Connect Africa forges ahead into 2012!

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Another year down, and as we hurtle into 2012, it’s great to see 2011 end with the fruition of the CHAMP Chaisa Community Centre. As partners with CHAMP in ICT provision, we facilitated the supply and installation of an Intel eLearning Solution with the generous support of Classmate Manufacturers JP sa Couto in Portugal and iSchools in Zambia.
Through these kinds of partnerships we are ever strengthening and expanding our interaction to extend better services for rural communities and vulnerable communities within Lusaka.The launch of CHAMP’s Chaisa Community Centre is a perfect example of how thebenefits of internet connectivity and ICT services can cut across all sectors to bring new opportunities in health provision, education and empowerment. At Connect Africa, we aim to provide this missing ICT link to every community. Here is a brief overview of our activities this year.
Ever keen to stay ahead of the game, we’re also exploring alternative energy sources to speed up and ensure rapid deployment of our ICT solutions. We’re working with the Alternative Energy Development Corporation, AEDC, which has developed a reliable, low cost zinc air fuel cell to meet energy challenges in rural areas. The cells have no carbon footprint, provide low cost light and energy, and are easily portable - ideal for our expansion model.

In other news, we are working closely in partnership with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD, through their Africa owned and led initiative, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, CAADP, aimed at boosting agricultural productivity. Join us as we follow the story of hundreds of Malawian farmers trying out the first of a series of receipt-certified warehouses later to be rolled out as part of a region-wide initiative.

Connect Africa is working with the Lilongwe-based Agricultural Commodity Exchange for Africa (ACE) to ensure that these farmers have instant access to commodity market information, to sell their produce in a transparent manner and have access to a demand driven commercial market.

So, 2012 promises to be a busy year! As always we welcome input and interaction with a wide range of organizations. Please do get in touch or check out our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for updates.

Bottom-up conservation: CA in Namibia

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According to NACSO, the majority of Namibians depend directly on natural resources for their day to day needs.       © David Sandison, NACSO

How can local communities best protect and manage their own natural resources? That was the topic of conversation presented at a networking session organised by NACSO, the Namibia Association for Community based natural resources management Support Organization, which Connect Africa recently attended in Namibia.

The three-day meeting explored new solutions to address the failures of top-down approaches to conservation. It is part of the wider Community based natural resources management (CBNRM) support programme which investigates options for empowering local communities.

A team from Zambia included the Zambian Wildlife Authority, the Conservation Farming Unit and Connect Africa, which specifically emphasised the need to include information and communication technologies (ICTs) in any approach to empower the community with local management information.

Lloyd Kabulwebulwe, Connect Africa’s country coordinator, said:  “It’s a matter of integrating ICT use into natural resource management. Most communities in the rural areas we are talking about are cut off, with no access to electricity or mobile phones and information. Such facilities can improve the effectiveness of natural resource management in general,” he said.

He added that local communities must have direct control over use and benefits accrued from natural resources – wildlife and habitat – to value them and therefore better protect them in a sustainable manner.

“We can share our experiences in the field to bridge the digital divide, which can be adapted to improve communication in natural resource management,” said Kabulwebulwe. “This is a platform through which to link education, game management and agriculture, key areas in conservation,” he concluded.

NACSO was started in 1996, with a philosophy to harness the wide range of skills available in government and to share experiences with the non-governmental and other sectors. Objectives include advancing rural development and empowering communities through capacity building and good governance to help them determine their own destiny.

The meeting included field trips to conservation areas, where local institutions have been set up to manage resources by the government of Namibia. These provide a platform for experience-sharing among stakeholders with a special interest in improving the livelihood of rural communities. Issues discussed by the groups include improving rural democracy by creating locally managed areas with clear boundaries.

Sustainability strategies and extension approaches

Outcomes of the meeting included exploring the establishment of a permanent CBNRM approach which:

  • Includes government, NGOs and the private sector.
  • Recognises the role of integrated resources management.
  • Harmonises inter- ministerial policies, legislation and approaches to empowering communities to manage their natural resources.
  • Improves efficiency and cost – effectiveness of CBNRM training effort and recognises that local areas have different needs at different stages of development: emerging, developing and established.
  • Maintains training databases and development of annual training plans.

For more information visit the NACSO website here.

Grassroot success at one of Connect Africa’s primary partners in Malawi

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Andrew Kachete, a small trader, believes that the online auction at the Lilongwe’s Agricultural Commodity Exchange (ACE) has opened up markets for his produce.

