Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/MOBILIZING ENTERPRISE-DRIVEN SOLUTIONS AND CAPACITY BUILDING FOR WOMEN AND THE YOUTH IN AGRI-FOOD SYSTEMS IN AFRICA - A WIKI AND ADANIAN LABS DRIVE INITIATIVE
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Applicant details[edit]
Wikimedia username(s):
- gibson_gisore
Organization:
- Adanian Labs
G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?
- Did not apply previously
H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?
- No
H.1 Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?
- N/A
M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
M1. Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
Additional information[edit]
R. Where will this proposal be implemented?
- Kenya
S. Please indicate whether your work will be focused on one country (local), more than one or several countries in your region (regional) or has a cross-regional (global) scope:
- Regional
S1. If you have answered regional or international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.
- Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria and Tanzania
T. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)
M. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
M1. Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
Proposal[edit]
1. What is the overall vision of your organization and how does this proposal contribute to this? How does this proposal connect to past work and learning?
At Adanian Labs, we believe in Africa without borders.
We recently researched measures boosting productivity, profitability, and sustainability of the African continent's agri-food system. We discovered a backdrop of rising food demand, estimated to increase by at least 25 per cent worldwide over the next 20 years, with the most significant rise projected in Africa.
About 800 million people are undernourished and living in developing countries and rural areas. Due to this, Africa needs an agricultural system that can feed every person, with a portion of nutritious and affordable food delivered in a very climate-smart and sustainable way.
To achieve this goal, we can leverage technology as a tool and active capacity building within our economies; WIKIMEDIA's immense ecosystem comprises various pillars, including value for her platform, gender and last-mile delivery.
Africa's Agriculture and Food systems are critical for the region's economic growth, food security and employment. Agriculture contributes about 15 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. A 1 per cent increase in agricultural GDP reduces poverty by more than 1 per cent.
The advancement of technology has provided us with a historic opportunity to transform agri-food systems. Adanian labs found out through research that disruptive technologies have the potential to significantly reduce logistical nightmares and help farmers make more precise decisions on resource management.
Adanian Labs proposes existing and emerging technologies to WIKIMEDIA to address the following key issues:
- Strengthening Systems for Scaling Technology in African Governments
- Training and Building of a Country's Capacity for Delivery of Set Agricultural Measures by championing Big Data and AI for women and the youth
- Strategic Transformation on improving agricultural policies and investments through actions across the African continent
Adanian Labs is a Mega Tech Firm fully incorporated and headquartered in Kenya that has mastered the experience of driving innovative ideas and leading technology scale-up, strategy and policy and regulatory measures in Agri-food systems in Africa.
Adanian Labs proposes to WIKIMEDIA a digital transformation proposal that shall encompass mobilizing enterprise-driven solutions for new systems and tools in agri-food systems in Africa.
Adanian Labs analyzed specific policy themes outlined in WIKIMEDIA's General Support Fund and different external sources of information and see great potential in enhancing the gender and the technological arm of WIKIMEDIA by improving WIKIMEDIA's role in food systems and kick-starting the exponential growth of the continent.
2. What is the change that you are trying to bring about and why is this important?
Adanian labs, herein abbreviated as (AL), is a tech studio fully incorporated and headquartered in Kenya that has mastered the experience of driving innovative ideas and leading impactful companies by building the fourth industrial revolution of socially impactful and commercially driven businesses that is changing the narrative from Africa.
Adanian Labs proposes to WIKIMEDIA to transform the technology, gender, and last-mile delivery of farmers in East Africa. Adanian labs analyzed specific policy themes and saw great potential in enhancing the youth's and women's role in food systems and kick-starting the region's ecosystem's economy to be a part of the growth.
Low-price commodities offered for African food exports are increasingly becoming imperative. At the same time, increased agriculture demand and changing eating habits driven by population growth and urbanization are leading to high food prices and net food imports.
Due to this, Adanian Labs sees a broader opportunity to transform agriculture as a business and leverages WIKIMEDIA'S grant to champion the scale of substances by strengthening Systems for Scaling Technology in African countries.
3. Describe your main approaches or strategies to achieve these changes and why you think they will be effective.
Adanian labs, herein abbreviated as (AL), is a tech studio fully incorporated and headquartered in Kenya that has mastered the experience of driving innovative ideas and leading impactful companies by building the fourth industrial revolution of socially impactful and commercially driven startups, mainly in Finance and agriculture, that is changing the narrative from Africa.
AL is driving an ecosystem for jobs creations for the private and public sector markets. AL provides her startups with an all-round support solution that transcends funding, including technology development, technical know-how, go-to-market strategies, consumer access, partnerships and all critical resources needed to assemble a solid product, launch, and scale in multi markets while de-risking the startups' probability of failure.
