• IFAD website
  • Subscribe to posts
  • Subscribe to comments

BRCK: the solution to shaky internet connections?

Posted by espen Wednesday, May 22, 2013 0 comments



Having lived in Africa, I have experienced first-hand the challenges, frustrations, and not to mention the immense negative impact on efficiency experienced with shaky internet connections, primarily due to frequent power outages and flaky ISPs.

But with BRCK, which is described as the “backup generator for the internet”, this could according to them
now be in the past. Shortly explained, BRCK allows for you to define a range of ways of connecting to the internet, such as ethernet, Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G, and will shift between them depending upon the status of your existing connection. It can support up to 20 computing-devices at once and has an eight hour battery life, which should allow you to stay online until the original connection has been restored.

At the moment, the BRCK is at prototype-stage, but Ushahidi (the makers of the BRCK and not-for-profit that built a crowdsourced mapping platform as a consequence of the Kenyan post-election violence in 2008), is raising funds using Kickstarter, and is well advanced to reach their fundraising goal.

It will be interesting to continue following the development of the BRCK. At the moment it is priced at $200, which is a little steep, but I am sure the cost will be reduced as they reach economies of scale.

What do you think? Is the BRCK it?

UN forum gives voice to indigenous leaders, including IFAD partners

Posted by Timothy Ledwith Tuesday, May 21, 2013 0 comments

Participants listen to opening statements at the 12th session of the UN
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. ©IFAD/Bridget Scallen
NEW YORK, 21 May 2013 – The 12th session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues opened here yesterday, drawing more than 1,000 participants – including indigenous peoples’ leaders who are partnering with IFAD on rural development projects around the world.

The two-week session began as indigenous peoples, many in traditional clothing, filled the cavernous General Assembly hall at UN headquarters. They were greeted by the melody of an Andean flute and a ceremonial welcome from Chief Sidney Hill of the Native American Onondaga Nation. A series of speakers followed, outlining the objectives and aspirations of the Permanent Forum, which serves as the UN Economic and Social Council’s advisory body on indigenous peoples’ rights and issues.

Several of the speakers noted that the current session of the Permanent Forum would play an important role in setting the agenda for the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, to be held in September 2014. Several also asserted that indigenous peoples’ traditional knowledge – and their vision of sustainable development based on respect for culture, identity and the environment – must be integral to the global agenda that will follow the Millennium Development Goals after the MDGs’ target date passes in 2015.

Platform for dialogue 
The theme of sustainable development in indigenous communities figured prominently in two IFAD-related side events that followed the opening session. The first of those events was a review of IFAD’s engagement with indigenous peoples and the findings of its Indigenous Peoples’ Forum, which held an inaugural global meeting in Rome this past February (see video at the bottom of this post).

Panel at UN Permanent Forum side event on IFAD's engage-
ment with indigenous peoples. ©IFAD/Bridget Scallen
Antonella Cordone, IFAD’s Coordinator for Indigenous and Tribal Issues, introduced the side event. She explained that the institution’s dialogue with indigenous peoples in rural areas actually began in earnest in 2003. Six years later, she recalled, IFAD adopted its Policy on Engagement with Indigenous Peoples as the basis for an equitable partnership with indigenous communities involved in rural and agricultural development projects.

The Indigenous Peoples Forum at IFAD is an outgrowth of the policy’s emphasis on full partnership. While the Forum is scheduled to convene a global meeting every other year, Cordone stressed that it is not primarily a meeting but, rather, a process. “It is a platform of continuous dialogue between IFAD and indigenous peoples at the regional, national and international levels,” she said.

A starting point
A panel of indigenous peoples’ leaders spoke at the side event, representing grassroots organizations that are engaged in just such a dialogue with IFAD in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The leaders agreed that the Indigenous Peoples’ Forum is a vehicle for meaningful cooperation on reducing poverty and increasing food security in some of the world’s most marginalized communities. They cautioned, however, that it is still just a starting point for improving the lives of millions of indigenous women and men in poor rural areas.

