DFN Workplan

Context: What we plan to do over the upcoming ~8 to 10 weeks (late Feb through April 2022) so that we can develop a credible "roadmap" (or at least high level list of objectives / deliverables / activity areas along with resource needs) in line with the annual planning timeline (initial pass late March and finalize in April). 

Mar 3 note: Extended through mid May to cover the proposed May cross pollination meetings between India/Ethiopia

Key Dates / Milestones:

• @Ashu Sikri (Unlicensed) to send weekly updates highlighting key activities and progress

• Have assigned owners to a few tasks here but I think we need to diffuse this a bit so its not so single threaded; something to discuss on Tue Feb 22

• Will have a mix of decision making and ideation meetings and can figure out who attends each type. Ideally we can get these on the calendar with clarity on who needs to attend each type by Feb 24

  • Ideation: Share learnings from internal and FPO workshops and deeper dives on proposed entry points to get feedback and leverage collective learnings / network

  • Decision making: (1) What entry points are we shortlisting and eventually piloting as a DFN entry point (if any that are distinct from existing project work). (2) Review and approve DFN budget

Deliverables at the end of this process?

• DFN budgets for India, Ethiopia and Kenya; first pass ready by week of March 28

  • Incl clear ask for Tech for what we need over upcoming [3] months

• MOU / co-creation plan with participating farmer groups

• JDs for mission critical DFN roles published and recruiting started

• Clarity on DG role vs partners esp for any new entry points

• Clarity on intersection points between DFN and existing projects like TARA or ATLAS?

• See annual planning slides here. Key questions:

  • What is the objective and key measures of success?

  • Staffing needs? (existing and new).

  • What are the main cost drivers and associated assumptions?

  • Any requests or dependencies from cross-cutting teams? (i.e. comms, MEL, Advocacy, gender, climate, strategy and tech)

  • What are the risks that require mitigation?

Flying Formation (next 10 weeks)

• Overall lead / @Ashu Sikri (Unlicensed) / Define product vision, budget owner, overall coordination

• Business Development / @Kunal Tiwari (Unlicensed) / Coordinate w program teams on farmer group outreach; partner outreach

• Project Coordination / Neha Singh / Scheduling, documentation, meeting minutes, etc.

  • Accepted offer and starting mid March. Previously Grameen Foundation

• User Research: In the near-term, rely on project teams to drive this

  • Ashu and Kunal to lean in on learning questions, @ashok is resident expert

  • Support from @Tetyana Zelenska (Unlicensed) and strategy team to bring in resources who can help with methodology (IDEO, IDRC)

  • Need to a consultant or hire for this role medium-term; behavioral science / anthropology background

• DFN KPIs: @Tetyana Zelenska (Unlicensed)

• Design / Prototyping: In Lokesh’s absence, need to fill this role. Hire vs. consultant?

• Tech Architecture incl web3 intersection / @Vineet Singh / see “Learning questions”

• Legal / ???? / see “Learning questions”

• Medium-term adds (next 6 to 12 months)

  • India Country DFN Product Lead: Product vision. Prior experience w FPOs. Understand needs and convert to requirements which are brought to life by designers and then built by tech.

  • On-ground coordination: How much of this can be taken up by existing state teams? Not much if its a new entry point as they are at full capacity but maybe if it aligns with existing work. Suppose we want to work with 10 FPOs; what do we need? Look at Samunnati cluster structure (1 resource per 10-15 FPOs).

Open / Learning questions

Things we want to understand better in the coming weeks:

• What drives farmers to join farmer groups?

• How can farmer groups make the proposition compelling for their members?

• How does farmer / farmer group data ownership relate to Agristack and government perspective on data privacy and protection more generally?

• How are web3 concepts / technologies an enabler for DFN? When is the right time to layer them in?

  • Tokens as an incentive and orchestration mechanism

  • What is the legal structure that enshrines farmer control in terms of governance and ownership (DAO vs. Trust vs. Cooperative)

  • NFTs?

  • Blockchain for data storage infrastructure?

  • Usability (private keys, etc.)

• Geographic focus. Prioritize geographies where we have presence and are already working w FPOs:

  • AP is most promising entry point: higher smartphone penetration

  • Odisha: Contrast w AP in terms of connectivity

  • What is the timing and traction / success criteria we need to see in order to expand into new geographies

Meeting Notes

Internal workshops

• more time on next steps at the end to plan FPO workshop

• thursday (feb 24): AP or JH/OD

FPO workshops

• State leads lead on workshop logistics esp attendees

• can we complement w smaller focus group discussions

• on-going engagement (eg, whatsapp groups)

• translator

• strategy and MEL teams as reviewer / contributor on how to make this participatory (best practices)

annual planning is priority for the team over the next couple weeks

• update andrew and gelsey to project annual plans have link to DFN where it makes sense (Shreya)

FF for India vs. Ethiopia vs. Kenya

• I agree - Also, flying formation not just for India but also for Ethiopia and Kenya.. For Ethiopia Kebede has suggested Beza (and until she comes back Hawi) and in Kenya Henry.. While Andrew and I can support re coordination

Immediate to dos

• Schedule internal workshop (Ashu and Kunal)

• Ankita to support? (Krish)

• Ethiopia + Kenya sessions (Shreya to coordinate)