All posts by mmd4d

Dr Mira Slavova is interested in the use of mobile and electronic information systems within the context of routine productive activities, and particularly in the design of information services contributing to the alleviation of poverty in developing countries. Currently her efforts are focused on the design of mobile markets. Mira holds a PhD in Management Studies from the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge where she worked on Internet auction design and bidding behaviour. She has spent terms as a visiting student and researcher at the universities of Oxford and Stanford, US.
Education, Service Innovation

US schools seek refund over $1.3bn iPad project – BBC News

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The US is running a nationwide initiative to improve computers and communications in schools

The US is running a nationwide initiative to improve computers and communications in schools

Schools in Los Angeles are seeking compensation from Apple over a $1.3bn (£870m) iPad-based education project that has gone awry.

They have sent letters to Apple and its project partners seeking refunds.

The project began in 2013 and aimed to give iPads and other computers to about 650,000 students.

It hit problems when students were able to bypass security systems on the tablets and because the computer-based curriculum was incomplete.

Cutting ties

In the letters, the LA Unified School District (LAUSD) said it was “extremely dissatisfied” with the way the project has been handled, according to a report in the LA Times.

The scheme was intended to be a way for poorer pupils to keep up with wealthier peers who already enjoyed access to tablets and other computer-based study aids.

The LA school district initially bought 43,261 iPads loaded with a maths and English curriculum designed by educational and training firm Pearson. A further 77,000 iPads were bought to be used in standardised tests.

Teachers, school heads and administrators were also expected to use the gadgets to improve lessons and the way schools were run.

“While Apple and Pearson promised a state-of-the-art technological solution they have yet to deliver it,” said the letters sent to the two firms this week.

Lawyers acting for the school district are also believed to be considering legal action against the two main suppliers. In addition, the schools have cut ties with the firms and do not want them to be involved in any future development.

The letters come after repeated demands from the LA school district that Apple and Pearson improve the way the scheme was being run. In its complaints, the district said only two schools were regular users of the iPad-based curriculum and those that used it intermittently reported frequent problems.

Apple has not responded to requests for comment about the complaints.

In a statement, Pearson said it was “proud of our long history working with LAUSD and our significant investment in this groundbreaking initiative to transform instructional practices and raise expectations for all students”.

The statement acknowledged the “challenges” there had been in implementing the project but said it stood by the “quality of our performance”.

The Pearson/Apple deal was one part of a $1.3bn programme that included spending $700m on improving internet access at schools.

The superintendent in charge of the LA school district who drew up and oversaw the costly programme resigned after the problems with the scheme came to light.

via US schools seek refund over $1.3bn iPad project – BBC News.

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SAP Africa Innovation Prize 2014: Design for Mobile Empowerment

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I have great news update! Earlier this week, I was awarded the SAP Africa Innovation Prize 2014 for my submission regarding the capability-sensitive design of a system for monitoring use of tablet devices in South African classrooms. I had the opportunity to present the submission at a workshop at the 13th Participatory Design Conference  in Windhoek, earlier this month.

I the short positioning paper submitted to the conference I present the empowerment problem and argue that it is a ‘wicked problem’ for which participatory design approaches are particularly suited. Within the resource-constrained environment of South African public education, I offer capability-sensitive design as a grounded theory-led method for the development of conceptual designs empowering teachers and school managers. The participatory elements of the method are constrained within the data gathering phase, the pluralistic analysis inscribed within the capability approach, and the empathy stage of design thinking. The method is illustrated via the ‘Class Journal’ concept, developed within an engagement towards the ICT4RED project in Eastern Cape between CSIR and SAP Innovation Center- Pretoria.

Observations

Information Ecology of Akua Community in Northern Region, Rural Ghana

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Discussion participants

Akua (anonymized) is a community situated about 18km from the district capital. The community has a population of about 1400 people. The majority of residents are Muslem, making up for about 88% of the entire population; about 11% are Christian and the rest practice traditional religions. The ethnicity is predominantly Dagomba. They make up about 95% of the community. Other tribes are the Mossi and the Fulani who constitute about 5% of the population. Festivals celebrated in Akua include the Eid-Ul Adha, Eid-ul Fitr, the Yam festival, the Fire festival, the Damba festival and the Guinea fowl festival.