Devasish Roy, a member of the UN Permanent Forum,
at one of  the IFAD-related events. ©IFAD/Bridget Scallen
“IFAD is opening a door,” said Joseph Simel, Executive Director of the Kenya-based Mainyoito Pastoralists Integrated Development Organization. But to ensure success in the long term, he observed, the best practices developed by individual projects in indigenous communities must be adopted widely and institutionalized in IFAD and beyond.

Joan Carling, Secretary-General of Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, added that IFAD has a critical role to play in advocating for recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights. “Land tenure is at the heart of indigenous peoples’ food security,” she said, citing the need for national policies that ensure access to ancestral land and resources. Indigenous women’s empowerment is another area that urgently needs attention, Carling said.

“It’s not enough to have a policy on indigenous peoples,” concluded Myrna Cunningham, a Nicaraguan activist and member of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. “Policies have to be accompanied by mechanisms for implementation.” Such mechanisms, she said, require indigenous peoples’ participation at every level, as well as adequate resources to make a significant impact on the ground.

Self-driven development
One existing mechanism for implementation – the Indigenous Peoples Assistance Facility (IPAF) – was the subject of the second IFAD-related side event held at the Permanent Forum yesterday. Established in 2007, the facility aims to strengthen indigenous peoples’ communities and organizations by financing small projects that foster self-driven development. In the process, these projects generate innovative approaches to rural development that potentially can be replicated and scaled up.

UN Permanent Forum participants confer in the Trusteeship
Council Chamber at UN headquarters, New York. ©IFAD
IPAF is governed by a board composed mainly of indigenous members. It has approved grants in support of more than 100 projects to date.

The IPAF side event featured representatives from indigenous peoples’ organizations that co-manage the facility with IFAD in the various regions where it works, as well as partners implementing projects with IPAF grants. In a series of presentations, they demonstrated how IPAF support has helped their communities apply traditional knowledge about sustainable agriculture to enhance rural livelihoods and food security. One presenter, Gregory Juan Ch’oc of the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management, in Belize, praised IPAF for enabling indigenous peoples to pursue “development with identity” in the face of the historic suppression of their cultural heritage.

As the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues continues in the coming days, IFAD and its partners will be looking toward a future in which development with identity is not the exception but, instead, the rule for indigenous peoples worldwide.

VIDEO:  Indigenous Peoples' Forum
Watch a recap of the first global meeting convened by the Indigenous Peoples' Forum at IFAD in February 2013. The video was screened to a visibly moved audience yesterday at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.

Harnessing the remittance boom #gfr2013

Posted by Roxanna Samii Monday, May 20, 2013 0 comments


By Kanayo F. Nwanze

For more than a decade, Asia’s economies have been on the move – and so have its people. The scale of migration from rural to urban areas and across international borders is historically unprecedented, and twenty-first-century Asia is its focal point.

In Asia’s developing countries, the power and potential of remittances – the money that migrant workers send home to their families (many of whom live in poor and remote areas) – is immense. Currently, over 60 million migrant workers from the Asia/Pacific region account for more than half of all remittance flows to developing countries, sending home about $260 billion in 2012.

China, India, and the Philippines are the three largest recipients of remittances, while Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Vietnam are also in the top ten. The money is often a lifeline: it is estimated that 10% of Asian families depend on payments from abroad to obtain their food, clothing, and shelter.
But, while remittances to developing countries are five times higher than official development assistance, the enormous potential returns for society have not been realized – and can be secured only if the flow of money can be channeled into effective rural and agricultural development, particularly in fragile states and post-conflict countries. Doing so would contribute significantly to creating jobs, enhancing food security, and fostering stability in countries emerging from strife.

In order to establish such channels, we must scale up key initiatives, identify new opportunities, and map out the road ahead. The fourth Global Forum on Remittances, which runs May 20-23 in Bangkok, will do just that. Convened by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank, the forum will bring together policymakers, private-sector players, and civil-society leaders to chart a course for leveraging the development impact of remittances sent home each year in Asia and around the world.