AL is an autonomous function.
The business consists of a team of startup employees granted independence over their business operations managed by a group of executives under AL. This autonomy includes independent decision-making related to a specific work function, project or job and unfettered freedom to assign separate members particular tasks within their purposes.
AL executive divisions are managed by a commercial section structured with direct communications between leadership divisions allowing each department to utilise AL's resources to meet its mission and vision.
To achieve this goal, AL will leverage its entire ecosystem, including its two centres of excellence. The AI Centre of Excellence (AICE) and The Africa Blockchain Centre (ABC) are placing agriculture and food systems at the top of their helm with a vision to generate an exponential impact on the African economy through youth vocational Training, Jobs creation, gender balance and mutual partnership with WIKIMEDIA.
To navigate the unstable labour market and seize the opportunities offered by innovative technologies, Adanian Labs found a way to quickly adapt to recent advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning with WIKIMEDIA's help.
Adanian Labs conventionally believes in science and technology and understands that the only way to bring change in African communities, even the entire world is through active capacity building to improve food and nutrition security and achieve agricultural goals.
4. What are the activities you will be developing and delivering as part of these approaches or strategies?
Adanian Labs proposes the following transformations.
- Large-scale dissemination of technology inputs and capital intensity to women and the youth to end extreme poverty in Africa by 2030.
- Increased Agri-Food production, making Africa a net food exporter
- A vibrant private sector that allocates skill and capital to drive long-term agri-food and business growth.
Given the scale of resources required to transform and mobilize Partnerships for Strategic Transformation through agricultural policies and investments, it is essential to apply a targeted investment strategy to realize these ambitions.
Our Goal Statement: Transform food and agricultural services in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and Nigeria.
Development Objectives:
- Increased trade in food and Agricultural Systems
- Increased Investment in Vocational Training in Food and Agricultural systems
- Improved business Environment for the Youth and Women in said countries
Through extensive research, Adanian Labs is keen to drive multiple digital transformations.
Adanian Labs is eager to develop various digital tools consumed by numerous stakeholders within the ecosystem. These tools will enhance digital process management, data, performance management and evaluation.
The devices will automate procurement, planning, evaluation, budgeting, reporting, and project management while providing other data-driven insights.
Data being at the centre, the data must be clean.
The proposed system will provide for proper data collection, analysis and stakeholder engagement through visibility and real-time reports enhancing the overall performance management of the different projects
Adanian Labs prioritizes three primary keys to economically drive this 2-year transformation, with specific targets set for the first year:
- Increase small-scale farming, pastoralist and fisherfolk revenues
- Progressively increase agricultural output and value add: Expand agricultural GDP and Job Creation.
- Increase household food resilience
- Launch three pieces of knowledge and skills
5. Do you want to apply for multi-year funding?
Yes, for 3 years
5.1 If yes, provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan?
- Adding to point number 4 above, Positive change:
- Increase small-scale farmer, pastoralist and fisherfolk incomes.
- Target 2 million agriculturalists in East Africa (initially) and 5000 farmer-facing startups that provide inputs, standard equipment, processing, and post-harvest, for example, Pula and Phema Agri.
- Empower 3 million registered high-needs farmers to acquire a comprehensive range of valuable information (seeds, crop protection, fertilizer, equipment) from various private and public providers.
- A variation across countries like Uganda, Tanzania and Malawi records shares slightly above 50%. Sufficiently establish five large-scale agro- and food processing hubs across the six countries through a Private-Partnership process.
- Boost household food resilience by serving 10 million vulnerable Africans.
- Through this grant, we envision increasing the average female and youth labour across the six countries from a crop production rate of 40% to 80%.
- Boost provisions resilience of 2 million farming, pastoralist, and fishing households in arid and semi-arid lands.
6. Please include a timeline (operational calendar) for your proposal.
7. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?
Uploaded on shared Documents
8. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified CONTENT knowledge gaps (Knowledge Inequity)? Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.
Socioeconomic Status, Important Topics (topics considered to be of impact or important in the specific context)
8.1 In a few sentences, explain how your work is specifically addressing this content gap (or Knowledge inequity) to ensure a greater representation of knowledge.
Adanian Labs prepares this concept note to mobilize enterprise solutions that increase business and investment and contribute to Job creation in the food and agriculture system for women and the youth in Wikimedia.
This concept responds to growing interest in large-scale vocational ICT capacity building, particularly for women and youth in Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania, Nigeria and Uganda.
The concept provides thematic insights on Adanian Labs, mainly in expanding agricultural activities across its six key markets, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda and its investment in agricultural technology that has benefited small- and large-scale farmers in East Africa.
