Sokopepe, an ALIN initiative emerged the winner in the Agriculture category at the ICT Innovation Awards during the 2016 Connected Summit which began on March 20-23, 2016 at Leisure Lodge Beach and Golf Resort, Diani, Kwale County. The theme for 2016 Connected Summit “Bridging the Service Gap,” explores and identifies gaps that can help achieve universal access to public services and how information technology can improve efficiency in the delivery of government services, simplify compliance with government regulations, strengthen citizen participation and trust in government.
The Award was announced at an event held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 during the International Federation of Library Associations meeting at a ceremony presided over by Deborah Jacobs, Director of the Global Libraries initiative at the (BMGF). ALIN was recognised for taking advantage of the benefits of ICTs to empower arid lands communities by locating Maarifa (Knowledge) centres in remote arid lands across East Africa and providing free access to information resources, including the internet and library resources. Communities that receive information resources from ALIN have used them to initiate local social enterprises that have improved their livelihoods over the years. The ICT Innovation Awards recognizes innovative ideas that have since grown into some of the most recognizable tech start-ups in Kenya.
The awards highlight innovation that meets Kenya’s blueprint vision to build a vibrant middle-income economy by the year 2030. Since 2011, the award has recognized more than 45 new ICT products and solutions. While receiving the Award on behalf of Sokopepe, Mr. Martin Murangiri, Sokopepe Recruitment, and Training Officer said that the social enterprise set up by the Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) would continue to support the agricultural sector in Kenya by offering market information and farm records management services . Sokopepe has been piloting two innovations in five sub counties in Meru namely Imenti Central; North Imenti; South Imenti; Buuri and Tigania West. The social enterprise has been using Farm Records Management Information System (FARMIS-Kenya) to support small-scale farmers to develop and nurture a culture of record keeping, SOKO+, a digital commodity trading, and information system, linking small-scale farmers to end retailers/bulk purchasers of produce. Sokopepe has been working with more than 6,000 farmers in the five sub Counties of Meru. It has been expanding the services to all sub-counties in Meru, while working closely with the County Government and other stakeholders.
“Winning the award motivates us to continue working with small-scale farmers by helping them to use accurate primary date that can help empower them to improve their incomes, livelihoods and food security,” said Mr. Murangiri. Speaking at the summit, Joseph Mucheru Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology noted that start-up companies need to bring experience to the table. “Money is not a problem, the structure of companies in Kenya; start-ups and scale-ups cannot absorb big money. Do what you have to do, build value and the investors will come,” said Mucheru. The objectives of the 2016 Connected Summit include identify gaps in public sector service delivery that can be solved by innovative use of ICT; highlight efficiency gaps in public sector IT projects and consider policy recommendations; and share knowledge, best practice and lessons based on experience in implementing ICT projects. The Connected Summit is the brainchild of the ICT Authority in consultation with ICT industry players and key government decision makers. The Summit aims at establishing a platform for collaboration, capacity building, and knowledge sharing between government and the ICT sector with a view of linking and hastening implementation of government IT projects to world-class standards. The Connected Summit has enabled its participants to develop unique insights that allow them to successfully respond and design their engagements in Kenya’s vibrant ICT sector.
The Laikipia Rural Voices (LRV) is among the blogs nominated for the 2016 Kenyan Blogs Awards under Best County Blog category. The nomination follows a grueling exercise by judges who sifted through 4,899 blog submissions in 19 categories and selected five blogs per category. The judges included Mikul Shah, Director at EatOut, Ahmed Salim, General Manager at Qube Ltd, Terryanne Chebet, Senior Anchor and Associate Editor at Citizen TV and Muthoni Maingi, Digital Manager at Safaricom. Voting began on March 3, 2016 and will close on May 1, 2016.
