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Introduction to QAS Voucher Concept A
Decentralized, Demand Driven and web-Based
Question Answer Service for Farmers
Marc Bernard German Centre for Documentation and
Information in Agriculture (ZADI/ISICAD) bernard_at_
isicad.org www.isicad.org
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RURAL UNIVERSE NETWORK

• Objectives of the Rural Universe Network - RUN
• Some thoughts about development
• Role of ICT in agricultural and rural
  development
• The RUN publication system email2web
• The RUN experience
• Question Answer Service Voucher System

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Objectives of RUNICT for the benefit of the
rural poor
RURAL UNIVERSE NETWORK

• Promote the active participation of the rural
  population in the information society the first
  mile problem.
• Development of adapted tools to facilitate the
  use of ICT in rural areas.
• Provide relevant content in appropriate format.
• Develop concepts an strategies for the
  establishment of tele-centres, rural information
  brokers and networks in rural areas that operate
  on a sustainable basis.
• Promote awareness concerning the opportunities
  that ICT offers for rural development.

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RURAL UNIVERSE NETWORK

• Who will benefit from ICT development?
• Scenario - 1
• ICT development will intensify the mining of
  natural resources and will contribute to
  increased population pressure.
• Scenario - 2
• ICT development will improve the institutional
  and operational frame will improve production
  systems and will contribute to the reduction of
  population pressure.
• Hypothesis
• If ICT development is driven by market forces
  only it will widen the gap between rich and poor
  and scenario 1 becomes more likely.

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A World Systems Model
population growth
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The basic model

• 1. Population Growth leads to the intensification
  of production systems
• 2. Intensified production systems lead to
  environmental degradation
• 3. Environmental degradation leads to increased
  population pressure
• 4. Increased population pressure leads to
  emigration
• 5. Emigration diminishes population pressure
• 6. In response to emigration circumscription
  occurs
• 7. Circumscription increases the likelihood of
  conflict
• 8. Conflict has a negative effect on population
  pressure and favours hierarchy formation
• 9. Hierarchy formation decreases the likelihood
  of conflict,
• 10. reinforces circumscription,
• 11. diminishes population pressure
• 12 and favours conditions for technological
  change
• 13. Technological change improves production
  systems and alleviates population pressure
• 14. Technological change has a negative effect on
  hierarchy formation since it substitutes to some
  extend for need to improve of the hierarchy in
  response to population pressure.
• 15. and 16. Both Technological change and
  hierarchy formation improve conditions for
  population growth.

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The situation in developing countriesand the
effect of globalisation
In the context of globalization many third world
countries became mayor suppliers of primary
products. External trade is a prime source of
income of the elite. Income form taxes that
reflect economic power of the nation (e.g. income
tax) drop far behind income from indirect taxes
perceived from external trade.

• 17. The relative dependency of hierarchies on
  external trade leads to the reduction of the
  influence of population pressure on hierarchy
  formation. Aid that is attributed via the
  hierarchy adds to external income and accelerates
  this development.
• 18. The relative dependency on export and aid
  leads to accelerated environmental degradation
  and consequently increases population pressure.
  It also has a deteriorating effect on
  circumscription and is reduced to areas that are
  vital to export.
• 19. Increased environmental degradation,
  increased population pressure and insufficient
  circumscription favours the formation of an
  informal sector
• The informal sector temporarily alleviates
  population pressure.
• 20. Due to the devastating effect of the
  deregulated production systems in the informal
  sector on the resource base population pressure
  is domed to increase population pressure at a
  later stage.
• 21. This leads to the formation of marginal power
  groups.
• 22. External parties collaborate with marginal
  power groups to acquire resources at low price.
• 23. Marginal power groups challenge the existing
  hierarchy to get access to resources. This
  increases the likelihood of conflict.

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Role of ICT in development
18.
Intensification Resource mining
population growth
1.
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
- 13.
hierarchy formation (low and order, governments,
elite)
8.
TRANSPARENCY, E-GOVERNANCE
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RURAL UNIVERSE NETWORK

• Role of ICT in sustainable development
• Give people a voice To express their needs and
  to push for hierarchy formation that responds to
  population pressure
• Networking To improve production systems,
  marketing and the operational frame and to foster
  opinion (lobbying, advocating) in order to
  contribute to hierarchy formation (formalization
  of the informal sector).
• Knowledge Technology-Transfer To exchange of
  information and stimulate learning processes to
  improve production systems and resource
  management
• Transparency e-governance To monitor
  development and to make development statistics
  available to improve decisions. To facilitate
  administrative procedures.

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Give people a Voice
RUN e-journals The email2web publication system
A low cost web publishing system that works where
connectivity is poor and that requires no
programming skills.
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RURAL UNIVERSE NETWORK
An article in a RUN e-journal
article
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(No Transcript)
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The RUN platformOpen Source and Alive

• CREATE E-JOURNAL Request a journal by e-mail for
  free. Each e-journal has its own home page that
  can be personalised (logo, text, pictures)
• PUBLISH on-line and via e-mail Publishing can be
  done with basic computer skills at the cost of an
  e-mail. Use your login and password to publish
  and delete articles by e-mail or on-line.
• ADD DOCs Documents in all popular file formats
  (text, pictures, video, sound, tables) can be
  attached to e-mail or uploaded to be part of the
  article
• LINKS Include Links to relevant web pages
• QUESTIONS Ask questions
• EDIT Edit articles on-line
• SEARCH Search database by keyword, free text or
  by browsing the pictures
• COMMENT Comment articles by e-mail or on-line
  Authors of articles are notified by e-mail
  Comments become part of the article
• LANGUAGE German, English, Spanish, French. Other
  languages can be added easily.
• CD-ROM The entire web site including all
  articles (gt2000) attached documents (gt6000) on
  CD-ROM at low cost (/- 3 Euro)

