VillageSuite is a concept for a multi-user suite of applications focused on empowering people in developing countries whether urban or rural.  The applications focus on allowing users to utilize banking institutions, receive fairer prices for goods and crops, and increase literacy. 

 Applications include:

Mobile Banking- an application allowing users to utilize payments and transfer funds remotely since many Africans do not have access to bank institutions and are unaware of current mobile banking operations.

Market Prices - Ensures growers can get fair prices for their crops when many are unaware of current market prices by offering daily updated prices from local,  national, and regional markets.  

Store - A simple app utilizing (if available) a phone's camera  and simple interface for villagers to list items for sale from singular to bulk local or internationally. Included would be a payment system linked with the banking app to ensure villagers receive cash and has it protected.  Farmers could also use this app to inform buyers of harvests, overstock, and other sales items as well.

Reading - An application devoted to increasing literacy by teaching users how to read with audio and quick tests.

Math - Allows children to learn basic math concepts from adding and multiplication to more concept business related subjects.

Logistics - Bring drivers, pilots, and producers together with updated pickup, shipping, and delivery times as well as alerting each other of new orders and changed schedules to enhance efficiency and cut down  on cost.

The suite would have a multi-user interface to allow people to share the same device while not giving up privacy or security.  In case some users are illiterate, the icons will be user-friendly and clear of purpose as well as an audio byte in the native language the app's basic function when pressed.  This last feature can be turned off however would be the default. The software would be open-sourced so other developers could personalize and improve upon it as well as increase the availability via cost.

For too long, we have conducted development without good information about our “customers” – the people whose lives we want to improve through our money and effort. We believe this is because developing countries often lack good statistical information on which policy-makers, donors, and private companies can base sound decisions. To date, our knowledge has mostly been limited to expensive door-to-door surveying techniques or difficult phone interviews. The proliferation of mobile phones in developing countries opens the exciting possibility of surveys reaching far fewer people for far less money and providing income for the beneficiaries themselves.

In this system, text messages would be sent to mobile phone users with one or two question surveys, perhaps about health care, education, or even consumer preferences. To provide an incentive to reply, mobile phone credits or mobile banking payments will be issued in exchange for complete surveys. Backend analysis will be used to improve credibility of the results, a task which will be made easier by the large number of people reachable using this system.

Those data can then be used by local, regional or national governments to improve service delivery, by donors and multilaterals for analysis and reporting and even by private companies interested in serving the bottom of the pyramid.

The data platform itself could also have the added benefit of spurring on the spread of cell phones and mobile banking to underserved populations. Instead of being a service they have to pay for, they can be paid to have access to these technologies and financial products.

We have conducted over one year of research to advance this concept and have determined that many of the tools already exist but have never been aligned in quite the right way. We are looking for seed capital and partners to help us launch this exciting venture.

Dana Worth and John Stephenson, the project directors, have extensive experience in both the private and public sectors. We both started our careers at private sector strategy consulting firms and now work at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a firm that applies business approaches to the challenges of development. Through our involvement with healthcare and humanitarian response works, we have been struck by how little data district, province, national and international decision-makers have at their disposal, and consequently, how many critical decisions were made based on old numbers of just plain gut-feeling.

The greatest challenge Kenyan farmers face concerning information is that they do not have access to technical details of farming (Agriculural Research & Extension Network 2000). These details include chemical application rates, most appropriate varieties for a given region, where to find suppliers of certified seeds, addressing the problem of late blight in potatoes, and management of stock. Our project seeks to provide an innovative solution to this problem through the use of mobile technology.

An extensive database on the technical aspects of farming covering the above-mentioned areas specific to the different districts of Kenya will be built on a main computer.
The database will also contain additional information relevant to Kenyan food and agriculture such as plant diseases, water requirement of plants, growth rate of plants, and new technologies in agriculture. The database will be compiled and managed by local staff tained in Information Technology and having interest and experience in Kenyan agriculture, and the information that will be included will come from published material, interviews with local farmers, interviews with professors at local universities, and public sources.

Farmers seeking technical information will text their question to the service. The staff will then search for relevant information from the database and text the answer to the farmer. The service will be conducted in the local languages, so the staff selected to run this service should be familiar with languages spoken by farmers in the different districts of Kenya.

Harvard College Global Hunger Initiative aims to travel to Kenya next summer to start the project. We estimate that identifying the personnel to build and run this service will take about a month. Purchasing the necessary equipment, compiling the database, and setting up the network will require an additional six months. We expect the service to be launched in Kenya by the end of January 2010.

 Rees, D. et al.(2000) Agricultural Knowledge and Information Systems in Kenya - Implications for Technology Dissemination and Development, AgREN Network Paper, 107, 1-20.

