 And I'm going to bring forward and introduce my colleague here at the New America Foundation who will be moderating this next event Mr. Charles Kenny and this is called the next green revolution is there an app for that Charles Kenny who is the author of getting better Why global development is succeeding and how we can improve the world even more hi Charles So I'll let a few people come in and out here Can I ask the conversation in the room to? Quiet down, please Thank you very much Charles Kenny and the next green revolution is there an app for that It's great to be here I have the pleasure of Introducing Lin rose she's the the planning and coordination officer in the public diplomacy and public affairs office of the Africa Bureau Department of State she's been at state for a couple of decades now and served in Georgia and Hong Kong and Mongolia and Peru and Mexico All over the shop and was actually a senior friend at fellow in the Atlantic Council between 2008 2009 and the reason she's here is because You know her current work is is looking at Technology and Africa including running a program called apps for Africa. She's also involved in the the whole of government US government exercise called feed the future And so it is a great person to talk about sort of the role of technology In Africa in agriculture and what the US government is currently doing about that I don't believe the State Department actually has a program to clone me, but maybe that's one of the things Okay, so what apps are you working on then? Can you give us a bit of background? Sure. Thanks Thank you very much. Good morning. It's great to be here I feel and from the conversation last night a little bit of an outlier I'm not a scientist. I Don't work in agriculture all the time Working in the Africa Bureau. We have the opportunity to work on a number of the issues that are really of most importance on the continent and one of those is Concerning feeding the future and hunger so We and the public diplomacy and public affairs office we support all of those policy objectives for the Africa Bureau and Actually back in 2010 apps for Africa began as it was a great idea out of the office of the Secretary's senior advisor for innovation with Alana Berkowitz and her colleagues there and Had an idea to try to in East Africa just looked at four countries in East Africa Launch a competition for Applications that would bring together civil society and tech innovators didn't have a particular theme to it Ended up calling it the civic challenge But the winner of that competition was the sort of now renowned iCal and Alana Berkowitz We'll be here or is here and we'll talk to you a little bit about that in during this session That apps competition was kind of quickly organized quickly implemented Just sort of helicoptered in and helicoptered out But the Africa Bureau since we had funded the program we were sort of left with this great platform and What then looked ahead to what were some other ways we might use the platform and John Gossier who is Ted senior fellow and also director of Africa out of Uganda Came forward and he was interested in also Working with us for another competition so with the COP 17 going to take place in Durban in November December We looked ahead and thought well what kind of activity would we really like to support on the continent? Not as I was telling Charles earlier not To directly support or participate in COP 17 But as a kind of parallel activity to really have a conversation with Africans about what They think climate change is what the concerns their concerns are and really Build awareness about climate change, but also partner with Africans For them to come up with their own solutions So we came up with the idea for the apps for Africa climate challenge It was run in three tranches first with west and central then east and we just finished the southern competition we decided to go with west and central first because the the tech innovators are much more developed in east and Southern Africa, so we wanted to give a chance to sort of develop and move ahead a little bit on the west side We also partnered with The I guess it's a program called the adaptation partnership, which is a State Department USAID Program where they partnered with a number of other countries to Build programs and again bring together civil society in countries, I know of Africa, but in other parts of the world to look at what the climate change challenges really are so In partnering with that adaptation partnership for the apps for Africa Competition we also piggybacked on what they were doing in terms of identifying civil society groups identifying concerns on the continent That then we could pull in for the For the apps for Africa competition the one other before you know, maybe we can discuss some other aspects, but one other Aspect that we really beefed up in the second Competition was the face-to-face and really bringing people together to have the conversation First because climate change was going to be a trickier subject Then just saying, you know, what are your problems and how how could? Mobile applications solve them so really trying to have a conversation with Civil society groups identifying them talking to groups and then saying, oh, do you know anyone else who would like to come to this session? So we held a series of brainstorming sessions throughout the competition over the fall and That just ended. I think we held about 20 Different brainstorming sessions many of them in conjunction with the embassies in those countries to really get the two groups together and then talk the civil society or Agricultural groups and then talk with tech innovators about how do we partner? Can you give us some