The pioneering vision of Sarvodaya- Fusion, to bring information and communication technology (ICT) to those in need, received another boost from two giants of commerce.

Microsoft Sri Lanka together with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank will assist Sarvodaya- Fusion to roll out mass access to ICT resources in the Northern and Eastern provinces of the country. The two companies provided a total of US$263,000 to a Sarvodaya-Fusion project to improve the provision of ICT resources to the war ravaged North East provinces.

These areas endured decades of instability and impoverishment due to an insurgency that finally ended in middle of 2009. The conclusion of the conflict provides a unique opportunity for growth and to share the peace dividend enjoyed by the rest of Sri Lanka. However, the population currently has very limited access to facilities for professional education including crucial IT skills. As new businesses are move to these areas, the demand for an educated workforce is increasing. Gainful employment also provides opportunities for the local communities to rebuild lives through empowerment and stability.

The partnership between Fusion, Microsoft and HSBC aims to this shortfall through a combined Telecentre and Village Information Centre (VIC) strategy. Microsoft will provide training for IT educators at fifty new VICs, which will be equipped with learning materials in Tamil language. These VICs will provide much needed training and access to IT resource to the local populace. This initiative will start with the selection of 50 youth community leaders to set up VICs and close to a dozen awareness programmes to educate the public about benefits of ICT education. Telecentre operatives in the area will also receive additional training and resources to upgrade their own infrastructure and capacity.

The war ravaged Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka needs the development of not only physical infrastructure but also the human resource potential neglected thus far. Since research has shown that telecentres have led to local community motivation, skills development, exploration and ultimately application of knowledge available on the internet, this project aims to develop this potential.

Related Media articles:

Daily News, Sri Lanka

News at Express Business Sri Lanka

IT Pro, Sri Lanka

Posted by Harsha Goonewardana

After only two months of operation, the team behind FarmerNet was recognized at the prestigious National Best e-Content Award, e-Swabhimani 2009.

FarmerNet took the prize among the selected top three awards for the e-Business and Commerce category, in a field packed with pioneering ideas and innovative concepts. The jury awarded the prizes based on a stringent set of criteria including, among others, the quality and comprehensiveness of content, ease of use and value added through interactivity and multimedia.

FarmerNet offers real time market information to the rural populace by using mobile phones to connect buyers and sellers through a virtual trading floor using SMS technology.

FarmerNet is the result of over two years of planning, implementation and testing by the team at Sarvodaya -Fusion, with the support of multiple partners and volunteer experts. Dr. Liyanage Managing Director of Survodaya -Fusion hoped the award would be in inspiration to all who had contributed to Fusion’s journey to support rural farmers. He added that although ICT has improved the living standards of many rural communities, there are still many more without access to the technology due to infrastructure limitations. Mobile phones provide many hopes, and FarmerNet is founded upon such hopes.

ICT Agency launched the National Best e-Content Award to recognize the best Content providers in rapidly growing digital media industry in Sri Lanka. E-Swabhimani awards mark a new milestone in content development. It aims to create a wider awareness of the role that digital content plays in the economic development in the country. The awards will also allow winners to be nominated for international recognition through the Manthan Awards, South Asia and the World Summit Awards.

Contributed by: Harsha Goonewardana & Prasad Perera

From ‘Agri-clinics to FarmerNet; applying mobile phones to and the Internet to support rural farmers’; the presentation delivered from Sarvodaya-Fusion, had captured the global audience at the CABI Global Summit on food security in a climate of change, held in London, from 19 - 21 October.

The CABI Global Summit brought together ministerial level senior government officials from around the world and representatives from major international development organizations. The summit recognized that not only is agriculture central to food security but the industry is also struggling to meet ever-growing demand for food from increasingly urbanized populations.

Dr. Harsha Liyanage, Managing Director of the Sarvodaya - Fusion, had been an invited speaker to the event, to present the lessons learned from Agri-clinics, the project partnered by CABI. He introduced two Fusion ICT initiatives, Agri-clinics and FarmerNet, that incorporate internet access and mobile telephony to increase agricultural productivity among Sri Lankan rural farmers.

