Innovative, technology-driven Small and Medium Sized Enterprises(SMEs) in Africa, Asia, and Europe & Central Asia are now benefiting from a new partnership between the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, Nokia, and infoDev.
The €12.9 million program, known as Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy, will focus on enhancing the competitiveness of emerging market SMEs in the information and communication technologies (ICT) and agribusiness sectors in particular. The program will also employ the use of the mobile communications platform to grow content, services and applications for developing countries.
The three partner organizations created the program to foster the adoption of ICT technologies and innovative, technology-driven business models in developing countries. This approach is known to have a transformative, long-lasting effect on economically, socially and environmentally sustainable development efforts.
The agreement was formalized on December 17, 2009 at a ceremony at the World Bank’s Washington offices.
Read more
OBJECTIVE
"ICTs have a potential to contribute to achieving significant economic, social and environmental benefits in agricultural development".
infoDev
The overarching goal of the program is to increase the productive capacity of SMEs in developing countries to compete effectively in today's global knowledge economy and contribute to sustainable development. The program focuses on enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs in the agribusiness and information and communication technologies (ICT) sectors in particular and will use the power of mobile communications and of business incubation to achieve these aims.
PROGRAM TRACKS
Finnish know-how and market linkages and infoDev's global incubation experience and SME networks, as well as infoDev's broader linkages with the World Bank and IFC, will be leveraged to implement a program with three-tracks and a supporting track.
TRACK 1 - MOBILE APPLICATIONS
- Regional mobile applications labs in Africa, Asia, and ECA
- Mobile social networking hubs in Africa, Asia, and ECA
- Broadband competition and capacity-building in ECA
TRACK 2 - INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP THROUGH BUSINESS INCUBATION
- The first global co-incubation program
- South-south working groups on agribusiness and ICT business incubation
- Policy makers summit on innovation and entrepreneurship
- Regional programs in Africa, ECA, and the Mekong
- Country programs in Cambodia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nepal, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam, and in selected countries in Eastern and Central Asia.
TRACK 3 - GLOBAL FORUM ON INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY ENTREPRENEURSHP (Helsinki, 2011)
SUPPORTING TRACK - Agriculture Sourcebooks
- ICT in Agriculture and Agricultural Innovation Systems
EXPECTED RESULTS
This program aims to strengthen the capacity of developing countries to participate and benefit from international trade in the Agriculture and Rural Development and ICT sectors. The target beneficiaries of this program are thus primarily SMEs.
The program expected results by region are as follows:
| Region |
|
|
Africa |
- Creation of a regional African mobile applications laboratory that will incubate up to 10 mobile applications entrepreneurs, including agribusiness mobile applications, during the course of the program;
- Establishment of at least three city-based social networking hubs (in Dar-es-Salaam, Maputo, and Nairobi) for the mobile industry to create opportunities for networking between the mobile applications entrepreneurs and the wider industry through regular meetings;
- Provision for more than 100 firms to receive business incubation support and technical assistance services under the program, which will focus on strengthening and diversifying existing incubators in Mozambique and Tanzania and creating a regional agribusiness incubator based in Mozambique;
|
|
|
|
Asia |
- Creation of a regional Asian mobile applications laboratory that will incubate up to ten mobile applications entrepreneurs, including agribusiness mobile applications, during the course of the program;
- Establishment of at least two city-based social networking hubs for the mobile industry (venues to be decided) to create opportunities for networking between the mobile applications entrepreneurs and the wider industry through regular meetings;
- Provision to more than 100 firms in the agriculture and ICT sectors of business incubation and technical assistance services under the program, which will focus on strengthening and diversifying existing incubators in Vietnam and establishing new incubators in Cambodia and Nepal;
- Delivery of a program to encourage women entrepreneurs in Vietnam and Cambodia with the aim of empowering female entrepreneurs and increasing the competitiveness of female-owned enterprises;
- Strengthening the national innovation ecosystem in Cambodia.
|
|
|
|
Eastern Europe and Central Asia |
- Creation of a regional ECA mobile applications laboratory that will incubate up to 10 mobile applications entrepreneurs, including agribusiness and ICT mobile applications, during the course of the program;
- Establishment of at least three city-based social networking hubs (in Kiev, Yerevan, and Tashkent) for the mobile industry to create opportunities for networking between the mobile applications entrepreneurs and the wider industry through regular meetings;
- Support to more than 100 early-stage enterprises and 1,000 jobs in the ECA countries, and strengthening the infoDev ECAbit network[1] ;
- Country-level activities in the field of open access, removing barriers to investment in cross-border broadband infrastructure, and public-private partnership opportunities to deploy competitively neutral broadband infrastructure;
- Development of country case studies and workshops on broadband and mobile applications.
[1]ECAbit is one of the infoDev-supported regional business incubator network, and it serves the eastern Europe and Central Asia region (ECA). As of early 2010, ECAbit provides services to some 47 business incubators and technology parks. To learn more about this network and ECAbit, visit us at www.infodev.org/idisc or www.idisc.net/eca.
|
The Program also expects a set of common goals across these regions, namely:
- Job creation among SMEs;
- Favorable changes in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems of partner countries, benefiting the sustainable development of the broader economy and society;
- Enhanced global know-how on how to leverage business incubation, innovation systems, and mobile applications to increase the productive capacity of the agriculture and ICT sectors;
- Demonstration of the mobile platform as a vehicle for development in rural areas;
- Increased south-south and north-south partnerships between SMEs, incubators, and their stakeholders;
- “Co-incubation” of around 50 firms both in their country of origin and in a developed country, such as Finland, to assist them in developing export competitiveness and increased export earnings;
- Development of a global flagship report on mobile technology;
- Hosting of the Global Forum on Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship, and Business Incubation in Helsinki in 2011 with more than 400 expected participants;
- Development of two new SourceBooks for project planners on Agricultural Innovation Systems and on ICT in Agriculture, and their wide diffusion, in print and online.