Notes from the Field: Digital Marketplace Mozambique
Schoolteachers bursting with new ideas as their eyes gleam with excitement on a sunny Saturday morning. Female traders nodding approvingly and yearning to hear more about how to engage with a technology they have just heard of. Budding tech stars, career devotees to women’s economic empowerment, and a great DFID programme to collaborate with.
It has been a month since I first hopped off the long plane ride to go straight to a teacher workshop at the Escola Secundaria de Lhanguene in Maputo, but I can still feel the excitement of this pilot as if I were there.
The Digital Marketplace Mozambique pilot
One of the pilots from FTL’s illustrious second cohort, the initiative harnesses mesh wireless technology to improve the livelihoods of female traders and to promote the improved educational outcomes at schools in Maputo. Before going any further, it would probably be helpful to answer a question I receive just about every time I discuss this pilot with someone for the first time:
What is a mesh wireless network?
I admit that I had never even heard of mesh wireless networks until our team received a proposal to apply it in Mozambique. Thanks to numerous discussions and explanations from various experts, including our partners at Champier Ltd, I now think of it as a localised intranet (not internet) network. A device akin to a wireless router, accessed through the Bluetooth or wireless function on a laptop or smartphone, enables this network. This network provides all of the functionality of the internet, but without the transfer of mobile phone data.
There are two key elements that make mesh wireless a potentially ground-breaking solution for Maputo’s female traders, students, and teachers:
- There’s no transfer of mobile phone data, allowing users to access it for free. We learned through our visits that female traders at informal markets in Maputo can spend up to 100 meticais per week (~GBP£1.25) for data. Given that Gross National Income per capita of Mozambique measured under USD $500[i] in 2016, mesh wireless solution would provide considerable savings for these individuals.
- Because new users serve as a new node in the network, having more users increases the speed (unlike with traditional wireless, where having more users leads to a decrease in bandwidth). This means that the mesh essentially functions like a torrent, whereby each new user both spreads the reach of the signal further and increases the bandwidth for each user. So, there’s no risk of the network being overloaded and it spreads its reach naturally.
How will the pilot apply mesh wireless technology?
The pilot will implement the technology in two contexts — informal markets and schools. In informal markets, we believe mesh wireless will be a tool that can help female traders become more productive and provide them with relevant information (such as notices from market authorities or the prices of goods). In schools, we think the technology can house tools to help teachers deliver their lessons and for students to learn course material.
Scoping and Designing Mesh Wireless
My week in Maputo was packed with exciting meetings, visits, and strategizing about how to design this exciting pilot. However, before jumping into that, FTL first worked with the wider project team, defining what we should do as part of the Sprint that is our Scoping and Design phase. We started by defining the key assumptions of this project around feasibility, viability, and desirability. These then influenced our plan for the Sprint of Scoping and Design which would test the beliefs we identified as the most important. A few of these include:
- Teachers are a market for our proposition;
- Teachers will find document sharing, learning materials, and chat useful;
- Market traders are a market for our proposition;
- Market traders will find chat, business, advice, and banking useful content.
Testing our beliefs and the in-field visit
The above beliefs helped form our plan for Scoping and Design by focussing the team on what we needed to first examine to steer the direction of the project. Verifying, refuting, or qualifying these beliefs then informs how the next Sprint should proceed.
We tested the first two beliefs around the desirability of mesh wireless networks in schools just after I arrived in Maputo. With the help of the impressive MUVA programme, we attended a workshop with ~25 teachers at the Escola Secundaria de Lhanguene where the team explained how mesh wireless functions, gauged whether the teachers would like to have access to the technology, and what kind of content they would like to have access to on this network. They appeared genuinely excited and expressed an interest in having the technology, thus validating the first key assumption around desirability. They also brainstormed some great ideas for content, validating and expanding upon our second belief.
Next, it was time to turn our attention to the markets. Thanks to the deep expertise and experience of Mowoza, we were able to arrange for several market visits. These not only tested the above assumptions, but went a couple of steps further, providing ideas for content appropriate to the market context. We were also able to scope a marketplace with the right physical infrastructure for the deployment of the first mesh network.
Over the course of the week, we visited Mercado Xikhelene, Mercado Xipamanine, Mercado Mandela, and the Mercado Zimpeta. At these markets, we spoke with groups of informal female traders about how they interact with the internet currently and what they might do with the mesh network enabled. Amazingly, we learnt that some spend around 100 meticais per week (~£1.25) on data in addition to 10 meticais (~£0.12) per phone charge. That’s a considerable amount for an informal trader in Maputo!
Our market visits also involved thinking about which market would be most suitable for the deployment of the first mesh wireless network. Among other factors, in examining this we thought about the physical infrastructure, the presence of female traders, the number of people who had access to smartphones, and cooperation with the local market authorities.
Last but not least, with the market visits now under our belts, the wider team took some to reflect on our week’s experience during a workshop. We focussed on two areas in particular: the content and the business model for the deployment. Creating content that is relevant and useful for schoolteachers, pupils, and market traders is important, but equally so is making sure that the technology deployed can be financially self-sustainable and is right for the local context. The team came up with a wealth of ideas in each area.
What’s next
The remainder of the Scoping and Design phase promises to be just as dynamic as during my visit. The technical experts are continuing to scope the most appropriate marketplace for the deployment of the first mesh wireless network with the goal of deploying one by the end of the phase. Concurrently, the team is further developing ideas for content and the business model to take forward.
It was an exciting week in Maputo, but I think what’s on the horizon will be even better!
