ZNFU4455: An SMS service offering smallholder producers in Zambia a brighter future #ict4d

Once a luxury item, mobile telephony is now a catalyst to bring about economic development and social inclusion in developing countries, especially in Africa. For economist Jeffry Sachs “mobile telephony is the single most transformative technology for development”.

Mobile phone numbers talk for themselves. According to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) the number of mobile phone subscriptions worldwide has reached 4.6 billion.  ITU estimates show that in sub-Saharan Africa there is 60% mobile coverage and one-third of the population has a mobile subscription.

Over the last decades we’ve seen the socio-economic benefits of mobile telephony on the lives of many poor rural people. We’ve seen how thanks to mobile phones those who previously were both socially and economically excluded are now actively participating in the economy and are able to connect with their families and friends. We’ve seen how mobile phone supports bottom-up economic development, provides entrepreneurship opportunities and gives voice to poor rural people and the voiceless.

Experts categorize the benefits of the mobile telephony in three categories:

• incremental: improving the speed and efficiency of what people already do
• transformational: offering something new such as comprehensive agricultural services (what to plant when, where to buy inputs, access to price information, potential buyers, transport, pest control and more)
• productive: offering employment and income opportunity

Next time you are in Zambia,  ask a smallholder producer, what is your lucky number. And do not be surprised if they say: “ZNFU4455”.

ZUFU4455 is a market information service open to all smallholder producers and traders, a service that encapsulates and touches on all three categories of benefits of mobile phone listed above.

Designed in 2006 with the assistance of IFAD-funded smallholder enterprise marketing programme and in cooperation with the Zambia National Farmers Union (ZNFU), ZNFU4455 provides accurate and up-to-date agriculture and market information covering the entire value chain. It allows smallholder producers to make informed decision about what to grow, volumes required, storage, processing, marketing and investment opportunities.

ZNFU4455’s prime objective is to make markets functional for smallholder producers and traders. The service provides a list of 180 traders - 50% of whom are active -  and their offer for 15 commodities. To find the best price on offer, smallholder producers and traders send an SMS message to 4455 containing the first four letters of the commodity and the district or province. They immediately receive a text message listing the best prices and codes designating the buyers offering them. After selecting the buyer that best responds to their needs, farmers send a second SMS with the buyer’s code. A text message is returned with the contact name and phone number. Farmers are then able to phone the buyer and start trading. Each message costs around US$0.15.

This demand-driven service responds to the evolving needs of the Zambia smallholder farmers and traders. It has helped reverse the trend of smallholder producers being exploited and passive players to becoming successful entrepeneurs by addressing challenges such as:

• limited access to credit
• limited access to price information
• limited access to appropriate technology
• limited business and negotiating skills
• weak organizations
• weak bargaining power
• poor access to transport networks
• little or no knowledge of market trends

The success of this service is manifold. To start with, it benefitted from an excellent marketing campaign.  It’s business model is based on making revenue through advertisement and sponsorships.

It is one of those few IT applications that has little bells and whistles, it is easy to understand and use. It is a service that provides information upon request, as opposed to indiscriminately pushing content. It does so through different means such as  cellphone (SMS), internet and radio. The radio programme is broadcast in seven local languages and in English.

Most importantly, it got the government’s full support and is an integral part of the national agricultural policy. Zambia’s good rural coverage of mobile phones and the fact that it is hosted in a credible institution, such as Zambia National Farmers Union, with a strong management team have contributed to its impressive success.

Between its launch in August 2006 and August 2009, ZNFU4455 managed to improve the bargaining power of smallholder producers, by providing them better access to markets and allowing them to deal with traders on an equal footing. Farmers have managed to reduce their transaction costs, are now producing more high value produces and targeting different markets. Thanks to the weekly updates, they are no longer overproducing, thus eliminating storage challenges.

Policy makers are using ZNFU4455 up-to-date information to identify trends in price fluctuations and to flag emergent and imminent food security challenges.

