Leveraging ICT for Rural Enterpreneurship & Livelihoods

Presented by
Romely Mukhopadhayay Debasis Pahi Amit kumar Bardhan

Objectives
To create more awareness about the uses of ICT To increase the participation of more people in entrepreneurial world To suggest measures for providing livelihood to poor rural people . To encourage people to be techno savvy

Potential role ICT in Rural Entrepreneurship & Livelihoods

Two Main Roles Enabler efficiency, knowledge dissemination, preservation of indigenous knowledge, improved service delivery Transformational Empowerment, participation, transparency & accountability leading to good governance and reduced inequality, two-way information flows, (reduced information barriers = changed patterns of living)

ICT for Rural Entrepreneurship and Livelihoods

General
Organized people sector use as resource for data capture & lowering transaction costs (business or government) , empowerment (people) MIS effectiveness interleave into processes, incentives for usage Public-private partnerships assures that private sector has skin in the game; increases sustainability Experience greater impact by using women as agents of change Sustainability ICT to fit with pro-poor institutional structures Going forward - Leverage the Mobile platform by using low cost devices Innovation - Learn from the users ; democratization of technology & data, feedback cycles through PRAs & Social accountability approaches Infrastructure/Broad band work with what you have ; develop flexible business models Uptake of ICT in rural development accelerated by local language & context Capacity development focus on sector outcomes; keep technology simple

Diversity of approaches using flexible technologies

Profit for the Poor - Poverty reduction by leveraging ICT for the poor (Grameen) Developing emerging markets HPs e-inclusion strategy (close the gap between technology-empowered communities and technology-excluded communities) ; beyond CSR and look at potential market opportunity

Information catalysts concept of e-villages by increased access to information. Women entrepreneurs, demand driven hub training, livelihood diversification, localized services
Information as a public good difficult to restrict (low excludability) and no loss in value when any have it (low extractability); Examples of this type information is weather info, soil & cropping info, market prices & food safety, etc.

ICT for Rural Entrepreneurship & Livelihoods

Mobile platform Livestock & animal husbandry SMS usage for disease surveillance ; veterinary checkups, periodic reports Market linkages & information cell phone usage for market & price information Marketing Network for Women Entrepreneurs (FOOD Foundation for Occupational Development, India) low income women who make food products & household items or repackaged spices for sale (link across groups to - (a) compare prices across region (b) exchange goods (c) develop new markets, Electronic marketplace e-choupal Transparency & Accountability SMS Mobile banking low value money transfers, reduced transaction costs, increased convenience, increased credit,

ICT for Rural Entrepreneurship and Livelihoods

Grassroots innovations database for grassroots innovations, protection of IPR, help file patents, add value to commercialize products, disseminate innovations using ICT (Honeybee Network & SRISHTI) Use of Smart cards used in milk related livelihoods ; contains user information ; used for recording amount, quality & fat content of milk supplied, accurate & transparent recording system digitally recorded & tamper proff ; secure payment & to procure inputs ; (India, Kenya & Tanzania) Community Information Centers (Ethiopia, Zambia & Tanzania) Livestock prices in different markets, pineapple prices in nearby markets agricultural inputs market prices, stock arrivals of commodities, daily market prices of fresh vegetables, daily stock of bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides, etc.

E-commerce in Africa Rural women artisan in Cape Verde women display & sell handicrafts over web Womens groups in Ethiopia capacity building, improved handicraft designs, sales information exchanged over the web

ICT for Rural Entrepreneurship & Livelihoods

Village Information Centers used for information News displayed on board outside Mechanisms for democratic participation (RIA, Government schemes) Social capital & income generating activities (traditional medicine) Micro-Insurance Use of cell phone, databases, SMS, ATM machine for SHG life insurance. Participatory forest management - in-situ & ex-situ conservation of medicinal plants, nurseries, kitchen gardens, eco-regeneration & forestry management- ICT used for seed banks, forest produce collection & marketing

Fisheries livelihoods (Veeripattinam, India)

Localized information available - US Navy website weather & wave information, conversion in local language audio files, transmission & loudspeaker announcement

ICT for Rural Entrepreneurship and Livelihoods

Solar Energy usage for cell phone towers Sudan, Fantusam Foundation (Nigeria) ; charging cell phones used for rural livelihoods

Health initiatives in rural areas use of PDAs for pre-natal care & immunizations (Nalgonda district, India)
Satellite uplinks (Future Stations, Brazil) economic alternatives for youth (15-29) - support services to community entrepreneurs including a development agent for group purchases, credit access, insurance & other services Innovative Internet & wireless E-services to fishermen (Manobi, Senegal) SMS usage for (a) input fish stock information (b) log departures & estimated arrivals (d) fishing unions alerted if fishing boats fail to return on time. WAP used to access central database in real time. Market prices determine landing points. Voice portal for Health (Voxiva, Peru) disease surveillance using cell phones; information dissemination to rural health professionals,

Conclusion
Use more technology and generate more entrepreneurs

Thank you