Transcript Market Match- Up - Graduate Institute of International and

Market Match- Up
THE TEAM!
Market Match Up Team
From left to right: Abeer El Kayaty, Luisa Ciampi and David Mulabi
University of Reading’s Support
(Facebook Post)
•
Many, many congratulations to Luisa Ciampi, David Mulabi and Abeer El Kayaty, who have been successful in the
Geneva Challenge, the 2014 Advancing Development Goals contest. Their project was part of a "high-level pool of
more than 40 very solid submissions from all over the world" and after an initial long-listing process are one of
three groups to be invited for the final competition. The three, who are studying for a masters degree in Applied
Development Studies or Communication for Innovation and Development, will now present their proposals on 15
September 2014 in Geneva in front of the Jury Panel, to select who will win the first, second and third prizes/places.
Their project is Market Match-Up: Using a Participatory Communication Platform to Increase Women’s Self-Efficacy ‘Market Match-Up’ aims at empowering rural women farmers in subsistence economies to address their
marginalisation in the agriculture market and value chain. It is communication platform built on Frontline SMS and
helps rural women farmers to overcome market access barriers by adapting and tapping into affordable and
accessible mobile phone technology to link them to better urban markets.
Market Match-Up uses collective action to build women’s bargaining power and social capital in the marketplace.
Critically, the model uses a participatory approach and places the management of the platform in the hands of the
women themselves, thus empowering them to harness its potential to build self–efficacy, agency and independent
decision-making in the value chain. The project also addresses cultural and social constraints by engaging men,
thereby creating equitable relations within the project which can then be transferred into their social setting.
All of us here in the Graduate Institute of International Development and Applied Economics, and the School of
Agriculture, Policy and Development wish you every success on the 15th.
Link: https://www.facebook.com/UniRdgAPD/timeline#
Idea Generation
•
•
•
•
•
All of our team members had undertaken a communication module throughout our masters
programme, and we were all inspired by how important communication is within all
development initiatives. We also saw the potential for harnessing the spread of IT
communication tools all over the world.
We formed our team based on our strengths and our backgrounds. We had worked together
within our masters course on varying projects, and we figured out that we had different
strengths which we could each bring to the team.
Coming up with something new and innovative is always difficult within development, but
after grappling with the concept of increasing communication between women farmers, we
slowly began to conceptualise a way which was not only new, but also practical and
affordable. Because all of us are in our final stages of our masters programme, we have
struggled to find the time work on this around our master course pressures, but we have
worked well as a team and overcome all obstacles.
When we found out we were finalists we were ecstatic. Entering into the final stages of this
competition has provided a great personal and professional opportunity for all of us, and it
will be a privilege to listen to and engage with the other teams, as well as present our project
to the high level judges.
I think our project is simple and affordable. I think the projects practicality gives us a strong
platform for us to be a serious contender with the other finalists, and we look forward to an
interesting competition in Geneva.
By Luisa Ciampi
Idea Generation
•
Zeroing in on which idea to move forward with was one of the early challenges. We were boiling over with
a couple of ideas such as micro business support for women, developing a socially acceptable family
planning supplies system for rural women etc. But were not sure which one would capture attention.
There were moments of deadlock, scribbling and head-scratching, awkward silence and short-lived ‘we got
it’ and then saying but no… As solution, we developed some kind of criteria eg does it affect women
globally, it is practical etc. Market Match-Up came in somewhere midway. Someone shared a project that
connects women online on a social issue [Abeer, what was that thing again?]. The idea of Market MatchUp borrowed a bit from this ie to use technology to connect women but this time for market access.
•
When I started out I knew who I was going to work with. But the very first person on the list declined. We
were struggling with academic assignments and there were many deadlines coming up in a month or so. I
understood. The other issue is that I started a bit late, around February. Initially I had two people in mind
so I decided to cast the net wider. Having only one person ‘in the bag’, I consulted my course director for
some names of potential people. She gave me three. Again two declined but I was good to go since I now
had the minimum three. But even then it was not easy. There were looming concerns over divided time for
academic work. So at some point I had to promise that I would the bigger parts.
•
The main strengths of our project include the fact that it taps into and adapts affordable communication
technology to connect and empower poor, rural women. Normally, technology is comes off as a
marginalising development ie it tends to leaves out the rural poor. We turn this on its head. The other
strength is that Market Match-Up empowers and gives women self-efficacy in a tangible way by giving
them the skills to manage their system themselves. The other thing is that it builds on social capital, which
abundantly available among women, to develop a cooperative market access system.
By David Mulabi
Luisa Ciampi
“Although I was born in England, have grown up in Zimbabwe, and that is where my passion for
development has come from. My particular interests in development are gender and
communication, and I currently volunteer with a domestic violence NGO in Reading, UK. I also
have just started working for a not- for profit organization which specializes in education
development and policy – CfBT. Aside from my academic and professional interests, I love to
horse ride, and enjoy the gym. I have recently completed a half marathon, and am looking
forward to completing a full one next year. I also love to travel, and can’t wait to see Geneva for
the first time!”
Abeer El Kayaty
Abeer el Kayaty is an Egyptian, graduated from Cairo University with a BSc. In Economics. She then worked
for four years as a qualitative researcher, she did a lot of volunteering until she shifted her career to join
the development sector.
She is currently doing her masters at the University of Reading in the UK in Communications for Innovation
and Development. She loves traveling, hanging out with her friends, reading and most importantly
doing new things. She believes that we are all responsible towards the societies we belong to and
should work on providing them with better quality of life. She believes this will only happen if the
private and development sector fully cooperate, because simply both of them complete each other. This
makes her believe in the power of social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility.
David Mulabi
I am a Communication and Development professional with work experience in community
development and project management, gained from working with rural, farming
communities in Uganda. I am accomplishing a Masters’ Degree in Communication for
Innovation and Development at the University of Reading to complement my undergraduate
Degree in Development Studies from Makerere University, Uganda. I have worked as a
community groups projects facilitator in a World Bank project and a with the NGO Caritas
Prague as a Programme Coordinator, managing projects on community savings, small
businesses for women and coffee development.
 Abeer El Kayaty and Luisa Ciampi were awarded a non- thesis
travel fund from the University of Reading to attend the 2014
Conference of the International Association for Media,
Communication and Research in Hydrabad India. They
accompanied their Program Director (in the picture below).
Thank you