Weekly nursery data, straight from the TNO’s phone
Explainer for the One Acre Fund demo · prep deck, not for OAF
The demo
oaf-demo.reachuphq.com
Click any account card to sign in · password nursery-demo · Admin can reset the data
Today, data takes the long way
Nothing comes back to the TNO, and problems are heard late or never.
The new flow: one phone call a week
0
smartphones or data needed
0
reading needed
3
languages: Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Hadiya
What is IVR?
An automated phone call that plays recorded questions and listens to the keypad.
Like calling a bank and “press 1 for…”
Here, OAF calls the TNO
Answers are numbers typed on the keypad
What a call feels like for a TNO
Phone rings: OAF
Greeting in their language, naming One Acre Fund
“How many sockets did you fill this week?” → types 12500 #
Types 60000 # by mistake → “The most is 50,000, please try again”
Star replays a question at any time
After the last question: press 1 to leave a voice message
“Thank you, goodbye.” About 3 to 4 minutes
If the call drops, nothing is lost
Every answer is saved the moment it is typed. Retries follow a schedule, and the TNO can also call back for free.
The free missed call
What OAF staff see
Overview: this week’s response rate, KPIs, regions
Voice notes: listen, tag, send to the right team
Adding TNOs and testing a call
TNO registry: register one TNO or bulk upload a spreadsheet
IVR simulator: a real call on an on-screen phone, answers land live
What is an “owned gateway”?
A box like a Wi-Fi router with 4 SIM slots. Think of 4 phones dialled automatically.
The box and the brain
Recommendation for the pilot: brain on a mini PC next to the box. Calls keep going when the internet drops. Move to an Ethiopian VPS later if upkeep is a burden.
Why this keeps telcos at arm’s length
No contract, no API, no short code with any operator
Changing operator = changing a SIM, not rewriting software
Zero-telco voice is impossible: every call rides a mobile network
The legal gate
Why it exists
Boxes like this are also used for call fraud (“SIM boxes”), so Ethiopia restricts them.
Before buying anything, in writing
Opinion from Ethiopian telecom counsel
Import permit and approval for the box model
SIMs registered to OAF
No-objection from Ethio Telecom and Safaricom fraud teams
Target: 6 to 8 weeks
The fallback, in one picture
Same dashboard. A vendor makes the calls from an Ethiopian toll-free number. No hardware, no telco contract, about 100 times the cost per minute.
Three ways to make the calls
300 TNOs
Per month
Per year
Needs
Start
1. Owned gateway (preferred)
$45
$546
Legal gate, no telco contract
6 to 8 weeks
2. Ethio Telecom SIP trunk (cheap, lawful)
$21 to $28*
$254 to $337*
Telco contract, same engine
Ask Ethio
3. engageSPARK (fastest)
$4,735
$56,820
One vendor account
Days
*Ethio Telecom does not publish a SIP per-minute rate: 5 lines at 280 Birr plus 0.25 to 0.40 Birr a minute, to be quoted. Viamo and local IVR providers: quote only.
What it costs, 300 TNOs
Owned gateway
$45
per month · $546 per year · $0.15 per TNO per month
engageSPARK fallback
$4,735
per month · $56,820 per year · $15.78 per TNO per month
All in: minutes, SIMs, numbers, platform, hardware spread over 3 years. Gateway hardware about $780 once.
As the program grows
TNOs
Owned gateway
engageSPARK
300 (pilot)
$45/month · $546/year
$4,735/month · $56,820/year
450 (year 2, +50%)
$45/month · $546/year
$6,783/month · $81,390/year
675 (year 3, +50%)
$80/month · $964/year
$9,854/month · $118,244/year
With 30% growth instead: 390 TNOs cost the same $45/month owned; 507 TNOs about $80/month (second gateway).
How TNOs know it is OAF calling
Calls show a number, not a name (names only exist for SMS)
Field staff save the OAF numbers as “OAF” on each phone at onboarding
Every call opens with a greeting naming One Acre Fund, ideally in a voice they know
A short code would be easier to remember, but needs a telco agreement
In the demo: real vs simulated
Real
Data model, roles, audit log
Call engine: re-entry, resume, callback
Question sets and recording prompts
Advisories, voice-note triage
Registering and uploading TNOs
Simulated
Phone calls (on-screen phone)
Who picks up an advisory call
Voices: browser reads English; sample notes are synthetic
Not yet: real SIMs, recorded Amharic/Oromo/Hadiya prompts, transcription, hosting in Ethiopia
What we need from OAF
TNO list: name, phone, network, language, place
This season’s questions and bounds
One person per language to record prompts
A pilot group: 30, then 100, then 300
Consent wording, voice-note retention
The legal entity for SIMs and permits
A site for the gateway (power, both networks)
Field staff to save “OAF” at onboarding
Decisions for OAF now
Owned gateway (8-week legal gate), SIP trunk contract, or engageSPARK to start fast
Which OAF entity holds SIMs and permits; budget for counsel
Where the data lives in Ethiopia (required by law)
Who records prompts; whether Sidama TNOs need Sidaamu Afoo
The pilot group, and whether conflict-affected woredas join
Overview: this week’s response rate, KPIs, regions
Voice notes: listen, tag, send to the right team
TNO registry: register one TNO or bulk upload a spreadsheet
IVR simulator: a real call on an on-screen phone, answers land live