For this reason, Adanian Labs has an innovative solution that can combine trade and investment opportunities and is looking to partner with WIKIMEDIA to work towards Increased Trade, Investment, and Improved Business Environment in food and agriculture systems.
9. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or THEMATIC focus. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work and explain the rationale for identifying these themes.
Education, Climate Change and sustainability, Open Technology
10. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Please note, we had previously asked about inclusion and diversity in terms of CONTENTS, in this question we are asking about the diversity of PARTICIPANTS. Select up to THREE that most apply to your work.
Gender Identity, Geographic , Socioeconomic status, Digital Access
11. What are your strategies for engaging participants, particularly those that currently are non-Wikimedia?
Demarcate the Target Audience
Adanian Labs is segmenting our target market into categories based on our critical stakeholder demographics and psychographics, targeting them with different vital messages to raise interest and increase our reach by using different types of mediums of communication and other technologies. For example, we are hosting a podcast to educate our small-scale farmers on new farming techniques and technologies.
Objectives of the Strategy:
- Create awareness about the project, role, and objectives of the project;
- Sustain the support and commitment of external and internal stakeholders;
- Mobilize continental and international participation;
- Motivate ownership of the project among the massive broad of stakeholders, including African governments, global businesses, grassroots communities, and the public, including staff as WIKIMEDIA
- Curve and promote a corporate identity that embodies the project’s brand;
- Generate a strategic document using the most effective communications tools;
- Formulate a more effortless and practical work plan for the implementation and monitoring of the Engagement Strategy;
Key Messages of the Project
Whilst each of the critical targeted audiences has interests, and they are also in common motivations, which make common messages.
The simple statements translate into active communications that blend into the project and progressively into the project’s brand and identity.
The messages are communicated through various communications platforms, correspondence, media releases, and policy statements if we have any.
They will be featured in the project’s publications and brand content. Over time, communication is fine-tuned in response to the changing dynamics of the project. Communications Tools and Channels:
The project shall use mainstream media outlets among African audiences and the above key target audience to popularize the project, its role, services, and products, including Social Media for the Project:
Key Communications Activities:
- Production of PR materials (paraphernalia and memorabilia)
- Corporate clips, maybe a mini-documentary.
- Press conferences and interviews (live streaming and press releases)
- Print publication (newsletter, articles, journals)
- Web publication (websites and social media)
- Dedicated PR/outreach activities
- Social media campaign
12. In what ways are you actively seeking to contribute towards creating a safer, supportive, more equitable environment for participants and promoting the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy, and/or equivalent local policies and processes?
See Question 11.
13. Do you have plans to work with Wikimedia communities, groups, or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?
No
13.1 If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.
14. Will you be working with other external, non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?
No
14.1 Please describe these partnerships and what motivates the potential partner to be part of the proposal and how they add value to your work.
N/A
15. How do you hope to sustain or expand the work carried out in this proposal after the grant?
Ways to ensure financial sustainability.
Adanian Labs has developed a financial plan for expanding our resource stream. These are some of the options that we use:
Sale of our commercial tech product: Some of our products are sold in the market. This amount is not colossal and can aid us in continuing our efforts. Diversifying donors and In-Kind donations: Adanian Labs is looking at various options through which it can get funding. This includes corporate houses, local institutions, individuals etc. and such.
Service Fee: Once the funding from WIKIPEDIA ends, Adanian Labs' commercial revenue shall charge nominal and membership fees from our target beneficiaries and small-scale farmers for the maintenance and functioning of the project.
Our long-term vision of 36 months. We have Integrated sustainability in all our projects to ensure that once the primary funding terminates from WIKIMEDIA, we shall have strong support to continue our project.
Adanian Labs has developed a strong communication strategy and has involved vital stakeholders to ensure the sustainability and participation of key stakeholders in program development.
16. What kind of risks do you anticipate and how would you mitigate these. This can include factors such as external/contextual issues that may affect implementation, as well as internal issues, such as governance/leadership changes.
- A risk mitigation Document shall be shared once the grant is approved.
17. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select a maximum of three options that most apply.
Increase the Sustainability of Our Movement, Provide for Safety and Inclusion, Identify Topics for Impact, Innovate in Free Knowledge, Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt
18. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.
- No
Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation[edit]
19. What do you hope to learn from your work in this fund proposal?
Adanian Labs, through this concept note, hopes to learn about other trends in technology. Small and big-scale farmers can use Adanian Labs ICT infrastructure to improve Agri-food systems in East Africa, especially in the digitalization (ICT) of other vital areas. Through this contract, we envision that technology can contribute to the improvement and efficiency of complex logistics and the delivery of thousands of millions of tons of products to African farms safely and on time.
