This site uses the agricultural sector as a case to demonstrate Digitalisation for Development (D4D). D4D within a country is the intersection of digital innovations, data infrastructure, innovative business development, and the enabling environment. The concept of digitalisation for development takes advantage of the process of Digitisation that facilitates the transition from analog to digital. If the agricultural sector in the above figure is replaced with any development sector, the framework remains relevant – sectoral transformation through digitalisation.

The portal intends to be a primary source of information for multi-sector programme/project implementers; digital solution developers; students and researchers in information and communication technologies (ICTs); intermediaries and other field staff; policy and decision makers; private sector investors in digital innovations; and international development partners, donors, and funding agencies who seek ideas to support.

The site has been developed through years of expertise and experience in the areas of agriculture, rural development, and ICTs/Digitalisation by Dr Benjamin Kwasi Addom. Ben is a Digitalisation for Development Strategist, with international expertise from Africa, Caribbean, Pacific, North America, and Europe. He is a product of University of Oxford, Saïd Business School’s Executive Leadership Programme (OELP).

He brings along decades of expertise and experience in agriculture, agribusiness, value chains development, extension and advisory services, and digitalisation for development. He has experienced smallholder agriculture in Ghana growing up in a farming community. He grew up with interest in helping to address the information gap he experienced working with his family on the farm. He received his Bachelor in General Science, General Agriculture from the University of Cape Coast in addition to a Diploma in Education, Cape Coast, Ghana. He worked on the field as agricultural extension and advisory officer in remote northern regions of Ghana with the government and private sector extension services. He left the field after 4 years and went to Cornell University, USA for his Master’s in International Agriculture and Rural Development through the Institute for African Development Fellowship, Cornell.

He continued with a Doctorate in Information Science and Technology at Syracuse University School of Information Studies, USA. These programmes have enabled him to understand and speak the language of digital innovators as well as the agricultural stakeholders. He has conceptualised, designed, developed, and implemented a range of development programmes/projects over the years that bring these two domains together. He has analysed proposals, disbursed grants, and managed donor-led agriculture and ICTs for development programmes/projects.