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Unique tool in Czech-UNDP Partnership will merge solutions for development challenges with creative innovations – join us with your innovative solution!

Following a long-term partnership between the UNDP and the Czech Republic, via projects like the Czech Trust Fund, a new Czech-UNDP Partnership has been launched in 2018. The partnership focuses on the search for innovative solutions to development problems and has so far supported 17 projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Moldova. The success of the program has attracted interest from Poland and Slovakia, which are preparing to replicate them within their own development cooperation.

“Current trend in the development cooperation is to focus on engaging the private sector and mobilizing funds beyond public finances. This engagement increases the number of possibilities available for solving development issues and strengthens their impact. It is a modern approach, and I am proud that Czech Republic is a part of it,” says the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Martin Tlapa on the account of the new project.

The goal of the Czech-UNDP Partnership for the Sustainable Development Goals (abbrev. CUP) is to contribute to the long-term sustainable development in selected partner countries via utilization of Czech expertise, alongside the identification and implementation of innovative solutions with the potential to scale across the sectors and the regions.

This is how the CUP follows the global trend, which emphasizes the need for involvement of all possible financial resources – public and private, local and international – to increase the positive impact of development activities.

Innovative solutions in development cooperation

The Challenge Fund is the latest element of the Czech Republic´s cooperation with UNDP, which will serve as a unique platform for transfer of much-valued Czech expertise. “This tool was first used in Malawi and Czechs are among the first to use this tool for further project implementation – its uniqueness is in the fact that it put the innovative approaches as a core of addressing development challenges,” says Václav Bálek, the director of the Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the Challenge Fund platform which presents the basis of the new launched program. “Development cooperation is usually carried out in such a way that the goals, outputs and activities are set in a cooperation with the local people – and afterwards, a suitable implementer is being sought. Here, however, the problems are first identified and defined by the local partners themselves who then, in cooperation with the implementors, propose suitable solutions. We then choose the most suitable one based on quality, degree of innovation and potential for further expansion,” he adds to the details of this unique approach.

CUP, in cooperation with local UNDP offices, focuses primarily on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Moldova, where it contributes to building local capacities to address development challenges through sharing Czech know-how and innovation. It will focus on four key sectors – governance, sustainable management of natural resources, economic transformation and agriculture, and rural development. The success of the program is based on close cooperation between the Czech entities and local partners.

The Czechs helped us a lot

“Everybody knows that the Czechs have a lot of experience in dealing with the effects of floods – but there is little talk about the fact that it is not only classical procedures and robust solutions that are suitable for large rivers, but that there are also modern technologies that bring inexpensive solutions to combat floods on small river streams, ”says Senida Dzajic-Rghei of the Hydroinformatics Institute, who oversees the installation of stations collecting information about the lower flows and solving the problem of so-called flash floods. “The system collects information that cannot be captured in another way, but also tracks the current situation – and in the case of elevated lower levels of the waters, it immediately sends a short message to those responsible from the local government about the possible danger,” she describes the operation of the system.

“We cannot afford a solution that is used in Western Europe. We wouldn’t be able to cover the running expenses, it could also be a problem with storage. We are very pleased for what Zikmund electronics s.r.o. has brought us, it is a quality and effective solution. The Czechs have helped us a lot,” says a representative of the Water and Sewerage Systems from Bijelina in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where a push camera will be used for sewer inspection, which will enable it to solve any problems quickly and cheaply. Petr Zikmund is also enthusiastic about the development of his company and says: “We have been working in the field of development and production of the push camera systems for almost 30 years. It is a time when we have been able to develop a range of detection and control systems to work in different levels of inaccessible areas. We are very pleased that our novelty – TechWorm push camera has found its application abroad, where it will help in the detection of defects in piping systems. We believe that over time there will be the possibility of delivering large inspection and detection systems to this development area.” Because of its extraordinary qualities, TechWorm has entered the Czech Innovation Award of 2019.

“It was a unique experience for us, we helped to solve the local problem of introducing new technologies into the city administration and at the same time we opened the door for further partnerships in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” says Lukáš Blatecký, project manager of Incinity, Zlín Region for the year 2018 and the first of innovative solutions implementers, which participated in the implementation of a new e-system for public administration in the city of Tuzla.

The list of 17 supported projects can be found here.

