IICD supported project: ICT Strategy for the Agricultural Sector

Countries: Bolivia [BO]
Sectors: agriculture livelihood

Summary

This project initiates the development of an ICT strategy for the Agriculture sector in Bolivia with a focus on small-scale farmers and indigenous groups. The project seeks active participation of policy makers through awareness and capacity development of top-level policy makers in the ministry of agriculture. In addition, other stakeholders in the government, NGOs, private sector and grass root organizations provide input through a series of workshops. The project is the first ICT policy project in Bolivia, providing the newly appointed policy makers in the ministry with a possibility of additional media and political attention.

Update

Updated: 2005-02-22

Currently, the Ministry is in the phase of implementation of the second strategic component, focusing on strengthening the internal ICT capacity of the Ministry (capacity development, internal network, a central database) and on external information services (portal for the agriculture sector which has been launched) The third component focusing on enhancing regional agriculture information networks is in formulation.

Objectives

The Ministry of Agriculture has developed an ICT strategy for the agricultural sector with the following objective: ‘To coordinate and promote the introduction, access, uses and application of ICT in order to improve rural development in a more sustainable and participative way, with particular attention to impoverished sectors’.

Planned outputs

By giving support to the development of ICT Services for the Agricultural Sector, the Ministry of Agricultural Affairs (Ministerio de Asuntos Campesinos y Agropecuarios - MACA) intends to:

• Use information to identify the reasons for low cropping efficiency, for the use of inadequate technology, for the lack of food security and of alternative development lines in the sector
• Set the stage for the improvement of technological conditions in order to satisfy the demands of civil society in terms of information, mainly the demands coming from the agricultural sector
• Institutionalize the use of ICT for the agricultural sector in order to guarantee the sustainability of the use of these technologies in the Central Government, in private institutions, in non-governmental organizations, Agricultural Chambers and Producers´ Associations
• Set the stage for capacity development in the area of information technologies for the agricultural sector in local governments and other institutions involved with the sector
• Encourage the design and development of agricultural programmes and projects involved with the creation of information systems based upon the use of ICTs

Development Impacts

As in many developing countries, the agricultural sector in Bolivia employs a large proportion of the active workforce (45%). Bolivia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper claims that poverty is due largely to low productivity and low prices. NGOs and producer organisations suggest that improvements in these areas are severely hampered by the inadequacy of the infrastructure, inefficient distribution methods and a lack of information. Although small farmers lack access to information, they are not isolated from markets and are highly vulnerable to fluctuations in prices and production volumes, as well as to diseases that affect production. 

Management and organisation

Despite the projects’ relative success in supplying producers with information, the stakeholders nonetheless identified the following problem areas: 1) a lack of standards, methods and regulations for supporting the exchange of information; 2) a lack of coordination among organisations gathering, analysing and disseminating information; and 3) a lack of capacity for using ICT and information management. These problems complicate the exchange of information. For example, in most parts of Bolivia, producers and intermediaries use different units of measurement (‘quintales’, equivalent to about 100 product units and ‘arroba’, for around 25 units). With prices quoted in kilos, these differences do not help farmers to calculate their best selling prices. This example explains why the Ministry of Agriculture was asked to coordinate the exchange of information in the sector. As a result, a clear effort was made to link up ICT projects undertaken by civil society and the private sector with sector-level government policies.

Market and finance

Access to information on prices, market trends and production methods is essential for the survival of small farmers. Initiatives to improve access to information in rural areas with the aid of ICT include the regional development foundations set up by the government and the TiCBolivia programme, implemented by NGOs and grass-root organisations (www.ticbolivia.net) in collaboration with IICD. The projects operate in different content areas and regions of Bolivia and provide small farmers with information on production and marketing. For their part, producers can reach out to potential buyers in local, national and international markets. The information reaches farmers in remote areas through a combination of rural radio, voice radio, satellite and land-line based Internet access.

Results

A Technical Cooperation Agreement has been signed between VAGPE-MACA and IICD. A National Coordination Committee has been created under the presidency of the VAGPE (Vice-Ministry of Agricultural Affairs). Also, with the participation of ADSIB, of the Vice-Ministry of Communications and Transport, the Ministry of Hydrocarbons (with the ERTIC project), CEPROBOL, AOPEB, CIOEC and CSUTCB. A document was prepared referring to general aspects of the project, and a strategic plan was drawn up for its execution. The organizational structure of the ICT project was also established. Finally, in order to guarantee the development and sustainability of the project, a layout plan and a working schedule were prepared in accordance with the technical team and the National Coordination Committee. Enbolivia.com provided several workshops on introduction to the use of ICTs. These workshops were intended for the project team, for the fifteen Managing Directors and Directors of the MACIA and for the senior staff members of the Ministry. The MACIA in-house workshop for senior and technical staff was carried out with the participation of the IICD. Also, seven regional workshops were organized for the local governments, prefectures, NGOs and grass-root organizations in the four macro-regions of the country (Altiplano, Valles, Trópico and Chaco). A Strategic Plan for the Implementation of computer-aided systems (PESI) was drawn up with the objective of creating an ICT Department in the MACA. Enbolivia.com is using Captic to implement its training programme. An agreement was signed with Enbolivia.com and with SIFORBOL for the design of the Agricultural Portal of the MACA. The members of the senior and technical staff of the MACA have their own e-mail accounts. Financial resources are being used according with what had previously been scheduled.

