Paper short abstract:

The paper highlights the potential of using mobile internet to support climate adaptation from a gender perspective. It explores the gendered challenges surrounding information, communication dynamics and decision-making for climate adaptation and around access and use of the mobile internet.

Paper long abstract:

The use of the mobile internet is rapidly spreading among the rural Global South. Despite the growing number of mobile services available, the gender-specific challenges in digital access and use remain under-researched. Furthermore, there is little evidence on how such services are used differently by women and men and how they impact on behaviours and livelihoods.

Digital Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (E-PICSA) is a digitally-supported climate and agricultural extension approach that builds on the existing PICSA approach which has been implemented in over 25 countries. Under a research project of E-PICSA, a gender-focused needs assessment for digital climate services has been conducted. This assessment uses a mixed method approach with a quantitative survey with 400 men and women farmers, randomly-sampled from 4 districts of Zambia and Malawi, and a participatory qualitative study of 48 Focus Group Discussions.

The findings will highlight gendered challenges in respect of the access to and use of information which are important for climate adaptation; the communication dynamics within the community and household; and the decision-making processes involved in potential adaptation strategies. The paper will explore the gender imbalances in the access and use of the mobile internet with a view to understanding whether and how E-PICSA could be used within the context of these gendered challenges. The findings provide important insights for E-PICSA mobile app co-development and similar initiatives beyond the project.

Paper short abstract:

We will share practical experiences from our initiative, "Make it Grow", which has been working with rural community groups in Zimbabwe to support project planning, pitching and fundraising, using Participatory (Smartphone) Video Proposals.

Paper long abstract:

Whilst great ideas for solutions to food insecurity can be found at the grassroots level, community-led initiatives usually have the least access to start-up funding and the least capacity to develop written grant proposals, especially in the rural development context. However, with the rise of mobile ICTs, many communities now hold in their hands the means for creating and sharing videos. As an alternative to written grant proposals, smartphone videos are a compelling tool to support crowdfunding campaigns, to share on social media platforms, or to send directly to targeted donors. In this paper, we unpack how our initiative, "Make it Grow", has been working with rural community groups in Zimbabwe to support project planning, pitching and fundraising, using Participatory (Smartphone) Video Proposals.

We present three aspects of the approach developed by MIG. Firstly, we outline the facilitation approach, which centres around building small, peer-to-peer learning groups. Secondly, we discuss how the co-creation of a Participatory Video Proposal supports participants to crystallise, plan, pitch/fundraise for and implement their own ideas for local rural development projects. Thirdly, we present a Facilitation Toolkit for trainers/facilitators to support local out-scaling of the approach.

Our accompanying research (surveys, participatory impact pathway assessments, focus groups and interviews) has revealed challenges (e.g. digital exclusions) as well as benefits (e.g. self-representation) to the approach. We conclude that donor organisations should adapt grant-giving processes so that video can be mobilised in ways that enhance the accessibility of funding and give greater space to local initiatives and community voices.

Paper short abstract:

Digital platforms can diversify the rural livelihoods by enabling access to new markets. However, there are several barriers hindering the adoption of these services. To solve this, we have trained selected community member (called tech mediators) to help their peers to use new technologies.

Paper long abstract:

Multisided digital platforms create value by facilitating collaboration and communication between different user groups. Because of the digital nature of the platforms, the users can be located anywhere in the world. In theory, this means that the rural communities of the global south can sell their goods in markets that they could not otherwise reach. These goods can be traditional agricultural products, but they could also be something else such as handcrafts. Services, such as hospitality for visitors are also possible. The diversification of the local livelihoods will bring new resources to the community, which increases economical resiliency and food security.

However, the practice has shown that there are several barriers that prevent rural communities from utilizing these platforms. Even if the access to devices is solved, there might be cultural factors or lack of needed skills that prevent the usage. Additionally, the platform economy is notorious for its exploitative policies.

To solve these problems, we have developed a concept of tech mediator. Tech mediator is a community member who receives training on how to use the digital services, and then helps the other community members to do so. The tech mediators should proactively find new relevant services for the community to use. Tech mediators can also provide other types of entrepreneurial guidance for the community. The tech mediators are a community owned solution, which empowers the community to avoid the whims of the global platform corporations. We have tested the concept in Namibia with promising results.

Paper short abstract:

Farmers’ social connections form a principal platform for learning and knowledge-sharing & emerging mobile technologies such as WhatsApp has promising potential. Deeper reflection on this process of socially embedded access to such technologies can be instrumental in informing policies in ICT4Ag.

Paper long abstract:

Studying the digital divide from a service-centric perspective that highlights the level of basic services availed by the farming community helps to understand the role of internet-enabled mobile ICTs in their empowerment, with economic and non-economic implications. People consider cultural, social, and economic aspects when reflecting on the lives they value and that these are critical motivators for individuals’ internet use. In a rural context, farmers are spatially connected and face similar environmental and economic conditions. Given this context, this paper explores how mobile technologies are unfolding and how farmers choose to use the internet-enabled mobile ICTs, provided they know the affordances (possible uses), particularly for farming purposes. For this, we take an ensemble view of mobile ICTs beyond an assemblage of hardware as alliances, networks, and interdependence among the people within the social and contextual aspects of farming. To operationalize the ensemble view, we introduce the concept of an ICT ecosystem which can be understood as a set of interdependent actors that provide technologies, network, facilitate information and knowledge exchange, and use all these services. This research is based in the Haryana state of India and follows a qualitative study design. In-depth qualitative interviews & FGDs of different actors within this ecosystem were conducted. They are farmers, agricultural scientists, agricultural extension officials, private sector actors such as the input sellers, middlemen at the produce market, and people at the agri-tech company providing farming assistance to farmers through ICTs and IoT technologies. The data is being analyzed in ATLAS.ti software.

Paper short abstract:

This paper proposes a new and relatively inexpensive approach to monitoring farmer prices in low-income countries involving crowdsourcing. An application to Malawi illustrates the approach's feasibility in settings where internet connectivity is limited but mobile phone coverage is reasonable.

Paper long abstract:

This paper proposes a new and relatively inexpensive approach to monitoring the prices farmers receive in low-income developing countries. This crowdsourcing approach involves broadcasting radio jingles inviting farmers to report the prices and locations at which they sold their crops to a toll-free call center, with weekly prizes to incentivize reporting. An application to Malawi illustrates the feasibility of this approach in settings where internet connectivity is limited but mobile phone coverage is reasonable. The vast majority of farmers reported selling their maize and soybeans to assemblers or small traders, and received substantially less than official minimum farmgate prices. Non-parametric analysis shows that farmer prices vary by bargaining power and buyer type but not by time to the point of sale. These findings may be explained by the fragmented and monopsonistic nature of food markets in Malawi, and by farmers' mode of transport to the point of sale.

(A full version of the paper is available on request.)