Communication/Media Platform

Evelyne Kiptot from the World Agroforestry Centre in Kenya will evaluate whether television programs can teach innovative agricultural practices to dairy farmers, and whether mobile phones can be used to measure their performance. Rural farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have traditionally been told about improved farming practices in person, which is expensive and has limited coverage. They will film a series of four television programs in the field and air them on a popular TV station in Kenya.

Chip Carter and colleagues of Plan International USA in the U.S. will evaluate a proven marketing model, the House Party, as a new distribution mechanism to enhance participation in international development causes. Supporters of child-focused international programs have been recruited in the U.S. to host house parties that use literature, short films, and other materials to directly engage and educate a broader network of long-term supporters. They will measure and document the effectiveness of this approach and its potential for replication at scale.

Swapnil Chaturvedi of Samagra Off-Grid Utilities, Inc. in the U.S. proposes to deploy an innovative service that integrates customers' emotional and aspirational motivations with the introduction of clean sanitation in slums in India. The goal is to create a business that leverages the existing network of local entrepreneurs who exchange rechargeable batteries to also include a business of exchanging waste cartridges. If successful, there could be a potential additional business opportunity to use the waste cartridges to power a biodigester that could recharge the batteries.

Roy Head of Development Media International in the United Kingdom will promote maternal and child health in Burkina Faso by producing short entertaining films on health-related topics in the local language for viewing on mobile phones. The films will each deliver a specific message, such as the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, hand washing, and early recognition of diseases. They will record the films onto mobile phone memory cards that they will distribute within chosen communities to promote widespread peer-to-peer distribution.

Sandra McCoy from University of California, Berkeley in the U.S. will analyze whether behavioral priming methods such as associational cues and social influence can promote adherence to HIV treatment in Tanzania. HIV prevalence in Tanzania is high, at 5.1%, and poor adherence to antiretroviral therapy is a major problem due in part to long patient waiting times and stigmatizing attitudes. Behavioral priming involves using a stimulus to indirectly or subconsciously influence behavior.

Grant McKenzie of Spatial Development International in the U.S. will map the location of activities (touch points) related to financial services in developing countries by geosocial data mining, analysis and modeling to increase the efficiency and reduce the cost of data collection. They will first evaluate whether social media platforms such as Facebook, which include some geographic information, can be used to identify the location of actual touch point locations and from that develop a spatial regression model for estimating distribution in an unmapped, developing country.

Mumbi Kimathi and a team from Farm Concern International in Kenya will promote farming-related trade between and around villages in rural Africa with their "e-Women Dial-up Initiative." They will develop a mobile phone platform for communications, and for ordering and paying for farming-related materials, products, and services. They will test their approach in 10 villages in Kenya, consisting of 5,000 farmers, and establish a rural distribution network by recruiting vehicle owners to reduce the need for individuals to be mobile.

Mustafa Ojonuba Jibrin from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria will produce a participatory reality TV show to promote the use of draught animals to help female farmers in Nigeria with ploughing, ridging, and weeding. Female farmers are far less likely to use draught animals for farming as they have less access than male farmers, and lack skills and confidence, and it is considered culturally unacceptable for women to use them.

Andy Jarvis of CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture) in Colombia will test a new feedback approach, involving cycles of five simple questions asked to relevant stakeholders, to see whether it can promote the success of agricultural projects in developing countries. Involving local farmers in the design and implementation of agricultural projects is important but mostly bypassed because it is time-consuming and often impractical.

Eliane Ubalijoro and Myriam Gervais of McGill University in Canada will analyze methods to use the knowledge and expertise of rural women smallholder farmers in developing countries to better inform agricultural development projects. Although women are central players in the production, processing, and distribution of agricultural food products in sub-Saharan Africa, they are often not consulted during the planning of projects related to food security, partly due to communication barriers.