Female Ugandan community knowledge workers: using technology in the field

Female Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs) test the pilot for the Muth Helgeson Survey Tool (MHST) in the Kapchorwa, Uganda region. Over 130 CKWs were equipped with smart phones with the MHST application, which also incorporated small behavioural economics games using dice and coins. These CKWs physically visited over 5000 Ugandan farms, measuring farmers behaviours and attitudes regarding risk. The MHST is the largest study of Ugandan farms since 1991 and the first to use this methodology to examine how farmers make investment decisions. Results of the MHST inform the design of new microinsurance tools. Through the use of local people, local social networks, locally-built software, and local languages, Helgeson was able to learn far more than possible with just an economist from London.