MamanETons "Sahe changes the World"

Our system takes advantage of women groups (Tons)  in Mali to help them in joining and creating Pension schemes. This will be done by the following process. Creation of a mobile platform which consist of the following module;

i) ETondes économies(groups savings management module). This module is for digitizing members savings from. Users will setup their Tons rules on the system.

ii) E-commerce module. This module will be integrated to our E-Commerce website where women from various groups will be able to sell their goods and services online. Integration to various payment will also be done.

iii) ETonPension Module. This module will be used by group members to set rules for their pension management.

iv)ETonHealth. This module will be used by groups to access verified  health information in addition to integration with health stakeholders to share any information. chart in users local language is provided.

Women plays a very important roles of production in the Economy. Due to their good culture of working together they have been able help one another through groups(Tons). However they lack good online tools for marketing their goods and services, lacks knowledge, training  on pension. In the current pandemic access to reliable information is also not available. Proposal is to advantage of women groups in Mali(Tons) in empowering women.

Through provision of solar chargeable tablets, groups will be able to digitize their groups savings operation. This will help them in reducing paper use hence helping in nature conservation and also security. Through this process new modules will be introduced on the system. These include pension management where group members will be able to save some of their contribution in a pension scheme.  All rules will be set on agreement by group members. eCommerce platform where group members will be allowed to sell and also advertise their  goods and services. Health Module, this module will be used to access verified information and also offering training to members in their local languages. Empowerment module for training members on variuos issues such as business opportunities. A chatBox will also be provided local language.

Our system will initially target women groups in the following areas of Mali Segue,Bamako,Sikasso,Kayes. The reason for targeting women group is because of the following reasons. Women plays a very important part of the economy, however most of the them especially in Urban settlement schemes they are paid on daily wages. They lack good knowledge and platforms for assisting them in savings and pension management resulting in lack of funds to provide them good services and care in their old age.

Women plays also a very important roles in their families, communities and country at large. When women understand and accept a change, its always very easy for the idea to be accepted by the family and communities. Women are also very good trainers and listeners " Winning a woman heart of a new idea is winning a community".

Most of the women are members of Tons(Women groups) hence with the introduction of this system almost all families in Mali will be part of pension a scheme. Women are also very trusted, hence once rolled out in phase one through women groups it will be very easy to rollout the system to other groups of the population(youth and Men).

Daily wages is one of the main source of income for women. Most of the women in Mali and in Africa participate in merry-go-round groups. They lack platforms for assisting them in savings, pension management, lack of market for their goods and services hence relying on middlemen, access to verified information and also lack to access to financial services due to lack of good records keeping. Our platform will be able to solve these problems and also increase women productive by offering advise on available business opportunity and also increasing trust and confidence on financial access and management.

Facilitating women access to financial services as a mean of their empowerment, several organizations have launched initiatives such as Banque Atlantique teliman in Mali. However, there are some issues related to these mobile applications. Firstly, they have only taken care of group savings and loans process i.e. (converting the manual process to automation). Secondly, the main target of these applications are the educated population mostly leaving in urban areas in Mali. As 75% of the population in Mali lives in the rural, with a literacy rate of 34% for women (INSTAT, 2018),  these ICTs tools and services (applications or apps) are not meant for them. Moreover, Ton these apps also introduced the model of no need to have physical meeting (users’ needs not to meet often all transactions can be done via mobile) which is one of the main reason why uptake is still low. The literature (Buskens & Webb, 2009) reports that women prefer physical meeting as this does not only act as financial transactions process but also away of discussion various issues affecting them. Furthermore, it was argued that women are very good savers, innovators but they lack good training and advise on various opportunities in their localities, good market for their product and services, importance of saving for their future etc.

Our technology involves  will ensure that we do not change the current status quo of how women groups operate. From our research the reason why women create groups is not only for merry-go-round, but also to share ideas, offer advise to one another when they are meeting. Most of women in Mali ale the main managers of their home hence the only free time they have is when they are meeting as a group. To ensure the system acceptability, we will only provide one solar chargeable table to each group. This will ensure that we do not disrupt their normal meetings. Tablet will be used when they are carrying on their meeting. Training in local language will part of the system. For beginning payment of funds will be allowed both in mobile payment and hard cash. For eCommerce an escrow account will be created to ensure that trust between groups and buyers. To ensure sustainability of the system an advertiser module will be provided(pay per access) where people can advertise their products on the platform.

