Presentations

October 19, 2009


The project is moving along nicely. We now have data from 40 different weather stations and have run correlations between rainfall and crop yield for maize, rice, millet, sorghum, and yams.

As a reminder the overview of the project can be found at:

http://www.katieschool.org/outreach/Microinsurance.shtml

Because of the complexity of the models we have decided to focus on northern Ghana (north of Kintampo Falls) where there is only one rainy season.
I have now had the opportunity to present twice this month on our project to two different groups. One was a nation-wide broadcast to a Chicago-based insurer, the other was for a group of Germans in town as part of the ISU Management Development Institute.
These speeches and presentations can be found at

http://connect.cob.ilstu.edu/groups/katieinsuranceschool/wiki/31d6d/Microinsurance_Trip_to_Ghana.html
Based on feedback that we got from a prospective reinsurer, we have decided to focus on maize, and look at significant deviations which could affect credit defaults for farmers. The ultimate product would be for banks and eventually microfinance institutions that loan money to farmers.
We are in the process of finishing up the analysis and doing the write-up.

Stay tuned,
Jim

Blog 18- First Blog Since June 2009 Ghana Trip

As I promised in my Ghana trip summary I would add to this blog as new developments occur that warrant updates. There have been a few fairly dramatic developments which have occurred with respect to interest of insurers and reinsurers in providing this product based on our data, but I will save that until the deals have been inked.

Following the President's visit to Ghana, I was interviewed by WJBC, the local CBS affiliate about out project in Ghana, and the role of ISU. A podcast of this can be found at:
http://wjbc.com/Tabid/7997/default.aspx?AID=7620
That is an overview of the program.

With this blog, I also wanted to leverage the opportunity created by President Obama's trip to Ghana to help us reiterate some of the points we tried to make with our project, and draw attention to the country of Ghana, its political stability, economic development, and its incredible people . As I stated at the beginning of the project, I also wanted to change perceptions of Africa of this endless visual of starving people looking for help, to an image of a vibrant world of commerce and modern technology, proud of its traditions but also embracing the modern world.

One of my purposes of blogging every day as I travelled was to illustrate that I could do it, and that an Internet cafe and technology was prevalent even in the farthest reaches of an African country. I also posted photos of the business people I met in their modern offices with their mission statements, value statements and employees of the month, just like we see here. I had included photos of shopping malls and cell phones. People in thatched roof huts using cell phones recharged from solar power.

I recently read Bono's op-ed piece in the NY Times on July 9th, entitled Rebranding Africa, and I thought, yes of course, that's what I meant. It's rebranding a continent. Changing misconceptions and showing how Africa can be a partner. Here is the link to his article.

http://www.one.org/r?r=200&id=1058-3926312-mPaZ7yx&t=3

As was covered in the news media, President Obama went to Ghana and made another stellar speech in Accra, Ghana. What resonated with me was that he wanted Ghana, and Africa not to be seen as some recipient of perpetual handouts, but instead "as a partner in building capacity for transformational change." From my encounters, that is what the people of Ghana want too. Something that is more sustainable than traditional foreign aid. That is why they embraced the idea of microinsurance so easily. Microfinance had worked well, this was just a logical extension.

In his speech he mentioned the need for farmers in Ghana to increase their own production, and for those who followed this blog, you will know that one of the major findings of this project is that insurance can be developed to help get farmers to produce more through managing their risks. One of the barriers preventing farmers from increasing their own capacity is the difficulty in managing the risks, and the natural consequence of this difficulty in accessing credit.

President Obama also mentioned that Africa has especially suffered the unfortunate consequences of climate change. (Climate change that the developing world has contributed substantially to). As you may have read in previous blogs, the farmers' traditional timetables for planting and growing have been disrupted, and this has increased their risks. But I believe that this risk CAN be managed. It isn't for all farmers, at all times, and in all regions, so a risk spreading mechanism like insurance can still work, and also as I mentioned, better dissemination of long range forecasts to farmers could also help them out.

