Track and trace in context: Monitoring the book value chain

• In Event: ICT4D Practice track V: Amazon Does Not Deliver to This Address: Track and Trace for School Materials

Proposal

Many processes in the book value chain pose challenges for governments in low-income countries as well as NGO’s implementing reading projects at scale. Distribution may be the biggest challenge of them all, with printing, labeling, picking and packing, packaging and sorting out of millions of educational books in different languages to schools scattered across the country. Annual loss and damage rates are as high as 65 % in Sub Saharan African countries.(World Bank, 2015) This suggests that the digital tracking of materials from the moment they roll of the press up to last mile distribution, yields a very high Return on Investment. The All Children Reading Grand Challenge conducted a Track & Trace pilot in Malawi and other Track & Trace pilots are underway in Afghanistan and Zambia. Considering these experiences, what is the likelihood of a Track & Trace system being adopted by governments in low-income countries? And to what extent does this fit into overall efforts to improve book management, both in reading projects as well as under the Global Book Alliance? And is the community empowerment to advocate for the timely delivery of their children’s books not the single biggest game changer of the initiative? These questions will be explored and the audience will be asked to share their experiences and views.

Author

• Roel De Haas, blueTree Group