The main aim of this project is to bridge the digital gender divide in Mali. Improvement and empowering African population is one of the main target for the population. Proper record keeping for women groups for easy access to financial services and good financial knowledge is of the key immediate outcome thus increase financial management institution penetration across the country.  Ease of use for technology in rural areas of Mali. Women will be able to sell their service and products online allover the world, this will in turn increase their value for products and services resulting in higher income hence savings and pension, better live in their old age.

With the current pandemic(Covid-19) access to verified information is a problem. Communities are relying on rumors such as this is not a disease for Africans etc. This system will provide a module where health stakeholders are able to upload verified accurate information and also other information on personal and public health. Group members will also be provided with a chart module where their able to ask questions on variuos issues, they will also be able to share information with their group members. This information once verified can be broadcasted to all members or specific members based on their settings.

Proper resources utilization. One of the system module is provision of training and advise on various business opportunities found in a group location. This will ensure that groups in these areas utilize their resources in the right ways and the benefits incurred by following the advise provided.

Women groups are core in most of Mali communities. By taking advantage of this model, the system can be used to deliver severally services to the community. Our system has already taken care of information delivery in terms of public health information access, access to accurate information, when a woman is trained, the whole community is trained. Our system is easy scalable hence more modules to offer various services such as online education(especially in times of crisis and pandemics). This this platform access to communities for service delivery will be made easier through access of women in communities.

Based on our research, to ensure system acceptability among women groups, our initial research, women raised the issue of maintaining their status quo. physical meetings should be disrupted, System should be provided in some parts using their local languages,  Providing accurate financial and easy to understand. Return on their investment is also key to system acceptability i.e effort and time they use in their products development should be well paid off. Currently what they get is not equivalent to time and effort due to dealing with brokers instead of dealing with buyers directly.

Development of the system will be user centered, several groups will be involved in the whole development process. Other stakeholders in various sectors will also be involved  to ensure that rollout of the system is acceptable. Community leaders  were also involved during research process and during rollout they will also be involved. Initial training will be done to groups then members of trained groups will be used to train other groups for enrollment. This will encourage other groups to join.

Our system will be cloud based(Google Could Technology). In addition all modules will operating independently with back-end integration. Integration will be provided based on verified request to access specific information using REST API. To ensure data integrity and security, blockchain technology will be applied. To ensure that the system is accessible from any location for authorized users we propose to introduce iris bio-metric authentication (capturing of a person's eye and saving the information on google cloud for better and accurate system access authentication). Since its also cloud based, any integration and interoperability with any other system will also be help by applying Google cloud integration APIs and procedures.

Our system will operate in two ways offline and online connectivity mode. When groups are carrying out their operations and connectivity is a problem,

The solar chargeable tablet will be able to store information and once connectivity is achieved reconciliation will be done with the cloud system to ensure that the system is up to date. Where connectivity is okay no need for location information storage. All information will be stored directly to the cloud system.

In places where connection is not there at all, we will provide VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) small connectivity. These forms of internet access points can be accessed by more than one group in a given areas.  For system ease of use most of the information on the app which is the main point of interaction with women group user will be provided in local language. ChatBox in local language will also be provided especially where dealing with numbers for a start, Keying voice alert message application will also be added to alert users on the keys pressed. chart option will also be provided to take of physically challenged for start. This will be improved with time to take care of everyone. Google has launched internet balloon in most of the rural areas, this will also be one of the main relationship with google.

The system rollout will done in phases starting with groups based in Segou. This will act system customization site. Segou is one of the interior parts of Mali where access to proper education is a problem.In the initial development we are target to access 10 groups each with an average membership of 50, this will be followed with an increment of 50 groups from various part of Segou. Once this is done Trained group members will be used to train and enroll other groups within their locality. depending on  Most of the population here is not well educated, hence developing a system which easy to accept across the country rely with first taking care of the less privileged . Followed by Kayes. Kayes internet connectivity is a problem. This will help us to test connectivity. Trained groups used to train and enroll other groups.Followed by Bamako which is urban settlement. Once The system is rolled out in the  initial rollout sites. Other  areas of Mali will be selected based on various set parameters such as accessibility, security etc.By applying group trainers we plan to  at least 70% coverage of all women groups in Mali. This will then be followed by enrolling and training youths on importance of creating groups in order to enroll them on the platform. We will also open the platform for individual membership.The system will then be rolled out to Mali neighboring countries of Guinea and Burkina Faso which have the same parameters as Mali.