Dagbani is the main language spoken and it was the language of our improvised discussion. Unlike, the rest of the focus group fieldwork, the discussion in Akua was improvised; rather than organized in advance with the help of outreach staff from locally active agriculture service providers. Farming is the major source of income in the area, with few people engaging in petty trading. Due to the presence of a local irrigation scheme, rice is the most significant crop, constituting about 50% of the crops grown.

The setting of the discussion was improvised. A local outreach worker joined me and we recruited participants as we walked down the main street of Akua. The meeting started with barely ten people but due to the open boundary of the discussion, the participants increased to well over thirty by the time we finished. In giving a brief history of the community, the farmers said that the community was connected to the national grid in 1995-1996.

In casting their eyes back, farmers acknowledged that agronomic innovations were introduced by a very good and helpful extension officer. Unfortunately, he had to depart and left a big vacuum. Farming activities in 2009 went well because the rain was reliable but this was not the case on 2010. The community had problems with flooding every year during the rainy season. Farmers near a local irrigation facility  were able to farm all year round, at a fee of Ghc12 per acre. Marketing was also recognized as a problem. Farmers saw agriculture intensification through tractors and combine harvesters as a way forward for thier rice cultivation. They considered shea butter and tomato processing as promising endeavors in the area. This is how the group expressed their hope for change:

“[…] We are liaising on people like you to come and then hear our grief and then send it to appropriate quarters for redress. […] Considering 20 years ago we were almost in total darkness. But now we are in some kind of innovations. Not yet, but since people like you have started coming here, we hope and pray that everything will change at the shortest possible time.”

Information resources in Akua
Information resources in Akua

People in Akua were fortunate to have benefited from foreign donors who set up and maintained a community radio station. One of the effects of the proximity of the radio transmitter was that the signals in the area of all other radio stations were very weak. As a result, the community radio station had a very strong local presence. Most of their programs were in the local language, making it evry easy to understand. Additionally, foreign donors funded the building of a Youth Center, with photocopying, computing, Internet and sports facilities.  Apart from sport events, few adults visited the Youth Center. People recognized the business relevance of photocopying, while the relevance of the Internet remained in the “this and that” area of education and youth development.

 

Observations

Information Ecology of Kwaku Community in Northern Region, Rural Ghana

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Our discussion at the Kwaku (anonymized) community was facilitated by local representatives of an NGO, working towards food security improvements in the Northern Region, through the introduction of soya crops. Farming is the main economic activity in Kwaku. Situated on alluvial soils, the community faces rainy (18-20oC) and the dry (39-40oC) seasons. Vegetation is mostly savannah woodland, with cash crop trees being dawa-dawa, sheanut and mango; and cultivation crops being yam, groundnut, rice.

Infrastructure at Kwaku

Records for Kwaku show population of about 3 264 residents, with 48% male and 52% female. The community is characterized by strong traditional governance structures, including the roles of chief warrior, women’s leader, mouthpiece of the chief, chief-in-waiting and youth organizer. Besides chieftancy and the district assembly, formal structures in the community include parent teacher association, traditional birth attendants, youth committee, guinea worm eradication committee, food management committee and women’s groups.

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Discussion at Kwaku

Farmers began the meeting by commenting on new crop varieties and on recent infrastructure developments. The maize variety that was used previously took about 4 to 5 months to mature, but the improved variety which is currently used takes 2 to 3 months to reach maturity. Even though population has been increasing, there is still enough land for farming. In terms of infrastructure, there is no electricity supply but the road to the community was expanded from a narrow foot path to a motorable road in order to aid the transportation of foodstuffs out of the community.

KalandeMobile phones are recent in the community with Vodafone, MTN and Tigo being the available networks in the area. As objects, mobile phones are carriers of identity and inscribed with value. Out of 16 participants in the discussion, 3 used their phones for text messaging and 5 subscribed to the ‘calling tunes’ value added service. The latter are services which allow subscribers to manage callers’ perceptions by presenting to them selected answer tones. The significance of mobile phones as status symbols and the significance of musical entertainment in the rural context, are demonstrated by the following quote:

“Some of [us], [we] call it ‘a bar of soap’ because they are big. Those ones, they don’t have camera and they don’t have music player. That’s what we call a ‘bar of soap’. Those ones, [we] don’t like them. […] This one has a torch light on it. A basic one [is] without a torch light. If any of [us] had one with a music payer, and a camera, and those things, you will see which one because [people] will be following him because of the music. […] “