The culmination of the 2016 BAKE Award will be a gala event on May 7, 2016. Some of the categories include best technology blog, photography, creative writing, business, food, environment/agriculture, politics, new blog, corporate, topical, sports, education, travel, health, County, religious/spirituality, and best Kenyan Blog of the Year. The Kenyan Blog Awards is an initiative of Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE). The award recognizes the efforts of exceptional bloggers by rewarding those who post on a regular basis, have great and useful content, are creative and innovation. The award represents BAKE’s effort in the promotion of quality content creation.
Started in 2011 by Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN), Laikipia Rural Voices aimed at promoting citizen journalism among young people by training and equipping them with basic journalism skills such as photojournalism, news writing, creative writing, feature writing, interviewing, media laws and ethics, and blogging. The blog has been instrumental in sharing information on agriculture, particularly on successes and issues faced by the youth engaged in agriculture, highlighting the role and importance of family farming as well as issues pertaining to climate change, environment conservation, and natural resource management.
ALIN is one of the first organizations to pioneer ICT technology in remote arid lands communities and with this it has seen its way to being awarded first place in the Global Knowledge Award, a first-ever from a Sub-Saharan region in Africa. Alin has gone over and beyond to make sure remote rural communities gain access to knowledge and information that will change their lives.
ALIN won the prestigious Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF)’s Access to Learning Award (ATLA) for 2011, which is given annually, marking international recognition of their work. The timing was significant, as ALIN celebrated its 10th anniversary since its operations in East Africa. The Award was given in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 during the International Federation of Library Associations meeting.
Deborah Jacobs, Director of the Global Library Initiatives at BMGF, presided over the ceremony and presented ALIN with the award for its immense contributions to communities in East Africa by supplying them with knowledge centres in remote areas. These communities have used the resources they received from ALIN to initiate local social enterprises that have had a positive impact on their livelihoods over time.
On hand to receive the accolade was Mr James Nguo, the founding Regional Director of ALIN. The ATLA award came with US$1,000,000 in cash meant to help ALIN scale up its winning concept so that it can impact more people. At the event, Mr Nguo said: “We understand that each community we serve is different and each individual is also different. Some communities need information about water harvesting, while others are dealing with a particular kind of pest.
We have also found that some people have taken to computers and technology, while others prefer live demonstrations or lectures in their native language.” “Thousands of people in these remote communities of Eastern Africa are improving their lives through the information available at these centres,” said Deborah Jacobs, Director of the BMGF’s Global Libraries initiative, at the award ceremony. Bill Gates, the Senior Co-chair of the BMGF, was quick to congratulate ALIN for this award. He highlighted how their efforts have helped transform communities’ lives in marginal areas through the establishment of 12 Maarifa (Knowledge) centres. He recognized the organization’s multi-media approach to information capture and dissemination using online portals and magazines. A follow-up event to celebrate ALIN’s 10th Anniversary and the big win in Kenya was held on September 1st 2011. It drew over 300 guests, representing partners and donor organizations, who shared in the celebration.
ALIN scores a first in winning coveted global accolade stamping its authority in pioneering the use of ICTs to empower remote arid lands communities with knowledge and information, transforming their livelihoods.
In a development that marked the global recognition of the organisation’s work, ALIN was declared the 2011 winner of the prestigious and highly competitive Access to Learning Award (ATLA) given annually by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). The timing of the award was highly significant for ALIN coming as it did at the time when the organization was celebrating its 10th Anniversary since it started operations in East Africa.
The Award was announced at an event held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 during the International Federation of Library Associations meeting at a ceremony presided over by Deborah Jacobs, Director of the Global Libraries initiative at the (BMGF). ALIN was recognised for taking advantage of the benefits of ICTs to empower arid lands communities by locating Maarifa (Knowledge) centres in remote arid lands across East Africa and providing free access to information resources, including the internet and library resources.
Communities that receive information resources from ALIN have used them to initiate local social enterprises that have improved their livelihoods over the years. This made ALIN to be the first organisation in sub-Saharan Africa to win the Award. On hand to receive the accolade was Mr. James Nguo, the founding Regional Director of ALIN. ATLA comes with a cash prize of US$1,000,000 meant to help the recipient organisation to scale up the winning concept in order to impact a larger number of people.
