Inclusivity of Climate Smart Agriculture to Fast Track Prosperity

Workshop, Saturday 7th of September 2019, British Institute in Eastern Africa

Our understanding of prosperity is changing. For decades prosperity has been associated with economic development through industrialisation, and GDP oriented economic growth has been seen as the only way to improve standards of living. Environmental degradation, pressure on resources and the persistence of widespread poverty have demonstrated not only the shortcomings of this vision, but have also made it evident that it is fundamentally unsustainable, and cannot deliver wellbeing and long-term opportunities for citizens and communities across the globe.

Looking ahead to the challenges Africa faces, notably climate change, urbanisation and the future of work, it is clear a new vision encompassing natural prosperity will be needed to create communities that are sustainable, autonomous and resilient. While Kenya embodies many of the challenges faced across sub-Saharan Africa, we also see it as a hub of innovation and inspiration that is fostering African solutions to global problems. During the event we will be diving into the Big Four Agenda, Agriculture and Food by looking at among other things:

1. How can data be used to innovate agriculture and improve the prosperity of small-scale farmers?

2. We will ask what kind of data are needed to improve the value chain? How can we use space data to improve agriculture?

3. Moving from the farmer to the trader and wholesaler to the consumer – how do you think data can help in handling potatoes/maize/tomatoes improve the value chain?

4. There will be examples of digital platforms that are helping farmers in Vihiga, Makueni and Marakwet improve crop production.

PROCOL Kenya Hackathon

Building a Prosperity Index for Kenya and the World

10am-1pm, 17th August, 2019, British Institute in Eastern Africa

This ‘hackathon’ meet-up will introduce participants to PROCOL Kenya’s prosperity research and challenge you to build new Prosperity metrics.

This ProCol event is designed to exchange ideas about current and future uses of data and information in building Prosperity in Kenya and across the continent. We will exchange ideas on what Prosperity means to you and compare this with what communities in other parts of the world consider Prosperity to be. We will examine how Prosperity Indices have been co-created with communities in other places – in east London and Beirut in Lebanon. We will look at how the Africa Regional Data Cube, geographic information systems and earth observation can be used to develop future businesses and jobs here in Kenya. The idea is to create better data and information systems to support better decision making and improve lives. In the room we will have data and information from different places in Kenya and will be asking you how you think you can help build a voice for your community through data and information

 During the day we will use the Big Four Agenda and agriculture as a particular focus of discussions. How do you think that data can be used to innovate agriculture and improve the prosperity of small-scale farmers? We will ask what kind of data are needed to improve the value chain? How can we use space data to improve agriculture? Moving from the farmer to the trader and wholesaler to the consumer – how do you think data can help in handling potatoes/maize/tomatoes improve the value chain? We will look at examples of digital platforms that are helping farmers in Vihiga, Makueni and Marakwet improve crop production.