markets go mobile for youth entrepreneurs go...business for participating market women and farmers:...
TRANSCRIPT
Markets go mobile for youth entrepreneurs
2012 Global Youth Economic Opportunity Conference
MacDaniel Powell, Liberia ([email protected])
Sabine Meitzel, Switzerland ([email protected])
Washington DC, IDB Conference Building, 12 September 2012
Responding to partners requests, innovative and practical
T@H system of mobile applications for better trade
launched by ITC in 2005
• innovative, tailor-made solutions for trade
• using latest technology
• partner-driven R & D
• applications and solutions for SMALL business
• work through partners and multipliers
Operating principles
• Acceptable, affordable and accessible services
• Public-private partnerships
• Business relevance and sustainability
Tailor-made solutions for Trade at Hand T@H
Trade at Hand solutions for business
Export
Value Chain
Export
Marketing
& Branding
Export
Management Development
EXPORTER
Trader
Trade
information
via mobiles
Marketing
& sales via
mobiles
Mobile
Supply-chain
solutions
The Trade at Hand components – innovative mobile
solutions to tackle the challenges of small business
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2005/6 2007/8 2009/10 2011/13
Burkina Faso
Mali
Senegal
Mozambique
Maldives
Uganda Benin
Fiji
Kyrgyzstan / Tajikistan
Liberia
5
Web and mobile combinations in T@H
• mPrices
• mCollect
• mAlerts
• mMonitoring
• mMarketplace
Evolution of the “Mobile Marketplace” as a
Trade-at-Hand solution • 2009: innovative “Trade at Hand” pilot application for Liberia’s Marketwomen generated
business for participating market women and farmers:
• 50 market women, 50 farmers, 3 months trading
• Proof of concept validated; ownership of T@H taken up in 2010 by the Angie Brooks
International Centre (ABIC)
• Lessons learned taken on board for a broader roll-out and launch of T@H Liberia – the
Mobile Marketplace - through Liberia’s President in 2011, addressing the illiteracy issue
and sustainability considerations
• 2010-12 “Affaires Mobiles” in Benin adapts the Mobile Marketplace, working through an
operator (voice / Interactive-Voice-Response IVR) to reach more users;
• Local partner feedback and engagement in Liberia and Benin provide positive signs –
currently development of T@H License System and launch of T@H partner network by ITC
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Trade at Hand implementation approach 7
Local or global
sourcing?
In it for the
service, or the
money?
Does an app
exist already?
Who comes the
request from?
Training owners & users;
building sustainability
Selecting IT providers;
developing and testing
Selecting or designing
mobile solutions
Understanding target
beneficiaries’ challenges
Who will manage
the system in the
end?
Who can serve
as a pilot
group?
Ready to
incubate the
service?
1 4 3 2
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• Build on what exists, according to needs • Start small; iterate; build brick by brick • Embed sustainability during system design • Design the business model with stakeholders • Build capacity and coach during early system usage • Use “reusable” IT (respect open standards, use and share free and open source softwares
and coding systems)
• Provide a complete, independent solution to a bottleneck identified by business users
• Scale to match available capacity and manage expectations
A few basic principles learned and applied in T@H solutions development
Giving young people a stronger grip on Trade at Hand:
Opportunities for young people in T@H • Young people are respected by the established business
community as “IT” smart and thus as a competitive source for business and trade info
• T@H can easily be added to existing and budding youth enterprises
• A business accelerator for groups and/or individual youth entrepreneurs
Challenges met in developing youth entrepreneurs for T@H • Obtaining inputs and answers from young partners which reflect
reality • Lack of pro-active response by young people to evolving
opportunities, lack of entrepreneurial drive • Attracting long-term interest and keeping momentum, beyond
simple project money hook
Challenges & Opportunities
11.
How visible are young people as actors in value
chains? Quotations from a typical technical cooperation project:
• How: “Training
sessions in
plantation and
distillation to
multipliers…” Women? Youth? Men?
• Why: “Sizeable
additional income
for farmers…” Youth?
Men? Women?
• What: “Patchouli production by two cooperatives in Rwanda (Nasho and Burgarama) with a total of 1,300 farmers…” Men? Women? Youth?
Vision for Liberia’s
National Export Strategy
“… a competitive and inclusive exporter
of value added products that
sustainably uses resources for the
benefit of all Liberians” (July 2012)
Growth and economic reconstruction in Liberia
- Chillie pepper
- Cassava
- Palm oil
PUT-THE-MARKET-IN-YOUR-
POCKET!
Making cents with Trade at Hand
(T@H) Liberia?