examples of some of the people going to the competition or what they were proposing of some of them? Well, we we have had great winners not all of them I would say were you know specifically in agriculture because we also Framed the competition pretty broadly in order to bring in lots of ideas So some of them might have been in emergency management or healthcare, but the first place winner in East Africa was called the grainy bunch and that was from Tanzania and it's Works with a national grain supply chain management system that monitors purchased storage distribution and consumption of grain across the country the second place winner for East Africa was McCooling a calculator it was a Kenyan application To help farmers decide when to plant crops and how to select the best crops for a given location and The third place in East Africa was called agro universe and that was for creating a regional marketplace That would help communities prepare for pest and drought induced foods shortages In West and Central Africa the third place winner was called farmer line and that was out of Ghana It was to help farmers enroll at Ghana obtain information that they need to increase yields in face of climate change Climate change and challenges from climate change. So lots of different kinds of applications and really in a sort of exploratory mode of Where are these going what kinds of issues were people interested in for the competition they only needed to submit, you know, sort of the very beginnings of What this application might look like it could be more fully developed or or more in the idea stage the hope was also that with price money and also with some of the Interest from our partners from Google from Ted that that then those winners or or anyone really you can go online and see all of the Entries that then other partners would be interested in supporting the development of some of these applications. So it's a scenario where the the US government as a whole has done some Exciting and important work in the past sort of data for agriculture And I remember 20 years ago I spent some time in the Ministry of Agriculture in Tanzania and and asked them how they came up with some of their statistics on on crop yields Every year and the answer was what we take last year's estimate and I kind of look at what happened on my farm and I guess So and I think that may still be the kind of usual practice having these sorts of Applications allowing you to collect data in a crowdsourced data information I think is really exciting and it's something that I mean a few net and stuff that the US government has played an important role in To date I think you know has shown the power of these things especially in cases where We're seeing you know food shortages and and developing famines Which links to The question of this sort of broader US government initiative Feed the future. Can you can you just say a few words about about that? Well in feed the future is led by USAID and I know someone will be here later on the podium speaking from USAID But it's a USAID State Department Sort of whole of government initiative to really look much more at agriculture led development and How do we sort of provide some catalyst for that? How do we look more creatively? How do we how do we partner with host nations and from my perspective? How do we partner with African nations to really develop? their own kinds of solutions for what they're seeing as their issues on the ground, so I Think it's from also from our perspective from our office. It's an opportunity to both Put some funding into that so from State three and a half three and a half million a year also to leverage that Feed the future initiative For other donors, so I think right to date. This is something like 18 million dollars in other donors Contributions to the effort and in various ways And to sort of really look at some specific ways that we can also Along with that agriculture led look at enhanced nutrition kinds of projects on the on the continent and also build awareness for What the program is and how people can participate in the program Thank you, I'm penny star with CNS news Can you I didn't quite understand what you were talking about the funding program of the three and a half million is that is that? Funding from the federal government and then you also mentioned Donors or people that are contributing you explain what the the name of the program and exactly how it's funded it's called feed the future and it's an initiative and That's led by USAID But that is federal funding and that's worldwide there are 20 focused countries 12 of which are in Africa and then by Sort of naming and pledging and sort of focusing our efforts on that feed the future project, we've been able to encourage other donors to also for you know, up to 18 million dollars from a number of other Countries and specifically working with Brazil and India and also South Africa On on this partnership Have been able to increase the amount of money Yeah Haiti is currently at about 10 and a half million people going to 15 million in 10 years and 20 million in 15 years at current trends But it only produces food for about two and a half million people Internally for itself, so I'm wondering if this program would be applicable as USAID You know willing to do things with Haiti, which obviously has a huge need in terms of building its value chains And I'm my concern is that the policies that are currently held are creating more and more dependency on the outside with no constraints on the population related to its carrying capacities I Want to defend it in a little bit here In that she's meant to be talking about technology for development, but If you have a yeah, I I mean I think if