Connect Africa is working with the Agricultural Commodity Exchange (ACE) in Malawi to link smallholder farmers with big traders and buyers.

As part of a wider project to improve storage facilities in rural areas, CA’s role is to ensure internet connectivity and up to date information at strategically placed warehouse facilties.Here’s an update from ACE in Malawi!

There is a flurry of activity in Lilongwe’s Agricultural Commodity Exchange, as numbers flicker on a large screen projected onto the wall of the on-line auction room. Everyone watches as the prices of maize fluctuate with sellers gearing up to land a deal in the last seconds of the auction.

This online auction is one of many services offered at ACE to link smallholder sellers and traders with big buyers. By becoming an ACE registered trader, anyone can buy and sell their commodity in a transparent environment.

What’s more, smallholders can get market information and notification of auctions via SMS through ESOKO, a mobile phone-based system to connect smallholders with national and regional market opportunities.

Andrew Kachete – a small trader who used an online ACE trading platform to sell his maize to one of the country’s major grain buyers, Senwes Malawi – said it will not be the last time he uses the system.“It’s exciting. It’s a real eye opener to compete with big sellers for buyers like the World Food Programme. We thought the market was exclusive to bigger players,” he said.

Too often, small holders are unaware of current market prices for their commodities and end up selling off large volumes for little profit when prices are low, which they usually are when markets are flooded after the harvest season. when prices are low, which they usually are when markets are flooded after the harvest season.

In 2010, ACE traded 20,000 metric tonnes of farm commodities valued at US$ 7 million, earning smallholders a premium.But Kachete is part of a much bigger project gathering steam in the central region of the country.Known as the warehouse receipt system, it could change the way small scale farmers and traders do business forever.

It allows deposited grain to be stored in professionally operated warehouses, where it will be cleaned, graded and protected against pests. Aida Malamulo struggles to buy enough pesticide to protect her produce.

Kristian Schach Moller, principle advisor at ACE, explained: “The receipts increase profits and liquidity in the market and maize is a deficit crop in this region so there will always be a time when the price will go up. There is no doubt about that,” he said.

A depositor can keep ownership of the grain and reclaim it at any time by showing the warehouse receipt.In addition, the receipts act as an asset guarantee against which the depositor can get a bank loan to the value of 60 per cent of the commodity – currently only maize.

So immediately after the harvest season when there is little money left to reinvest in the next harvest – especially if all the produce is in a warehouse for safekeeping until prices go up – depositors can get money in their pockets.

According to Eran Wilson, managing director of Senwes Malawi, the system has benefits for buyers too.“The biggest issue in Malawi is that about 90 per cent of those who enter a contract will default.

People will sign a contract without having the quantity of grain with them,” he said.Alikipo Ndata shows pest infestated maize at a warehouse set to be renovated as part of the project.

And, as the harvest season moves on the quality of grain deteriorates in traditional store houses, with moisture and pest infestation. A warehouse receipt will guarantee the quality and quantity of maize.

“The best thing about this system is this peace of mind and it’s absolutely fantastic that the small scale farmer is also empowered,” he added. “For the first time we are bringing the market to the grass-root level and that’s ensuring sustainability for us as well.”

Johannes Tobias Flämig, country coordinator at the WFP in Malawi, agrees that the warehouse receipt system offers huge potential for smallholders to trade on a larger market platform, allowing them to bulk produce.

“Our prime mandate is to feed vulnerable poor,” he said. “If we have an emergency and it takes too long for smallholders to supply produce then we have a problem. One of the biggest advantages of the warehouse system would be to have the volumes already there,” he said.

“It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation,” he noted. “On the one hand you would like to be open to markets and encourage wider participation that might also include small scale farmers. On the other hand, we have to get guaranteed performance.”

If smallholders can compete on price and volume against larger suppliers then they will be supported by buyers, especially using the receipts where the storage provider – in this case the well reputed Farmers World – also guarantees quality, he said.

The warehouse receipt system is already up and running in Lilongwe, with four rural warehouse facilities either under construction or
being renovated to include 500 metric tonnes of storage each, funded by the Common Fund for Commodities.

There is no doubt that demand for better storage facilities among communities is there. The Kafulu Farmers’ Association of 1400 smallholder farmers lost about 60 tonnes of maize during the last harvest. Chairman of the group, Alikipo Ndata, explained:

“We have traditional storage facilities but there is little knowledge in the community about how to treat maize and protect against grain borers. Also, money for pesticides is not there,” he said.