3bn people have little access to life-saving or valuable information. Organizations serving these communities do not have simple, cost-effective tools to enable reliable and meaningful dialog to increase their reach while scaling their impact. Cellphone/SMS technology is complex to program, telecom orgs are inflexible/costly and existing SMS tools are difficult to use.

Resdida is developing a simple to use, turnkey platform for organizations (Govt, NGO, corporate, community) to leverage channel-based mobile content distribution, two-way messaging, and project monitoring and evaluation (M&E). The Platform allows for localized content creation and syndication, creation of content "channels", a wide array of distribution options, group profile management, two-way messaging (e.g. surveys automatically populate responses to a reporting module), and public service announcement capabilities. The Platform will be built for M&E by receiving and collating SMS-based field reporting in real-time, allowing for faster org response time.

Content may consist of program updates, emergency info, weather, health, sanitation, crop prices, news, as well as desired info such as entertainment, sports and culture. This approach will allow orgs to reach rural communities directly (and in larger numbers) with information they need and want. A survey module allows collection of feedback, and user data collection provides information on preferences to refine future development.

Resdida has a working prototype, with V1.0 now in development for release in 2009. Resdida will pilot the platform with 1-3 organizations to fully test its capabilities, make changes and prepare for broader rollout. V1.0 will be flexible enough for multiple org types, yet remains simple to use. A channel takes 5 minutes to setup and send to a group of any size via an extremely user-friendly web interface. NO technical knowledge/programmers, negotiations with telcos, purchase of software, servers/maintenance is required.

This project aims to better the health of the people of Africa through integrated management of community health networks to break the cycle of community dependence and empower them to manage their own health needs.

This goes beyond data collection and the introduction of technology into communities without grounding in local processes. Health networks already exist. This project uses mobiles to support existing community structures making them more efficient, ensuring sustainability within an enabling environment with the health system at its heart.

Community organizations are a central node in the community health system. This project will enable the creation of better health networks by recognizing that:

1. Communities have a large amount of health resources available to them

2. Often these resources are inefficient with disjointed information flows and unconscious liaison

3. Community organizations can be a legitimate space to act as a node to map resources, enable information to flow, and act as a central point for referrals

4. Critical in this equation is role of the community care giver, based within organization, who is the point person in delivering care and referring patients.

Using mobile phone technology can help connect different points on the health network together (see figure 1), with the community organization acting as a call centre to link clients with health providers. The role of mobile technology here is to act as a lubricant to network services, linking the client to locally available services, such as, clinics, tradiational medicine, supportive transport providers, legal assistance and to other virtual mobile services.

Better health is enabled because the mobile phone can help to achieve the following results:

• Enable community organisations to facilitate referrals

• Provide answers to frequently asked questions through a query list and call centre

• Enable in-field real time communications

• Refer clients to anonymous call centres

• Real time tracking and management of community health information collated through ongoing interactions

Facilitating the implementation of this project is the African Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF) in South Africa. Operational Research is currently being developed and implemented in South Africa through the existing PEPFAR funded childrens project. Lessons will be taken throughout East and Southern Africa through AMREF’s other country offices to break the cycle of learnt helplessness.

About my project  

More than 70% of the population in many developing is illiterate and cannot read and write and they just use the basic functions of mobile terminal which became very popular these recent years.  Only voice messaging system using local content (language) can be widely adopted and easily used. 

Expected impact

Increase permament  access to agricultural information independently from geographycal location and time.  Farmers will have update to date information for selling or buying even literate or not.

Who

Farmers, peasants, traders, mobile operators

What

Effective usage of mobile phone to improve accessibility to agricultural information in order to strenghen local business (rural people and women).

When

As soon as possible

Where

National , regional or global

Why

 Reduce the gap of mobile efficient usage between literate and illiterate people : close the mobile efficient usage divide.

Title:  Training  Course in Agriculture for Higher Yield and SustainabilityPlace:            Demizaine, HaitiOrganizing Institution: Project 2000 InternationalParticipants: 2000 Farmers in DemizaineDuration: OngoingObjectives:

Project 2000 International seeks to establish an alternative agricultural system in Haiti emphasizing comprehensive technical training in combination with the acquisition of modern farming tools and equipment. This proposed marriage of enhanced training and equipment is expected to equip farmers currently employing primitive methods and working non-productive land with the tools and knowledge necessary to increase productivity and employ sustainable cultivation techniques. It is vital that these farmers learn best practice farming methods being utilized in industrialized countries. If ineffectual farming practices in Haiti's countryside are not replaced with modern, sustainable techniques, problems of hunger and reliance on others for basic sustenance will persist and possibly worsen.