Main goal in the first year is to ensure that more women and families at large are aware of Pension scheme programs, improved understanding and importance of digital system, benefit of direct sales to customers via online platforms, improvement of health among the populations, openness in communication among women and families and better management of families. Better record keeping by Tons(Groups) this will enable them to have better training on financial management. Involvement of more women on decision making discussions contributions in Mali. Better welfare of population in old age through better savings of pension. Improvement of standard of living for families and communities.

Once the set modules are rolled out, other modules will be added to the system based on requirements from the users. Creation of open source model will be added to enable Malians to added their own modules as per group requirement. This will ensure that acceptability and groups user ability is made easier.

Literacy Level and low level of financial services penetration and management. One of the biggest problem facing Mali population is low literacy, which in turns bring about lack of good understanding of financial management and fewer people are willing to take the risk of training and educating communities hence lower financial penetration level in rural areas is a problem. Security in some of the areas of Mali, connectivity to internet is also a problem. Language barriers. Mali gas several communities talking different languages. Culture and social issues among different Mali communities.  Religion is also a problem. Biggest percentage of Malians are Muslims. Resources and sustainability of the projects is also a problem.  Geographic access limitation. Mali is a large countries with less developed infrastructure hence access to certain parties of the country is a problem. Trained manpower to support and customize system for scalability and changes depending on users requirements.

First rollout of the system will be to enroll community trainers who will assist us in initial training of group members in each region. Once this is done trained group members will be used to train other groups. This will assist all ready trained members to grasp more and measure their understanding of the initial training. Since these are the main people who understand Mali their training will be very import in sorting out several issues such as Geographical accessibility issue. In places where connectivity is a problem both in terms of Power and internet, we are providing groups with a solar chargeable tablets. This will ensure charging is not a problem. Our system is a cloud based hence changes can be uploaded from any parts of the world. To ensure proper management and support of the system on the ground. Selected group will be trained on how to support and collect any requirement from the ground.

In addition in future an open source easy to use API will be developed for users to customize their own user view.

The project will be implemented by Inter-Agency Network for Research Support for Women (RIARF) which is a women organization based in Mali in conjunction with Societe cooperative kouliya(Mali) which is an organization providing women and girls a platform which can help in effecting change in the society. RIARF is based in Mali and its main operation is promoting women and young girls to help them participate in science, health for better development of the country.

Currently several professionals are involved in the project starting from research work to design stage. These include Pension and financial advisors(2), online content management for implementation and guidance on how to implement online eCommerce(1).  Health expert, epidemiologist(3) Government expert to enable us in acquiring necessary authorization for system rollout(1). Women advisors(5). Community leaders(3 in each area of operation).

Our team has implemented  ICT projects in finance, health, knowledge management in Mali, South Africa and Kenya. In Mali, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique Bamako Mali(CNRST) is the body that oversees any research project in the country. That gave us the opportunity to interact with researchers, epidemiologist, practitioners, policymakers, health workers and pension and financial advisors during project research work.

Currently we are working with two organizations in Mali  Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique Bamako Mali (CNRST). CNRST provided the necessary authorization in order to carry out our research and operation pertaining ICT operations, Assist also in management of the projects. Societe Cooperative Kouliya (SCK) assist on the group on women group access. They also provide the groups members to be trained, necessary information we require through our research on operations and any any other requirements about the groups in Mali. They also organize our groups visits, local interpreters etc. Inter-Agency Network for Research Support for Women (RIARF) will be the main implementer of the project in Mali

Financial services penetration level in rural areas of Mali is very low. Our main aim of the project is to increase this level to ensure that most of the people in Mali have access to financial services. Our first target for our project is women. The main aim of starting with women is; women are well organized here in Mali through women groups(Tons), good managers,listeners and willing to risk new ideas as long as they will be able to assist them in their operations and also increase trust and save time due to other tasks of managing their homes. Women are also very good marketers. Once a product, idea or service servers them well and they have good experience with it; they are are able to convince others in the society to embrace the same. Through the groups its also very easy to access large portion of the population in a very short time. Once these groups are trained they will be used to train other groups. Once women groups are embraced in the system (men in the society will be very easy to embrace the system), the next target will be the youth in the society. This group need a different way engaging with them. System rollout will to the youth will be more engaging to ensure that all their requirement is maintained. in addition open source APIs will be provided to ensure that system changes with their needs (Youths are very dynamic).