you'll be here I perhaps save that question for the USAID person or I Think if maybe I can give you a Website to sort of look at exactly what feed the future is it should although. I'm not involved in that Because it's in another area, but it should also be it's a worldwide initiative And so it should be directing our efforts that is US government efforts to those kinds of programs which are sort of agriculture led and also Based on what countries need what they identify as their needs GMJ global consulting As we start to use more apps to sort of push information out to Regents and that they don't traditionally have access to that information How do you see the you know rectifying that with the need for face-to-face contact through like? extension officers and kind of more of a traditional way and Then or how do you see those sort of playing together is one sort of replacing the other or do you see it as just an extension or Involving sort of way of extension to work well, I hope that it is sort of a boost and That the mobile technologies could be used also by extension officers just kind of expand their realm I think What we're looking at also is what are ways that different ways new ways of? Communicating sharing information. How can that? Support a sort of broader network where you know, maybe we there won't be more people or maybe it can also train more people locally So I I mean I don't see it as taking over Which is also what happened, you know when we started to develop the apps for Africa climate challenge program Was that even though there had been one apps for Africa competition? It wasn't that everybody would already understand this and it we actually saw that the face-to-face part Was even more crucial because we wanted to get more people involved build more networks So that even among while we were building networks among this between civil society and the tech innovators It was also an opportunity for different civil society groups who may not have been in the same room before For them to get together and know each other and the same among the tech innovators. So I'm I think that The development of different ways of communication and you know whether that's new websites or looking at you know bulk techs SMS or podcast different kinds of audio video technologies I Think that's in support of and alongside of and can really be an added benefit My name is Ben I don't I want to know what next after Winning a context, you know apps for Africa This is because we some of us have noticed that there's so much going on There's so much apps being developed every day, but it's like we are losing track of you know Monitoring the implementation how people are using it the impact on the users and others and so You know, I want to know if there's anything going on to follow up with those who are winning some of this competition Well, and thank you for that question and Elana Berkowitz is here and we'll talk with the winner I cow and shortly that was also another part to build into the To make sure that we included that in the second competition in the climate challenge competition because we wanted Also for the Participants for those who came together in the brainstorming sessions to really connect and to become part of a contact network that We can reach out to to include in other kinds of events to include perhaps in other kinds of programs For example when the public affairs officer at the embassy gets to know some of you know New contacts in civil society or tech innovators then when there are other opportunities for exchanges Those kinds of programs then those are perhaps candidates for those programs on the business development the innovation entrepreneurship side By looking for more partners for example Difford was very interested and participated Ted insight solutions the William James Foundation Idio so those groups also by connecting Some of the winners and other participants other entries with Those organizations that hopefully they would then have some opportunity to develop that and look forward to other kinds of This is a 30 second question that has a 30 second response You know just to say there's many things going on So I wonder how you link with UNDP's African adaptation program, which is a climate change adaptation program Working in 16 countries and also with the bavarian foundation Communication program so by vision foundation based in Nairobi. They have a formal communication Program, I wonder how do you link with this because then they are fairly large operations And I never heard because I'm involved in these two about anything what you do well and That is a problem. It is an issue and I think you know you have a lot of It's not really a problem. I guess because you have a lot of initiatives Sometimes they only connect as we find on the ground in country where Somebody who's involved in one happens to be involved in another while we were putting together the The climate challenge competition We got in touch with our colleagues at the World Bank because we've worked with them on some other subjects and They indeed also launched at cup 17 at the end in December. They launched and it's called apps for What is it called exactly give you the name the World Bank apps for climate competition? So it was looking worldwide not just Africa, but also for Applications development, but in the World Bank case it was specifically applications that used World Bank data so I Think the best thing is that we try to find out share information and Hopefully be able to find synergies among the programs and also steer Steer people from one to the next and kind of broaden the network while the climate allows letter flowers and flowers bloom Thank you very much. We're out of time