Rural Enterprise and Economic Development in Southern Africa
For the youth…
…and for the future
…and for the future
Across nearly three decades our team has worked in several Southern African countries with institutions dealing with enterprise and economic development, and with the delivery of services in remote and rural areas — applying technologies appropriate to those contexts.
Our agricultural projects — the African Grower rollout, PASA Incubator and Cofimvaba — now live under the African Grower menu.
| Project | Location | Date | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Umsobomvu Youth Fund | South Africa | 2004–2008 | Empowering youth by funding essential business services through a Voucher Management System. Our TouchAfrica™ Voucher Management System was developed for Umsobomvu and deployed in 17 UYF centres. |
 RED Door Centres (Real Enterprise Development) | Western Cape | 2004–2011 | A network of 14 one-stop information, advice and service centres supporting enterprises and would-be enterprises, powered by our TouchAfrica™ system. |
 Botswana Technology Centre (BOTEC) — CUIS | Botswana | 2002–2006 | The Community User Information System linked three villages (Letlhakeng, Hukuntsi, Gumare) to a Central Information Server in Gaborone, giving remote communities access to integrated online government, NGO and private-sector services. |
| Namibia Department of Education | Namibia | 2003–2005 | TouchAfrica™ deployed as a MIS for Community Learning and Development Centres (CLDCs), initially covering two centres. |
| Technology for Women in Business (TWIB) | Eastern Cape | 2005–2007 | About 25 young women assisted through a New Venture Creation Learnership and supported to start their own social enterprises. |
 Collaboration @ Rural — Sekhukhune Rural Living Lab | Sekhukhune, Limpopo | 2006–2008 | Ten young Infopreneurs married with a family of research and technology institutions (CSIR, SAP Research SA & Germany and European partners) in an open-innovation environment — the first Southern African rural living lab admitted to the European Network of Living Labs. |
 San Martin SMME Incubator (MIPEs) | Argentina | 2007 | TouchAfrica™ translated into Spanish and deployed as a MIS and process-support system for the San Martin business incubator (Municipio de Gral. San Martin, CISP and UNSAM). |
| W.K. Kellogg Foundation — TouchAfrica & Infopreneur Development | Makhado, Limpopo | 2002–2009 | Kellogg funding enabled development of both the systems and deployment models for work at the base of the pyramid, including extensive validation in Limpopo. |
 DST National Indigenous Knowledge Management System | Limpopo, North West & Northern Cape | 2010–2012 | Infopreneur networks used across the Vhembe, Namakwa and Ruth Mompati districts to catalogue and harvest indigenous knowledge still in existence. |
 CepAgri Emerging Agriculture Support Network | Manica & Sofala, Mozambique | 2014–2018 | Strengthening private-sector consultation and incubating small agri-enterprises; TouchAfrica™ translated into Portuguese and deployed as a MIS and process-support system. |
Moments from the work across the years.
Techno-socio-economic Research, Development and Implementation Practitioners.
