1. ICTs and
entrepreneurship
in ACP countries
by Michael Hailu, Director of CTA
ACP-EU JPA Economic Committee
Brussels, 22 March 2012

2. About CTA
• CTA is a joint international
institution of the ACP
Group of States and the EU.
We operate under the
framework of the Cotonou
Agreement.

3. CTA’s Mission
• To
 advance food and nutritional security
 increase prosperity
 encourage sound natural resource management
• by
 providing access to information and knowledge
 facilitating policy dialogue and
 strengthening the capacity of agricultural and rural development
institutions and communities in ACP countries

4. CTA Strategic Priorities
• To support well informed, inclusive agricultural
policy processes and strategies that empower
smallholder producers, women and youth
• To promote the development of priority value
chains, especially for smallholder producers
• To strengthen the information, communication
and knowledge management capacities of
institutions and networks

5. Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs)
• ICTs are a complex varied set of
goods, applications and services used for
producing, distributing, processing and
transforming information
• Examples: telecoms, TV and radio, hardware and
software, computer services, electronic
media, online services, web 2.0
applications, Geographic Information
Technologies, ...

6. ICT Growth in Developing Countries
Source: IMF, WP/11/73, 2011

7. Trends in Fixed versus Mobile Phone
Subscribers: International Comparison
Source: IMF, WP/11/73, 2011

8. The transformative potential of ICTs
• ICTs have opened up a wide range of
opportunities
• ICTs conducive to private
sector development
• Private sector puts greater
emphasis on sustainable innovation
• ICTs favour the development of
economic activities in rural areas
• Youth is fascinated by ICTs

9. Economic development
from ICT investment
• Growth is linked to ICTs in
developing countries (except
in countries with restricted
telecoms) UNCTAD 2011
 crowd-sourcing for pest control
(e.g. PestNet, Pacific)
 mobile financial services (M-
PESA, Kenya)

10. Economic development
from ICT investment
• Market information service
(MIS) provides price
information and a virtual
marketplace for buyers and
sellers of agricultural
commodities
(Esoko, RESIMAO)

11. Constraints for ICT development
• Lack / irregular broadband connectivity
• Irregular / insufficient power supply
• Lack of ICT infrastructure
• Lack of enabling regulatory environments
• Lack of awareness and skills
• Lack of systematic, evidence-based impact evaluations
regarding the use of ICTs to promote enterprise
development
• Maintenance issues (e.g. SAT 3)

12. Constraints for “doing business”
Problem areas
• Procedures for starting a business
• enabling legal and regulatory
environments
• needed expertise
• access to credit
• power supply

13. CTA contribution

14. Encouraging young entrepreneurs
• Identification and promotion of
young entrepreneurs through
the CTA and NEPAD essay
competition on ICT and
agriculture (ARDYIS)
• YoBloCo awards: competition
for young bloggers

15. Encouraging entrepreneurs
• Supporting women initiatives
on ICT in agriculture
(Genardis, three editions)
• Community Information
Centres supporting youth
entrepreneurship

16. Empowering communities
• Participatory GIS (PGIS)
• Participatory Video (PV)
• Online advocacy

17. Capacity building across ACP

19. Measuring impact
• Web 2.0 for Development initiatives (2007-today)
• Impact assessment (2008-2010)
 54 % response rate out of 490 survey respondents
 30 % women
 38% youth (18-35 years of age)
• Adoption: highest among young (< 36 y) Anglophone
women

20. Impact on work performance
• Improved
 access and retrieval of information 88%
 information sharing: 85%
 social networking: 80%
 information management 59%

21. Impact on corporate environment
• Increased no. of communication channels used 62%
• Timely delivery of up-to-date and relevant information to
beneficiaries : 44%
• Increased visibility on the internet: 44%
• Mainstreamed web 2.0 across operations: 40%
• Decreased communication costs: 31%
• Increased interaction with partner organisations: 31%

22. Impact on ultimate beneficiaries
• Improved information
sharing: 64%
• Improved work practices:
39%

23. Way forward ...

24. Policy recommendations
• Support
 the establishment or improvement of enabling regulatory
environments
• Promote
 affordable access to relevant ICTs
 dialogue between regulators, government and telecom
operators to stimulate investment in rural areas
• Upscale
 best practices at a levels which can contribute to sustainable
rural economic growth

25. Policy recommendations
• Support the mobilisation of venture capital for ICT-based
entrepreneurship
• Include ICT in business skills training (focus on youth and
women)
• Support the improvement and implementation of
universal access to ICTs strategies for rural areas in
particular (universal access funds, etc.)
• Strengthen organisations working on ICTs for farmers
• Favour the establishment of ICT innovation hubs

26. Thanks you