To date, 90 percent of traders and 60 per cent of the Zambian farmers have benefitted from ZNFU4455. Forty percent have managed to negotiate better prices, 52 per cent have sold their products to different traders and buyers, 23 per cent managed to build new trading relationships, more than 50 per cent increased their income, 15 per cent of initial SMS messages to the system led directly to farmers selling their produce, and over 90 per cent of the calls to buyers led to transactions.

ZNFU4455 and many other similar initiative and services highlight the fact that developing countries see and want mobile phones as the preferred information delivery system. At the same time, there is enough evidence that poor rural people are willing to spend part of their income on such services. The challenge now is to move beyond pilots and make sure that we systematically embed and mainstream ICT4D activities and projects in rural development projects and programmes so that we can have many more successful experiences such as ZNFU4455.

For more information visit http://farmprices.co.zm/

Berlin calling: Development world, please wake up. There is an urgent need to put back #ICT4D on the global development agenda

The ICT for Rural Economic Development conference jointly organized by GTZ and BMZ from 18-19 November 2010 in Berlin, concluded on Friday 19 November with an engaging panel discussion on “What role can development cooperation play in ICT for rural economic development?”

The two day event brought together numerous practitioners, policy makers, donor organizations and private sector players. The event allowed colleagues to interact, network and share their rich experience and at the same time put on the table a number of challenges.

I think, it is safe to say that there was quite a bit of apprehension about the fact that some major donors have abandoned ICT4D sector. For those of us in the agriculture world, this is a déjà vu. But if there is one lesson to learn from our experience, that is under-investing in this sector – similar to under investing in agriculture -  will have negative impact in the lives of poor rural people.  We’ve learnt that ICTs are tools and for these to add value and improve the livelihoods of poor rural people, they need to be:

• Affordable
• Scalable
• Self-sustaining
• Sensible
• Appropriate

We also learnt that we need to:

• Focus on PEOPLE and not technology
• Ensure ownership and appropriation
• Develop local content
• Ensure language and cultural pertinence
• Ensure participation
• Mainstream ICT4D activities as part of development projects
• Build local capacity and scout for local talent and local innovations

This is the message that came out loud and clear from the concluding panel, moderated by Corinna Kuesel, Head of section for economic policy and private sector development of GTZ.

Ms Kuesel kicked off the panel discussion by sharing her impressions about the event. “I am impressed to see what an important role ICTs play in economic development and at the same time perhaps I am a bit concerned that development cooperation is moving out of ICT4D”, said Kuesel.

While recognizing that development agencies are competing for funds and funds are getting scarce, Kuesel made the case that this should not lead to abandoning ICT4D, because we’ve now have the evidence that ICTs can indeed make a difference in the lives of poor rural people.

Kuesel underscored the importance of public-private partnership and called on development world to:

• play a facilitation role in forging partnership
• build the capacity national governments, grass-root organization and poor rural people
• create an enabling environment so that ICT4D initiatives can be implemented and scaled up

Susanne Dorasil, head of division economic policy, financial sector of BMZ underscored the importance of using ICTs to get better outcomes. Recognizing that the ICT4D community has a challenge of being heard, she talked about:

• importance of working towards putting in place regulations to reach the goal of universal access
• challenges and opportunities of linking up and broadening cooperation with the private sector to develop a robust ICT sector
• importance of showing impact and showing how ICTs contribute to and add value to “hot development topics”  such as rural development, food security, rural finance and more

Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, CEO of Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization talking about private-public partnership brought in the missing dimension – namely PEOPLE. He talked about public-private-people partnership. Spio-Garbrah talked about importance of involving not only national governments, but also local governments. He talked about not exclusively partnering with multinational private sector, but local enterprises and grass-root entrepreneurs. And most importantly he talked about the very PEOPLE, who we work with and work for – the poor rural people and civil society.

Wow, what a concept….. During the course of the two days, I must admit, we focused primarily on technology and perhaps not enough on People. So thank you Dr Spio-Garbrah for putting PEOPLE in the forefront and for sharing your vision of intra-institutional cooperation.