The first, UNESCO funded Agri-Clinic project, gathers the latest research findings and agricultural data from a spectrum of local and international research institutes. Agri-Clinics distribute this information through telecentres, using both electronic and traditional communication mediums such as leaflets to support farmers’ decision making over pest and disease problems.

The second initiative, FarmerNet, offers real time market information to the rural populace. Majority of rural farmers have very limited independent market information, therefore are forced to sell their produce at very low prices to intermediaries. The FarmerNet uses mobile phones to connect buyers and sellers through a virtual trading floor using SMS technology.  The buyers and sellers can exchange information about produce efficiently while bypassing intermediaries therefore enjoy the benefits of an efficient market.

Dr Liyanage also recognized telecentres as a vital partner in improving access to information for some of the poorest farmers. He also added that the telecentres have led to local community motivation, skills development, exploration and ultimately application of knowledge available on the internet.

Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau (CABI International) is a not-for-profit, developmental organization that can trace its origins back to 1910. Established by a United Nations treaty level agreement, CABI focuses on achieving global development objectives, particularly those concerned with poverty reduction, environmental sustainability and partnership for development.

See Presented research paper, Detail presentation and Conference response at CABI’s ‘hand picked and carefully sorted’ blog.

posted by Harsha Goonewardana

On September 11^th Friday, Sarvodaya-Fusion launched an online trading platform named FarmerNet (www.farmer.lk) to streamline the trading of produce by small scale farmers. The initiative uses mobile phones to connect buyers and sellers through a virtual trading floor using SMS technology. The process is very simple; a seller sends a SMS with information on available quantity, expected price, and quality and expiry date about produce for sale to an online database while wholesalers also send their requirements through a SMS to the same database. An algorithm compares the variable and when a match is found, sends a SMS to both parties with information on produce to be traded and contact details. The transactions can also be tracked on the FarmerNet website.

The premise of the initiative is to create an efficient marketplace, using information technology to reduce transaction costs. The buyers and sellers can exchange information about produce efficiently while bypassing middlemen. FarmerNet is a culmination of a journey that started by Sarvodaya- Fusion in 2006 with the partnership of volunteers, industry experts, and NGOs. A brief time line:

• 2006 - Fusion set up Agri-clinic project, as part of the Village Information Centre (VIC) initiative. Initial feedback suggested farmers were overwhelmed by the complexity of using available IT systems.

• 2007 - Potential of a mobile based solution was first surfaced at a presentation by LIRNEasia at National Telecentre Alliance conference.

• 2008 FarmerNet project was conceived.

-      National Development Bank pioneered the eZ Pay mobile banking system, proving that a mobile solution is a viable option.

-      Spot Trading Concept, the core strategy underpinning the trading platform is developed under the auspices of Sarvodaya-UK.

-      In conjunction with Sarvodaya Economic Enterprise Development Services (SEEDS), Fusion carries out a pilot testing project with rural farmers & small traders at Nuwara Eliya. The results confirm the potential of FarmerNet as a viable enterprise.

• 2009 Farmnet initiative is implemented

-      Farmernet completes the final beta testing and declares the platform ready for implementation.

-      A public awareness programme is initiated in preparation for the launch of FarmerNet.

FarmerNet is another pioneering project in Sri Lanka, created by Sarvodaya-Fusion to promote the application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for the benefit of rural communities.  Prototype development was sponsored by ICTA (ICT Agency of Sri Lanka), and implemented in partnership with Saber Technologies, and Lanka Bell Pvt Ltd.

Posted by: Harsha Goonewardana

FarmerNet blog:  http://farmernet.wordpress.com/

FarmerNet flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39690621@N05/

Rebekka Rumpel, a sixth form student from Simon Langton Grammar School, Canterbury was the latest to join Fusion’s volunteer team. On her own initiative, Rebekka ran a fund raiser during  her last Christmas vacation, at Germany, to raise some funds for her passionate work; that is to help four poor students from Maharathenna, a remote village  located in Kandy district, in Sri Lanka.

