Digital solutions get a boost as COVID-19 responsive project planning is underway

In the first quarter of this year countries around the world came to a standstill as they responded to the COVID-19 crisis. Quite rapidly, concern over our own safety, transformed into concern about others in developing countries. And once development practitioners we got their own proverbial masks on, they moved quickly to ensure that their beneficiaries and stakeholders were cared for.

As movement became restricted, we saw a surge of reliance of technology all around the globe. For Africa, this greatly accelerated Africa’s digital transformation. The progress made with digitizing agriculture in Africa over the years is now being used as a foundation for new initiatives to alleviate the COVID-19’s impact on food security.

SCOPEinsight knows just how important food security, livelihoods, and effective food supply chains are during this crisis. So, we responded by searching for ways to make our assessments (which were partially remote already via the e-training for assessors), fully remote. This is why we initiated a working group through AMEA (Agribusiness Market Ecosystem Alliance) and have consulted with numerous clients and assessors to develop COVID-19 Responsive Remote Assessment Guidance. We also worked closely with our assessor training partner, PHB, to explore how we can conduct remote assessments while maintaining our quality standards.

We are pleased to announce that many of our clients are willing to pilot remote assessments. One of the biggest front-runners in this testing of remote assessments is the IFC. This month in Cote d’Ivoire, we will test the remote assessments with the cocoa cooperatives there and develop lessons learned.

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