Giacomo Rambaldi, Senior Programme Coordinator, Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation, CTA echoing Dr Spio-Garbrah reminded the audience of the need to involve the civil society. Rambaldi talked about the risks of ICTs and how ICTs could both help disseminate/preserve but also usurper indigenous knowledge.

He talked about how ICTs have provided access to information that previously was not readily available and how ICTs have democratized access to information, citing the examples of services such as YouTube or Google maps have given a voice to the previously voiceless segment of the population.

Rambaldi reminded us of the importance of generating localized and relevant content.  He talked about how as development workers, we have to make sure that ICTs actually add value and contribute to knowledge generation and becoming a catalyst to disseminate locally generated knowledge.

After all we have to remember that  ICTs are tools and if they are not used to generate and disseminate relevant and local content, they are nothing but a useless device which can end up gathering dust!!

David Grimshaw, Head of International Programme: New Technologies with Practical Action and Senior Research Fellow, DFID, made the case for mainstreaming ICT4D initiatives where we have solid evidence that these have improved the livelihoods of poor rural people. Grimshaw underscored that technology has no magic power and is not a silver bullet. It is what we do with technology and how we use it that will make the difference.

“We need to focus on the HOW and on the process to move to ICT for DEVELOPMENT”, said Grimshaw.
Challenging the development world, he said: “You cannot work with logframes when you are doing a research project. These types of projects are different”. Concluding his remarks, Grimshaw said: “We need to focus on the process and focus on people’s need.”

Anton Mangstl, Director of the Office of Knowledge Exchange, FAO, underscored the importance of conducting impact assessments and learning from existing activities and pilots. He urged us to work with governments and other key stakeholders to scale up those activities that have worked. He reminded the audience that similar to development projects, for  ICT4D projects  to succeed they too need be sustainable.

Given the key role that ICT4D activities play in rural development, Mangstl put his finger on a crucial challenge, namely why have bilateral development donors such as DFID and SDC stopped their ICT4D programmes and investments.

Mangstl echoing the other panellists made the case, that donor agencies – be it bilaterals or multilaterals – need to mainstream ICT4D activities in their core activities and integrate these more and more with their respective knowledge sharing and communication for development activities.

Ilari Lindy, Advisor, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finland asked the fundamental question of whether ICT4D activities were well positioned to show impact in rural development and agriculture related activities.

He urged the participants to pay attention to policy and regulatory frameworks when designing and implementing ICT4D activities and repeated Mr Mangstl’s call for action – that is the need to improve knowledge sharing on ICT4D activities and integrating ICT4D activities with organizational knowledge sharing activities.

Lindy pointed out that to innovate, there is a need to bring together and create bridges between development and scientific communities. He also talked about the importance of convergence between North-South networks and last but not last the fundamental prerequisite of responding to grass-root demands.

Our colleague Tobias Eigen from Kabissa, reminded the audience that Africa is the hot bed of innovation and made the case that we should have more African innovators in events such as these.

Madam Dorasil from BMZ in her closing remarks reiterated the following fundamental points:

• there are no silver bullets in development
• we need to listen to and cater to the needs of the people who we work with and work for
• we need to build local capacity and groom local talents
• we need to get better in documenting, sharing and capturing the impact of ICT4D projects and feed these back into the learning and development loop
• we need to have indicators that clearly demonstrate how ICTs are changing the lives of poor rural people
• as a development community, we need to join hands to make sure that developed and developing countries governments and decision makers understand the importance of ICT4D activities and assist them in putting in place an enabling environment so that these activities flourish and replicate
• we need to raise awareness about ICT4D and make a concerted effort to put this topic on the G20 agenda
• we need to adopt an integrated approach and mainstream ICT4D activities in rural development projects and programmes
• we need to show how ICTs are reaching those living in the “bottom of pyramid”

As the event came to a close, I asked myself – how long will it take for ICT4D to make it back to the global development agenda? Do we need two decades of under-investment in this sector before we hear the wake-up call – or can we show that we learnt from the negative impact of under-investing in agriculture and start mainstreaming and investing in scaling up ICT4D activities?

