Ethiopia: The Digital Match Making Platform for Investments into Tourism and Conservation

The Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA) has embraced private sector investments in protected areas. Through the GIZ BFP III program, a Digital Match-Making Platform is being developed.

Objective

The digital match-making plat-form aims to provide information to potential investors who are interested in conservation-related investment opportunities in Ethiopian protected areas. Using the platform as a business engine, it aims to connect private partners with the desired business interests and services of EWCA and the protected areas.

The Digital Agriculture Readiness Index for Africa DAgRI

A situation analysis of the digital agriculture sector across AU member states was conducted using data from various official sources (such as FAO, World Bank, ITU, GSMA) to prepare a Situation Analysis Report, issued in November 2021. The report includes an annex of detailed Country Data Sheets as part of the process to develop the DAS. This analysis was used to derive a National Digital Agriculture Readiness Index (DAgRI). The DAgRI combines a set of selected existing indicators that describe the enabling environment relevant for the digitalization of agriculture covering areas such as digital infrastructure, access to technologies, digital skills, business environments with a special emphasis on rural areas and populations. existence and type of drone regulations, e-payment services, and national agricultural data portals. Figure 2 summarises the DAgRI for all AU member states in a map.

The DAgRI represents the general readiness of a national agriculture sector for digitalization but does not consider the importance of a country’s agricultural sector for the national economy, the assumption is that agriculture needs transformation, whether it is the economic backbone or not for the country’s economy. Based on the DAgRI value, countries can prioritize different measures from the comprehensive list of possible activities.

Dr. Ralph Elsaesser selected as team leader for the elaboration of the African Union Continental Digital Transformation Strategy for Agriculture.

There is a pressing need for overarching digital strategies to unlock the potential of digitisation in the agricultural sector. As stipulated in the 2018-19 CTA Report “The Digitalisation of African Agriculture Report”, Digitalisation for agriculture implies the use of digital technologies, innovations, and data to transform business models and practices across the agricultural value chain and address bottlenecks in, inter alia, productivity, postharvest handling, market access, finance, and supply chain management so as to achieve greater income for smallholder farmers, improve food and nutrition security, build climate resilience and expand inclusion of youth and women.

Digital technologies can help African farmers increase their profitability and reduce their environmental impact, however they are more effective when supported by public policy. A top-down approach here is dangerous, transformation needs to be intrinsic and transformation needs understanding and behavioural change. Enabling environments here are key to success. Benefiting from digital solutions efficiently in agriculture works the best when there is a reliable mobile network available. But a wider approach is necessary: the aim is not only that African farmers use digital solutions to improve their businesses, the medium-term goal must be that these solutions are built in Africa by Africans. Hackathons, boot camps, accelerators are key to success for the engaged and well-educated African Youth. Thus, the enabling environments comprise of improved Internet accessibility, access to electricity, improved service coverage and performance of the mobile service networks, making these services affordable to the people and education. At a higher level, governments can facilitate the necessary transformation process by regulation and law.

Executive Council Decision EX.CL/Dec.1075(XXXVI) in February 2020 requested AU departments to develop sectoral implementation strategies/plans under the AU Digital Transformation Strategy (DTS). Digital agriculture was identified as one of the critical sectors of the DTS. Policy recommendations and proposed actions have therefore been anchored in the DTS.

In light of this, the AUC Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (DARBE), together with the Department of Infrastructure and Energy, will develop a Digital Agriculture Strategy for Africa with the technical support of the European Union-funded PRIDA project.

QGIS Workshop for TRIMING-Project in Kaduna/Nigeria

25 participants from all regions of Nigeria.

In November 2017, a five-day workshop on QGIS for dam-related data management was successfully completed.