WE HOPE TO LEARN AND IMPACT ON DIGITAL AGRICULTURE TRANSFORMATION ENABLERS
- 1. The use of digital technologies among the rural population of Africa offers farmers digital literacy and skills on the availability of sustainable digital innovations that increase crop yield.
- 2. Creating digital demand for digital skills among Africa's rural populations, especially those who are digital savvy and can use digital devices, understand outputs and develop programmes and applications.
- 3. Digital agripreneurial and innovation culture among Digital entrepreneurs in Africa involves the transformation of existing Africa Farm businesses through intelligent digital technologies.
WE HOPE TO LEARN AND IMPACT THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES IN AFRICA
- 1. The use of mobile apps to provide price information to farmers. For example, the M-Farming application by Adanian Labs in Kenya.
- 2. Agricultural robots to profoundly influence agrarian patterns in the future. Field robots to help farmers optimize water and effective irrigation use. Example Dino the Agri Robot
- 3. Technologies to support farmers in Africa to anticipate and respond to pest attacks and crop and climatic changes through a centralized database connected to AI and SMS
- 4. Precision Agriculture and the Internet of Things (IoT) in agriculture for guidance in the use of fertilizer and drones (UAV) to reduce water and pesticide to save costs
- 5. Artificial Intelligence technology (AI) boosts agro-based businesses to run more efficiently and helps farmers to scan their fields and monitor the production cycle.
- 6. AI technology to transform the agricultural sector through big data to determine and improve resource use and create predictive models and monitoring systems;
- 7. ERP software to help streamline food and Agri processes
- 8. Blockchain to detect poorly structured food chains provides farmers first and last-mile information on the origin of their food.
ADANIAN LABS HOPES TO ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING CHALLENGES
- 1. A well-developed digital infrastructure is a precondition for digital agriculture and food systems, especially in rural areas.
- 2. Access to the Internet for smallholder farmers and other key agricultural stakeholders, such as ground officers and agricultural researchers
ADANIAN HOPES TO IMPACT THE FUTURE OF WORK
- 1. Understanding digital agricultural transformation, data and information and government and regulatory frameworks for digital transformation
20. Based on these learning questions, what is the information or data you need to collect to answer these questions? Please register this information (as metric description) in the following space provided.
| Main Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Climate change | Over time, the change in the average temperature of a
specific area (location). Data Source FAO, Adanian Labs, AICE |
N/A |
| Food Nutrient | Nutrient Density Score and Population Share
Data Source USAID, FAO, AICE |
N/A |
| Ecosystem Stability | Ecosystem Status
Per-Capita Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Per-Capita Net Freshwater Withdrawals Per-Capita Non-Renewable Energy Use Per-Capita Land Use Data Source FAO, USAID, AICE, ADANIAN LABS |
N/A |
| Food Affordability & Availability | Food Affordability
GFSI Food Availability Score Poverty Index Income Equality Data Source - MDPI, FAO, AICE |
N/A |
| Economic development Technological change | The level of GDP and growth rate of
GDP per capita of a country (region) The annual per capita public and private expenditure on R&D in the food production and processing sector Data Source FAO |
N/A |
Here are some additional metrics that you can use if they are relevant to your work. Please note that this is just an optional list, mostly of quantitative metrics. They may complement the qualitative metrics you have defined in the previous boxes.
| Additional Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of editors that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers that continue to participate/retained after activities | N/A | N/A |
| Number of strategic partnerships that contribute to longer term growth, diversity and sustainability | N/A | N/A |
| Feedback from participants on effective strategies for attracting and retaining contributors | N/A | N/A |
| Diversity of participants brought in by grantees | N/A | N/A |
| Number of people reached through social media publications | N/A | N/A |
| Number of activities developed | N/A | N/A |
| Number of volunteer hours | N/A | N/A |
21. Additional core quantitative metrics. These core metrics will not tell the whole story about your work, but they are important for measuring some Movement-wide changes. Please try to include these core metrics if they are relevant to your work. If they are not, please use the space provided to explain why they are not relevant or why you can not capture this data. Your explanation will help us review our core metrics and make sure we are using the best ones for the movement as a whole.
| Core metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | N/A | N/A |
| Number of editors | N/A | N/A |
| Number of organizers | N/A | N/A |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
21.1 If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation.
N/A
22. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?
Refer to Document uploaded
Financial Proposal[edit]
23. & 23.1 What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency. If you are thinking about a multi-year fund, please provide the amount for the first year.
- 39000000 KES
23.2 What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?
- 300000 USD
23.3 Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it.
23.4 Please include any additional observations or comments you would like to include about your budget.
- N/A
Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.
- Other public document(s):
Final Message[edit]
By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.
We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
- Yes
Feedback[edit]
- Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.
- Wikimedia Community Fund/Proposals
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