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At this event I talked about "Development 2.0: Putting ICT4D Lessons into Action to Make M-Development a Reality" and shared IFAD's experience in Zambia with the Zambia National Farmers Union - better known as ZNFU4455!

M-development: a mirage or a reality?

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development.

The Road to Food Security

by Kanayo F. Nwanze, IFAD President

Recently, I was on a road in the Southern Choma District of Zambia to meet with Rosemary Pisani, a smallholder farmer and mother of eight who struggled to feed her children prior to joining a farmer’s cooperative to raise goats. Thanks to the cooperative and support from other farmers, she now has a thriving business and all of her children are in school.

On the way to meet her, I passed women walking through mud to the market with large loads of fruit and vegetables stacked on their heads. I imagined how I might be on my way to a very different rural community if the road we were on was paved and well maintained.

Often in Africa, the few paved roads that do exist are littered with potholes and lead to unpaved ones that are nearly impossible to navigate without a proper vehicle. Closer to farming communities, roads disappear entirely. This leaves rural areas, which have the potential to feed the more than one billion hungry people, cut off and isolated. In sub-Saharan Africa, almost 70% of all people living in rural areas live more than a 30-minute walk from the nearest maintained road.

Kofi Annan, Chairperson of the Board of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), has acknowledged this isolation: “The average African smallholding farmer swims alone. She has no insurance against erratic weather patterns, gets no subsidies, and has no access to credit. I say ‘she’ because the majority of small-scale farmers in Africa are women.” Indeed, half of the world’s smallholders are women, and we must keep in mind their punishing task of walking long lengths to get their produce to market.

At the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), we believe that farming, regardless of size or scale, must be seen as a business, and smallholder farmers as small-scale business owners rather than poor people who need handouts. There is growing recognition that these smallholder farmers and their rural communities are a major part of the solution to food insecurity and poverty – but only if they have what they need to do their jobs.

The Green Revolution of the last century had a tremendous impact on agricultural yields and food production, transforming the lives of millions of people. Much of this success stemmed from infrastructure that was already in place. India’s road density at the start of its Green Revolution in the 1970’s was 388 kilometers per 1,000 square kilometres. This compares with 39 kilometers per 1,000 square kilometers in Ethiopia today and 71 per 1,000 in Senegal.

New roads bring other essential services to rural communities. In Ethiopia, only 2% of rural people have access to electricity, and telephone communication is more or less absent. Researchers believe that this is because only 17% of rural communities in the country live within one mile of a paved road.

Together with poor infrastructure, many small farmers in Africa have insufficient access to productive assets, such as land, water, and new technologies. As a result, yields are generally too low to allow the millions of rural households to generate marketable surpluses. Even if smallholders are able to produce a surplus, their lack of access to downstream activities, such as processing and marketing, prevents them from selling it easily.

The cause of these missing, but vital, resources lies in the shameful neglect of agriculture in the past two decades. Both developed and developing countries – caught up in rapid economic expansion and technological development – got distracted. They turned off the tap to agriculture, leaving small farmers to rely on basic farming practices and on government and donor handouts.

That tap must be turned back on. In IFAD’s experience, working simply to double the income of a smallholder farmer who scrapes by on less than a dollar a day is poverty management, because at two dollars a day, he or she still remains poor. But supporting that smallholder in launching a farming business that could generate a five-fold increase in income amounts to poverty eradication.

If smallholder farmers are to be given the opportunity to become viable businesses, it is essential that they be connected to markets. Indeed, support for rural infrastructure – including last-mile roads, electrification, post-harvest facilities, support for agricultural associations and cooperatives, and access to land and irrigation facilities – is a crucial element in the value chain.