Our purpose in developing this insurance product is to help manage the risks of crop loss associated with rainfall. Our likely first product will be for drought in the northern region (but future products may have triggers for both too much and too little rainfall, as flooding has become of problem in some regions). We will likely focus on the market of the banks and microfinance institutions first, in helping them manage their loss from loans to farmers, as the inability of farmers in African to get credit for new inputs, and new techniques that would move them from subsistence farmers to true income-producing farmers selling to the entire world, is stifling these efforts. A product to help provide insurance to those who give loans to farmers is probably a good place to start (although with convincing evidence, I may still be persuaded that direct insurance for the farmers is feasible in the short run too ).

Anyway, if you didn't get to hear President Obama's speech here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkNpUEWIhd4&NR=1

The four areas he felt that Africa needs to emphasize are democracy, opportunity, health, and peaceful ways to resolve conflicts. Ghana is a great role model for all of these and the reason we chose Ghana as our first country to study microinsurance potential. Our project is focused more on the opportunity part, and building sustainable economic capacity for low income people, but a number of microinsurance projects in other countries in Africa, such as in Uganda, have been successful and should be replicated elsewhere in Africa.

Afterwards the President and his family flew to Cape Coast, Ghana to tour the former slave castles. When I was there last month, I videotaped the tour and I posted them on Youtube this week so that those who are interested in learning more about the slave castles history can get it. It is one of many sites that should be seen when touring Ghana, which we did on a Saturday while in Ghana. I uploaded some of our rare "tourist videos" to Youtube, in addition to the interviews we had related to microfinance and microinsurance.

Here are urls for those.

Cape Coast Slave Castle Video Overlook
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtdrynGMsRs
Cape Coast Slave Castle Tour Male Slave Dungeon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g8NaD3iAe4
Cape Coast Castle Tour “Door of No Return”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP1ySdxyP5k
Cape Coast Castle Tour Prison Cell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkWgD-d9ek4
Cape Coast Castle- Tour Keep Memories Alive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvxfeVj95zk
Outside Cape Coast Castle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lTM1U5R9n0

Cape Coast also has some beautiful beaches and as I mentioned, has cool things to do like going to the Global Mamas tour of the batik making. These are women empowered by fair trade, and microfinance. (I think that they also have a potential for being microinsurance clients as their families become more and more dependent on their growing levels of income. ) I took videos of that too, but the Global Mamas own video was better so I will only include this one of my own, and direct you to their site for more. My colleage at ISU and asst. professor of marketing Horace stamping his batik (As part of the Global Mamas tour you get to do your own batik)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AanSkTaM9Cw
While the batiks dried our driver retrieved a ripe papaya. Very inventive and sustainable tool. ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g49rTy9XfZE
The last stage is actually “cooking” the batik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwRX4Xrcgg0

Day 5 of my blog has other photos from our short time at Cape Coast too, but this should give you a feel. The Cape Coast was usually a destination for every student study abroad program that we encountered travelling through Ghana, usually their last day or two before they returned home.

I am so glad that President Obama chose Ghana to visit. Evidently for the same reasons we chose Ghana, political stability, friendly people, and a model of economic growth. And a place where we could take students for a study abroad and feel comfortable about it.

I hope to have some wonderful news about the projects progress within the next two months.

Again, please check out the Katie School wiki at http://www.katiepedia.com/ for more on microinsurance under the tab for insurance and sustainability.

Faithfully submitted,

Jim Jones

Director, Katie School

Illinois State University

http://www.katieschool.org/

One More Stop on the Way Home

Overview
I am blogging from the Heathrow Sheraton now preparing to head home later today. Our last day of the trip related to Africa was yesterday, and it was a fitting end. Time will tell, but it was quite likely the most important meeting we had for making this project into a long term program with outcomes for ISU, our students, and faculty. More details in a moment.