At IFAD, our starting point is always the three billion people who live in the rural areas of developing countries. We work to create conditions in which poor rural women and men can grow and sell more food, increase their incomes, and determine the direction of their own lives. We believe that diasporas and the global donor community can leverage the flow of migrant investment if they form partnerships with national governments for long-term development of the rural communities that are so often the beginning of the migration chain.

More than 215 million people around the world live outside of the countries they call home. But most families that rely on remittances operate outside of the world’s financial system as well. Despite the global prevalence of electronic money transfers, most migrant workers are excluded from the convenience of modern banking services, dependent on costly cash transfers that often require rural recipients to travel significant distances.

As a result, migrant workers are forced to initiate more than one billion separate transactions worldwide each year. That means more than one billion trips for rural women and men to collect their money. Adding up the cost of the transfer, travel, and time, remittances are far too expensive for people living in poverty.

IFAD has been working in more than 40 countries to ensure that rural families can have easy access to remittances, and are better able to use them as savings or investments that go back into their communities. The amount of money at stake is staggering: It is estimated that over the next five years, more than $2.5 trillion will be sent in remittances to developing countries, with almost 40% – coming in the form of payments of $50, $100, or $500 at a time – destined for rural areas. While the majority of family remittances will always be used to meet immediate needs, IFAD’s experience shows that rural families would seize opportunities to save and invest, even small amounts, if they had better options.

While remittances should and can be leveraged to bring about impressive results in poverty reduction, let us not forget that there is an underlying issue that needs to be addressed. Young people, the leaders and farmers of tomorrow, are leaving their rural communities behind in search of better opportunities. We need to turn rural areas into vibrant and economically stable communities that provide opportunities for young people to earn a living, build their capacities, and start a family.

We should not ignore the enormous development potential of remittances to rural areas. Let us empower families to use their hard-earned money in ways that will help to make migration a matter of choice, not a necessity for the generations to come.

Originally posted on Project Syndicate

Experts declare war on cassava viruses in Africa

Posted by Beate Stalsett Friday, May 17, 2013 0 comments

©IFAD/Susan Beccio 
Wafaa El-Khoury, Senior Technical Advisor on Agronomy at International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) just returned from the Strategic Meeting of The Global Cassava Partnership for the 21st Century. This year’s theme was “Declaring War on Cassava Viruses in Africa”, an important topic since cassava experts are reporting new outbreaks and an increased spread of Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD). According to experts the rapidly multiplying plant virus could cause a 50 per cent drop in production of a crop that provides a substantial source of food and income for 300 million Africans. El-Khoury highlights that close cooperation between the research, development and donor communities is needed to keep the disease under control in the already affected areas of East Africa while ensuring the prevention of its entry into West Africa. Here are her takeaways from the meeting, and recommendations for the future.

Q: How is the topic you discussed at the conference relevant to IFAD and its operations?

Cassava is among the most important crop for the livelihoods of IFAD’s beneficiaries mainly in Africa, but also in Asia and in Latin America. IFAD loans and grants portfolio includes substantial investments in the development of the cassava value chains as well as in ensuring food security for the most vulnerable people, especially in regions with difficult environmental conditions and in areas at risk of effects to climate change. As you may know cassava has been seen as a stable and resilient crop in the face of effects of climate change. The occurrence of a virus disease would directly affect IFAD’s operations in these countries reducing the chances of success in value chain enhancement activities, and also impact food security and nutrition related activities. Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) is a virus disease (2 active viruses) severely infecting all cassava varieties that have been newly developed resistant to the Cassava mosaic disease (CMD), another disease that has been devastating East and Central Africa for over a decade. CBSD is transmitted through the whitefly vector and through cuttings used for vegetative propagation. The cassava experts are reporting new outbreaks, and an increased spread of the CBSD epidemic in East Africa is worrying and the concern would increase substantially if the virus spreads to West Africa and even other continents. IFAD should play an active role together with the international research and development community to resolve the problem as soon as possible, and I will give a more detailed perspective in the text below.

Q: What do you think has changed for the farmers who have been dealing with such threats over the years?