Each link in the value chain, from the smallholder to the local trade agents and agro-processors to regional and national markets, needs to be strengthened. We need to link food producers with the people who need their product through viable and well maintained infrastructure. In addition, we need to provide them with research and technology to ensure that they can grow the best-quality produce, and storage capabilities so that they can sell at peak prices.

If smallholder farmers have the basic infrastructure they need to get their goods to market, they will not only be able to feed themselves and their communities, but will contribute to wider food security. We just need to put the pavement down so that farmers like those I saw in Zambia can more easily make their way on the road to food security.

As published by Project Syndicate

IFAD President's visit to Zambia

On 23 July 2010, in Lusaka, IFAD President, Kanayo F. Nwanze, met with President of the Republic of Zambia, Rupiah Banda.

The two officials praised the excellent collaboration between IFAD and the Government of Zambia. “We are proud with IFAD support” said President Banda. President Banda requested IFAD to continue assisting his government’s efforts in agriculture conservation agriculture and irrigation schemes.

IFAD President commended the Head of State and the Government of Zambia for their sustained commitment to agricultural and for being a leader within the region in agriculture conservation. Having noted the country’s bumper harvest in maize, Nwanze and Banda discussed crop diversification to ensure food security and to increase smallholder farmers’ revenues. He also assures President Banda that IFAD will continue to work with smallholder farmers.

The day before his meeting with President Banda, Nwanze travelled to Livingstone, Choma and Kalomo to visit some IFAD-supported projects. IFAD President noticed with great satisfaction that closed IFAD-funded projects were fully sustained by project beneficiaries who had managed to expand their businesses.

In Mukuni village where the Smallholder Livestock Investment project operates, he was received by Chief Mukuni with the Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Hon. Peter Daka and was provided a demonstration of tagging and branding of local cattle. In Kalomo District, Nwanze met the beneficiaries of the Nabuyani irrigation project.

During his visit, Nwanze signed the host country agreement for the IFAD country office.

by Geraldine Mpouma Logmo

Development is a choice: It is Business unusual

I am reminiscencing—a solemn reflection about the past week. Today, I finally resume the blog…after keeping you in suspense---suspense that is not deliberate. Perhaps I was overly optimistic and excited about blogging daily. But my first blog experience is interspersed with intermittent power cuts, weak internet connectivity—a hibernating computer—and a heavy workload. But I am resolute, better late than never, the saying going goes. Come with us as we share the intrigues, insight, interesting experiences and challenges of our last log before departing to Rome.

The workshop is insightful. We go in to talk about finance and investments into broad sustainable land management and its corresponding linkages with national development processes. But a number of issues emerge: the need to address land tenure and land rights; the need for a robust investment framework, and the need for a “green economy” in Zambia. It requires that Zambia move from business-as-usual to business “UNusual”. Land must be seen as an asset, a natural capital and a national pubic good. The sustainability of the country’s development path, requires that it pays attention to land management and its interlinkages with national wealth creation and sustainable development. Therefore, “financing and investments into sustainable land management is not an option but an imperative” says one participant..

Unlocking Financing Opportunities: Internal, External and Innovative Sources of Finance

We focus on three sources of financing namely: internal, external and innovative sources of financing. These three areas are not distinct in themselves but closely inter-linked and mutually re-enforcing. We are amazed at the depth of discussions. In fact, the discussion focus on the need to rationalize the use of huge existing resources and leveraging emerging funding opportunities from a variety of internal and external – public and private sources. Participants focus on internal resources such as pension funds….. This potential is untapped fully.

External Resources: The session on external resources, resonates well with participants. International agreements such as the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, require that, resources from development partners are aligned to Government Priorities. Therefore, land needs to be well positioned and integrated in key national development processes such as Zambia’s Sixth National Development Plan (SNDP). This is one clear way to receive the needed attention and corresponding investments into sustainable land management. The SNDP, which sets the direction of the country in the next 5 years, is a framework within which Government and development partners interact.