Czech inspiration for development cooperation

“The UNDP welcomes the innovative approach brought in and advanced by the Czech members of the Partnership Team. Yet again, this makes them an inspiration for other projects and partnerships. As a result, we greatly value the presence of our Czech colleagues here in Istanbul, as they are bringing another perspective to the table, one that is already extremely diverse,” states Dagmar Novohradská, CUP Program Manager, representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic at UNDP.

Her words confirm that the Czech Republic’s cooperation with UNDP is successful not only through the fruitful sharing of Czech expertise in the transition to democracy and the market economy, but also serves as proof of the Czech Republic’s readiness for a stable partner on the international development scene.

For more information about the new program “Czech-UNDP Partnership for Sustainable Development Goals” see this websites.

Mamacoffee preparing to build premium coffee processing facility in Uganda with CzDA support

Uganda ranks among the poorest African nations, with high infant mortality rate and the lowest average age in the world, a mere 16 years. At the same time Uganda is the 8th largest producer of coffee in the world. And yet the agricultural community of local farmers unfortunately lacks the necessary knowledge and equipment in terms of planting, harvesting, and subsequent processing. For this reason mamacoffee, with the support of the B2B Program of the Czech Development Agency, has decided to build a business plan whose purpose is to map the options for building a processing facility for premium coffee in the foothills of the Rwenzori mountains in Western Uganda and to thereby support local farmers.

Mamacoffee was established in 2007 after a trip by founders Marta and Daniel Kolský to Ethiopia. From the very beginning of the company’s operations it has sought to connect consumers and coffee lovers with coffee farmers and their communities. In 2008 mamacoffee opened the first fair trade coffee roasters in central and eastern Europe and the company has subsequently worked to expand its overall capacity primarily by building other coffee shops, the capacity of its coffee roaster, and expanding trade. From 2009 to 2015 the company opened 7 of its own coffee shops, a certified bakery, and their own warehouse and packaging facility. As part of the B2B Program, mamacoffee has already carried out numerous projects, for example the recent project Agricultural innovations and technology in Myanmar with an emphasis on planting coffee.

“Our project in Uganda builds on our activities in Indonesia, Brazil, Nicaragua, and other countries. We are trying to share our knowledge with the other coffee farmers we are working with in long-term partnerships. At the same time we are seeking additional vendors and new partners and trying to build their knowledge, capabilities and capacity. Our approach is based on the conviction that greater competency in our partners will become our added value. We also believe that commercial cooperation can be the best method of development cooperation,“ says mamacoffee founder and executive Daniel Kolský. In addition to “fair trade” with coffee, mamacoffee also supports various disadvantaged groups within the Czech Republic. In 2010 they founded the social enterprise fair balírna s. r. o., which employs people with special health needs.

Motivating farmers for long-term collaboration

From the perspective of export, coffee represents a fundamental and strategic commodity for Uganda. In recent years the technical infrastructure has been built to the level of specific facilities thanks to a number of development projects. Donors of these projects primarily include Lutheran World Relief and Enabel – Belgian Development Agency. These individual projects have led to Uganda being able to build several high-quality facilities where they have partnered with international companies. “And yet coffee from Uganda still has not been successfully promoted and a specific space created on the market for premium coffee. On the contrary, it can be said that for a number of multi-national companies Uganda currently seems like a location that produces a large volume of inexpensive coffee without additional interest in increasing overall awareness of Ugandan coffees and their potential and opportunities,” Daniel Kolský explains.

In order for coffee to be designated as “premium” it has to achieve 80 points or higher based on a sensory evaluation. The difference in the price of commodity coffee and premium coffee can range in the tens or even hundreds of percent. For premium coffee the characteristic designations include information about region, varietal, and often other specific details that commodity coffee lacks. And yet it is premium coffee that represents the fastest growing segment of the coffee trade. The government and above all the Uganda Coffee Development Authority in recent years have gained awareness of this potential and sought to work more with promoting, increasing the quality, and differentiating the individual segments of the coffee market. At the same time they are trying to partially motivate the entry of foreign investors.

mamacoffee is planning this year during the first harvest to verify in practice the theoretical basis of a business study. Upon evaluating this harvest they will proceed with the investment phase and the project itself. This will be carried out on farms in the vicinity of the Rwenzori mountains. The farms have rather the character of small gardens, ranging in size from approx. 500 – 5000 m², which are mostly a combination of coffee, beans, and other products. In terms of financial impact, however, it is coffee that is the key commodity for most farmers. Unfortunately, in terms of their planting, harvesting, and processing knowledge these agricultural communities are practically entirely lacking in technical equipment and essential information about modern agriculture. Coffee plants are harvested by hand and often without regard to ripeness. “Along with inadequate management of farms and coffee crops as such, this leads to significant decreases in the quality of the coffee. It is the combination of these factors, along with the significant natural quality of local coffee, natural conditions, and above all the culture, which is very open, friendly, and focused on improvement and collaboration, where we see significant potential,” adds Daniel Kolský.