I will be reviewing overall blog and making some edits on names, spellings, and accuracy but I will preserve the observations I was making along the way as I actually saw them. I now have a clearer understanding, and some of the perspectives I had at the time were...,let's say, limited. I now see things more clearly and I would like to change some of what I said to make my observations appear more informed. But I think it is important to recognize that there each day we are learning (or should be) new ideas and gaining new perspectives that change our paradigms, our beliefs.

I think it is easy to think that what we believe now is what we have always believed. But if we are honest with ourselves we would see how much our core beliefs have changed over time, as we gain new perspectives. In Ghana they have a word Sankofa (literally meaning "go back and take"). It teaches the wisdom in learning from the past in order to build for the future. I think that to remain true to what I felt at the time is important. If I make any edits for the purpose of clarification now, I will note that it came at a different time.

I am grateful that I had a colleague, Horace, there with me. I think that made my observations more objective. Every evening we sat down and debriefed the days events, sometimes for several hours over dinner.

I hope that these blogs challenged some of the things you may have thought about Africa. That it is technologically in the stone age, or that they are all poor and in constant need of of a handout from those of us living in rich countries. Or that we have nothing to learn from them. I hope that people will see the fallacies of those assumptions as they read through my blogs, and see the photos I posted.

I already miss Ghana. It truly is a place of where modern meets traditional. A place where cultures blend, almost seamlessly. My favorite photo illustrating this was the photo of an Islamic man, in a thatched-roof village outside of Tamale, sitting on a motorcyle, with his cell phone in hand. I miss the places we saw, the food we ate, and especially the friends we made. I am comforted by a line from Frederick Beuchner's book "Telling the Truth" it reads:
You can kiss your friends and family good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your ear, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world, but a world lives in you. I can honestly say, Ghana lives in me now.

If you want to find out more about the topic of microinsurance please see our Katie School wiki

at http://www.katiepedia.com/ and search under the topic of microinsurance. I keep that updated with research and papers on the topic. I have gotten good feedback on the You Tube videos that I posted on Day 12 on Ecotourism and Day 8 on the value of microfinance for women in Ghana.

Day 12- Baobab Financial Services http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOcIdw61j1Q
Day 8- Larabanga Ecotourism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9THYjEVEC4

Here is the blog from yesterday.

One Stop to Go
We finally left Accra at around 11 p.m. headed for London. We ate a nice dinner on the plane, love British Airway meals, and then tried to get some sleep. We arrived at London at around 7 a.m. and then got a bus for Cheltenham, which is about two hours outside of London, to the home office of Microensure http://www.microensure.com/.

The history of Microensure was that it was established in 2005, as Microinsurance Agency (MIA) , the insurance agency of the international microfinance organization Opportunity International, a faith-based non-profit headquartered in Oak Brook, IL

They have packaged life and non-life microinsurance products in Ghana and have microinsurance operations in numerous developing countries. They successfully provided microinsurance in Uganda, and worked with World Bank in financing a weather-indexed insurance product for Malawi. MicroEnsure acts as a broker between regulated local insurers, reinsurers, and microfinance organizations and the farmers who purchase the insurance. They currently work with 40 different microfinance organizations, including their founding organization, Opportunity International. They provide product development, and the IT back office support for loan and insurance applications, and claims payment information for insurers and reinsurers. They see there role as helping to make sure that the insurance is affordable for the bottom billion (people who can only pay a few dollars a year).

One of the other key concepts that they relayed to us was that the best thing that microinsurance was doing was moving the risk from local people to the international reinsurance market, which can more easily spread and diversify the risk. I see the value of this, and I wonder how to work that concept with the risk retention concept I considered in earlier blog re. Agogo region. Figuring out how to integrate those two will be on my mind for some time, I suspect.


MicroEnsure recently received $24.5 million from the Gates Foundation for the purpose of faciliatating microinsurance, and weather-indexed crop insurance around the world. They have an office in Accra and are working on developing products for Ghana, including indexed insurance for crop loss.