Essentially, participants resolve to include land issues into the SNDP. They define key actions. The imminent finalisation of the SNDP offers an opportunity, and requires a number of immediate actions to be devised and put in place between now and June 2010. Given the cross-cutting nature of land degradation and SLM, as well as the inter-linkages between poverty and land degradation challenges, the mainstreaming process requires joint and/or coordinated action between key stakeholders, as well as common understanding of SLM-related issues, options and solutions.

Innovative Finance: We start this session by showing an image of what I call “the paradigm shift” picture. This picture, courtesy of Roshan, depicts different perspectives (depending on the angle one views it). It is always hilarious to hear the different responses when we ask people what they see. I recall one participant say “I see a British girl with a bonnet”, another says “I see an old woman” and a third says, “I see both an old woman and a girl in the same picture”.

So why this image? What is the significance? It reminds us about perspectives, it is about the way one sees things, it is about stretching one’s imagination. And what does it tell us about innovative finance?

We draw a parallel between this image and innovative finance. Simply put, innovation finance is a paradigm that assumes that one can and should use ideas, approaches and resources yet to be fully tapped to address sustainable land management. This includes exploring …

We hold a chat show (another use of the knowledge sharing tools at the disposal of staff). We parade guest speakers including the project coordinator from IFAD’s rural financing programme in Zambia. He shares some good insights into the innovation and outreach facility. Carbon trading issues are also lighted. We follow the chat show with working group exercises outcomes on this are profound. Participants list a number of potential areas novel Public-Private-Partnerships (PPP).


Our First Reality Check

As we bask in all the excitement about the interesting issues and outcomes of the workshop and interesting perspectives, Soledad and I are confronted by one participant who feels Africa has had too many strategies and does not need more. As we talk about strategies, illegal logging in parts of Zambia goes on unabated, he says. He is frustrated. He is angry that not much is being done to stop the onslaught on land. He is angry at the rate of deforestation. He becomes confrontational but he provides no alternatives to address the challenge.

I try to be diplomatic, accommodating and tactful. But I am also firm with him. I can understand is frustration and perhaps he has a point. I am frustrated myself with the onslaught on land. But frustrations must be channelled positively. I explain to him that a strategy is not an end in itself but a means to an end. Therefore, the very essence of the integrated financing strategy is to outline some strategic choices and strategic actions to be implemented. It is not a panacea to all challenges but it offers strategic options, solutions and alternatives, at least, from the financing view point. He calms down after a while and offers an apology later.

The Political Economy of Resource Mobilization

I learn lessons and experiences from the dialogues at this workshop. It reminds me of political economy - what I call the political economy of resource mobilization. The issue of finance and investments cannot be devolved from other economic and political processes. It is about the relationship and interconnectedness between individuals and society and between markets and the state, using methods drawn from economics, political science, and sociology. In order to address the issue of finance, there is the need to concurrently address some of the following:

Economic Valuation of Land: Analytical work to develop evidence-based arguments to make the economic case for more investments into SLM and/or for reforming current practices is imperative. This is intended to raise awareness on the issues and to inform decision-making on finance and investments and to.

Advocacy and awareness: In order for sustainable land management to attract the attention desired, there is the need for information and communication work including strategic engagement of Parliamentarians and the media.

Social Mobilization: to engender positive behavioural changes. Therefore, through planned actions such as national greening campaigns, advocacy, and awareness raising, many communities, households, and villages can be empowered to invest in sustainable land management issues that bear in the implementation of the UNCCD.

Safaris and Strategies: A Journey of Resolve, Rejuvenation and Results

We conclude the workshop with a roadmap agreed by the Government and key development partners to develop the Integrated Financing Strategy. As we get ready to depart Chaminuka, I have no doubt in my mind, the workshop is a success. Commitments are renewed. Resolve to work together and to achieve results. To borrow Simone’s word, the workshop has been rejuvenating. We are all smiles, as we hand out certificates of attendance to participants. We take a group picture afterwards and it feels like a small family already.

And before I forget, for this last blog, we discuss the type of picture to post. Siv feels we should post the picture of participants in the conference—a ‘serious picture’. No pictures of zebras this time around other wise colleagues may feel we have been “safaring” all this while. So here we go with one of the nice picture taken at the meeting room.

