Life at the BoPUnderstanding user lives and needs in Tanzania, India and Senegal among smallholder farmers, women entrepreneurs, and youth

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Conducted for Movirtu by TNSSponsored by: Grassroots Business Fund, Frog Design and TLcom Capital LLP

User-centred design is critically important for programmes with a commercial and a social orientation, such as Movirtu’s mobile identity services targeted at the base of the pyramid users in Africa and South Asia.

We believe the needs, wants, and challenges of users should be at the heart of what Movirtu develops. We need to optimise our products around how users can, want, or need to use that technology, rather than forcing users to change behaviour to accommodate products.

In technology in general, and mobile communications in particular, statistics abound. We have a wealth of quantitative and macro insight (eg percentage penetration of phones or smartphones, use of agricultural information services among farmers, economic impact on GDP of mobile services). Rather than create more numbers, we use them along with a series of expert interviews to formulate hypotheses and validate our findings.

Introduction to the findingsIn

dia

Social media

1,200m

Facebook

You Tube

Orkut In

Blogspot

170m

1,200m15,000m

Source: http://mansitrivedi.tumblr.com/post/9410298128/infographic-asia-pacific-social-media-statistics

500 million +mobile phone subscribers246 million in 2008INCREASE OF OVER 100%

Afr

ica

110 million +Internet users in 20104.5 million in 2000INCREASE OF OVER 2357.3%

Source: http://mansitrivedi.tumblr.com/post/4685320939/an-infographic-breakdown-of-the-african

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There is little publicly available documentation of conversations with people living on $1-2/day about their lives, needs and aspirations. We need their input if we are to continue to design mobile services that meet their needs and deliver impact.

With our strategic research partners TNS, we listened in detail to nearly a hundred end users in three countries during the course of this work. We selected ‘leading edge’ users: those likely to be engaged with and influential in technology. We spoke with women entrepreneurs, smallholder farmers, and youth.

We are sharing a few high level insights in this brief overview, but there is much more available that we would be happy to share.

We are making this research available for the good of all who work to the benefit of the base of the pyramid around the world.

Their lives in their words

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% of living at the Base of the Pyramid (1-2$ per day) per country

India

75%

Tanzania

89%63%

Senegal

email: hello@movirtu.com

to share your thoughts, ask us questions,

or request further info.

We welcome your interest.

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% of farmers earning under Rs 5000/acre ($108)growing wheat

80%

Ind

ia

Source: Unicef

% of people involvedin smallholder farming

80%T

anza

niasource: farmerswelfare.org, xe.com

% of incomeSpent on food

by farmers

70%

Senegal

source: Povertyportal.org

source: AFDB.org

Country overview

Source: flikr.com by ifc_skn

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Source: Unicef

Across our markets, parents invest in education in order for their children to earn a better income, have a better life, and support their families.

Jonathan Kalan for Movirtu Limited

Womens’ prime motivation is a better life for their children: funding education is key

“I want to set a foundation for my children from now onwards…

it means I do business and save some money for them to continue well in school”

Siwatu, Woman Entrepreneurs Group, Tanzania

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UK

BIS

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TATS

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% of university aged population at university

Average income per year in each country vs cost of 1 year at private university

India Tanzania

GN

I:

$53

0

GN

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$13

40

GN

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$63

0

UN

I:

$15

00

UN

I:

$14

87

UN

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$210

0

Senegal

India

13.2%

Tanzania

1.2%

UK

40%4.9%

Senegal

Farming is seen as low status and risky: few farmers want their children to carry on farming in the future

“Our dreams are over: My brother’s dream was successful and he was able to admit his daughter in medical college”Gnunasekar, Farmer group, India

“Farmer is seen as nothing” Anet, Farmer Group, Tanzania

“Life is a lot of challenges. As farmers we encounter problems in weather conditions, climatic changes, and pests attacking has increased” Allen, Farmer Group Tanzania

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“Religion runs like a thread through daily life, marked by prayers of

gratitude in times of plenty and prayers of supplication in times of need. Religion confers identity on the

individual and the group”Source: “The story of Africa”, BBC

Religion is the bedrock of life, guiding many decisions and providing support in groups, particularly for women.

“Each morning I pray to God for success in the work I do at the salon”Racky Youth, Group Senegal

“I belong to a choir group and

an Arabic reading group (Maulid)”

Richard, Youth Group, Tanzania

% of religion by country

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India

Tam

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H

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88

%O

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12%

Oth

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10%

Oth

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15%

Ch

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:

45

%

Isla

m:

90

%

Isla

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40

%

Senegal

Tanzania

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, BBC

“We were buying sandals for 700 TZS ($0.4) but now

it costs 1500 TZS ($1). Everything has gone up”

Woman Entrepreneur Group, India

Life has become much more expensive as a consumer. The biggest squeeze is at the Base of the Pyramid.

Peter Smerdon, Africa spokesman for the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), told The Times:

“Foodstuffs used to be less expensive, but

now rice, oil, everything is very

expensive”Daba, Woman farmer, Senegal

“Minimum wage rules mean we

cannot hire help” Farmer, Tanzania

World Commodity Price Index food & oil.

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“The people hit hardest by this combination of factors are those living on the razor’s edge of poverty. There is not one single country in Africa not negatively affected. Indeed, most countries in the world are affected.”

