A presentation given by Loren Treisman of the Indigo Trust during the Africa.com Conference 2012. The presentation looks at the use of mobile and web technologies to support rural communities across Africa.
2. • The Indigo Trust is a UK based grant making foundation that funds
technology-driven projects to bring about social change in Africa
• The Trust focuses mainly on innovation, transparency and
citizen empowerment
• We also support innovative tech-driven projects which support
development outcomes in any social sector including the health,
education, human rights and agricultural spheres
• We believe that if people have the ability to access, share and create
information, then they are empowered to make positive changes in
their own lives and communities
3. What factors enable success of a mobile project
which aims to serve rural communities?
• Run by passionate individuals
• Use available and appropriate technology
• Has a clear theory of change
• Understand local needs and listen closely to beneficiaries
• Takes into account tech capabilities, literacy and language
• Project run by technologists and civil society
• Two-way interactivity
• Sustainable financial model or low operating costs
• Takes into account marketing and training needs
• Ideally replicable and/or scalable
• Interoperable
• Transparent and willing to communicate
10. Health
• Health Information-Young Africa Live,
Cell Life, Medic mobile, MOTECH
• Support-SHM Foundation,
Youth for Tech
• Alerts-Cell Life, Textually,
Praekelt, Text 2 Change
• Training and support for
Community Health Workers-
Child Count, eHealth Nigeria
11. Health
• Drug Authentication-mPedigree, Sproxil
• Data Collection-EpiCollect,
EpiSurveyer, Child Count
• Data Management-iBirth, Open MRS
• Health Service Accountability-
WOUGNET, CIPESA, GACC
17. How Indigo Trust Supports Such Projects
• Providing small, high risk grants to not-for-profit & social
enterprises which contribute towards social change at the
early stages
• Enable entrepreneurs to pilot new ideas, room for trial & error
• Preference for locally owned interventions
• Some projects will achieve financial sustainability or make a
profit, others need on-going support
• Multi-year funding
• Advice, access to our networks, leveraging support
18. Factors for Consideration
• The best solutions to Africa’s challenges will be devised by
Africans
• Need to build local capacity
• Increased collaboration is necessary
• This sector is still in its infancy-jury is out
on most effective projects
• It remains a challenge to identify financially
sustainable business models
19. • Social start-ups are tough-accept high failure rate, time for
profit
• Data costs are still prohibitively high,
esp. for IVR and SMS
• Mobile operators and ISPs could help
reduce costs & make a profit (↑market share,
shared profits, free advertising)
• Interoperability, sustainability, replicability
& scalability remain challenging
• This is a new model of development-local
empowerment, Private-Public-Charity Partnerships
20. Thanks for Listening
Any Questions?
Dr Loren Treisman
http://indigotrust.wordpress.com/
Twitter: @indigotrust
Loren.treisman@sfct.org.uk
