Areas of Expertise – Page 5

How to get from economic malaise to food security?

Credit: Google

Food security in the Horn of Africa hinges on greater investment in ICT infrastructure and capacity building. In large part, this will depend on the transfer of technology. But experts note that even a modest increase in technology transfer and information, through the agriculture value chain, could improve yields, distribution and ultimately strengthen food security.

The World Food Program (WFP) backed an initiative in March this year that is a step in the right direction. WFP provided US$45, 000 worth of ICTs for a Food Security Graduate Program at Addis Ababa University. The ICTs provided the institution with the tools and facility needed to boost efforts to develop a local hub for knowledge generation and dissemination for food security. A weak policy and financial environment has led to inadequate research, a lack of appropriate technologies and weak dissemination of existing smart tools. So, lowering food insecurity in the region requires greater effort.

Improving food security is a key development challenge for the Horn of Africa, the world’s most food insecure region according to the FAO. Over 45% of the 160 million strong population remain food insecure, higher than the average even for Saharan Africa. The World Bank says the region must attain a 4% expansion in GDP and similar growth in agricultural expansion, along with lower population growth rates, to become food secure in the medium-term. This all seems like a catch-22 situation for an already difficult political and economic landscape. Where do we start?

According to USAID’s analysis, The Magnitude and Causes of Food Insecurity and Prospects for Change, improving the economic policy environment—and a host of other structural problems such as security— is key. So, while ICTs can help to improve the region’s precarious food security situation, much more must be done to create an ICT enabling environment— further evidence that ICTs are merely tools.

One structural challenge is the cumbersome nature of intra-regional trade. ICTs, particularly logistics technology and applications used to speed up cross border movement, could help to better move food surplus from country to country (and region to region). At various points in recent time countries in the lower part of the Horn of Africa, including Kenya and Tanzania, have been in a position to shift their surplus to neighboring Ethiopia, and other northern states that are perennially food insecure.

However, the food security and ICT discussion in this region, as I have contended, is very complex. One must consider all the systemic domains and even broad issues of income distribution, which slants the distribution of food in Kenya and Tanzania, even in times of food excess on a national scale, in the favor of a few.

August 9, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Food Security & Rural Development, Areas of Expertise, Economic Growth & Trade, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Regional Integration and Food Security in Africa

Credit: Google

Sustained economic development, including efforts to reap and secure gains in food security, in Africa hinges on regional integration. The impetus for the rapid pace at which regional integration projects were deepened across the continent, in the last decade, underscores this. In particular, African states acknowledged the political and economic benefits of regional integration, as per the general objectives of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement in 2000, the launch of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) in 2001, and the emergence of the African Union in 2002.

Nonetheless, the African integration processes have a far way to go. Although people move relatively freely across borders in ECOWAS and other sub-regions, much more ought to be done to create a critical mass of people who believe in the vision. The fact that regional integration can result in tangible benefits for the average African, by putting food on their plates cheaper and more efficiently, should be a strong selling point. But inefficiencies within the existing regional frameworks impede these significant gains.

According to the FAO, intra-regional trade account for a mere 13% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s US$6 billion food import bill. As Vanessa Adams, Director, USAID West Africa Trade Hub, noted at a recent panel discussion, “whether food is sourced nationally, regionally or internationally, the need for faster and cheaper transport of food is urgent. It also offers promising business opportunities…” This observation is critical as upwards of a third of all foods grown in Africa never gets to market in edible fashion; it’s wasted…and that’s not because it reached anyone’s plate. To a great extent, this is due to poor transportation, but, in a broader sense, it is much more a matter of poor value chain management and practices.

My main assertion is that an inverse relationship exists between transport infrastructure and trade—and ultimately economic development. The World Bank corroborates this view in its declaration that a 10% decrease in transport costs results in a 20% increase in trade. But the extent to which logistics technologies have been leveraged and effectively deployed to warehouse and transport farm produce on the continent is limited. Some might add that the roadways across Africa, particularly West Africa, are far better today than they were a decade ago, and to that I would say, yes, but transport in a regionally integrated context depends on much more than improved roadways, though important. These inefficiencies underline my emphasis on the link between regional integration and food security.

In other words, inefficient regional trade breeds food insecurity. So, until the cross border impediments to the free flow of goods are removed, this transportation challenge will remain and food insecurity will persist!

Below are a few anecdotes from business owners faced with transportation challenges in West Africa’s ECOWAS area. The notes were shared by Vanessa Adams during the panel discussion.

If we could cross borders faster, we could make 12 trips to Accra instead of current 3, reducing costs. (Furniture)
We’ve been ETLS registered for 6 years. But countries still impose high duties, raising our delivered prices by 30%. We can’t compete against imports! (Juice producer)
ECOWAS misplaced our application for ETLS Registration. When will application process be “on-line”? (Agriculture trader)
We sized our plant for an ECOWAS-wide market. That didn’t happen and we’re now operating at 20% capacity. (Paint)
We intend to invest $5 million and hire 120 staff – IF we can be assured of access to a larger market. (Furniture)

July 20, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture, Food Security & Rural Development, Areas of Expertise, Climate Change, Environment, Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Global alliance to reduce agricultural greenhouse gasses

Agriculture is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and this makes finding a balance between increasing food production and limiting greenhouse gas emissions a major challenge.

In fact, there are few global research projects with a focus on reducing agricultural greenhouse gases, compared to the energy and transport sectors. But this could all change for the better.

