The African Development Bank and its partners on the 13th of June, 2019 launched the Africa Digital Financial Inclusion Facility (ADFI) , designed to aid safety and expansion of digital financial transactions in Africa. The Fund, launched at the Bank’s Annual Meetings in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Government of Luxembourg, as initial contributors. The fund will deploy $100 million in grants and $300 million in the form of debt from the Bank’s ordinary capital resources by 2030, to...
The International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), has launched the Call for Applications for the first edition of its Arab Women Leaders in Agriculture, Awla Fellowship . The Call is open to Arab women researchers from the MENA region, with a strong and demonstrable interest in national, international and global agricultural challenges. The theme of the first Awla Fellowship being " The role of women in agriculture prosperity ". Candidates must be able to present professional and academic credentials in the field of agriculture. Watch the video about the call below The Call for...
In an opinion piece on CNN Business , the WorldBank Group CEO and interim presidents noted that automation and artificial intelligence (and other disruptive technologies) could revolutionize the industrialized world, and with great potential to the developing world. O n her tweeter account , Ms Kristalina Georgieva noted in order to support Africa’s digital transformation, the WorldBank Group will invest $25 billion between now and 2030 and is aiming to mobilize $25 billion more from the private sector. How can African countries leapfrog themselves for this challenge? In the above mentioned...
In sub-Saharan Africa and indeed in most of the developing world, women form a greater part of the agricultural labour force. There is potential of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to include women fully in the agricultural systems. The recent ICT Update 90 focuses on Women and Digitization in Agriculture and chronicles the work that The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has done within the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP). The interventions deal with CTA’s contribution to rural economies, the growing advancements in digitization and lessening...
The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation (CTAs) project, ‘ Transforming Africa’s Agriculture: Eyes in the Sky, Smart Techs on the Ground ” was this week showcased at FAO headquarters in Rome, at the IFAD Governing Council Meeting. Besides the stand display, there was a presentation on the last day where drones for agriculture were presented. This project was nominated for the WSIS Prizes 2019, category AL C7 – E-agriculture , whose voting is underway at the time of writing. About the project CTA is assisting African start-ups in acquiring capacity to deliver Unmanned...
In sub-Saharan Africa, smallholder farmers are vulnerable to risks associated with changing weather patterns. In Uganda, the SUM-Africa project provides satellite based drought Index Insurance to protect farmers. The SUM-Africa project is supported by the G4AW program of Netherlands Space Office (NSO) and recently a Dutch Company (EARS) signed a long term contract with Uganda Agro Insurance Consortium (AIC) to continue this service. What are agricultural index insurance? Agricultural index insurance products are linked to an index, such as temperature, rainfall, crop yield or...
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have recently published a title called, ‘ Blockchain for Agriculture, Opportunities and Challenges ’ as part of the E-Agriculture in Action series publications. This is part of the collaboration of working together of the two UN Agencies to work together to promote the use of sustainable information and communication technologies (ICTs) in agriculture. The focus of the publication is on blockchain technology in agriculture. The aim of the book is to demystify the technology,...
The Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN), invites interested person to join the webinar on 23rd January 2019. They published the following details To register Click this link https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4323913435173576193 About the webinar Blockchain has the potential to provide answers to a number of issues in agriculture, from farmer IDs to smart contracts, from traceability and improving certification, digital payments, insurance, consumer feedback and improved logistics. For example, to improve traceability in agriculture value chains, a decentralized...
Globally, there are an estimated 500 million smallholder farmers -- and some 2.5 billion people living in smallholder farmer households -- who rely on agricultural production for their livelihood. These farmers feed 80% of the population in developing countries. By 2050 the world’s population is...
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Member States have approved at new resolution that consolidate ITU’s mandate on matters relating to digital financial inclusion , reports ITU . The except of the news can be read below “Two billion adults worldwide do not have a bank account, but among them, 1.6 billion have a mobile phone. Developing countries are capitalizing on the widespread use of mobile phones and information and communication technologies (ICTs) to bring all people within reach of financial services and out of poverty. Digital financial services show great potential to...
Globally, there are an estimated 500 million smallholder farmers -- and some 2.5 billion people living in smallholder farmer households -- who rely on agricultural production for their livelihood. These farmers feed 80% of the population in developing countries. By 2050 the world’s population is...0 comments