We compared notes and reassuredly found that we had several similar findings. We both saw the importance of helping the agricultural sector because so much of the population (over 70 percent) somehow rely on that sector. We also agreed that the most important part of addressing this sector is to get farmers more credit. As mentioned in earlier blogs, banks and microfinance institutions are reluctant to expand their loan portfolios to include morefarm loans, as the are currently viewed as risky.

We discussed their approach and strategy, which was a bit different than what we were considering (I feel like I shouldn't go into too much detail on that publicly as I am not sure what they considered public information) but the result would be the same, greater willingness to provide credit for farmers.They have had success with their approach in other countries, so it may very well work out in Ghana. They certainly have the resources to overcome many challenges, and in fact have a good track record of doing just that in Malawi and India.

After about two hours of sharing observations and brainstorming ideas we came to the conclusion that we really should be working together. There are things we can be doing at ISU to support them and they have a lot to offer ISU, including providing data to help accelerate our research and development of student and faculty involvement in microinsurance, including student internships and study abroad programs to Ghana. We see a role for our students in helping with the pilots they run. This includes, the needs analysis, helping with initial product development ideas, providing education about insurance to farmers (and others) in Ghana. There would also be a number of projects students (agribusiness and actuarial science) could conduct on campus. In short, this could be an enormous win-win for both organizations.

On our way home from Cheltenham, we had the simultaneously feelings of being completely wrung out and exhilirated.

It was a long journey in many ways. One that I will never forget.

Faithfully Submitted,
Jim

Day 15- Leaving Ghana

Day 15-Our Last Day
Day 15 was busy and we had two important meeting before our 10:40 p.m. flight.
I suppose it is time to reflect on lessons learned.
First, having connections and a car (with a driver) are almost necessities.we can't overemphasize the value that Mr. Mahdi Abdullah had on this trip in providing all three.Thanks. We hope that the lessons learned, people we met, and discussions we have had will lead to something that will benefit your country. (Thanks again Mukthar).
Second, there are so many things that happened before and during this trip that seem to me to be way beyond coincidence. The latest one being the discovery that Mr. Mahdi, and the Paramount Chief we met yesterday were once next door neighbors. For the record, the trip to the Agogo was planned independent of Mr. Mahdi, in fact weeks before we had even met him. We just learned that last night that they had been neighbors, when we went to Mr. Mahdi's house. So I have to give credit to that Force that made all this happen and pulled so many people together. That is something I will never forget.

Our last day in Ghana
We started off the day meeting with Dr. Danso-Manu downtown in Accra.She handed over two USB sticks full of data on soil maps and rainfall data. It was nice to get the data in hand literally. She physically goes out and gathers the data with USB sticks.We were hoping to get at least half the 40 stations in Ghana that we had identified. Unfortunately, we only got 12 weather stations. Dr. Danso-Manu apologized, but the people she was working with had not gotten all the data input. Evidently, they are still transferring some paper data to electronic format for several of the stations. Well, it was good to have to get started.A little disappointing but at least we have some preliminary data to work with.

We then met with the Director of Research for APEX Bank again. This time formally and in detail. He and his staff were very receptive. We went through what we had learned travelling across the country, about the lack of credit for farmers.He understood that the rural banks are reluctant to loan to farmers because of the risks. He was a bit concerned about whether we would be able to get the data. I told him about the data we had collected, and the data that exists at KNUST and he was thrilled to learn that. I still had some concerns myself, given that we didn't get all the data we wanted either. While I was talking, my phone kept ringing. I ignored it the first two times since I didn't want to ruin the moment there with the APEX folks, but the third time I answered. Incredibly, it was Dr. Danso-Manu with more data.On her way home in a taxi she got a call that 17 more stations were now ready.I relayed that to APEX and they were as pleased as I was to hear the news. She brought another USB stick to us while we were there at APEX. (APEX told me how important this was to them. They had even travelled to India and met with people from other countries to try and develop something like this but the data was always the rub. (I realize that for investors to have confidence they are going to want the data ready and easily accessible.I think that his is just a transitional time and I expect that in a year or so, it will be easier to access.In the mean time, I am accepting (and if I am honest, benefiting from) the mysterious and arcane way is gathered. That will change in the near future I'm sure.

