ICT opportunities and policy challenges for market information activities by Catherine Flouvat - Orange

1. Orange for rural development in
Africa, Middle East & Asia
Catherine FLOUVAT
Corporate Social Responsibility, Orange AMEA
April 2013

2. Orange in AMEA countries2
Orange has a strong presence in AMEA
25 operations in 2012
our Group provides services for residential customers in 35 countries in the world and for businesses
in 220 countries and territories
 25 operations in 2012
 17 operations in 2009
 12 operations in 2006
84 million clients
21000 employees
€ 1,1 billion investment
€ 5 billion turnover
+ 6% turnover growth

3. Orange in AMEA countries3
Economic impact:
1O% increase in broadband
penetration in the country leads to a
0.25%
increase in the GDP growth rate*
Social impact:
 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is
an integrated part of our core business
telcos have a “natural” big economical impact on local
economy*, we want to boost the social impact as well
key principles of success
listening
experimenting
partnering
* Economical impact of telecommunications in Senegal, study
realised by Dr Raul Katz and Dr Pantelis Koutroumpis, 2012

4. Orange in AMEA countries4
innovative services and applications
for rural areas to improve farmers’life

5. Orange in AMEA countries5
Water
management
rural exode
telcos can contribute to improve farmers’ life
Sources:2010MDGreport,2010WorldPopulationDataSheet
-PopulationReferenceBureau,WHO
% rural population
50% 36%
66%
Among the 7 pillars to improve agriculture in
developing countries, telecom operators can
play a major role on 3 of them :
1. increase the productivity
2. modernise the value chain
3. favour local demand
4. reinforce technical efforts and innovations
5. promote new financing methods
6. stimulate private participation
7. improve infrastructures and energy access
Sources: Kandeh K. Yumkella, Agribusiness pour la prospérité de l’Afrique,
UNIDO, 2011
Improve farmers’ life, it is
about acting at the root of the
needs, and generating a
maximum of positive impacts
on the community
Agriculture is the major
sector of the economy
(60 % of working pop;
17% of the GNP
The sub-Saharan
populations are mainly rural.
Isolated areas suffers from a lack of basic
infrastructures : hospitals, schools, telecom
network…
 the opening-up of these rural areas and the
agricultural support are the key to reach the
Millenary goals.
 


6. Orange in AMEA countries6
1
2
challenge for telcos to improve farmers’ life
technical challenges
 coverage
 channel-bearers
social challenges
 rural illiteracy & ICT adoption
 cost barriers (service & device for farmers with less than
2$/day)
 social impacts analysis (finding the right KPIs)
VAS for farmers (prices, weather, tips…): low cost, ergonomic, simple device &
service, mostly vocal
agri community workers network management : last mile human coverage for
more complex information and data collection
measure social impact through regular field studies
1
2
3
key factors to address

7. Orange in AMEA countries7
strengthen and
develop business
partnerships &
ecosystems
develop and
reinforce the
infrastructures
enablers et
accessibility
adapt our
products and
services
Orange telco approachagri eco-system needs
• increase farmers productivity
• increase negotiation power
• optimise farmers trips
• create social link on expert
knowledge (community workers)
• improve farmers knowledge
through data collected in the
filed and then policies and
programms
• local content creation
• increase local knowledge
dissemination through local
actors empowerment
• jobs creation
opportunities for telcos to contribute to improve
farmers’life
Orange Money
Community Phone
Labaroun Kassoua

8. Orange in AMEA countries8
Orange projects in m-agriculture (1/3)
Niger: Labaroun Kassoua
Farmers in Niger have access to an Orange SMS-
based or USSD service providing them with the latest
price information for food and animals on 74 markets.
Farmers can thus optimize their resale to wholesalers,
cooperatives or individuals all over the country, sell their
goods at the best price and regain control over the
value chain of their products. The projects, based on a
partnership with the National Agricultural Chamber
RECA for food and SGD for cattle, was launched in
July 2010.
ongoing evolutions: vocal access to infos for
illiterates, more services (weather, tips…), empower
community collectors network
Ivory Coast: cashew nuts project
In Ivory Coast, France Telecom Orange has a partnership with
the French non-governmental network RONGEAD to assist
cashew nut farmers through mobile phone applications. Since
the project launch in July 2010, farmers have access to real
time cashew nuts market prices, a directory of cashew nuts
producers, and a tutorial on five lifesaving gestures.
ongoing evolutions: test scalability of the project

9. Orange in AMEA countries9
Orange projects in m-agriculture (2/3)
Maroc: smart-phones market prices
collection for web-based data
management by the Agriculture &
fisheries Minister
Civil servant (220) from the statistics service don’t
use anymore paper forms to enter daily market
prices throughout the Kingdom.
Meditel has developed mobile application and
trained people to use it. Centralized team of the
Minister use it to feed and update on a daily basis a
web site to inform all the value chain actors.
2012 evolutions: disseminate info to farmers in
rural areas
Advantages:
+ This service has increased
Minister follow-up, market analysis
and anticipation.
+ This has been done in 2010 with
the Millenium Challenge
Corporation.

10. Orange in AMEA countries10
Orange projects in m-agriculture (3/3)
Mali: Senekela project (2012)
Supported by Orange Mali.
Obtained GSMA financing for 2012-2015.
To help local farmers (1,7 mln targeted) to
increase their productivity and get better market
access.
Access to updated agricultural
information: agricultural advice, product
prices, stocks availability, weather…
 Call center: through short call
 Push SMS: through SMS
 Market Price: through application
Advantages:
+ vocal access to infos for
illiterates
+ local partners that assure
visibility
+ community market price
collectors network

11. Orange in AMEA countries11
thank you