We are a collective of organisations that exchange learnings and align strategies to remove barriers that stand between newly developed digital services and the thousands of agribusinesses and millions of low-income producers (and consumers) that could benefit from these. By removing barriers together, we aim to accelerate the digital transformation of agrifood value chains across Sub Saharan Africa and Southern Asia and make this transformation inclusive for all.
Digital agricultural support services are being developed at an increasingly fast pace. This is a relatively new sector that has the potential to significantly influence how we organise food systems, from farm to fork. With that it can significantly contribute to SDG2: zero hunger and other Sustainable Development Goals such as SDG8 (by creating new jobs). Digitalisation is also mentioned as an important means to contribute to action track 3 of the upcoming Food Systems Summit: Boost nature-positive production. And an increasing number of initiatives are working to increase the understanding, and contribute to the development, of these digital services.
Members join our ‘pledge-to-action sprints’ to collectively remove barriers. Each sprint has three steps, which will be facilitated by Netherlands Food Partnership and Bopinc. The first Pledge to action sprint is 'Narrowing the digital divide'. The second Pledge to action sprint focused on 'Commercial viability'.
First ‘pledge-to-action sprint’ in 2021: 'Narrowing the digital divide'
Other barriers for digitalistation that we might want to remove collectively in Pledge to Action sprints are:
Members can bring up other barriers, depending on what requires our attention and collective action”
Any organisation can join that is actively working on the development, dissemination and scaling of digital solutions that benefit agrifood value chains and the low-income producers working in these value chains. We differentiate between 3 member profiles:
Digital service providers : Organisations that sell software, apps or web/SMS/IVR services to paying customers in the agrifood sector such as food processors, individual farmers and food security programs.
Digital service customers : Organisations that purchase digital services they use themselves or disseminate among large groups of low-income producers or consumers they work with.
Digital service enablers : Organisations that directly support digital service providers and their customers to help low-income producers or consumers adopt digital solutions at scale.
Do you want to become a member or get more info? Contact Roald Klumpenaar (Bopinc) or Rojan Bolling (Netherlands Food Partnership)