Scholarship awarding ceremony took place at Sarvodaya District Telecentre, on 5th March, where Sarvodaya officials awarded the schol to four recipients.

‘When we build our village information centre, we were not sure how to get the required computer training. There are about 15 young girls and boys in our village youth circle seeking computer education. After getting this training, we will share our skills to teach them’ - Nilusha Wijeratne, 16 year old recipient shared her excitement during the ceremony.

Scholarship recipients may undergo four month long basic IT training at Sarvodaya Distance Education and Learning (DEL) centre at Kandy. The training would help them to use village information centre in their own village as a training facility to train other youths, who are seeking a chance to learn with computers.

Being an energetic youth seeking a carrier in International Politics, Rebekka wanted to get first hand experience on charity work. She plans to expand the program with the involvement of her friends and the school, in upcoming months. For more details of her exciting experience visit her own blog site>

http://blogekka.wordpress.com/

AMD - the global chip maker, is the latest international partner to join Fusions e-Empowerment efforts. The new AMD technology powered equipments, will be added to Fusions’ telecentre network to commense the first step of partnership program with Fusion. The device was a unique model developed by AMD to enable easy Internet access. It can substitute the need of expensive and energy intensive CPU (Computer Processing Units). Thus cut the energy cost, and save money to the telecentres.

This partnership is a part of AMD’s well known ‘50×15′ program, which has a grander target of connecting 50% of the world community with Internet by 2015. Partnership with Fusion marks the first time introduction of 50X15 initiative to Sri Lanka. Fusion would install those devices at specially selected telecentres, thus enabling more and more rural community access to internet. Further it may consider under upcoming ‘Green Telecentre’ initiative, which aims to cut down C-foot print of a telecentre.

Fusion is grateful to AMD Brasil for taking extra effort to forge the partnership, also acknowledges the efforts of Sarvodaya-UK and Sarvodaya-USA to materilize the AMD - Fusion partnership.

‘We identified Fusion has mastered specific techniques to help underprivileged communities to effectively use technology and educate them in IT over the past decade. These features prompt us to connect with Fusion in creating a country strong and confident in the IT arena’ - Madu Ratnayake, General Manager of Virtusa, the countries leading IT company, quoted in a recent interview by the ‘Daily Mirror’ (News paper) on 4th August ‘08).

The unique Corporate - NGO partnership between Virtusa and Sarvodaya-Fusion commenced early 2007, since committed to recognize better ways to foster the partnership in mutually beneficial manner. Virtusa brings in IT technological expertise through its volunteer staff, who is seeking to help the local communities to improve their lives. Fusion brings in grassroots mastery to connect such enthusiasm into effective means.

Partnership concentrates on three main aspects;

1. to organize IT carrier guidance workshops to rural communities
2. develop a telecentre monitoring mechanism
3. recycle computers

Carrier guidance workshops are scheduled to be held in selected rural areas, where students would be given the specific guidance on basic ICT education, software and hardware skills.

Telecentre monitoring mechanism would be an online model to monitor the progress of island-wide network of telecentres (including Nanasala of ICTA - State agency of Sri Lanka).

Computer recycling program contributes refurbished computers to the progressive Village Information Centres of Fusion to help their dream to build up telecentres.

ICTA (ICT Agency of Sri Lanka) sat together with Sarvodaya Fusion, on 4th July at ICTA premises to hold another Steering Committee meeting of Telecentre Family project. Meeting, chaired by Prof Epasinghe, Acting Chairman of ICTA, reviewed the progress of the recent activities. Uniqueness of the Telecentre Family project is its focus to build the capacity of Nanasala operators in addition to Sarvodaya telecentres. Project aims to build a national coalition threading every telecentre operator in the country, being granted another 18 months of extension by the sponsor, telecentre.org.

Isura Silva presented the activities of the new project, where Telecentre Handbook, Capacity Building workshops such as We-Can took the special attention of ICTA team lead by Reshan Devapura, COO of ICTA. Dr Vinya Ariyaratne, Executive Director of Sarvodaya notified the importance of branding the project under Fusion, Sarvodaya’s ICT4D arm.