The group expressed excitement about the warehouse receipt system – particularly because deposits are insured against damage or theft – sometimes a problem when it’s kept in the house.

There are of course challenges ahead. Although it is expected there will be high demand once communities are convinced there is a profit to be made, widespread sensitization of the new scheme remains to be done.

And, depositors should expect to keep their produce in a warehouse for four to six months to earn maximum profits.

Back at the ACE auction room, Lawrence Chikhasu is the first smallholder entrepreneur to buy a warehouse receipt. Although he didn’t win this time, he’s not going to let that stop him.

“As we are part of ACE we are trusted and bigger business is placed within our reach,” he said. “With this system I can grow my business and wait for a better market. I’m the one who started it and I’ll be here a lifetime.”

Time to get connected

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Africa needs to move fast. That’s the message which resounded at this year’s Global Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi. Now is the time for Africa to tap into the internet’s potential as a driver for economic growth.

Connect Africa’s director Dion Jerling, who took part in discussions at the forum in Nairobi on the 27-30th September, said further to this, access and affordability to internet connectivity in rural areas is vital – something which Connect Africa is addressing directly with their rural connectivity projects.

The forum attracted a broad base of internet-savvy thinkers from across the World gathered to voice their opinions around the theme ‘internet as a catalyst for change: access, development, freedoms and innovation.’

“It’s rewarding to know that Connect Africa is perfectly positioned to address these issues of universal access and affordability to the internet. Our two key projects, a SuperPico network trial in Central Zambia and the Integrated Food Management System project in Malawi, are on track to deliver rural solutions to these challenges,” he said.

Connect Africa’s pioneering project to install a 4KM wide SuperPico network over Chunga Camp in the Kafue National Park will highlight some of the recent advances made in affordable communications technology solutions for underserved areas around the world. (More on this soon).

Jerling said he was pleased to note at the Forum that affordable and universal access remains a priority, and that the results of the Kafue NP trial should make for some very interesting data to drive further infrastructure developments in rural areas.

Delegates at the forum urged African countries to get connected now to prevent missing out on current information networks and the economic benefits driven through the internet. In this respect infrastructure installation is a priority – service providers will simply bypass countries which don’t have the proper infrastructure, it was noted.

Focusing on Africa’s infrastructure is vital to allow the continent’s people freedom of access to the information network. But also, it would provide the missing link to un-tap the billions of dollars that can be made through e-commerce every year – revenue which Africa is not capitalizing on, research shows.

“Online activities are driving offline activities,” Joe Mucheru, head of Google in sub-Saharan Africa told Reuters. Africa must move fast to ensure that its people are not left behind by lack of access to the information network – and the economic benefits that are increasingly being delivered through it.

The forum certainly fulfilled its objective of stimulating dialogue and creating an awareness of the myriad of issues that must be considered by all stakeholders in the fastest growing socio-economic sector on Earth.

Connect Africa joins major SA forum to debate internet governance

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SAIGF, 1-3 September 2011 in Sandton, Johannesburg

This week Connect Africa attends a major internet forum to discuss how the internet should be governed across Southern Africa.

The  Southern African Internet Governance Forum (SAIGF), held from 1-3 September 2011 in Sandton, Johannesburg, will discuss internet governance and development in Southern Africa ahead of the global 2011 Internet Government Forum, due to be held in Kenya at the end of September.

Connect Africa Director, Dion Jerling, said “It’s great to contribute to this event and balance the multitude of issues surrounding the rapid evolution of the internet in Southern Africa. I look forward to highlighting some of the real issues facing sustainable rural connectivity.”

Connect Africa’s  mission is to harness Africa’s entrepreneurial spirit combined with innovations in technology, enabling rural communities to improve their quality of life and economic wellbeing. The organisation was invited to attend the Forum to highlight connectivity issues in rural areas and mobile coverage.

Such challenges include ensuring the provision of a sustainable ICT infrastructure, internet access and renewable energy supplies to rural communities. Connect Africa is working together with local ICT entrepreneurs to overcome these issues and ensure the delivery of valuable services in rural communities.

Outcomes from the SAIGF will contribute to a coherent framework for dealing with internet governance issues in the region, to be further discussed at the IGF – a global forum to discuss harnessing the powers of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for socio-economic development at all levels – global, regional, national and local.

For more information and live updates from the SAIGF visit: http://www.ngopulse.org/saigf