It’s been a nice experience blogging through social reporting. Siv, Soledad and Simone have been very supportive in this and kudos to the team. We are off to dinner to have a drink after tedious preparations and all the work that has gone into this.

Thanks for following our journey on safaris and strategies. The actual journey towards the development of the integrated financing strategy continues. The workshop is just a tip of the ice berg. Stay tuned for some future blogs.

Just realised that couldn't upload photo...

Ready for a new dawn: Our land, our future and our destiny says Zambia

We have been planning steadily for the “D-day”---getting ready for the start of the workshop. We set the workshop place set for the first day and organise a dry run of some of the presentations. So far all is well. I am quite anxious to get everything ready, sometimes pushing the team to their limits. They have come to accept this and always make fun of me. Our team is excited, motivated and expectant—always interspersing our work with fun. And oh, before I forget, Simone is great. He actually went looking for flowers for Soledad, Siv and I on women’s day. We take a great picture together. A reminder of our own solidarity. A reminder of the role women play in development processes. So we are all set for the next day and we go to bed after the preparatory work.

I wake up perhaps before 4am the following day. My eyes pop open and I can’t sleep anymore. Waking up at dawn can bring some great feelings—at least--- if you look at the symbolism it brings. The dawn signifies a new beginning and freshness. So perhaps it is a new dawn to the first day of the workshop brings---a new dawn as we set off to the development of the integrated financing strategy.

We are off to a great start but with a hiccup

We are all set and participants are already flocking into the meeting room. It’s a good feeling. We start off with the usual courtesies and awaiting the formal opening of the workshop. We are told the UN Resident Coordinator (RC) is on his way and so is the senior Government official. At exactly 9am the RC arrives and we are happy. The RC has been great in supporting the work on sustainable land management. Great leadership from the RC and a boost to our journey.

So the media arrives including the national television. The Government Representative is not in and we are getting a bit nervous. After sometime, I get a tap on my shoulder from a colleague from the Ministry----the senior Government official is unable to make it he says---she is sending a representative. We are disappointed. but learn some lessons from this. It is always good to keep a realistic expectation, you can never be sure when it comes to politicians-a UN colleague say tells me. The formal opening is delayed but the workshop goes ahead without it. Finally, the official opening starts past mid-day and we go through the protocol that comes with it. Simone is the winner at the end of day. He is captured on national TV. He is immaculately dressed as he delivers the statement of the MD of the Global Mechanism.

There is a common thread in the statements from the RC, GM, UNDP and the Government. Sustainable land management is an imperative and investments must be made into it. The Integrated Financing Strategy is embraced as a unique opportunity for the country.

Getting ready for the technical session

We start off the more technical session by setting the stage. And then focus on some background discussion on the sustainable land management challenges in Zambia, the opportunities and to address these, and some future direction on where the country is going. This discussion is healthy and participants contribute significantly to enrich the debate. Some key issues are raised: land tenure, lack of robust regulatory and legal frameworks to address deforestation, lack of an investment framework on sustainable land management are some of the causes of land degradation. Any meaningful financing strategy will need to take these issues into consideration. It must address bottlenecks to financial resource mobilization at all levels including, policy, institutional, regulatory, and legal issues.

Furthermore, there is a call for a robust sustainable land management investment framework that will define investment priorities and areas that will be aligned to the Integrated Financing Strategies. There is a general consensus for an assessment of the value of sustainable land management and the costs of land degradation in Zambia. Here, the emphasis is on generating evidence to support sustainable land management policies and investments, based on demonstrating their existing and potential contribution to national development, poverty reduction and wealth creation.

We later introduce the concept, objectives and expected outcome of the Integrated Financing Strategy. There is a very positive response to it, and inarguably, there is a general consensus that there is a need for increased finance. Interestingly, the discussions tilt towards the need to tap into domestic financial resources namely: taxes, domestic savings, pension funds etc and how these may utilized for sustainable land management.