Better business to reduce poverty and increase food security
Women are:
• 60% of Liberia’s farmers
• 80% of Liberia’s traders
• Vital for Liberia’s economy
Impact areas:
• Peace and security
• Food security
• Poverty reduction
• Trade for development
…and the YOUTH???
ITC lends “mobile” hand to Liberia’s Market Women
16.
Liberia’s youth
is the greatest asset for the country’s
economic development …. Where are they?
Trade at Hand (T@H)
for Liberia’s Marketwomen in 2009
Trade
at Hand
Youth Event
Angie Brooks International Centre
T@H for Liberia’s Marketwomen
Put the market in your pocket: Liberia's
Mobile Marketplace … is a real-time market information system for
farmers, buyers, sellers, traders and marketwomen
in Liberia, regardless of their location and function
in the value chain
…offers Liberian buyers and sellers a mobile link to
the market cheaper than the traditional phone call
…has shown interesting potential for youth
enterprises and young entrepreneurs
What does T@H - Mobile Marketplace -
provide? With market info on quality and quantity of agricultural produce, current market prices and on transportation, T@H:
• Reduces the amount of farm goods that get damaged after production
• Eases access to market produce for different levels of buyers
• Transcends the problem of Liberia’s road situation
• Allows farmers to spend more time on their farms and produce more food
• Reduces the physical risks of marketers
• Gives greater access to rural farmers
Why is T@H - Mobile Marketplace - better
for business than a simple phone call?
- T@H balances the lop-sided access to instantaneous
business information at the lower end of the value chain
- T@H strengthens food suppliers, enabling them to defend
their position on their product’s value chain and contributing
to food security
- T@H generates additional potential for revenues at the
lower end of the value chain and increases market
transparency
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T@H LIBERIA - Mobile Marketplace
T@H Liberia can be accessed through two platforms:
Web-based T@H platform
Interactive-Voice-Response (IVR) T@H platform
The two components are inter-connected, and feeding into the same database. Users of the IVR platform can post and access offers that are posted via the Internet platform and vice versa.
T@H Transactional Cycle
Trade at Hand – the Mobile Marketplace
Live Demo!
President Sirleaf launching T@H for Liberia’s Marketwomen
(Voinjama, Liberia, July 2011)
Support of the Government of Liberia for
T@H as an opportunity for Liberian youth
Ministry of Education
Ministry of Youth & Sports
Min
istry
of
Ed
uca
tion
Min
istry
of
Yo
uth
&
Sp
orts
Young Liberian
Entrepreneur
T@H - a mobile marketplace for Liberia’s
young entrepreneurs?
Young Liberian
Entrepreneurs
(1) Angie Brooks International Centre (ABIC), Monrovia
identify teams of trained young T@H Ambassadors. If needed, recruit and
train additional college graduates, members of Liberia’s YWCA and/or Liberia
Marketing Association (LMA) aged between 22-25 as T@H Ambassadors
(2) Trained young T@H Ambassadors
develop tailor-made T@H services to marketwomen and farmers in rural
areas including at the border to Sierra Leone, backstopped by ABIC, YWCA
and LMA
T@H - a mobile marketplace for Liberia’s
young entrepreneurs?
(3) Trained young T@H Ambassadors
launch and provide relevant T@H services in major market places in rural
Liberia, including at the border with Sierra Leone. Train 80 to 100 young
entrepreneurs from the respective rural communities in T@H service
provision, for start of local T@H youth enterprises
(4) Potential T@H Youth Entrepreneurs
set up T@H youth enterprises, either on a team basis in major market places
or as individual “T@H Booth” enterprises in their rural communities,
backstopped by ABIC, YWCA and LMA
T@H Institutional Trade Support Network
• In Africa
Bénin ABEPEC
Burkina Faso MEBF, CCIBF
Mali CCIM, OMA
Senegal ASEPEX, TPS
Mozambique IPEX
Liberia MCI, ABIC
• In Asia
Kyrgyzstan AFVE
Tajikistan TCCI
Maldives MEDT
Fiji MPI, NCLC
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T@H Focal Points in 9 countries
The T@H Trainer/Adviser Network
In Africa
Benin 1
Burkina Faso 3
Mali 1
Senegal 4
Mozambique 1
Liberia 4
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Rest of the world
Maldives 2
Fiji 2
Kyrgyzstan 1
Tajikistan 1
20 Advisers available to support your T@H roll-out
Next steps for T@H:
Harness the power of the T@H Network
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The T@H Platform
• Exchange Forum
• Knowledge Base
• m-App repository
• Roll-out methods
• Experiences from
around the globe