“I feel the children go with the technology development, so they

can come up. We are very backward. Let our kids understand and come

forward and we will welcome it”Mahalakshmi, Women Group , India

“Kids do everything on the Internet. My ten

year old child goes to cybercafés. I haven’t

learned much because I don’t know about it”

Astou, Women Group, Senegal

India Internet use Tanzania % of farmers who use the internet

Source: I-Cube, Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB

Source: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Youth usage is the majority and growing fastest

School going kids

Working women

Older men

Young men

College going students

Non working women

Youth are fascinated by technology. They influence and educate adults.

20082007

14% 12% 14%

21% 27%

28%33% 30%

30%

15% 14% 13%

11% 11% 8%

2009

6% 6% 7%Yes 2%

No 98%

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Opportunity to build trust in mobiles through mass media

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Trusted information sources for farmers in Tanzania:

Rad

io

73%

Lo

cal

Lea

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s

62

% TV

10%

Nei

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bo

ur

58

%

New

spap

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15%

Mo

bil

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MS

Ale

rts

10%

“We can understand

world matters from TV”

Geeta, Woman Group, India 

“Where I am there’s no electricity or water, but

there’s a radio”Daba, Woman Group, Senegal 

% of farmers who have ever used mobiles for agricultural information

13%In

dia

Bo

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Source: TNS Mobile Life

% users who listen to radio on a mobile

45%Source: CABI India

Our research has a number of implications for organisations who seek to serve the needs of the world’s rural poor.

Existing surveys assume respondents welcome material gain today, and ask users if they want home improvements or extra income, to which they reply yes. When you ask people their point of view, they say their most powerful motivation is their childrens’ future, which can be improved through education. This insight can be used as a core positioning for services designed to drive changes in behaviour. Rural children need better support through secondary school, where there is a large gap between rural and urban attendance. Mobile applications can play a cost effective and scalable role in addressing the gap.

Hope is invested in the next generation because today’s rural farmers, even the most productive, feel farming is low status, high risk, and has no future. This insight has some sobering consequences for the future payback of current farm productivity interventions. Who will take over the farming when the productive plots have been sold off to pay for kids’ schools, and when the next generation turn up their noses-literally and figuratively-at farming? Restoring some of the rightful dignity of farmers can come through innovative and low-cost interventions such as mobile weather and market price information combined with insurance, by scaling and combining the current work of development innovators.

The BoP’s spending power has been under significant pressure since 2008. All inputs and basics are much more expensive, though farmers enjoy none of the benefit in the retail price hike of their produce. This insight challenges the notion of affordability in mobile. Penetration growth of mobile among this group was meant to grow with the availability of ‘affordable’ handsets at $15 each. The BoP simply have less and less in their pockets, and the situation looks likely to continue. Planning the adoption of mobile services must work within the purchasing constraints of this group: shared usage as well as cost effective mobile identity services.

Technology adoption in these markets, as in many, rests in the hands of youth. Despite being the least likely to own devices, they have avid curiosity and engagement, and learn how services work quickly. Their aptitude is of great

Implications

help for adults, who allow youth to show them how devices work and encourage them to use mobile themselves. Using youth to encourage the adoption of technology within families and communities may be a productive strategy for services which rely on using mobile data for the first time.

Radio in Tanzania and Senegal and television in India, as trusted and widely available media, offer many opportunities beyond advertising to highlight the value of mobile and technology services to the BoP. The high penetration of radio listening on the mobile among the BoP offers ways of reaching users through a more trusted and familiar form than SMS messaging. Combining entertainment and pedagogy creates ‘pull’ to services through characters and stories. The historically validated model deserves to be brought into the digital age.

These are initial findings for public dissemination but we welcome you to add to them. Visit our Movirtu Facebook page, send us a tweet to @movirtu to comment, or email us directly to ask for more at hello@movirtu.com.

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• Thanks to our expert interviewers, who gave generously of their time, resources, and pointers to existing work

• Sharbendu Banerjee, CABI

• Niti Bhan, Sematech

• Jenny Everett, Program Manager, ANDE

• Robert Fabricant, Michael Cetaruk and the team at Frog Design

• Corina Gardner, Fiona Smith and Trina DasGupta, GSMA

• Amanda Gardiner and Christine Ribeiro, UNDP

• Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (for critical farmer segmentation)

• Tamara Giltsoff, founding partner, abundancy partners and TED fellow

• Stephen Haggard, consultant media and technology

• Nick Heller, Karina Pryzemski and team at Google EMEA

• Jonathan Kalan, The BOP Project

• Kabir Kumar and Xavier Faz and the team at CGAP

• Ted London and Heather Esper, William Davidson Institute

• Alan Quayle, journalist and analyst

• Harold Rosen and team at Grassroots Business Fund

• Joanne Sawicki, CEO Ceres Communications

• Vineeta Shetty and Kojo Boakye, CTO

Acknowledgements

Thanks for the expertise from our strategic research partners at TNS in Nairobi, Mumbai, London and on the ground in Dar es Salaam, Chennai, and Dakar.

Thanks to our investors TLcom Capital LLP, Gray Ghost™ DOEN Social Ventures Coöperatief, U.A. and Grassroots Business Fund.

Most especially thank you to our hundred respondents in Tanzania, India and Senegal, who shared their lives with us and gave up their time so that we could understand their world better from the inside.

Movirtu is the leading pioneer of Mobile Identity Management (MIM) solutions for wireless telecommunication service providers. Movirtu has redefined the mobile landscape by using cloud infrastructure to tie a mobile identity to a user rather than a device. www.movirtu.com

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