Background:

A pilot farm has been established in Demizène, the fourth communal section of Miragoâne in the department of Nippes where training and planting has already been launched. The aim of the proposed project is to expand the training to include 2000 farmers beyond the initial pilot project participants to the general population of farmers in the area. When the pilot is scaled up the program is expected to have approximately 2000 direct participants with even wider spillover benefits as knowledge is diffused to family members and associates.

Main Elements of the Training:

The pilot farm program has already planted a variety of seedlings including lima beans, corn, bananas, watermelon, peppers, and green beans. Training has included an array of planting techniques ranging from poly to monoculture, to demonstrate first hand to the "student farmers" which is the more productive technique practice after the crops have been harvested. Tomato seedlings have also been planted for training and experimentation purposes and a dual tomato project is in process with the ultimate goal of creating a processing company able to produce tomato paste.

Every incoming administration receives hundreds of "white papers' advocating policies and priorities for every aspect of the Executive Branch. Development assistance is no exception.  We propose to promote transparency by aggregating all available recommendations relevant to USAID in a single website. 

 In addition to the public service of aggregation, we propose to democratize the process of making recommendations through user comments and voting, very similar to the way Netsquared manages its competitions. The benefits of using social networking tools in discussions about foreign assistance priorities, in addition to transparency, are greater opportunities for outreach and a wider net for innovation.While USAID can't be bound to the outcomes of the process, it would be an innovation in public outreach that would open up input from a far wider range that is heard at its ACVFA (Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid - essentially an echo-chamber for the development assistance establishment).  In addition, public engagement may produce new ideas.  Finally, the opportunity for public education about development assistance will emerge through discussions among development professionals and private citizens on what does and doesn't work in development assistance and why.

The expected inpact is greater public support for foreign assistance and USAID, with the possibiity of improvements in development delivery through innovations proposed in the discussions.

Radio is a powerful medium for many reasons - it is handy, portable and inexpensive. It reaches even the remote locations in India and allows for regional language editions. The Community Radio (CR) policy of November 2006 allows Indian organizations to set up CR broadcasting stations catering specifically to local populations. Since the local community constitutes the target audience in these stations, understanding and engaging the listener community becomes an important aspect of their competitive strategy.

The proposed project LISTAENR seeks to tap the potential of an integrated web and mobile-based application to enable two-way communication between any CR station and its audience.

CR stations can subscribe to the LISTAENR service through a user-friendly web interface. They can use this interface to enter audience details, message details and manage user response logs. When a station wishes to announce a new program, award, competition, service, scheme, opportunity or reminder, requisite information is fed into the system. The message is then broadcasted via integrated SMS to the target audience.

Conversely, listeners can respond to a radio program, ask a query or place a request through a mobile SMS, with appropriate tagging. These messages are automatically integrated into the system, and a short summary with response analytics is sent to the CR station. If required, CR stations can access the raw data online for further understanding of user responses.

The project will use a basic, cost-effective and scalable mobile-server connection (independent of SMS providers) for sending the messages.

LISTAENR can help address important questions of promotion and outreach, revenue generation and sustainability, and participatory radio content production. It can supplement and enhance instruments like telephones, letters, or phone-in facilities to sustain close linkages with the local people and their issues of concern.

The Eastern Corridor Agricultural Marketing Information Center (ECAMIC) project is embedded in the broader Eastern Corridor programmed of SEND Ghana. The project uses both low, and relatively high-tech approaches to disseminate of market information to cooperatives of farmers in Salaga, Chamba and Kpandai, along the northeast farming belt in Ghana. Prior to connecting farmers to TradeNet, ECAMIC collates market and other farming information by email at its main offices, which is then disseminated to farmers by SEND’s field officers on motorbikes. But this is a slow process. Even if they had the fastest of motorbikes traveling on the best of roads, it will take several days for ECAMIC to reach majority the farmers in the 48 communities. To supplement this, the project experimented with a clever idea of notice boards in farming communities, so that farmers who may not be reached by field agents, will get the price information when posted on the notice boards. However, access to market information improved significantly when SEND facilitated the acquisition of 200 mobile phones for farmers at 60% of the market price. Next, SEND’s ECAMIC project signed on as a customer of TradeNet, an agricultural market software developed by a company called BusyLab (www.busylab.com, to provide farmers with accurate and up-to-date crop market information via SMS. ECAMIC then registered the farmers on the TradeNet website (www.tradenet.biz), and set them up for automatic SMS alerts on prices for relevant crops in markets across Ghana. Furthermore, any farmer with access to the latest market information can make it available for everyone in the co-operative through the notice boards. With the capacity building training, farmers are also able to use a set of codes to compose text messages requesting price information, send it to TradeNet, and receive a response in the form of a text message. In other words, access to timely market information is, for the first time, at their fingertips.