2012 Annual Report - Cherie Blair Foundation for Women

Report of the trustees for the year ended 31 October 2012
Mobile Retail Channels Study
The past year offered numerous opportunities
for the Mobile Technology Programme to
further develop insights on the inclusion of
women entrepreneurs in the retail channels of
mobile operators, which were initially studied
in our 2011 report, Women Entrepreneurs in
Mobile Retail Channels: Empowering Women,
Driving Growth. This research was the first of
its kind and spelled out the commercial
justifications for mobile operators to include
more women in their retail channels.
“I feel female agents are better and they
are more hardworking than males.
Female sales agents are quick,
cooperative, faithful and hardworking.”
- Distributor, Uganda
Thousands of potential business opportunities
for women exist in this sphere, which this
study highlighted. During the financial year, the
Foundation was able to identify a number of
these opportunities and brought one to life, in
an exciting collaboration that spans three
countries in Africa and will involve, corporate,
NGO and institutional partners.
In 2012, the Foundation partnered with
Millicom (Tigo) and the US Agency for
International Development (USAID) to design
a project that would purposefully and directly
engage thousands of women across Ghana,
Rwanda and Tanzania in Millicom (Tigo)’s
mobile money retail chain, called the Tigo
Cash Agent network. The Foundation carefully
selected local microfinance partner
organisations and developed a detailed
monitoring and evaluation framework, in
addition to increasing its organisational
capacity to effectively run and manage a
project that will be funded by USAID.
These activities are central building blocks to
creating a successful and sustainable project,
and we look forward to working with 4,150
women entrepreneurs across these three
countries in the coming year, as they receive
entrepreneurship training and support, as well
as working capital loans that will enable them
to initially establish and then grow thousands
of successful mobile money enterprises.
Supply Chain Management Solutions
The Foundation, alongside the Vodafone
Foundation in India, is working in partnership
with SEWA to develop a mobile-based
management information system for SEWA’s
rural distribution network.
The network operates largely in India’s Gujarat
State, procuring farm produce from local
marginal farmers at market prices. The
network then processes and packages this
produce before selling it at affordable prices.
The scale and reach of of the network has
increased dramatically since its inception and,
over time, systems have been developed to
account for increased sales volumes and an
expanding supply chain. However, inventory
management and sales reporting remains a
challenge, which is what this project aims to
address.
In 2012, the Foundation worked closely with
Indian developer Ekgaon Technologies and
SEWA to identify the core needs of the women
entrepreneurs that operate within the network.
Based on this work, Ekgaon started the work
of developing the system, which by October
2012 was nearing its completion. The roll-out
of the solution will be followed by hands-on
trainings of women entrepreneurs in SEWA’s
rural distribution network, to ensure that the
system is accessible and appropriate for their
daily business needs. Ultimately, the
Foundation and SEWA will reach over 2,000
women throughout rural Gujarat with these
trainings and with the mobile-enabled business
solution, allowing women to efficiently and
accurately manage their entire supply chain.
Women in SEWA’s network exploring the new
mobile information system, photo by Anant
Nautiyal, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women
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