Designing and Implementing Sustainable ICT ProjectsUSAID Regional ICT Innovations Workshop; June 6, 2012Lisa Kienzle

Grameen Phone

Google SMS CKW AppLab

Money

Grameen Foundation AppLab has a history of scaling sustainable ICT solutions in East Africa

Village Phone

AppLab’s approach to developing innovative social enterprises involves designing for

sustainability – in both the programs and also the products we develop

CKWs(Community Knowledge Workers)

Sustainable ICT PROGRAMS

Publ

ic &

Priv

ate

Dev

elop

men

t St

akeh

olde

rs

The model: information delivery to rural farmers

Partners CKWs Farmers

CKWs use mobile phones to share information with smallholders, and

collect information via mobile surveys

Better serve our partners needs

Cross-subsidization from data collection allows farmer info services to be free

The program was designed for sustainability form day 1

• Monthly mobile money payment for outbound info and inbound surveys

• Mobile phone charging unit• Marketing collateral

• Information dissemination to rural populations

• Data collection via mobile surveys• Field force management & training• Custom application development

CKW Value Proposition: ‘Business in a Box’

Partner value proposition: B2B Services

After two years, we’ve achieved fast growth and achieved partial sustainability

Farmers Registered67,90067,900

Total Interactions

898,000898,000

Repeat Usage

40%40%

Districts1919

CKWs799799

Crops & Animals

38+738+7

Villages Reached

9,0009,000Female30%30%

Sustainability50%50%

An IFPRI study showed major strides for farmers who used CKWs versus those who did not

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

2009/10 2011/12

95%

58%

Results in Kapchorwa show a 37-percentage point difference in maize price increases received

vs. non-CKW-served farmers

37% difference

Price Received for Maize

Parish with CKW

Parish without

CKW

Propensity score matching shows that, as measured by 6 given questions, CKWs increase

farmers’ knowledge by ~17%

Farmer Knowledge

17% difference

AppLab Money Incubator(mobile money product innovation)

Sustainable ICT PRODUCTS

Source: GSMA deployment tracker, November 2011.

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Traditional Payments

(Transfer, Bill Pay, Airtime)

Other Payment

s(G2P,

salary)

Bank Linkag

e

Credit Insurance

4%offer

insurance

10%facilitate

loans

29%enable interaction

with financialinstitutions

~100%offer standard

payments

38%provide other payment types

# p

rovid

ers

off

eri

ng

the p

rod

uct

type

Payments Beyond Payments

The problem: significant MM deployment growth, but few have offered more than payments

So why aren’t we seeing more innovation?

Time

Risk

Resources

R&D Processes

MNO Partner

Not a sudden “stroke of genius” – but the result of significant time and effort

Must be prepared to celebrate failure

Requires an institutional investment – both financial and human capital

Must have capacity for R&D that involves a deep engagement with the

consumer

Need access to MNO to bring product to market

Concerns

Our solution addresses the challenges we see in driving sustainable MM product innovation

Time

Risk

Resources

R&D Processes

MNO Partner

Not a sudden “stroke of genius” – but the result of significant time and effort

Must be prepared to celebrate failure

Requires an institutional investment – both financial and human capital

Must have capacity for R&D that involves a deep engagement with the

consumer

Need access to MNO to bring product to market

18 month time horizon

Fail early, often

~$1M funding and diverse team

Focused on the innovation process

Strong partner

Concerns Our Answer

Product(1)

Prototype

(2-4)

• Early version of product developed and tested with customers

• Business models tested

Concept

(8)

• Ideas refined into concepts and filtered (scale and impact)

• Business models identified

Idea (50+

ideas)

• Intense consumer research to identify user pain points

• Development of long-list of ideas

• Top prototypes refined

• Business models finalized

1 2 3 4

We focused on designing an innovation process that would produce sustainable products

Product Development Process

A considerable part of product innovation is business model innovation

Example Product: Developing a savings

product that encourages many small

deposits

Challenge:

•Deposits cost for the MNO, not customer

•No transaction revenue as funds not

moving

• What if customers paid a fixed fee to use the service?

• What if a % of airtime was deducted every time it was

purchased, and that covered the product costs?

• What if agents were not compensated by deposits?

Potential Business Models to Test

Test with: • Customer • MNO • Agents

Partners to Test With

Illustrative Bus Models

Learnings on Program and Product Design and Development

Sustainable ICT Projects

What it all means: Learnings from our work in sustainable ICT

• Think about sustainability from Day 1 – incorporate it in the mindset from the start

• Solve the right problem

• Think about the value proposition to all partners

• Find the right partners

• Monitor and evaluate performance, don’t be afraid to change approaches, or to fail