We ended the meeting with APEX agreeing to write a letter of support for us in our future proposals, and wants to introduce us to the Ministry of Agriculture in Accra.They made a contingent agreement to run a pilot for a product with reduced limits of financial exposure to see how the product performs. In addition to a simulation, I think a pilot with lower limits might work, and local insurance companies might actually be willing to underwrite that initial pilot.

We finished the formal day at 3 in time to get in some last minute shopping. Needed to catch up on shopping for a few little items to bring back from Africa before heading off to the airport.

Tomorrow we arrive in London at 7 and then take a bus two hours to Cheltenham to meet the CEO of Micorinsurance Agency -Microensure. They are the insurance part of Opportunity International based in Chicago and with microfinance offices around the world.

Faithfully Submitted,
Jim

Day 14- Trip to the Mountain to meet Paramount Chief

Day 14-Oveview
Today was a fascinating day in learning how the traditional tribal system works, and how it might be engaged to help facilitate crop loss mitigation strategies. We met with a Paramount Chief, who is just one level below the King, at his palace in Agogo, a city on a mountain in the heart of the forest of Ghana.
We expected to receive good information from the Paramount, and we came prepared to ask some questions, present our mission, and seek guidance. We did not expect to become a part of a 700 year old tradition for hearing of new ideas and make a formal presentation to a tribal council of elders, who gathered from around the region to hear our ideas.

I would have loved to been able to just observe all the intricate protocols of that tribunal, unfortunately, all my attention was focused on how to present this rather complicated idea to a group of influential klan leaders, most of whom, did not speak our language. Based on this meeting, we had a meeting with a local rural bank to discuss their role in what we had discussed.

Here is the blog
Meeting the Paramount Chief
We left Kumasi, and drove about 90 minutes up to a mountainous region, to the town of Agogo to meet the Paramount Chief of the region, Honorable Nana Akuoko Sarpong. Although Nana Sarpong was raised to be chief, and heir through his uncle, his mother insisted on his becoming educated and he became a lawyer and eventually Minister of the Interior (among other roles) in the government. He maintained his connection to the community, fought for their causes, and still to this day has a farm in the community and is working to help the farmers in his area through getting a rural bank located in his region, and engaging in reforestation to undo the damage done by multinationals over the past decades. He also, while respecting traditions, has brought a high level of technology to the village. He has a very high tech facility where students come from all over the region to do computer training. (an interesting place to learn Java script).

We arrived at the palace after the drive up the mountain from Kumasi.
We entered the Paramount Chief's palace and waited for him in the atrium on very formal, traditional furniture. The chief entered and his assistants prepared his chair for him. The chief was very helpful in explaining the way the traditional system works and how it functions in parallel to the formal government in terms of the courts and which cases are heard by tribal system and which cases go to formal system.

He explained the hierarchy going from King to Paramount Chiefs, to Division Chiefs, to Subdivision Chiefs, to Village Chiefs. We explained our mission and asked him to help us understand the needs of his people and then try and work thorugh how we could work together. We talked for about an hour and one of the major points learned (heard again) was that the farmers lack credit that they need to improve their operations, buy inputs, and do the kind of investing they need in order to prosper. He reiterated what we heard that banks are unwilling to loan to farmers because the risk is too great. He also explained the need for a market for the goods and a place to store the harvest. He also confirmed what we heard before in that farmers have to sell and very low pricesat harvest because there is a glut of crops, and then that may not be enough to pay off the loans. (Something sold in a village for 1GHc might sell in Accra for 12GHc.)

Having a place to store would help even out the timing of the market and serve to provide the farmer was higher prices, which currently go to a middleman who has transportation and storage facilities.