©IFAD/Gerard Planchenault
It is true that farmers have had to deal with biotic and abiotic threats throughout history, and farmers have dealt with them in various ways, mainly through the selection and multiplication of best landraces that could survive these threats. Traditionally farmers have selected crop populations with the most stable yield and not necessarily the crop with the highest yield. Today farmers are under pressure to increase productivity and production for food security and income generation. This is achieved mainly through crop intensification with changes in cultural practices and cropping patterns, often with a reduction of genetic diversity across landscapes, but also with the cultivation of new crops in areas previously considered not adapted to their growth. These developments have been accompanied by an increase in the movement of human beings and genetic material across countries and continents, and by a changing climate affecting the populations of pests, diseases and their interaction with host plants. All these factors are resulting in an increasing global incidence of emerging infectious diseases. Studies have shown that these are mainly the result of pathogen introductions into new areas (56% of cases), weather related (25% of cases), changes in farming techniques and systems (9% of cases), changes in vector populations (7% of cases ) or genetic recombination of the pathogen or habitat disturbances (Anderson et al 2004).

Around 50% of these emerging infectious diseases are viruses and they can quickly get established and spread to epidemic levels. Research has shown that emerging infectious viruses developing into disease epidemics are consistently linked to human-induced changes in agricultural production systems.

African farmers have in the past decades witnessed a series of epidemics that have devastated their staple crops. Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) is presently still restricted to East Africa but the research and development community have serious concerns that it will soon move to Central and West Africa devastating the main cassava-producing areas. The problem is further complicated through the emergence of new populations of the whitefly vector that are highly prolific with very high multiplication rates, resulting in high disease transmission rates and causing severe crop damage through their direct feeding on the plant. The increased vector populations are expected to be favoured through the effect of climate change in Africa. CBSD is a disease that produces limited leaf symptoms which makes it difficult to spot and eliminate infected plants early in the growing season, but at harvest time, severe root symptoms are observed (necrosis, browning of the roots such that they are not fit for processing or eating).


Q: What should we in IFAD be doing differently to equip our beneficiaries to better deal with the threats of cassava viruses? 

Through its loan and grants IFAD has been extremely active in the past decades in the promotion of cassava productivity in Africa. Not only did it promote the introduction of new highly productive varieties adapted to the needs of the farmer and markets, it has supported farmers and women in postharvest cassava transformation and value additions. Through its grants system, IFAD’s support was crucial to the pan-African control of the devastating cassava mealy bug pest through the environmentally and eco-system friendly method of biological control.

However, with the continuous changes in agricultural production systems, natural landscapes and global climate, the risk of pandemics is expected to increase. Development interventions, including IFAD’s interventions should accordingly ensure the resilience of farming systems ahead of the emergence of the problem. The response at the onset of the epidemic should be holistic, based on multiple interventions with considerations at landscape levels beyond the farm level. Considerations should also be given to awareness raising and policy interventions at the national level and beyond. The disease control should never rely on one single solution such as only the introduction of resistant varieties but should include various disease management options and major elements of capacity building to ensure sustainability of interventions and capacity of farmers and national institutions to respond to similar future shocks. Among possible IFAD interventions that go beyond research is through its rural finance activities and its linkage to the private sector to support farmers in accessing virus free clean planting material, often a limiting factor for farmers while it is one of the most critical disease management practices. Capacity building of farmers and farmer organization in identifying the disease and establishing community-based phyto-sanitation, which has proven effective in disease management could also be part of IFAD’s interventions. IFAD could also play a critical role in institutional capacity development and support in national coordination for contingency planning and response to similar emergencies. IFAD could also fund research on multiple management solutions to CBSD as well as on understanding the future risks and mitigation strategies for the emergence of pests and diseases of food security crucial crops as cassava.