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The RUN Experience problems with a supply
driven approach

• Service providers responded primarily to RUN as a
  donor and not to the target group
• Content did not match needs of clients. Lack of
  dialogue with clients for content development.
• Difficult to get in touch with the target group
• Costs for need assessment and evaluation
• Scaling up with a supply driven approach too
  costly
• -----? Nairobi 12.12.2001 at 12 noon the idea to
  use vouchers for a QAS

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Subsidy of Supply versus Subsidy of Demand Switch
demand from donors to Clients
Intensification Resource mining
population growth
1.
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Supply driven versus demand drivenFlow of funds
and informationturn NEED into DEMAND
Subsidy of Supply
Subsidy of Demand
Flow of funds
Flow of information
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The Voucher Based Question Answer Service
Donor
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Procedures of the voucher system

• Donors put the funds in a QAS bank account.
• The voucher is handed out to target group
  (Client).
• The client contacts the Rural Infomtion Broker
  (RIB) who will help him to formulate his
  information request using a standard questionair.
• The RIB publishes the request on the Internet in
  his RUN e-Journal.
• If possible the RIB idenentifies a Local Expert.
• The Local expert publishs the answer in his RUN
  e-Journal
• People in the information society read the
  question spontaniously oron request (Network).
• People respond by publishing an article or a
  comment. An ALERT mail is send to the Editor and
  Author of an article.
• If no local expert is identified the National
  Answer Service (NAS) looks for an National
  Expert.
• The request is forwarded to a National Expert
• The national expert might consult his Archives.
• Relevant content from archives isconsidered.

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Procedures of the voucher system

• The expert answers according to guidelines and
  forwards the answer to the NAS.
• The NAS formats the answer and publishes an
  article with the answer.
• The RIB is notified by an ALERT mail.
• The RIB explains the answer to the client.
• The client evaluates the answer using a standard
  questionair.
• Evaluation is published on the Internet.
• The RIB registers local experts.
• The NAS registers national experts.
• The RIB gives a copy of the question and the
  answer to Local Archives (schools, community
  centres,) including a RUN CD-Rom.
• A copy is given to Rural Radio station for
  brodcasting.
• The Controlling Agent verifies the exper database
  and RUN internet platform to evaluate work of
  service providers.
• The CA gets money from the QAS account.
• The CA pays the RIB and he local expert.
• The CA pays the NAS and the national expert.

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The Extended RUN Platform

• System Administration Area
• Generate questionnaires for information requests
  and evalation
• Define projects
• Define tasks
• Define participating journals, project mangers
  and controlling agents
• Administrative area for project controlling
• Register actors
• Project Accounting
• Monitoring payment of actors
• Administrative area for project managers
• Monitor progress
• Check financial status of project
• Extract data for further statistical analysis of
  content
• Administrative Area for Editors and Authors of
  e-journals
• Service request forms for participating journals
• Monitoring progress
• Evaluation form (on-line)

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• Setting up of a project online...
• Define E-journals for each region
• Configure questionnaires
• Register actors
• Define cost of tasks - value of service
• Define role of actors

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Vouchers are handed out to the clients...
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• The Question
• is formulated
• and documented...

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• In the internet café
• questions are published...

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The question is answered...
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• On -line Controlling and Monitoring
• Number of services accomplished
• Costs for services per actor
• Evaluation of Service on-line
• Monitoring of Payments
• Reports are downloaded

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The information is available for the public...
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Effects of the Voucher System

• Switch demand from donors to the target group
• Equitable access Vouchers can be targeted to
  specific target groups
• Readiness to learn Asking a question raises the
  awareness of the target group and induces a
  learning process.
• Satisfy demand of individuals Increased impact
  on decision making and willingness to invest into
  learning an change.
• Local archives Build up local archives for
  recurrent questions.
• Local knowledge Network Clients, RIBs and local
  experts create a knowledge network.
• Sustainability of local initiatives Additional
  income contributes to the sustainability of
  internet-cafés in areas with low purchasing
  power. In return this assures that the target
  group has access to internet services.
• Networking The fact that many participate in the
  QAS, share similar experiences and publish on the
  same platform generates a sense of community
• Mapping of expertise and information sources
• Mining of Relevant Content and put it into
  practical context
• Evaluation and Priority Setting
• Identify Marketing opportunities for inputs
• High returns as compared to other systems of
  knowledge transfer Only requested information is
  made available.
• ........ and many more

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RURAL UNIVERSE NETWORK
RUN experiences

• Build on existing resources and collaborate with
  ongoing initiatives by creating an open network
  and sharing responsibility
• Surprisingly big pool of local and national
  experts
• The scope of questions varies considerably
  between sites. At a single site recurrent
  questions become frequent once 50 to 100 QAS were
  completed
• Local and national experts are better placed
  since combining theoretical knowledge with
  practical knowledge and considering local
  conditions is key for providing useful answers
• Farmers discuss and test recommendations and
  provide feed-back
• Quality of answers is high since experts are
  worried about their reputation.

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RURAL UNIVERSE NETWORK
Options for the future

• Lower costs for services
• Improvement of the Information System to
  facilitate task of actors actors
• Participation of farmers / clients
• Improve service
• Improve dissemination by strengthening links with
  other media (print, rural radio,)
• Improve selection of the different actors and
  provide special training
• Revise guidelines according to experience
• Improve service to farmers with recurrent
  questions
• Improve the Information System
• Scaling up
• Further decentralization and networking
• Collaboration with established services
• Promotion and fund raising
• Diversify
• Define other voucher based services (health,
  education,)

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RURAL UNIVERSE NETWORK
Thank you!