Most people of Kwaku community charge their phone batteries in the nearby district center at a fee of GhC 0.50. The community was once given a solar charger, which ended up bringing a lot of confusion because there were arguments as to who should charge his or her phone first. Consequently, the solar charger was worn out and it is hardly used. Discussing the amounts they spend on call credit per week, 4 people said they spend up to GhC 2 per week. Two people used an average of GhC 3 a week, whereas another 2 used GhC 4-5 a week. One person was spending average of GhC 6-10 per week. Mobile phones are used mostly to complement other information channels, such as social networks. People phone to reach relatives, to access centralized market information services, and to verify the market prices received through such services with their personal contacts. They confirmed that the market information they received was reliable most of the time, and informed their decisions where to sell their produce. On a few occasions, prices were slightly higher or lower than was anticipated through the price information received.
Eight people in the focus group said they have radio sets. They mentioned Radio Savannah, North Star Radio, Radio Justice, Radio Volta and Radio B.A.R as the ones that are transmitted in the area. Radio, they said is mostly listened individually and not in a group; and it is the preferred source of national and international news.Surprisingly, even though people in the Kwaku had no electricity supplu, 3 of the group participants owned TV sets. They bought the television sets when the electric poles were being erected, and they expected that electricity supply will reach them shortly. In terms of legacy technologies, the community has a gong-gong beater who announces meetings. Occasionally, people call each-other on their cell phones to remind of up-coming meetings. Nonetheless, it is considered profligate.

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Acumen Announce a New Investment in Esoko Networks

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May 12, 2014 by Acumen in Acumen Blog, Press Releases

Acumen and the Lundin Foundation today announced a $1.5 million aggregate equity and debt investment in Esoko Networks Limited (“Esoko”), a Ghanaian-built technology platform that connects African farmers to markets via mobile phones.

The platform allows various stakeholders, from agri-business, NGOs, development finance institutions, governments and mobile network operators to profile and provide specific content as well as survey farmers to better understand their needs. The product enables farmers to receive market prices, offers, climate adaptation advice and agronomic tips that are expected to lead to improvements in yield and increased incomes. It enables businesses to profile farmers, track field activities and transactions, and market their products and services.

“Promoting commercial linkages and introducing market transparency will transform African agriculture” says Mark Davies, CEO of Esoko, “We’re at the forefront of using technology to facilitate this great transformation in human wealth and productivity.”

This investment is intended to support the company’s expansion into East Africa as well as software and services development.

Godfrey Mwindaare, West Africa Director at Acumen, adds, “There are a tremendous amount of resources already focused on small-holder farmers. We see in Esoko the potential to empower and transform the lives of rural farmers by providing one point of access to critical information and services, thereby closing the information asymmetry gap between commercial, well-endowed farmers and the rural, one-acre farmer.”

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Anna Samaké, Portfolio Manager for West and Central Africa for the Lundin Foundation, commented, “One of the Lundin Foundation’s primary objectives in West Africa is to build and support the agri-business sector with an ecosystem of services that will allow sustainable and profitable SMEs to emerge and grow. Many of those services will be available through the Esoko platform.”

“We are thrilled and honored to partner with Acumen and the Lundin Foundation to bring our mobile platform to organizations and farmers across Africa,” said Davies.

Acumen has invested over $24 million in agricultural enterprises and has a deep knowledge of small-holder farmers’ needs and behaviors. Acumen has invested nearly $8 million across West Africa since 2011, focusing on a wide range of sustainable, scalable businesses that use market-based approaches to deliver products and services to millions of rural and urban poor. Acumen’s investments in the region include businesses providing agri-services and market access for small-holder rice farmers, anti-drug counterfeiting, and mobile banking.

via Announcing a New Investment: Esoko | Acumen – Mozilla Firefox.

 

Commercial Projects, Current Issues, Development Projects

Mobile Agricultural Information Services in Mali by Sènèkèla

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An exciting new development is the launch on 1 April in Bamako, Mali of Sènèkèla – a market price and agricultural information mobile service provided by IICD and Orange Mali, with the support of mFarmer (GSMA). The solution comprises an SMS/USSD information service and a call centre, serviced by specialised agricultural experts. My research in Ghana, suggests that West African farmers are reachable more readily via communication modalities, such as voice, which are congruent to their rural oral traditions. Therefore, I expect that complementing the SMS/USSD channels with a call center will raise the usability and attractiveness of Sènèkèla for rural stakeholders. Additionally, access to trained service operators is likely to increase farmers’ levels of trust in the information provided to them via SMS/USSD.