To ensure the project is sustainable, The project needs to have a
process of own income generation. One of the major source of income will
be small commissions charged from groups on eCommerce and finance
management. The system will also acts as a food platform  for
advertisement due to the population being targeted (women who are the
main revenue managers of their families) a module for advertisers to
login and advertise their products. This will be charged  based on
access. Other organizations willing to train women and other group of
users for their own benefits will be charged a fees for system
sustainability and maintenance.

Currently the project has been raised revenue for initial research work from main members and also for the data analysis and initial system design. Initial development which involves development of a USSD and initial system  module which is in progress is being funded by our own savings. All the equipment we are currently using for the system development, hosting of the application, payment of the people engaged in research work were from our own savings.

Currently most of the revenue used has been from our own savings. Total amount we require for the initial project implementation in the select areas is USD($) 131,860.48. Out of this amount we have been able to raise USD($) 11,039.98 from our own savings. The remaining difference USD($) 120,820.20 is our funding request.

Our request for  funding is to enable us in training of the the first

round of identified women groups in Mali and rolling out the modules in
the selected areas. This will be converted into shares ownership to
ensure funders also enjoy the fruits of the system growth. This will
include acquire of hardware and setting them out in the communities.
Once the first is rolled out our next phase of funding will be involving
and encouraging women groups to provide funding for partial ownership
of the project. This will encourage active engagement of the groups on
the system.  Revenue collected from this will be used to provide more
coverage in Mali. Once the system is stable and able to sustain its self
in Mali  the system will be  rolled out in other countries and members
of these countries encouraged to provide funds for rollout as part of
their ownership. To ensure the system does not have a lot of debts and
members play an important role on the system funds contributions will be
encourage to provide funds as ownership.

Total budget for system rollout is as follows USD 131,860. 48. This amount will be used in the following areas Pending system development module(eCommerce Module, health, chatBox, Empowerment engagement module,  eCommerce website, initial integrations) estimations USD($) 107294.

Establishment of an information center to support this system in Inter-Agency Network for Research Support for Women (RIARF)  estimation USD($) 5301).

Trainings(house keeping, catering, cleaning) for trainers and initial groups members USD($) 11326.50 , System pilot implementation(Solar powered tablets, solar chargers, laptops) USD($) 7580. Administration cost USD($) 1980.

Family savings play a very important role both now and in future. From our initial research work very minimal training and education to community has been done to enlighten them on the  importance of this. In Africa most of self employed population especially women are very innovative and hardworking in order to sustain their population, however they lack good modern information and technologies to grow their ideas and also market their products and services. Currently they rely on middleman who normally provide them with enough for their consumption leaving them with nothing for saving for future. Our technologies will assist women and in future other genders in enabling them get value for their handwork and innovations enabling them to generate more to sustain their families, community and able to save for future(pension). Through Mission Billion Challenge WURI, we will be able to get the required training, expose and interaction with other people from different parts of the world to assist us in developing our technology to cater for more needs of African population. Google provides a good platform for enabling us to improve services delivery and connectivity across the world.  Exposure to better testing facilities and users across google network will also help us to develop and customize our technology using Human centered interfaces enabling better acceptability of our technology.

From our system we proposal to apply latest technologies such as blockchains to improve system security( Our system will be dealing with users revenue manager). to ensure system confidence among the users security of the data is very important. We will also include artificial intelligence to perform various activities such as ensuring users are not misinformed, provide better market information, resource management in their areas of operation, chatBox. This will be a very important part in partnership with Google and GIS organization for helping in verifying groups locality and credibility. Creation of payment models through escrow accounts to reduce online fraud for eCommerce platform. In order to rollout our technology before the system is able to generate sustainable revenue we will need some funding which we propose should be in terms of ownership, marketing of the system through various online technologies such as YouTube and online training manuals.

From our research engagement and changes in technology, we would like to engage with the following organizations;

Google; Google will help us in technology such as cloud computing facilities, google maps for groups location identification for improving data integrity. YouTube facilities to help us and our trainers and users access training materials, Development of blockchain technology and natural language processing.

World Bank. World Bank will help us in access to more research work on financial status for other parts of Mali and also in west Africa during rollout. Access to financial professionals to help us in developing more user friendly financial services. World bank will also assist us in choosing the best financial organization for back-end management of funds.

MIT Development and research center.  MIT will also help us in developing artificial intelligence tools for data analytics tools so that we can keep our system update on the latest technology and users requirement.

PayPal and Orange money. These organization will help us in setting up of payment gateways for eCommerce module.