SBC4D is specialized in ICT for Development and in particular the development and deployment of services that involves multiple stakeholders with different capacities and profiles. SBC4D has a specific experience and expertise related to involving people from under-privileged communities (people with low level of literacy and without experience with ICT) and/or people and organizations living in low-tech areas (rural areas) in Developing Countries. SBC4D has a end-to-end expertise for the development of such services from the requirement phase till the deployment, including the development and validation of business models.
Technologies
In terms of technology, SBC4D is specialized in the design, development and deployment of platforms that integrates mobile, voice and more traditional web access. Such platforms are essential for all services that involve people living in under-privileged communities in rural areas.
To date, SBC4D has developed few instances of such platforms applied in different sectors and contexts:
- Support Helpline: SB4CD, as part of its assignment from the Web Foundation, led the development and deployment of new innovative voice+web support helpline that does not require human management of questions. This platform has been deployed in India in English and Hindi as part of a partnership between the Web Foundation and, One World South Asia, and North West University. A similar platform was then designed, developed an deployed at the Nigeria National Agency for Control of Aid (NACA) in 2014.
- Radio Platform: This platform allows the deployment of content through the Web to community radio stations that don’t have any internet access or computer. This platform has been deployed in Mali in French, Bomu and Bambara and in Senegal in more than 7 languages.
- Agriculture Business matching: This platform allows the collection of agriculture offers at the farmer level, directly used by farmer and the aggregation of offers in an audio broadcast that is then pushed to community radio stations for broadcast. This platform also use the radio platform mentioned above. Different instances of this platform are being deployed in Mali in French and Bambara, Kenya in English and Swahili, and in Fiji in English. See our specific activities in ICT & Agriculture
- Market Price Information system: This platform consists of 2 modules: a web-based platform to give access to market price to people using various technology (web, SMS, voice) and a smartphone application for data collectors. This platform has been adopted by a number of Governements such as the Government of Fiji to cover all their market in various islands or the Govrenement of Bhutan (see the platform). Some modules are also deployed in the Gambia for Concern Universal.
- Survey Platform: this platform primary focus is to organize various type of surveys, for the public at large using SMS, WhatsApp and/or voice technologies, but also targeting enumerators in the field with a smartphone application. Various instances of the platform has been deployed in various countries such as Fiji or Senegal.
- Mapping Tools: SBC4D has a particular expertise in mapping tools that include the collection and the display of various type of geographical information. We have deployed various type of tools in Fiji (mapping of agriculture stakeholders, mapping of farmers fields, map-based data collection tools), in the Carribean region and in Senegal.
Open Data, Data for Development and Data Science
SBC4D has a specific expertise in open data, data for development, data science and linked data. We are involved in projects helping different types of organizations to engage in initiatives to release their datas (governments, organizations, etc.). We are able to cover all the aspects from technologie, to legal, organizationnal and other aspects of the task (capacity building, design of open data portals, etc.).
We are also specialized in ecosystems, and focusing not only on data release but also on exploitation of the released data by other type of actors such as civil society organizations, media, etc. See our specific page on Open Data & Data for Development
Impact Assessment
SBC4D has a specific expertise in impact assessment. Impact assessment is a critical activity in many sector, and it is an essential tool for decision making. SBC4D senior adviser in charge of this activity is a leading expert in the domain, who was in charge of the design and implementation of Mo Ibrahim index on African Governance, and the Web Foundation Web Index.
Sectors & Domains
SBC4D has specific expertise in a few domains. In these domains, we understand the potential of ICT to overcome existing challenges, the synergies between the different actors, the type of services that are relevant and how to implement them. These sectors are :
- Agriculture. See our detailed activities in the domain.
- Education
- e-Government and specifically Open Government and Open Data. See our detailed activities in the domain.
Outside these domains in which SBC4D is currently working on, our staff has also past experience in other sectors, in particular health.
Services
SBC4D can offer a wide range of services:
- ICTD Strategy Definition/Assessment: SBC4D is specialized in ICTD strategy definition: how to integrate and mainstream ICT tools in organizations: evaluation, organizational and operational restructure, capacity evaluation and training plan, process and tools definition, etc. We are able to offer a wide range of services from awareness raising about the different tools and technologies (mobile, Web, Radio, etc.) and their domain of applicability, to defining the complete ICTD strategy of an organization. This activity covers also government services such as ICT sector development or local innovation development.
- Project Management: SBC4D has a recognized experience and expertise in managing international projects that involves different types of partners (academics, corporate, NGOs, etc.) from both developed and developing countries. An example of such projects managed by staff of SBC4D is VOICES that started in January 2011 for 30 months (4M USD budget). It includes 13 partners from 7 countries, 4 in Africa (Mali, Senegal, South Africa). It also includes big corporations, NGOs, academic institution in Europe and in Africa.
- Open Data & Data Science: SBC4D has a recognized experience and expertise in driving Data projects in general, and Data projects in the South in particular. An example of such projects our staff participated in are the Ghana Open Data Initiative (GODI) or the Open Data Research. It includes elements such as software deployment (data portals), capacity building, policy design or manuals.
- Impact Assessment: SBC4D has a recognized experience and expertise in impact assessment in a wide range of domains such as measurement of Web impact or measurement of Open Data impact.
- Mobile (voice/sms/web/apps) & Web service design, implementation and deployment: SBC4D has expertise and experience in developing ICTD services on mobile. Such services can be managed end-to-end with from the requirement phase till the deployment, including the selection of local hosting services.
- ICTD service Business model development: In its end-to-end approach, SBC4D not only has expertise and experience to develop and deploy services, but is also always involved in the development and validation of business models that insure the long term sustainability of such services.
- Data Collection design and implementation: SBC4D has a recognized expertise in data collection activities in Developing Countries. Our approach is also end-to-end from understanding the customer needs, the context of the activity, to identifying a set of tools to use for the activity till the deployment and implementation of the activity. See the publication page for more details.
- Mobile Money: SBC4D has a recognized experience and expertise in Mobile Money in Sub-Saharan Africa. We have led and participated in a few studies and workshops related to mobile money adoption and mobile money innovation.
- Field studies and country assessment related to ICT including OGD: SBC4D has led or participated in a wide range range of field studies related to ICT assessment, and Open Government Readiness. In particular, SBC4D is specialized in the organization and setup of ICT Innovation instruments such as hubs and mobile innovation labs. See the publication page for more details.
- Training on ICTD, mobile technologies, business model development and related topics. SBC4D staff was in charge of the setup of Mobile Technologies and business training units in Ghana, Kenya and Senegal and was in charge to train the trainers and local entrepreneurs.