Sènèkèla

The service was developed through a complex partnership between technology providers (Orange Labs, Orange-Mali, GSMA), development partners (IICD, RONGEAD) and agricultural content providers such as the Malian Institute of Rural Economy (IER). Content quality is a shared concern with IICD taking responsibility for market price data collection; with RONGEAD providing market analyses and tips; and with IER ensuring the quality of the agricultural content delivered via the call centre. During the pilot phase the service was limited to he regions of Sikasso and covered only a few crops. With the recent launch, the partnership is entering a commercial phase with increased coverage and an increased range of agriculture information services.

The service relies on the combined SMS/ USSD and a call centre channels, using an operational model familiar to me from the of Esoko in Ghana. The 24-hour service provides market price information from different markets in the regions of Sikasso and Koulikoro; and information on crops such as corn, shea butter, onion, cashew, shea nuts, potato, sweet potato, rice and millet. Message services are delivered via a USSD menu on Orange Mali’s mobile network. The call centre staffed by agricultural advisers is reachable by the short number 37333 and the short code #222. The content for the service is generated via wide data collection efforts on food prices; as well as, national and international market trends.

via IICD and Orange Mali Launch Market Price and Agricultural Information Service in Mali

Observations

Information Ecology of Kwadwo Community in Ashanti Region, Rural Ghana

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Similarly to the discussion at the Adwoa (anonymized) community, the discussion at the Kwadwo (anonymized) community was organized with the help of extension officers from the district office. The setting selected for the meeting was a local church, which induced a more formal atmosphere into the interactions.

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Church setting

The discussion started by considering recent developments and participants recounted that they did not have electricity until 2008. Nonetheless, as the community has had a surfaced road, its population increased considerably. Immigration into the community was largely due to surface mining activities which take place in the area. Farmers estimated that more than 30 tro-tros (i.e. public mini-buses) visit the community each day. Despite the high level of traffic, there was no newspaper delivery, nor sales in the area. The most memorable adverse event in recent years was the famine of 1983, when many cocoa farms were burnt as a result of the hot weather and absence of rain. Nonetheless, the farms were re-established after the famine was over. In recent years, improved efforts by the public extension office helped improve farmers’ yields. among the remaining problems was black pod disease which still affected yields and the affordability of  fungicide in order to control the disease.

Drawing participatory map
Participatory map

Out of the 13 farmers at the meeting, 9 had access to radios, and they could list more than 20 radio stations which could be received in the area. Farmers tended to use their radios in order to listen to the news. Five out of 13 people in the focus group said they owned television sets but they also said tv signals are not the best. They had access to 4 TV channels: GTV, Metro TV, TV Africa and TV 3. The community had a school but no library. The community had 1 mosque and “uncountable” number of churches. The locations of 4 churches were marked on the participatory map.

Kwadwo information resources

The loudspeaker in the community was known as an ‘information center’, and it served for making announcements about community labour, farmer meetings, funerals and local other information. The fee for announcements (GhC 1) included the announcement being aired twice. Farmers remarked that loudspeakers were often used by salesmen, traveling by car, in order to promote their merchandise (e.g. medicines). The community had no town crier.

Mobile phones were not too common among the farmers in the meeting and only 4 indicated that they own cell phones; out of them had devices with radio functionality. Those who did not own mobile phones made calls from the shared ‘space-to-space’ facilities. These are fixed mobile phone facilities operated by salesmen of mobile credit vouchers. Their location is marked on the map with an umbrella, as they are also known as “umbrella salesmen”.

 

Observations

Information Ecology of Adwoa Community in Ashanti Region, Rural Ghana

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Our visit to the Adwoa (anonymized) community in the Ashanti region was organized with the facilitation of the local MoFA agricultural extension agents. The AEA organized attendance by farmers and set up the discussion space with plastic chairs available locally.