Q: What are your three most important takeaways that you would like to share with colleagues/partners? 
  1. Emerging trans boundary epidemics affecting staple crops can only be managed through international cooperation involving the research, development and donor communities. They would require also political will for action and hence a lot of advocacy and awareness raising with the national, sub-regional and regional levels that would influence relevant policy and decision-making bodies.
  2. Pandemics –whether affecting humans, animals or crops, are becoming more frequent and more devastating. Learning from previous epidemics is critical to assess the potential risks, and enhance preparedness and effective response at the national, regional or global levels. Critical elements to achieve such response is the preparation of contingency plans for quick and effective interventions, vigilant surveillance systems, functional seed systems and proper support to farmers and their organizations for efficient field level response. Awareness and policy support are pre-requisites for the success of any intervention. There was a general agreement at the meeting that CBSD elimination is not possible, especially where it is now endemic in East Africa. In this case management is critical, especially through the control of the vector and through use of clean propagative material. It is however important to try to prevent the entry of CBSD into West Africa and the other continents through vigilant and systematic surveillance, which allows for early detection and eradication upon its entry to new areas and before it grows to epidemics.
  3. There is still a lot of missing scientific information about CBSD and other potentially devastating cassava virus diseases to be able to manage them properly in the field. More research is still needed on topics covering the resistance and tolerance of cassava improved varieties and landraces to CBSD, its distribution within the plant, transmission through whiteflies and through propagative material, and the effect of plant nutrition on disease expression and severity. In all cases, the disease management strategies should depend on combined interventions through the use of virus-free planting material, elimination of infected material from the field, sanitation and other cultural practices, host plant resistance (to virus or whitefly vector), and very importantly the integrated management of the whitefly vector (integrated pest management, IPM).



Watch video on CBSD from CIAT

How to build sustainable business links for smallholder farmers: Value chain development in Bangladesh

Posted by Sarah Hessel Thursday, May 16, 2013 0 comments

Small farmers are always linked to the local private sector, at the time when they buy input and tools from suppliers and when they sell their produce to traders and sellers. But often these linkage are not strong enough to secure high quality input and the necessary technical knowledge, hindering small farmers to increase their productivity and diversify into higher value agriculture production meeting the market demand.

The IFAD-supported Market Infrastructure Development Project inCharland Regions (MIDPCR) addressed this by systematically building linkages among the different actors of one value chain. The project’s Rural Enterprise Component (RED), implemented by the international NGO iDE, aimed at identifying and linking small-scale producers to lucrative market opportunities and adopting a systematic approach to develop sustainable value chains in the project area, one of the most remote and poor areas of Bangladesh.

Until today, the RED activities have led to an increase in crop yield and additional income per farmer ranging from BDT3,000 (USD 40, fruit garden) to BDT21,000 (USD270, fish), strong linkages between different stakeholders of a value chain; sustainable input supply and technical assistance for farmers through to 52 private sector institutions, 4 public agencies and 2 research organisations; adaptation of more than 30 new technologies (such as pheromone traps, pond water and soil testing services, hybrid seeds, plastic crate for vegetable transport, early separation of chicks and inoculum, a bacteria that when mixed with seeds can increase production by 20% and significantly reduces the need for urea fertilizer once plant is grown). Within the two years of project implementation, successful interventions were scaled up throughout the area, increasing the outreach from 20,000 to 72,000 farmers.


Nurul Amin,
Project Manager at iDE
 Nurul Amin, Project Manager at iDE, explains the approach, success factors and lessons learned of MIDPCR’s RED activities:

How did the project strengthen the market linkage and value chains?
The activities, can basically be broken down in 3 steps: First, we identified the agricultural products with the highest commercial potential in the area through field work and studies. These products were chosen based on a number of criteria, such as the potential increase in overall productivity, number of farmers/households involved in the cultivation, geographic dispersion in the project area, potential to structure and strengthen the value chain, opportunities to introduce and access new technologies to improve quantity and quality of production and potential to link with MIDPCR markets. On this basis, we defined target interventions and cluster areas.

Following this, we started to build linkages among the relevant actors of the selected value chains. While local producers normally were only in touch with local traders/sellers when the production was concluded, RED activities brought relevant actors together before the actual production started, which allowed to identify market demand, input shortages and technical assistance needs. This was done through meetings and workshops, such as pre-season planning meetings on the village level, bringing together local suppliers, producers and traders to discuss product market demand, input supply, availability of services and a production plan for the coming season as well as linkage workshops on the Upazilla [sub district] level. These workshops brought together all actors along one specific value chain -the Market Management Committees, traders, suppliers, service providers, producers and relevant government officials – aiming at building relationships among farmers, input suppliers, service providers, traders/buyers; improving the capacity of farmers to seek services from other value chain stakeholders; and creating interest of input suppliers and buyers/traders to expand their business activities.

