Pésinet and Saint Louis Net

Both of these components of Afrique Initiatives draw on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to accomplish development aims in Senegal, such as fostering good health and addressing poverty. Though the focus is on technology, the strategy often involves community participation. For example:

Specifically, the service weighs children in their homes twice per week, using local trained members of the community, and then tracks and monitors changes in the children’s weight over an intranet with the help of private doctors. It also arranges for follow-up care by doctors when necessary for the children’s continued good health. Pésinet charges a nominal monthly fee, averaging less than 150 CFA (US $0.26) per child, for each child enrolled in the service; the fee also includes the cost of any necessary doctor’s visits. The fee provides some revenue, but the majority of the operating costs of the service, which currently reaches about 1,400 children in 8 districts of Saint Louis, are covered by Afrique Initiatives.

Economic Development, Health, Technology.

”Pésinet’s model appears to be successful, but it is a non-profit enterprise that will require continued support, as it is not intended to be self-sustainable. Saint Louis Net and some of its proposed services or products could become sustainable, but it is not yet successfully delivering social benefits and faces a number of business challenges, including the difficulties of managing a joint venture when the operating partner has other, potentially distracting, business activities. For the two organisations to share IT infrastructure is a novel and possibly useful approach, but may only be viable when that infrastructure is provided by a third party, such as Afrique Initiatives in this case. The results in Senegal so far also reflect the difficulty of starting a successful enterprise when the initiative comes from an external source, rather than from local entrepreneurs.”