One of the main goals of the project is its development impact on local farmers. Support and knowledge transfer between collaborating farmers will lead to increased volume and overall quality of the planted and processed coffee. Greater yields and above all the higher quality of coffee will lead to an overall improvement of the economic situation of individual farmers. This change of course will not take place from one day to the next, but rather it will be necessary to gradually develop the entire community on a general level, such as in ecological behavior, so that the project can be sustainable over the long term. Farmers will be motivated by higher profits, but they will have to actively contribute to the entire process themselves.

PF 2020

Dear Partners, Dear Friends,

The Czech Development Agency wishes you a peaceful holiday season and a happy year 2020.

Czech cavers help assess the potential of Georgia’s unique karst underground

In November, several months of work by a team of experts from the Cave Administration of the Czech Republic, which went to Georgia as part of a Czech Development Agency project to assess the potential of cave use in the west of the country, all came to an end. Imereti, Samegrelo and Racha are significant for the occurrence of surface and underground karst phenomena. However, lack of funding and of the relevant expertise prevent Georgians from exploring these natural gems. A project carried out under the Sending Experts programme should help make these areas accessible in the form of ecotourism, with the involvement of local people in the provision of tourist services, which would make a significant contribution to increasing the income in this region, which is poor, but of great natural value.

A concept of cave development in the Imereti, Samegrelo and Racha regions was compiled back in 2015, as part of which Czech experts identified the individual steps through which it would be possible to gather information about the karsts and their use in the protection of Georgia’s natural wealth. The Racha area is located in the north-eastern tip of western Georgia and covers an area of 2,854 km². Surface and underground karst phenomena, such as sinkholes, grikes, swallow holes, karst springs, caves and abysses are abundant in all parts of the Rachan karst massif, and even whole cave systems on occasion.

“Most important from the point of view of protecting the area is the Nakeral Ridge. The karst plateau, with an average height of 1,500 m above sea level and a number of karst phenomena, extends to the west of the Shaori dam over an area of 60 km². There are plenty of sinkholes on the plateau, the exact number of which has not yet been established, and more than 10 caves are registered in the area. The longest one of these is the Racha 2001 Cave, discovered and explored by local speleologists. The total length of all areas of the cave system is 4073 m. There is unique stalactite and stalagmite decoration in some places in the cave in the form of eccentric growths,” explains speleologist Petr Zajíček, a specialist at the Cave Administration of the Czech Republic, who examined the area together with Karel Drbal and Vratislav Ouhrabka from the Department of Care for Caves.

The second longest cave is the Muradi Cave, which lies about 1.5 km from the Racha 2001 Cave. Its specific stalactite and stalagmite decoration makes it a unique site in Georgia. Local speleologists were able to discover other parts at the end of 2014, with extremely rare forms of stalactite and stalagmite filling in the form of oddly-structured, spherical formations of a diameter of up to 50 cm suspended on the stalactites. This unique decoration was created underwater in the past and its origin is a topic of debate among experts. In addition to these forms of decoration, the Muradi Cave also features rich stalactite, stalagmite, curtain and sinter cascade decoration and deserves special care and protection against the damage that can occur in the event of frequent unorganised visits. Even in this cave, new discoveries were made in the end sections during cooperation between Czech and Georgian speleologists.