Poultry farming is particularly suited for 
women farmers as it can be done within 
the farm.  ©IFAD/G.M.B.Akash
Finally, we built the capacity of rural producers enabling them to increase their production and meet market demands by organizing technical assistance and introducing new technologies. In our trainings, we brought in the relevant actors along the value chain as experts and business service providers. In Marketing and Management Trainings, for example, farmers learned how to turn their farming into a commercial activity, about their target markets and how to develop entrepreneurial capacity. Further, together with the farmers, we identified technical issues that were hindering them from increasing their production or meet market quality standards. We then facilitated private sector led technology demonstration at local level and organized visits, for example to expert farmers who were already very successful in their production or utilized new technologies or to the main markets where one specific product is sold or to input suppliers that were known for good quality inputs. While this supported farmers to clarify specimen with main sellers, exporters and marketing managers, it also increased their market access and strengthened linkages with value chain partners.

Do you expect these linkages to be sustainable?
Yes. As those interventions created benefits for all actors along the value chain, it is to be expected, that the created links will be sustained and farmers can continue to grow their business. Also, we already see a spill-over effect: While under MIDPCR mainly farmers who were already farming a particular product, other farmers in the region, once they saw the difference in income made through a new variety or technology, adopted the approach as well.

What were critical factors leading to the success of the project?
The main success factors during the implementation of the RED component were
  • that we applied a market development approach to secure private sector actors’ participation – if there is a business opportunity, the project intervention will be sustainable and beneficial to all stakeholders involved;
  • that we followed a bottom up approach to ensure that activities were demand-driven and addressed the actual needs of farmers,  rather than imposing activities and products from the project; and
  • that the roads and markets constructed under MIDPCR’s infrastructure component ensured an enabling environment for farmers to access markets as well as for suppliers/traders to come to the farm gate.

RED activities have increased the income of fish farmers
by USD270. ©IFAD/G.M.B.Akash
What are the lessons that you take away from this project?
Looking back at the RED activities, there are a number of lessons that we have learned, such as
  • combining value chain development activities with access to finance (as applied in MIDPCR’s NGO activities) will help farmers to adopt new technologies/varieties;
  • both husband and wife should participate in activities as our experience shows that both are controlling different areas within the household, and both joining in the training enables them  to take a joint informed decision rather than one partner blocking it;
  • increasing farmers associations’ business management capacity can ensure sustainability of project interventions and increase benefits for farmers;
  • working with trader associations can potentially open up additional connections for farmers on quality inputs and selling channels;
  • competition is a key factor to ensure quality for the farmers;
  • the private sector should be involved from the design stage if a project is targeting increased private sector involvement.




Women’s perspectives on integrated approaches for successful PPP: the experience of the Learning Route in Laos PDR

Posted by Cecina Wednesday, May 15, 2013 0 comments

The second edition of the Learning Route  “Pro-Rural Poor Public and Private Partnership in Lao PDR, Best practices and successful strategies in Attapeu Province seen through women’s eyes” ended successfully on the 10th of May.

The River at the beginning of the LR
During the 5 days event the 20 female participants experienced field visits, discussions and analysis sessions that resulted in the development of action plans to improve their communities’ livelihoods through better access to market, stronger and improved group management, and strengthened relations with the private sector.

Every day participants made the Learning Route River wider with their knowledge, expectations, challenges, lessons learned and recommendations. On the last day, new ideas and innovations plans contributed to reach the maximum river’s flow, with many streams getting communities in 5 different districts of Southern Laos.
The river of learning by the end of the LR
As Ms. Bouasavanh Homdouangphachanh  (representative for a community association, SNRMPE Project, Salavan province) pointed out “the most significant lesson experienced through the Learning Route is that the development of new business activities goes hand in hand with the improvement of education and the enhancement of gender inclusion at the community level. Sustainable business activities could take place only where there is a well organized community or group, a good management of the environment and the natural resources. 
Pro-rural poor public-private partnerships put “People” at the centre of a range of integrated activities for livelihood improvement”.