We concluded that there is a need for some kind of a rainfall insurance product to protect the banks and those who provide credit. Reducing their risk should make them more willing to provide capital to the farmers.We then discussed a system that has been germinating based on observations and discussions from what we've seen with Susu groups and the potential for a farmers risk retention group. I decided to trot that concept out and he was very enthusiastic because it was based on some traditional concepts of risk sharing that farmers already understood. He thinks that would succeed. There would be a number of complexities to deal with indemnification, moral hazards, and record-keeping but those are the details to be worked out.

The general idea is that the farmers contribute ex ante (before a loss occurs) rather than sharing in members loss after a crop failure. That timing difference could make the difference in how the risk retention could be funded and eventually how an insurance product could be developed.

Here's were it got fascinating! All of this had to go before the tribunal of chiefs (the divisional chiefs reporting to him).The chief left us for about 30 minutes to discuss this with his advisors. His advisors agreed to let the idea go before the full tribunal of elder chiefs.

The Tribunal Hearing:

We were taking to a court and seated with our two chairs in the middle. We were then surrounded by the divisional chiefs, scribes, and even a tribal photographer.The Paramount Chief was escorted in with several others and seating on a throne directly in front of us.The Paramount Chief announced (in his own native language) that they were holding court, and the purpose of the meeting. This was then repeated by a man to his right. The chiefs then made their way up to swear their allegiance to him.Then we were introduced. We walked around and shook hands. Then sat down. Then all of the divisional chiefs came up to us and shook our hands again and welcomed us.The Paramount Chief then told the others what he had learned from us. He then asked for a formal presentation.Since it was all through a translator I broke everything out into pieces (similar to the presentation we do for the Russian insurance executives who come to campus).I broke it into two presentations with three parts. The first presentaton was the rainfall insurance product that would be purchased by banks to reduce their risks andmake them more willing to provide loans to farmers. Then after that I went into the second part which was the risk retention group idea which I had discussed with the Paramount Chief.This was the village concept, where a group of villages would pool parts of their harvest to provide for crop losses of members who suffered losses the following season.

Then the chief opened it up for questions (and they had a TON).They talked about moral hazard and wanted to know how that would be addressed (of course they had more interesting terms for this than moral hazard, but that was the issue). Then they wanted to understand the premium (village contribution)who would be members of the groups, the size of the group, the mechanism for resolving disputes, and basically all the thingsyou would expect people to ask. Almost all of my answers were based on what I had learned the past week in how these were currently addressed in traditional systems.

1. The idea of each member contributing a jar of honey was borrowed from the farmers group in Forikrom. Chief liked this because he is trying to promote beekeeping with his farmers and it

2. Fit with traditional concept of risk sharing we just learned about (just changing the timing)

3. The organizational aspect that I presented and that the liked was based on the Baobab's women's solidarity group of five with a larger association of 25

4. The way a guarantee could be established was based on concept from Masloc

5. The way information on weather could be dissimenated was based on meeting with Chief Abdullah in Tamale.

6. As was the idea of a storage facility to prevent market gluts around harvest time and help farmers get better prices in order to more easily pay off their loans.

7. The way disputes are resolved via traditional system was what the Paramount Chief detailed earlier in out discussions and would be important in resolving (and even establishing) indemnity.

(Almost nothing besides the general concept of risk pooling was based on anything I had learned formally. If we had met him at the beginning we would have had very little of value to give him. ) . Basically, it is just about applying traditional systems (both risk management and legal traditions) that they have in place in a new way.

(There was an elaborate process for these questions to be made and how discussion could proceed and it was obvious that they had a traditional version of Roberts Rules to go by.)I was given some slack on this, but fortunately the Paramount chief gave me gestures on how I was doing. I wish I could just have been an observer. (Horace took a ton of notes and at dinner he pointed out a dozens of things going on that I didn't catch because I was so focused on the message.)

Finally after it was all over, we met again with the Paramount Chief privately. He said the meeting had gone very well.They divisional chiefs are all on board. They want to try the risk retention group part within their regions, and are interested in discussing this further and developing the details of that system.The beauty of this is that it all stays within their system. Nothing leaves. However they will be keeping records so that in a few years they will have data to show an insurer, who then might be willing to insure or reinsure the groups.(But the journey is long. So I am getting ahead of myself).

