Zambia—Private Sector Support to Climate Resilience in Zambia: Mobile Phone Platform for Disseminating Market and Climate Information

DAI supported a World Bank pilot program by assessing and making recommendations for investment and design of a mobile platform for disseminating market and climate information. This information would be for farmers in the Kafue and Barotse sub-basins of Zambia.

If the project moves forward after the assessment, Zambia will be one of the first countries to launch a large-scale mobile platform for communicating market and climate information. This collaborative national platform would integrate information from multiple government agencies and agricultural support organizations, improving the ability of Zambian farmers to mitigate and recover from the negative effects of climate change that are making drought and floods more common. In addition to DAI’s work, the program included projects that support climate resilience through private sector investment, microfinance, and weather index-based insurance for farmers.

Select Results

• Reviewed global best practices and platforms for mobile information dissemination.
• Worked closely with mobile phone platform providers and mobile network operators to understand technical considerations and ensure needed information is captured.
• Engaged local information and communication technology experts to gain insight into the use of communication technologies in Zambia.
• Ensured framework was created to capture information that is universally relevant but also relevant to the unique environment in Zambia.
• Identified lines of inquiry that will guide the information gathering and analysis: network coverage; availability of usable content; information formats and standards; language; literacy; mobile phone access; access to electricity; ability to understand information; demand for market and climate information, revenue models, and cost sensitivity; technical capacity of both end-users and platform implementers; and infrastructural and technical requirements.