Integrated strategies and approaches to foster pro-poor rural PPP should be drawn on the base of key components. Participants highlighted some of them:

  • Clear organization structure and sharing of roles, responsibilities and rules, and participatory decision making processes complemented by transparent and accountable financial management are key to ensure effective group management.  In this framework, the role of women at both production and decision-making process, should be strengthened. 
  • The sharing of a common vision among group members and collective future plans are key for the sustainability of the experience over time
    The establishment and regular management of a collective fund is indispensable for the development of the group’s activities.
  • The written agreement between farmers, public and private sector is an indispensible asset and it must reflect responsibilities of the various parties. The role of the public sector goes far beyond the community infrastructure development to access the market. Counting on the trust of the community, local public organizations have the responsibility to support the strengthening of the group developing sustainable dynamics that can ensure benefits for the whole community and guarantee the establishment of a  fair relation with the private sector.
    On the other side,  the private sector plays an important role as trainer, introducing the farmers to new effective and efficient techniques that can improve the productivity and preserve natural resources.
  • In order to have fair deals it is important for the farmers to know the overall market context (price and quality standards) of the products they will sell to the private sector 
  • Cultural identity should be preserved and valorised. The promotion of handicrafts with a strong cultural identity (such as in the case of the natural dyes fabrics manufactured by the Taliang women) in fact, can generate incomes for the producer. The identification of the source and origin of a product, and its cultural identity, can attract market demand and ensure new incomes.

LR innovative ideas!
Based on these learning, participants developed strategic innovation plans focusing on the creation  or the improvement of pro-rural poor PPP at local and regional level. 

Each innovation plan creates in its own specific way linkages among key components, such as: community organization’s strengthening, sustainable partnership between public and private sector, diversification of local production and strategies for the improvement or creation of market access for poor rural people.


Here below the list of the proposals, ordered by best rating, following the innovation plan contest. Two additional evaluations will be undertaken by Procasur and the Projects and the four final winners will be communicated by mid June.
  1. Strengthening Taliang’s group structure and internal capacity building to access the market and engagement with private sector (Vangxay village, Sansei Attapeu)
  2. Enhancing community livelihood and income strengthening the knowledge on organic vegetables production and planning (Phonsin community, Savanakhet province)
  3. Enhancing group access to market though spicy souse quality improvement in Salavan province
  4. Improving productivity and quality of asparagus Asparagus plantation from the successful experience of Dakhiet and Mr Phimpsa
  5. Community based knowledge exchange to improve chilli plantation quality (Dongvai comunity, Champasak province)
  6. Development of community based network to  enhance the knowledge and know-how on livestock vaccination (Sekong province)
  7. Strengthening Katua’s community knowledge on coffee marketing and promotion for a better access to the market (Paksong, Champasak province)
  8. Improving organic watermelon plantation in Sansai district, Attapeu province
  9. Community based knowledge exchange and training on natural dying in Xaysetha district, Attapeu province   
Innovation plan presentation
Innovation plan competition

Can low-cost computers make a difference in rural Africa?

Posted by espen Tuesday, May 14, 2013 3 comments

Access to computers for the rural poor has been on the radar of the development community for quite some time now, with both advocates and critics vividly promoting their personal views.  The primary point of the critics is rooted in the opportunity-cost of investing in computers, meaning that there are many more important things that the rural-poor may need (such as clean drinking water, improved health, and access to teachers) than a computer.

Farmers in Swaziland prepare the soil for new planting season ©IFAD
In many cases I agree. However, in some cases there are real needs, and an economic-case to be made for access to computers.  I came across one such case during my recent travel to Swaziland, where some advanced farmer-companies consisting of poor rural farmers wanted a computer and appropriate accessories to effectively manage their business. This included simple tasks such as photo copying, typing, emailing, accounting and budgeting. One company we visited had already started to budget for purchasing equipment and planned to invest in a computer shortly.  However, for an entrepreneur living at the base of the pyramid, the barriers to entry into owning a computer are often too high.

