH) development challenges.

Photo credit: World Bank

The hackathon took place simultaneously in ten locations, including Washington DC, Nairobi, Bangalore, and Lima. The World Bank reports that “nearly 1000 people registered worldwide to participate in the event…to try to solve – ‘hack’ – more than 100 water problems.” A team of water experts sat down with ICT experts to identify these problems beforehand, which were related to on-going World Bank water projects.

One of the pre-defined problems was with the water utility customer service center in Botswana. The center is often so overwhelmed by calls regarding bill status that many customers abandon payment efforts or are forced to travel to the service center just to receive simple answers about their bills.

The winning hack team, comprised of students from George Mason University at the Washington DC Hackathon, developed a prototype that simulated customers in Botswana sending and instantly receiving SMS messages with simple answers to bill-related questions. The solution could save customers time as well as improve revenue and operating efficiency for the water utility.

Other winners included a tool created by a team in Kampala that crowd sources and visualizes water-related problems in communities, as well as a smartphone tool to help consumers understand their water usage over time. In Bangalore, a winning team developed an app that links an SMS stream to an ongoing project, allowing implementers to track, gather, and analyze data about their projects. OpenStreetMap made hydrological data from the Ministry of Agriculture public for the first time at the Lima Hackathon.

Water Hackathon in Lima; courtesy of World Bank

Each Hackathon location provided outlets for showcasing and refining the winning solutions, some winners receiving spots in local technology centers to further develop their products. Event organizers will continue to track the outcomes of the events, and many teams have connected with teams in other locations in order to foster future collaboration.

October 31, 2011/by actualize

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