The Paramount chief took a photo with us (I knew it was formal but I couldn't contain myself after the tribunal, which is why I have such a silly grin). Next he then had one of his Divisional Chiefs go with us to the Rural Bank to talk with them and tell them about this. They were very interested, but especially interested in findind a way for them to get a loanto build a storage facility for the farmers goods to help support crop prices. This would, by itself, reduce the risk of defaults by farmes because some of the defaults are based on poor markets, and not poor yeilds. (This is a key piece to the puzzle).

After that we bid our farewells, took the road down the mountain and slept on the way back to Accra.We go into Accra in time for dinner and then began to get things ready for our departure tomorrow evening.But we had two more important meetings for tomorrow. One with Dr. Danso-Manu and the other, our second, and formal meeting with Apex Bank.

Faithfully Submitted,
Jim Jones
Director
Katie School of Insurance
Dateline Agogo

Day 12-Eco-tourism Day 13- Sunday Day of Rest

Day 12 and 13 Overview
It is Sunday and I am at the Miklin hotel in Kumasi. This is the first day that we are really just resting. We went to church nearby (a Roman Catholic church) at a school and it was as I remembered from 20 years ago. A mix of liturgical music and local music with drums. Very nice.

We have had a LOT to be thankful for this trip. Was glad we got to go to church even though the English language version started at 7 a.m. (and they do an enhanced two hour version that leaves plenty of time to offer your thanks :-)) After church we went to the market in search of good (brand name batteries). We ran out as we were leaving Mole. (That caused me to miss photo of mosque from 1653 (Oldest buidling in Ghana) except with my disposable. The local variety made in China, doesn't hold a charge. Horace went through a box of twenty in two hours in the park. (Okay, I'll stop whining.)

Anyway, I found some good Energizer batteries and got a good photo or two of the Kumasi Kejetia market (10,000 vendors over area of covering 36 acres. The largest in West Africa). Only about half that many were there this afternoon because it is Sunday. Interestingly, the topic of fire insurance for market vendors is now being discussed following a fire at the market last week. (Remarkably the last major fire before that, which like this one, was also a partial fire, was 1995.) So, maybe there is some kind of a product for fire that could be developed? (Wish there was a way to partition the market better to prevent a total market loss. They also need to monitor how many people tap into one outlet. In fact they might consider a more highly protected area for appliance vendors where they would pay a fee for electricity and close fire protection.)

Okay, well let me tell you about yesterday now. Tomorrow will be back on the circuit looking at farming and technology in a village outside of Kumasi.

Day 12- Ecotourism.

After the trip to the farm, we left Tamale and on the way home stopped over at Mole National Park. It is a bone-jarring two and a half hour drive from Tamale. Wanted to check that out as a possible stopover for students on a study abroad. We ran into another group of students from the University of Utah. The faculty who has been doing this with them for the past five years said that they stay in Kumasi (at KNUST guesthouse) and do public health activities in local villages. He also had some great ideas on how to structure and internship/study abroad.

The only reasonable option to stay, is the Mole Motel. It is authentically rustic. But what it lacks in accommodations, it makes up for in its view. It overlooks watering holes and these watering holes were where the animals will eventually congregate (especially in the dry season. )

You could see animals from the hotel. The sun was setting as we pulled in, so once again the fatigue of the day’s journey was replaced by the feeling of gratitude for being able to see yet another breathtaking view of the beauty that exists here in Ghana. No doubt the ten minutes of sunset over the Mole (pronounced Mo-lay).was worth the hours of difficult roads.