A simple Google search reveal that even equipment envisaged for rural Africa is very expensive. For example, the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) cost more than $209 in 2011[1]. On the basis of such expenses, if the 40% of the global population living on less than $2 a day would want to access a computer, they would have to spend around 30% of their annual income. With average global spending on Information communication technology (ICT) being around 3%[2], it is unrealistic to expect a rural-poor user to be able to absorb such a cost.  It would take 10 people to share the cost in order to reach “global expense levels”, and even then the cost would be at the expense of other vital things such as food, medicine, or education for your children. Other low-cost initiatives estimate prices at $500[3], or the $350 Nigerian Inye tablet[4].

Raspberry Pi - courtesy wikipedia
This was until recently, when the Cambridge-designed Raspberry Pi (http://www.raspberrypi.org/ ) was introduced. The Pi (as it goes as) can be bought in two models at $25 and $35 respectively. The price can be a little deceiving as you only buy the circuit board, and would need to obtain an SD card; power cable; keyboard; mouse; and some sort of screen separately, but it still leaves some room for excitement, and here are my four reasons why:

A big expense with imports are always the duties, and unfortunately, most computers currently tend to be produced outside of Africa (the Inye for example is produced in China). If you import a $1,000 or even $500 item, taxes can add up. However, at $35 unit cost, taxes should not have such a huge effect as even a 100% taxation would result in a $70 unit. 

The Raspberry Pi is highly flexible in terms of cost, you can use it with almost any type of television set (which often is available in rural areas) ; without a case or possibly build one yourself; and can run it completely on opensource software, saving licensing fees or having to use pirated software.
When I visit rural areas I often see “old” non-functioning computers left in some corner of an office. I would argue there are a range of accessories available locally, such as computer mice, cables, or even monitors that could be acquired at a relatively low price.

The Pi is based on Linux, which is virtually virus free. Viruses are a huge problem with windows machines in Africa. In addition, the system is installed on an SD card, which can be very easily (and at a relatively low cost) replaced, possibly resulting in less computers being left unused due to software problems.

As the Pi is simply a circuit-card, it opens up the opportunity for a local market where cases and used accessories can be sold. Similarly, the use of opensource software would arguably make it easier for local entrepreneurs to provide tech support and additional services around software packages. Although it would probably not be a comparatively huge employment-generator ,  it may create additional jobs and create an IT-ecosystem that is less dependent upon non-African supply-chains. For example, a certified Microsoft supplier will need to have gone through certain training and pay a fee to Microsoft, which may act as a barrier-to-entry for local entrepreneurs. 

Additionally, working with opensource will lower the barriers-to-entry into software development for local developers as per definition, almost anyone can contribute to an opensource software project. It would most possibly open up a need for software developed for local context and needs, and thus create a demand for local software developers. Subsequently, more activities and demand in the African-software-development-sphere would quite possibly result in increased innovation and software being developed from the continent.     

Obviously the Pi is not the solution to all problems, and there are potential challenges. One being that the Linux operating system is not as widely used as Windows. However, there are Linux capable people on the continent and vibrant communities emerging that could support the introduction of the Pi. To explore the potential of low-cost-computers further, a few Pi’s are being tested in IFAD-financed programmes in Mozambique and Swaziland. The pilots include the Pi as a business tool for rural-farmer-companies and rural extension offices, and as a mean to access information online such as extension services through small rural-youth-run internet cafés.

What do you think? Could the Pi make a difference in Africa?

[1] Rawsthorn, "A few stumbles on the road to connectivity", Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/arts/design/a-few-stumbles-on-the-road-to-connectivity.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
[3] Balacing Act Africa, "Intel and AMD battle for low-cost computer market", Available at: http://www.balancingact-africa.com/news/en/issue-no-310/computing/intel-and-amd-battle/en
[4] BBC, "Nigeria's low-cost tablet computer", Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-18895366