Lessons learned

Many relevant lessons have been learned since the ICT strategy was launched in 2002.

• Participation at sector level. The government does not operate in isolation. Particularly in agriculture, NGOs and grass-roots organisations are highly active in supplying producers with information. A range of organisations helped to identify ICT problem areas and priorities, and participated in information exchange in the sector. To ensure that they played a focused and constructive role, a committee was set up to coordinate organisations with experience in ICT. These included partner organisations of the TiCBolivia programme, other information programmes initiated by the government and the linked ministries of Economic Affairs and Communications. The committee developed a draft strategy paper which was discussed at a series of validation workshops at national and regional levels. In this way, the Ministry increased ownership and support for the ICT strategy in the sector.
• Ownership within the Ministry. The Ministry’s awareness of and skills in information management ICT was very limited. To allow the Ministry to take on a coordinating role, an extensive capacity development programme was required, involving training of directors and information officers at the Ministry. This training programme centred on information analysis and management rather than on technical skills. Although this has taken time, two years later there is now both widespread interest in and a clear understanding of the role the Ministry is to play in relation to information and ICT in the agricultural sector.
• External support. The strategy formulation and implementation process requires long-term support from advisors from outside the Ministry. To secure acceptance at the Ministry, it has been important to work with local Bolivian consultants who possess knowledge of the sector and an extensive network of contacts at the Ministry. These advisors have played a vital role in continuously guiding the policy process and raising awareness among decision-makers and technical staff at the Ministry. To create ownership at the Ministry, the advisors are to be based permanently at the Ministry for a period of at least 9-12 months. A foreign organisation such as IICD also has a key role to play, in terms of strategic advice on both process (i.e. facilitation) and content (i.e. technical advice). To ensure that the Ministry takes the foreign organisation on board as a strategic partner, it is essential that it possesses expertise in both processes and content and is clearly aware of the priorities set by both the Ministry and the sector.
• A development-oriented ICT strategy. ICT strategies often have a built-in lean towards relatively complex information that is particularly relevant to big business. The direct link made with overall sector policy and the participation of organisations working directly with small farmers has enabled the Ministry to pursue a strategy that identifies small farmers as the key target group. This group has a clear need for basic agricultural information, including information on markets and production.
• Coordination versus implementation. Governments generally aspire to centralise information using complex databases and information systems. As a result, the focus is often on the development of software and large-scale systems rather than on understanding information processes at the Ministry and in the sector as a whole. In many cases, basic ICT can be very effective, too. It has taken a long time to persuade Ministry staff to coordinate information that has already been collected, analysed and disseminated by experienced government-related institutions, producer organisations and NGOs.
• Sustainability. The focus on coordinating existing information sources and the exploitation of existing communication channels in the sector is conducive to the implementation of a viable and cost-effective ICT strategy at sector level. Collaboration with civil society and the private sector ensures that the government will reach producers effectively, as all parties have a direct interest in maintaining information flows. Collaboration also allows for the costs of ICT to be shared among the various stakeholders in the sector.
• Example for other sectors. The successful strategy for agriculture serves as an example for other sectors such as education, for which a similar process was launched in 2004. It also provides important input for a national ICT for development strategy, also launched this year. Yet, although the case of the agricultural sector has inspired policy-makers in other sectors, the experience in education suggests that each sector requires its own, tailor-made processes and approaches to ICT policy development

Budget

The budget for this project has two main phases. The first year is considered a test phase; the ministry designs and develops the information systems and the portal. During this phase training is provided to the technical team and the ministry invests in the creation of a Department of Statistics and a Department of ICTs for Agriculture. From the second year on, the ministry takes under its responsibility the financial sustainability of the contents of the system and will also take the necessary steps to guarantee that the MACA will provide the funds for the second phase of the project (2004-2006). This financial aid may involve the beginning of an information system for the ministry set up by USAID and distributed through the Ministry of Economy. In this phase the ministry will provide the funding for all the operational costs of the project, including the fees and salaries of the staff of the project team, advisory services, training and other operational costs. IICD financial support is conditioned by the co-funding by the MACA, which has been guaranteed for the years 2003 and 2004.

Project Owner : Ministry of Agricultural Affairs (Ministerio de Asuntos Campesinos y Agropecuarios - MACA) http://www.agrobolivia.gov.bo/ and http://www.maca.gov.bo

Contact Organisation : IICD (www.iicd.org) / TiCBolivia programme (www.ticbolivia.net)