The next day (Saturday and actually Day 12) we did a 6:30 a.m. walking tour with a guide. (Got up early to see the game more active, also needed to make it to Kumasi before nightfall. Our guide was great in helping us to track animals and in explaining the eco-tourism part of how the reserve worked with local villages to conserve the land and help find employment for those villagers who could no longer hunt or farm on their traditional land which was now the protected game reserve. The park has several hundred elephants scattered over 4800sq Km. We were hoping to see elephants up close in the wild. I saw some 20 years ago when I was in a photo safari car but never met up with any while I was just walking around in the forest.

Turned out we had a great tracker. Not all the groups were as fortunate. I include my favorite photos of the elephants. I really enjoyed this even more than the elephants in Kenya that you would drive to see. These elephants were in the forest and tracking them down to photo them was an enjoyable challenge. A lot of antelopes and other smaller game along the way too. We almost literally (ran into a troop of baboons on our way of the park. All my batteries were dead so I was using the disposable, but they were pretty close. I think that this would be a worthwhile stop for a study abroad. It seems like all the universities spend a night or two here.

Afterwards we went to the nearby Village, Larabanga, which has the oldest building structure in Ghana, and perhaps West Africa. It is a mid-17th century mosque and is now the center of ecotourism for this muslim village. The eco-tourism project was established by a Peace Corps volunteer and they did a really nice job with that. The guides who greet you, and there will be several, range from 4 year s old to 18. They have a tight marketing campaign. (It would actually make for a fun exercise for business students to note all the different marketing and sales techniques that are employed. Impressive.)

I videotaped this and put it up on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9THYjEVEC4 , to give them a little more PR. They work hard and deserve it, and it does help the local community which was displaced by the reserve.

The story of the mosque itself as well as the story of the Peace Corps volunteers' role in developing ecotourism for the community were both worth hearing. Given it’s proximity to Mole National Park, the town has a lot of potential for developing ecotourism.

Faithfully Submitted,

Jim

Day 11-Trip to Chief Abdulah's Farm

Overview:

I am running a couple of days behind on blogs as we have been travelling in some more remote areas. It is now Sunday afternoon and I am at a hotel in Kumasi catching up on my Friday and Saturday blogs. The Day 11 and 12 activities involved some serious four-wheeling and it took something out of us. But the many farmers and villagers who live in those remote areas get around on much less comfortable terms than in a 4x4 Landcruiser.

Day 11- Trip to the Chief’s Farm

Today we decided to take a look at the actual production of crops like cassava and yams. The trip was about 50 km outside of Tamale and it took us about 2 hours. The photo at the top shows the long road to the Chief's farm. It does seem to go on forever.

We went passed the fields where they were going to be growing maize and rice but the Chief was holding off on planting because the rains are coming about two-three weeks late this year.

He knows that, based on meteorological reports.

Unfortunately, a lot of farmers have already started based on traditional timetables. As mentioned in the previous blogs, this information is something that the chief tries to communicate to farmers who have loans with him, at their weekly meetings. I met some U.S. Dept. of Agriculture people who are trying to find ways to get the word out via mobile telephone (since most farmers would have that). That might be something to consider in underwriting for crop loss too if such a product were developed. The farmer needs to have access to the updated climate and weather information. (That would be a nice value-added for purchasing insurance too. Would help reduce losses and benefit the farmer.)

I included a photo of the cassava being grown and then the other photos is cassava being sold at the market. (This is a traditional crop and is not really considered a "cash crop". It takes about 15 months for cassava to reach maturity. Most of the other crops take a few months.)

Transportation is an issue on everything and one reason that farmers don’t get very good prices for their crop. Most farmers have no easy way to get them to market because the roads are so challenging. It seems like an improvement in infrastructure could make a huge difference in what farmers could get to the market without spoiling. (If a multi-peril crop insurance product were developed for smaller farmers), it would have to be designed and underwritten with that in mind

On the way to the village we saw some interesting contrasts. I included a photo below of a Muslim man adorned in flowing, brightly colored, full-length clothes on his motorbike in a thatched room village. (That scene was repeated many times.)

Motorbikes are used frequently by farmers in the north (as are bicycles).

Faithfully Submitted,

Jim