Annual Conference of the International Network for Postgraduate Students in the Area of ICT4D, 12-13 September 2011, Lugano

Mobile and web technologies in Africa: An NGOʻs expertise and research on „Silicon Savannah“

Christoph Hess (MA) mail@christophhess.ch @christophhess christoph.m.hess www.slideshare.net/christophhess www.delicious.com/christophhess/ipid2011

Biovision Foundation is a Swiss non-governmental organization with the mission of sustainably improving life for people in Africa while conserving the environment as the basis for all life. It was founded in 1998 by Swiss World Food Prize recipient, Dr. Hans Rudolf Herren, currently President of the Millenium Institute.

Biovisionʻs Farmer Communication Programme (FCP) in Africa pursues a theory of change which postulates that ecologically sustainable solutions are a practical alternative for African farmers to achieve good crop yields without using expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The theory is based on a 4H approach: Animal Health (AH), Environmental Health (EH), Human Health (HH) and Plant Health (PH).

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The Organic Farmer (TOF) is a monthly magazine. Started in 2005, 21ʻ000 copies and 180ʻ000 readers in Kenya.

Mkulima Mbunifu is TOFʻs Swahili version for Tanzania. Started in July 2011 with 5ʻ000 copies.

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John Cheburet produces TOF Radio since 2008. The weekly show on KBC Kiswahili Service has up to 5 million listeners.

Facebook allows real-time inter-action. The fanpage is used by younger farmers and farmersʻ childern. P

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Infonet-Biovision was launched in 2007. 17ʻ000 monthly visitors from 49 African countries. Offline version on CD. P

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Biovisionʻs exten-sion workers are equipped with the OLPC. Used for 3 years and might not be the best option anymore. P

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iTOF and Infor-mation Officers are computer-literate extension workers. 30 people, estab-lished in 2009. Regular trainings.

Ask TOF is an SMS-based Q&A service which the TOF editors provide since 2010. They get around 80 SMS per week. P

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Huawei Ideos runs on Android and costs only 80 USD. We are working on an Android app and developed a beta version so far.

We do Scrum with review cycles because most challenges are related to content and usability, not technology.

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Biovisionʻs expertise with mobile and web technologies

•  Quality standards for the content •  Experiences with different media and devices •  Technology embedded in extension work

Does Africa need trade rather than aid?

Research on „Silicon Savannah“

•  Preconditions: Skills, policies and infrastructure? •  Business Process Outsourcing (BPO): What and how? •  Results: Growth, employment, brain gain?

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Kenyan expertise with mobile tech-nologies (such as M-Pesa) is in line with global pros-pects for internet usage.

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MEDKenya were the winners of Pivot25, a mobile apps developer conference held in June 2011 in Nairobi.

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A good place to study „Silicon Savannah“ is Nairobiʻs iHub which was started by the team behind Ushahidi.

Konza Technology City is a govern-ment project and proposed as a key driver for Kenyaʻs Vision 2030.

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References

Bidwell, Nicola J. (2009): „Anchoring Design in Rural Customs of Doing and Saying“, in: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 5726. 686-699.

Grameen Foundation (2010): Community Knowledge Worker Pilot Report. Online: http://tinyurl.com/42y5qra

Grosskurth, Jasper (2010): Futures of Technology in Africa. Online: http://tinyurl.com/349jo26

Hess, Christoph / Amudavi, David M. (2011): „Challenges and opportunities for Infonet-Biovision on mobile phones“, in: Conference Proceedings of the Workshop on Mobile and Web Technologies in Social and Economic Development, June 4-5 2011, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Online: http://tinyurl.com/3zu2k2x

IAASTD (2009): Agriculture at a Crossroads – International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development. Washington: Island Press.

Julisha – Kenya ICT Board (2011): Market ICT Indicator Survey Launch. Online: http://tinyurl.com/3fltdwq

Talbot, David (2011): „Android Marches on East Africa“, in: MIT Technology Review. Online: http://tinyurl.com/3j5szmc