Group discussion
Group discussion setting

The focus group discussion started with participants introducing themselves and explaining their relationship to the person seated next to them. The explanations provided were in with traditional rural norms and fellow farmers were often recognized as “a brother” or “a sister,” even when there was no blood relation. More qualified descriptions included “father in farming” or “junior brother”.

Farmers considered the living history of their community and noted that the population of the area has increased considerably in recent years. They noted that some years ago they did not know about fertilizer, row planting, pruning and other farm practices  but all these were introduced to them through assistance from development partners such as the public agric extension office. While the community did not even have a school until recently, in 2010 they had a school with a computer lab. Another important technology that farmers noted had been introduced into their daily lives, was the mobile phone. Adverse developments included, water pollution caused by illegal mining activities, floods during the rainy season which often destroyed farms and poor sanitation.

Discussion organizers and some active participants
Discussion organizers and some active participants

Farmers drew a participatory map of the information resources in their community which included not only mobile towers for Zain (later Airtel) and MTN, but also shared spaces such as the Pentecostal church and the primary school, and shared activities. As productive activities in the communities are largely centered around cocoa farming, the spaces related to those activities included a “cocoa shed”, a “warehouse”; and a “weighing station” where farmers who traditionally use volume units (e.g. bags, bowls, etc.) could measure their produce and estimate its trading value. Farmers considered themselves fortunate to be growing because COCOBOD (i.e. the parastatal cocoa purchaser in Ghana) would always be ready to buy their produce at fixed prices, irrespective of how much is grown. As cocoa farmers, they did not experience market gluts; like farmers of other crops. An interesting element of the participatory map is the inclusions of a “bore hole” which can be interpreted not only as shared space, but also as shared activity (fetching water).

Participatory map of information resources
Participatory map of information resources

Even though the community had a loudspeaker and a town crier, they did not choose to include those on their map of information resources. These resources were used for locally relevant announcements such as communal labour days, immunization campaigns, community meetings, as well as security risks and thefts. Even though they had a computer lab, no adults ever used it because it was part of the school.

Radio was farmers’ preferred source of news and weather, and they tried as much as possible not to miss those broadcasts. They considered weather forecasts to be true most of the time, and used them to decide when to apply fertilizer and to perform other farm activities. 17 out of 18 farmers reported having access to a radio, and 10 reported having access to the radio on their mobile phones.

With regards to mobile phones, out of the 18 participants 13 (10 men and 3 women) had access to mobile phones. They tended to be mid-range phones with LCD displays. On average, they reported purchasing GhC 2.5 of phone credit per week. As the Adwoa community had no access to the electricity grid, farmers tended to charge their phones at the base stations of the two mobile companies (Zain and MTN) which were located within their community. Security staff at the facilities could be persuaded to charge phones for the fee of GhC 0.50. Even though they had no electricity, 3 out of 18 farmers owned TV sets indicating the symbolic significance of TV ownership.

Observations

Information Ecologies in Rural Ghana

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In the next few posts, I would like to present some findings on the information ecology of rural Ghana, from fieldwork I conducted back in June- September 2010 as IFPRI research fellow. A total of 7 focus group discussions were carried out, following participatory rural communication appraisal methods (Mefalopulos, P., & Kamlongera, C. 2004). The focus groups lasted approximately 2 hours and were typically held in community locations such as churches, schools or other central areas. The table below describes the sampled (anonymous) sites in terms of complementary infrastructure such as motorable roads and electricity; as well as, the number of male and female participants in each group.

Community Region District centre Surfaced road Electricity
Men Women Total
Adwoa Ashanti 45km No No 12 6 18
Kwadwo Ashanti 16km Yes Yes 12 1 13
Abenaa Eastern 51.3km Yes Yes 7 7 14
Kwabena Northern 22km Yes No 25 0 25
Akua Northern 30km No Yes 10 1 11
Kwaku Northern 38km No No 10 6 16
Yaa Northern 30.3 km No No 10 12 22

The field trip was carried out by myself, my research assistant Marian Asamoa and our driver Alfred. We conducted semi-structured discussions of information channels and farming practices, which allowed us to document an ecology of agricultural information channels. The exercises completed by tge groups involved the ‘human web’ (a method emphasizing relationships within the group and interdependencies within the community), participatory mapping of information resources, and ‘problem tree’ discussion of productivity gaps (a method for revealing perceived problems). The next few posts will include material from those discussions.