there's already been a lot of
speculation about the impact digital can
have on emerging economies I want to
focus on how mobile apps and services
are reshaping economic development
they're doing this in three ways first
by delivering information and tools that
allow individuals to increase their own
productivity second by transforming the
economics of delivering commercial
products thereby expanding inclusion of
the poor and third by creating new
operating models that enable the social
and public sectors to evolve much more
dynamically and while mobile apps and
services will impact everyone they will
have the most profound impact on the
people and communities that need the
biggest productivity boost in the
developing economies indeed because many
of these countries will emerge in a
mobile enabled world they will leapfrog
the path taken by the developed
countries in the pre-digital era the
centralized hierarchical models of the
developed world emerged slowly over time
technology was an overlay it's not
integral to how they function by
contrast what will now see are countries
emerging faster with more modular
advanced operating models that enable
them to get closer to customers be more
seamlessly integrated with a private
sector and be packed with low-cost ideas
for productivity for all we're going to
explore three specific apps and services
that are helping expand productivity in
Kenya this is Frida like two-thirds of
Canyon workers and over a hundred and
fifty million people in sub-saharan
Africa she's a smallholder farmer
small subsistence farms like hers have
huge productivity gaps so large that
experts feel that targeting a threefold
improvement is a reasonable goal now
with mobile apps and services we have a
new channel for getting information to
Frieda she can use her phone to look up
information on her crops her livestock
connect with markets all things that can
make a huge difference to the
productivity of Frieda and her family
let's look at what she can already do on
her feature phone she can use the Aikau
SMS service to look up information on
our cow eye cow will send her customized
text messages that track the gestation
cycle of her cow and tell her what to do
when if she follows this advice she can
boost their productivity of her cow if
she used to get four litres of milk per
day she can now get seven or more that's
a huge difference to her and her family
and she's not going to be alone there
are over a hundred and eighty thousand
farmers already using ICO the second way
to improve productivity for Frida is to
expand inclusion of Frida in commercial
products and services this allows her to
invest in her business and manage risk
there's an exciting mobile platform that
is doing exactly this for smallholder
farmers in Africa it's in the field of
insurance and it's called Kalima Salama
or safe
agriculture in Kiswahili with Kalima
Salama insurance if Frida adds a small
amount to the cost of seeds at purchase
she can ensure that cost if there's too
much or too little rainfall during seed
germination she gets an automatic payout
on her m-pesa Mobile Money account
kolima Salama has a very simple
front-end interface with the farmer but
its power
by a complex sophisticated digital
back-end that links the seat distributor
with the aggregator the weather
satellites with the stations the mobile
network operator with the moment Bunny
platform and of course the insurer no
traditional insurance company could ever
hope to insure a packet of seeds for
Frida but with digital linkages and new
revenue models that's exactly what's
happening and it's scaling fast they're
over 200,000 farmers using this and it's
gone from Kenya to Tanzania and Rwanda
and because it's gained critical mass a
new company acre has formed around the
original venture to drive rapid scaling
both of these examples have an important
element in common farmers are paying
towards these services only stuff that's
simple to use that delivers real value
will survive the darwinian app ecosystem
products move in lockstep with need but
to be in lockstep with local need you
need local entrepreneurs I want to
introduce you to one of the new faces of
economic development
su-kyong Bo she's a social entrepreneur
and a Canyon farmer sue developed the
original ICO product she forged the
relationship with Safaricom Kenya's
leading mobile network operator and
she's now expanded it to more livestock
to crops to labeling farmers to connect
with each other and to the broader AG
ecosystem and watch this space
sue is launching I mama SMS health
information direct to mothers the third
piece of our productivity puzzle is
improving social and public services
let's look at health an unambitious
program that is rolling out in Kenya
it's called Jami Smart Jami Smart is a
dynamic mobile web portal
that allows community health workers to
enter and access information about every
woman and every child in their care it's
a huge boon to the community health
workers because it prompts them with
what question to ask when it can track
things like whether a child is on the
right growth curve and it can flag kids
that need intervention before it's too
late
it sends mom's SMS messages about
pregnancy danger signs or upcoming
appointments and if the mom or baby
moves to a new facility that new health
worker can access the same record
importantly it also aggregates
information and it sends aggregate
information to the Ministry of Health to
inform decision-making to track progress
and assess needs and as Jamie smart is
proving itself it's being rolled out to
more counties in Kenya and it can
involve modularly
by adding more apps and services over
time yes it's early days yet but
programs like this are already proving
results more mothers are going to
antenatal visits more delivering in
facilities it's really critical that we
get care closer to the patient if we
look at the two to four million young
children who globally die every year
from fever related illnesses and we look
at those in sub-saharan Africa the kids
that live farthest away from help die
far more often and of all the kids that
died of fever related illnesses in
sub-saharan Africa well over 90 percent
died outside of the walls of hospitals
these three examples are showing us a
new path for economic development but
it's really tough on feature phones as
is data showing us however smartphone
access is accelerating and with
smartphone
apps get far easier to scale they're
much more intuitive customized and
compelling video can replace text and
big data really takes off perhaps
counter-intuitively smartphones may have
the most profound impact in the most
rural and isolated and poor communities
where network connectivity and data
costs will be huge challenges for many
years to come and that's because many
fantastic health education agriculture
business apps do not require constant
connectivity to have a huge impact nor
do we need to have everyone with a
smartphone will see micro entrepreneurs
and pioneers share their devices and
more importantly share what they've
learned from them because people not
technology will determine the success of
this we're still in the future for an
era at least in sub-saharan Africa so
this is the time we need to invest in
the content and the algorithms in
interoperability in the standards it's
the point at which we need to figure out
the revenue models and the access
frameworks and we need to build local
app developer and entrepreneur
communities but a lot will happen
independently and for those thinking
about investment or taxation or
regulation an important mantra will be
first do no harm
as we look forward it's becoming very
clear mobile apps and services will
change lives in dramatic ways more is in
the hands of individuals whether farmers
like Frieda or entrepreneurs like sue
commercial companies can reach poor
customers that were too expensive to
reach before it's transparent
what is being delivered and whether it's
having an impact yes we have a long way
to go but we live in extraordinary times
times that will change what we can all
look forward to thank you