Markets go mobile for youth entrepreneurs 2012 Global Youth - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Markets go mobile for youth entrepreneurs 2012 Global Youth Economic Opportunity Conference MacDaniel Powell, Liberia (powellmc70@gmail.com) Sabine Meitzel, Switzerland (meitzel@horizon2030.com ) Washington DC, IDB Conference Building, 12 September 2012

Responding to partners requests, innovative and practical Tailor-made solutions for Trade at Hand T@H 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

Trade at Hand solutions for business Marketing & sales via mobiles Trade information Export Export via mobiles Management Marketing Development & Branding EXPORTER Trader Export Value Chain Mobile Supply-chain solutions

4 The Trade at Hand components – innovative mobile solutions to tackle the challenges of small business 2005/6 2007/8 2009/10 2011/13 Burkina Faso Senegal Maldives Liberia Fiji Mali Mozambique Uganda Benin Kyrgyzstan / Tajikistan

5 Web and mobile combinations in T@H • mPrices • mCollect • mAlerts • mMonitoring • mMarketplace

6 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

7 Trade at Hand implementation approach 1 2 3 4 Understanding target Selecting or designing Selecting IT providers; Training owners & users; beneficiaries’ challenges mobile solutions developing and testing building sustainability In it for the Local or global service, or the sourcing? money? Who comes the request from? Does an app exist already? Ready to incubate the Who will manage Who can serve service? the system in the as a pilot end? group?

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A few basic principles learned and applied in T@H solutions development • 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

Giving young people a stronger grip on Trade at Hand: Challenges & Opportunities 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

How visible are young people as actors in value chains? Quotations from a typical technical cooperation project: • What: “Patchouli production by two cooperatives in Rwanda (Nasho and Burgarama) with a total of 1,300 farmers …” Men? Women? Youth? • How: “Training sessions in plantation and distillation to multipliers…” Women? Youth? Men? • Why: “Sizeable additional income for farmers …” Youth? Men? Women? 11.

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

Making cents with Trade at Hand (T@H) Liberia? PUT-THE-MARKET-IN-YOUR- POCKET!

Better business to reduce poverty and increase food security ITC lends “mobile” hand to Liberia’s Market Women 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???

Liberia’s youth is the greatest asset for the country’s economic development …. Where are they? 16.

Trade at Hand (T@H) for Liberia’s Marketwomen in 2009 Trade at Hand Angie Brooks International Centre Youth Event

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 Education Young Liberian Entrepreneur  Ministry of Youth & Sports Ministry of Youth & Sports

T@H - a mobile marketplace for Liberia’s young 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 Young Liberian Entrepreneurs

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

30 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 T@H Focal Points in 9 countries

31 The T@H Trainer/Adviser Network Rest of the world In Africa Maldives 2 Fiji 2 Benin 1 Kyrgyzstan 1 Burkina Faso 3 Tajikistan 1 Mali 1 Senegal 4 Mozambique 1 Liberia 4 20 Advisers available to support your T@H roll-out