Hydrological surveys are required to ensure visitor safety

Another beautiful cave with potential tourist use is Arsen Okrojanashvili Cave in the Samegrelo area, which reaches a total length of 1,600 metres, the height of its corridors ranging from 8 to 30 metres. Moreover, the watercourse here creates a number of underground lakes. “At present, the cave is difficult to get through and a rubber boat has to be used. The waters leave the cave through the entrance and form a cascading waterfall of a height of 234 metres. The water level in the cave increases sharply during torrential rain or when snow melts on the plateau. Absolute visitor safety is essential for the cave to be used. Hydrological surveys, including the maximum and minimum water flow levels, must therefore be carried out to ensure safe conditions inside the cave. This year, therefore, 3 sets of level gauges were purchased in the Czech Republic and subsequently installed at predetermined locations in the cave. Workers from the Georgian Agency of Protected Areas were then acquainted with operation, reading data and evaluating them,” says Petr Zajíček.

The Racha area, an area of considerable ecological value, has indisputable tourist potential. The Georgians would like to declare this area a protected site in order to protect the area from adverse effects. However, in order to know the territory, it is necessary to carry out review exploration, for which the Georgians do not have sufficient resources. According to Czech experts, carrying out such a survey, especially with regard to biodiversity, is a task for a large scientific team over several years. Czech experts are able to carry out a review inventory of the karst landscape with basic karst phenomena within the project and to determine the boundaries of the future protected area, so as to include the most important habitats for future biodiversity research.

For tourists to be able to use the area, it would then be necessary to build the appropriate infrastructure, access roads, walkways or rest areas in order to avoid uncontrolled movement of visitors and damage to nature. Some parts of the area, such as waterfalls and caves, can only be made accessible to tourists on foot. Tourists would only be allowed to enter the caves if accompanied by responsible guides and depending on the weather; otherwise there would be an immediate threat to their health and lives. In all cases, making the beautiful caves of Georgia accessible should lead to the development of the region and in turn an improvement in the standard of living of the local people in the future.

Photographs: Petr Zajíček

CzDA supported the development of smart cities in North Africa

As part of its B2B Program, the Czech Development Agency supported the business plan of the Czech Incinity software company, whose main activity is the development, supply and support of its own Invipo integration platform for smart cities. This currently manages transport in over 15 cities in the Czech Republic and abroad, including Izmir in Turkey, Legnice in Poland and Olomouc in the Czech Republic. Thanks to the support from the CzDA, Invipo should also improve transport in cities in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.

The Invipo story begins back in 1994, when a company called CROSS Zlín was established in the city of Zlín. Lukáš Duffek joined this company in 2009 as its new head of development and was a key person in the company’s efforts to create an integration platform and smart cities. “Software is my passion. I grew up on computers and games, and moved on to programming while still at primary school – my enthusiasm for it has never left me. The greatest challenge when writing software is to put together something useful, something that helps yet also entertains, and something everybody can understand without a manual,” says Lukáš Duffek, explaining how he got into programming.

In 2015, a completely new company called Incinity s.r.o. was founded to focus purely on developing Invipo. The goal was to build up strong know-how and a professional team that would become the foundation for the development of innovative software. A year later, Invipo had already won the prestigious Intertraffic Innovation Awards 2016, the first ever software to do so.

Invipo also manages Izmir and its population of three million

In 2017, the then largest-ever ITS project in the region was completed in Turkey – the smart city project for Izmir with its over 3 million inhabitants. Invipo became the sole software platform monitoring and managing the whole city. Over 12,000 end devices and 21 types of technology are connected to it, and operators have 18 different modules available. “Smart city applies to all areas relating to the lives of people in cities. Most of all of course transport, parking, public lighting, contact with the authorities and so on. Simply things you have to do most often in the city and that affect you every day as a citizen,” says Lukáš Duffek, who studied programming at Masaryk University in Brno and has worked as a programmer and head of development in several software and technology companies.

He is now planning to explore the markets of North Africa with Incinity. The goal of the project supported by the CzDA is to use innovative solutions and Incinity’s smart cities experience in selected North African states to positively impact their inhabitants, visitors and companies, and to improve their services. One prerequisite will be to establish cooperation with local partners, such as the competent ministries, public organisations and municipalities. He is also anticipating the creation of jobs as part of the integration and operation of the smart cities platform.

“The smart cities issue is currently very topical in North Africa, as evidenced by upcoming and already completed projects like Casablanca Smart City, Algiers Smart City and the projects for several new smart cities in Egypt, including a new administrative capital. Incinity can bring its own experience and tried-and-tested solutions from other states to the table. We have already visited Egypt (in November 2018), met some potential partners there, and are now in talks regarding possible initial projects in that state,” says Lukáš Duffek.