Over a year and a half ago New Zealand launched the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, and this year its membership grew to 30 countries. The Alliance aims to coordinate the research of the world’s top scientists in agricultural emissions in a bid to find ways of increasing food production and ensuring food security without increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Alliance has successfully increased international cooperation and investment in research for livestock, paddy rice production systems and technologies to limit the loss of carbon and nitrogen from crops and soils.

July 11, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Food Security & Rural Development, Areas of Expertise, Information and Communication Technology for Development, Integra News

USAID Speaks on the need for Food Security Through Local Production

USAID representatives yesterday at a panel discussion hosted by the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa came out strongly in support of Food Security through Agricultural Development. Rob Bertram, a biotechnology Team Leader in EGAT’s office of Environment and Science Policy, spoke about the need to increase productivity and to facilitate regional trade, noting that 90% of potential gains from agricultural trade in Africa are in regional markets. He made the point that the 2008 food price crisis illustrated that African countries cannot depend on imports for food security – they must work together to meet their own food security needs.

His point was made as part of a discussion on USAID’s Feed the Future program and how it reflects the principles of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) put forward by the African Union. He noted that Feed the Future takes CAADP as a model and therefore includes a focus on things such as smallholder growth, science and technology, and natural resource management.

Ms. Rhoda Tumuslime, an elected commissioner of the African Union, spoke of Feed the Future as a “great hope” for Africa, and expressed her grave concern that “ongoing discussions” on capital hill could adversely impact the program.

March 4, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture, Food Security & Rural Development, Areas of Expertise, Biodiversity, Democracy & Governance, Environment, Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Next Task Order: Flying Robots

Or more precisely, swarming micro air vehicles, to create a communications cloud where infrastructure is destroyed during an emergency like an earthquake. SciDev reports on a Swiss innovation that hovers at the extreme end of ICT4D – at least for now. Flying robots could help in disaster rescue – SciDev.Net.

But the same team also produced the awesome SenseFly drone, which costs around 9K and fits in a briefcase. The possibilities for monitoring and mapping for biodiversity and agriculture appear to be endless. Check out the video.

Lest you think I’m a shill for the Lausanne techies, let me take the opportunity to draw your attention to some homebrew options. These won’t create the swarming communications cloud suitable for a major disaster, but a lot can happen.

Grassroots Mapping is a network of technology hackers that use balloon and kite mounted digital cameras in mapping, to serve as “community satellites” – a low cost remote sensing alternative to satellite imagery that can get surprisingly good results. Significantly, the technology is affordable and can be put in the hands of communities for participatory planning, independent monitoring, and access to information – key aspects of our quest for good governance. The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science is a sister initiative working to develop new technologies for grassroots mappers.

I’ve mentioned Participatory GIS – the use of GIS in community mapping – in earlier posts. PPGIS is a virtual network online consisting of resources and a very active email list to support a peer-to-peer learning network spanning the globe.

So there you have it – we started with a drone swarm and ended up with a kite. The needs of tomorrow (and today) will be well served by one or the other.

As the wise one said, knowledge is knowing that the tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.

March 2, 2011/by actualize

Areas of Expertise, Information and Communication Technology for Development, Integra News

INTEGRA Presents at USAID Infrastructure Training

INTEGRA Managing Associate Eric White yesterday gave a presentation to a gathering of USAID infrastructure specialists from missions around the world about the importance of investing in ICT infrastructure. He specifically highlighted the importance of wireless voice and broadband connectivity in meeting the US Government’s goals under the new “Feed the Future” program.

Food Security, Mr. White explained, can come either through improving domestic agricultural output and distribution or through improved cross-border trade facilitation. He highlighted ways that ICT infrastructure improves both. After pointing out that agricultural development is the flip side of rural economic growth Mr. White explained how numerous studies, at both the macro and micro level, have found a 10-1 relationship between expanding ICT coverage and GDP growth. A 10% increase in ICT penetration is generally associated with a 1% increase in GDP growth rates.

Mr. White then explained how it is possible to work with private sector firms to expand ICT access to rural people in developing countries. He pointed out the remarkable willingness-to-pay of even the very poor when it comes to communication. Even people living on only a few dollars a day are willing to pay up to 10% of their income for access to communication. Given that relatively large willingness-to-pay and a relatively low cost of capital it is in fact possible to reach every developing country resident with wireless technology through the smart use of targeted subsidies and investment in emerging low-cost technologies.

Eric White ftf presentation

View more presentations from IntegraLLC.

December 16, 2010/by actualize

The Intel Corporationsponsored a two-day workshop in Nairobi, Kenya aimed at facilitating dialogue among managers of African Universal Service Funds (USFs). Representatives from 10 African countries were present, as well as leaders of the Funds in Malaysia and India.

The workshop was very interactive. It consisted of a series of panel discussions facilitated by Mr. David Townsend, a world expert in Universal Service, where managers of more advanced funds could discuss how they had tackled various issues in the past. The discussion was lively and broad, and afterwards all participants acknowledged the usefulness of the exercise.

Mr. Baskir Kamara, of the Sierra Leone Universal Access Development Fund, said “I now have more confidence to implement an effective USF.”

Eric White of INTEGRA made a presentation about GBI and its mandate of providing technical assistance to USFs. Afterwards he was approached by a number of country representatives inquiring about how to establish USAID assistance programs.

The workshop was the first in a series that Intel and USAID will hold over the next year.

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