After spending three months working in Gabon and Ghana last summer, I always knew that I would want to return to the continent, but preferably, to East Africa. Naturally, I was thrilled when I received the opportunity to spend six weeks in Uganda on a research project through UC Berkeley, but funded by the Gates Foundation. Our objective is to identify a few of the most promising ways to improve the livelihood of smallholder farmers through ICT (Information and Communications Technology) applications. In preparing for this trip, we have already discovered a large number of exciting initiatives, ranging from radio talk shows and videos showing innovative farming techniques, to mobile apps that provide access to market prices and weather forecasts. Speaking of mobile apps, we will be working closely with Grameen’s AppLab in Uganda, and they just launched (with Google and MTN Uganda) a suite of mobile apps such as:

  • Farmer’s Friend – provides both agricultural tips and weather forecasts
  • Health Tips – provides sexual and reproductive health information
  • Clinic Finder – helps user to locate nearby health clinics
  • Google Trader – matches buyers and sellers of agricultural products and even livestock!

Anyway, after about 24 hours of traveling, Becky, Michael and I arrived safely in Kampala late last night. We are staying in Ntinda with a kind man named Grace, who is the Managing Director of the Farmer’s Media Newspaper, which is distributed to farmers all over Uganda. Grace and his colleague Peter have been incredibly hospitable, and spent all day today showing us around Kampala, which reminds me a lot of Accra, but much more crowded. As we explored the city, there were multiple times when I thought I was going to get hit by a boda-boda (motorcycle taxi). Armed with MTN Uganda SIM cards, a bunch of Ugandan shillings, and a day’s worth of experience taking matatus (taxi buses), we’re excited for Day 2. In the morning, we will meet one of our Grameen contacts and in the afternoon, with the CEO of Appfrica Labs, a software development firm/incubator based in Kampala whose mission is to provide mentorship and work opportunities to East African software entrepreneurs.