Weaving Knowledge sharing tools into the workshop

This is a unique experience and exciting. It’s time to apply knowledge sharing tools. I promised myself to do this and kudos to Roxy and team for all the training. I flip through my documents on knowledge sharing tools to make sure I get everything on my finger tips. We apply two of the knowledge sharing tools: name tagging (ice breaker) and the world café. Ice breaker was great. We adapt it and get people to crack jokes and tell a bit of stories about themselves. A great way of getting to know each others.

We named our café a discovery café. The participants love it and provide some very positive feed back. It is re-invigorating, experiential, refreshing and a relaxing, they say. Well, it is time to go now. Hopefully, we can post the subsequent blogs in a timely manner.

(Sorry for the late posting! - we had a power cut.)

Safaris and strategies: Zambia’s journey to develop an integrated financing strategy

As we taxi off the runway on our way to Lusaka, I sit in my chair reflecting on our journey to one of the most beautiful countries south of the Sahara, Zambia. We are on our way to an inception workshop. I am with Siv on this flight to Lusaka and as we fly over the Alps with its amazing mountain top snow, I turn to look at her. She is in the same reflective mood. Perhaps she is thinking about the same things as me—a journey to support an integrated financing strategy - a journey to navigate the challenges and tap into financing opportunities - a journey to join Zambia as she deepens her efforts to address one of her most compelling developmental challenges, land degradation.

I am excited about the journey as I recall some of the keys to successful resource mobilization--- at the core is the ability to systematically and strategically access, utilize and efficiently manage financing and investments--- for sustainable land management. So why an Integrated Financing Strategy?

Her Beauty and her Resources

Zambia has great resources such as land, forests, rivers, plants, animals and biodiversity. One of the most beautiful in the continent. The country is richly endowed with a wide range of indigenous energy sources, including hydropower, coal and renewable sources of energy. With major perennial rivers such as Zambezi, Kafue, Luangwa, Kabompo, Luapula, and Chambeshi. The Victoria Falls is a must see.

Inarguably, land resources are critical to the human, economic, social and sustainable development in Zambia. Key sectors of the economy depend on land. Notably, the agriculture, natural resources, tourism, trade, mining and energy sectors depend on land and are key drivers of economic growth and export revenues in the country. Land provides employment and source of livelihoods for many rural communities.

Her Challenge: The Resource Haemorrhage and its Impact

But, one of the most compelling developmental challenges today is land and natural resource degradation. Between 250,000 and 300,000 hectares of forest are lost every year. Deforestation, biodiversity loss and soil erosion produce negative environmental impacts, often worsening the effects of climate change and droughts, whilst generating huge economic and social costs that hamper the achievement of national development goals such as Vision 2030.

So the Integrated Financing Strategy embraced by the country is to build on ongoing country processes and programmes to address land/natural resource degradation challenges. Clearly, finance is not a panacea for all the challenges. It is one of the means only.

I woke up from these reflections as we got off the plane in Lusaka. I am excited. We were off to Chaminuka but the road is bumpy. The rains have been intense in Zambia these past weeks and have left big gullies in the road. The driver navigates the path road so well to avoid pot holes that we say “Zicomo” (thank you in Bemba). Perhaps, the bumpy road is a good reminder that, charting the path to the development of a financing strategy is not straight forward. There will be twists and turns.

On our way we see ostriches. Siv is excited. We both take pictures. In fact, the area is known for its wildlife and natural scenery for safaris. We plan to take one later. Not a bad idea after all. But as I reflected on the path to a strategy for financing, I see a semblance to safaris. Safari is an adventure, it is place to explore the known and the unknown, there are choices to be made, a mix of things to see, and nature’s beauty to enjoy. But going safari can be tough and rough. The road can be bumpy but exciting and gratifying. Same with strategies.

Well, all I can say now is welcome to Zambia. Come with us to explore the design of an Integrated Financing Strategy. The journey now begins.