Behavioral incentives, process innovation, and track & trace in book distribution

• In Event: “Lean and green” book supply chains: Efficient, effective, and climate-friendly book provision

Proposal

In northern Mozambique getting books to schools sometimes involves transporting books via canoes. In these most populated parts of the country seasonal rains are perhaps the largest culprit for book damage and inability to get books to schools on time. Add to this the effects of climate change such as Cyclone Idai and Kenneth in 2019, some of the worst ever in history in the Southern hemisphere that battered Mozambique, and we are left to rethink approaches and identify new solutions.
Human enterprise at a local level can be a powerful problem solver but humans need to be nudged. It is with this approach that Creative Associates International is currently implementing a World Bank REACH funded project that underwent a contextual study of the last mile (and penultimate mile) of book delivery in northern Mozambique in 2019 and used the data and study findings to have public district book distribution actors design and prioritize solutions. The project is currently implementing a results-based financing solution to incentivize the creation of local waterproof book storage at the penultimate node of the book supply chain, which might have the highest chance of making books available to schools from districts on time.
A set of tools that Creative has developed, tested and deployed in a few countries in the book supply chain are track and trace technology solutions. For example, the USAID funded Afghan Children Read project implemented by Creative Associates International has been in 2019 and is nationally scaling up a book inventory technology solution previously piloted in the project, and has some early insights of the potential of such book supply chain technology solutions at scale. Track and trace solutions are often primarily intended for monitoring, to shine light on what is happening in the book supply chain and perhaps pay for performance; but there are indications that these solutions may in itself be leading to change in book delivery processes, behaviors and outcomes.
This talk will share from experiences in aforementioned Creative Associates International implemented projects data driven methods to understand book delivery challenges, co-design and asset based approaches for book delivery improvement, the role of behavioral incentives in book distribution, the state of track and trace solutions and early findings from their scale up.

Author

• Ayan Kishore, Creative Associates International