The Invipo platform has won several international awards, such as the Innovation Award and the Smart Mobility Award at the Intertraffic 2016 exhibition in Amsterdam, and the Smart City Service Award at the Smart Cities Innovation Summit Asia 2017 in Seoul. “I am convinced that the successes Incinity has already had and the fact that its Invipo platform has already been successfully implemented in a series of cities in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, mean it will be similarly successful in North African cities. In addition, the project will contribute towards meeting Goal 11 of the Global Goals for Sustainable Development, namely the creation of inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and municipalities, which was also one of the reasons for our support,” says Ludmila Leškovská, who is responsible for the B2B Program grant program at the Czech Development Agency.

Czech experts have completed another mission in the project to save Mongolian forests

In recent years climate change has meant that forestry in Mongolia has been facing some considerable challenges, which have an impact on the social as well as economic life of the country’s inhabitants. Mongolian forestry has a shortage of trained and experienced experts that could help to improve the sustainability of the local forests. Therefore, this year, Czech forestry experts carried out another mission as part of a CzDA project there. The aim was to teach Mongolian forestry teachers and their students how to collect field data.

Forests are an important aspect of Mongolian life. For the local people they are a source of water, provide shade in hot weather and are also a source of livelihood for many people. Although much of Mongolia is covered by steppes, the country has roughly ten to fourteen million hectares of forest, which for the sake of comparison is equivalent to the total amount of forest in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland altogether. Unfortunately, owing to climate change, Mongolia has been facing serious problems in forestry. The three-year project Mongolian forestry in Development: Advanced Expertise in Forest Planning and Management is focused on improving the skills of forestry experts and follows up on the previous exchange of expertise carried out in the project Development of Forests and the Gene Pool of Local Forest Tree Ecotypes in Mongolia. You can take a look at a 26-minute film about this project here.

This year’s expert mission followed on from the first year of the project and the preparatory trip taken in autumn 2018, which included a workshop on the topic of “Development of Forests and Genetic Sources of Local Forest Tree Ecotypes As a Means of Adapting to Climate Change”. During the project the experts presented tools for long-term forest development and, on the basis of field surveys, educational and methodological materials for private, state and educational institutions were created together with the Mongolian partners. Two forest nurseries were established (one in the somon of Sharyngol, Darkhan-Uul Province, and the other at the university of agriculture and forestry in Darkhan), together with an educational nature trail. The project activities were linked to the education system and to a public awareness campaign, so as to increase the sustainability of the outputs.

The concerns about criminal activity by the local gold miners were luckily not confirmed

This year’s trip was taken by an expert team comprising Antonín Kusbach, Tadeáš Štěrba and Jan Novák. ”Besides us, another 12 people participated in the field survey, ten of whom were from the Mongolian University of Life Sciences and two from the Forest Research and Development Center. At the end, all the participants received a training certificate,” says project coordinator Antonín Kusbach, adding that they did encounter some complications on their trip. ”When we arrived at Khurel Gol in the Khan Khentii mountains we were delayed due to administrative problems with the entry permit. The site was in a “state of emergency” owing to crime in the gold mining region, and so the local governor issued an order instructing that no visitors were to be permitted to enter the area. They claimed that the permit we had from the Mongolian Ministry of Environment and Tourism was invalid. Eventually they let us enter the area at our own risk and responsibility and we were able to start work on building the camp.”

During the first part of the training the participants were acquainted with the basic forest ecosystems in the area, the vegetation, geomorphology and climate, which was demonstrated on a meteorological station installed last autumn. After downloading the data and work with the software the participants were given an initial test to gauge their basic knowledge of the ecology of forest ecosystems. The area surveyed is situated in so-called dark taiga, a mixture of spruce, fir, larch and Siberian pine with birch mixed in. ”In this tract we demonstrated how to collect vegetation, pedoanthracological and soil data. The tract is situated in virgin forest, and none of the students or teachers had ever seen a forest like that before! At the end of the survey we showed everyone how to determine the “density” of the forest using a relascope. The student themselves also tried working with increment borers and reading the age of the trees. Finally, we used a soil probe to take samples for pedochemical laboratory analyses and pedoanthracology,” says Antonín Kusbach about the team’s work in the forests of Mongolia. Another expert trip is planned for next year. The aim of the project is to help to preserve the gene pool of Mongolian tree species and show the way to quality and sustainable forest management.

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