DIASCA Virtual Learning Series - Session 1: Data Islands

Does anything other than regulation move a sector to build shared infrastructure?

Digital public infrastructure is gaining currency as a way for industries to coordinate at the level of whole sectors and value chains. Government-led models are not the only path. Drawing on examples from a diversity of global contexts, including telecommunications, pharma, and compliance with the EU deforestation regulation in producer countries, this opening session aims to surface the incentives, triggers, and levers (regulatory and/or otherwise) that help industries move from fragmented data islands towards shared infrastructures in service of the public interest.

Date: Thursday, September 24^th, 14:30-16:00 pm CEST

Run of Show:

1. Welcome & framing: The data-islands problem: fragmentation exacerbates information asymmetry and may undermine supply chain integrity at its core. Shared infrastructures and pre-competitive collaboration can help solve this problem. An overview of the series arc: triggers and incentives, building a mandate for shared services, designing architecture at a sector level, building and maturing governance, and cultivating ecosystems for scale.
2. Telecom inflection points: Russell Southwood (Balancing Act News Update and Consulting), drawing on 30 years covering African telecommunications and advising many of its protagonists, unpacks the levers and shocks (e.g., regulatory interventions, declining revenue per user, regional market integration) that moved the African telecommunications industry from siloed monopolies toward pre-competitive collaboration and shared infrastructures.
3. Pre-competitive collaboration in pharma: Stew Stremel (Lightwell LLC) presents three cases: rapid response during the pandemic, scaling solutions through sustained engagement, and mobilizing the wider market around a shared direction.
4. The game-theoretic case: Federico Ceballos (Alliance Bioversity International-CIAT) presents research suggesting that repeated interaction among industry actors may tend toward pre-competitive collaboration over time.
5. Moderated discussion: What are the cross-cutting patterns in incentives, levers, shocks, and mechanisms across the sectors examined? How might we leverage or anticipate these more intentionally?
6. Close: Desired output: a set of common triggers, levers, and incentives that may move industries toward pre-competitive collaboration. An overview of the series and what Session 2 builds toward.

About the Learning Series:

The DIASCA Virtual Learning Series examines how the agri-food sector can build shared, pre-competitive infrastructure and services for more trustworthy supply chains. This can happen not only through government-led digital public infrastructure, but through a range of public, private, and public-private mechanisms that industries may leverage to realize this goal.

Each session opens with a central question to resolve, and each contributes to the next. The series moves from recognizing the triggers, incentives, or shocks that may move an industry to collaborate; to consolidating shared interests into a shared mandate for building solutions; architecting solutions at a sector level; building the governance that guides their evolution and growth; and finally applying it all so that shared infrastructures can make supply chains themselves more trustworthy at scale. Four threads run throughout: supply chain integrity, mediation and co-design, shared infrastructure, and governance.

The Series will include 5 Sessions starting in September 2026. It is organized and facilitated by Brian King (Senior Manager for Technology Integration) & Federico Ceballos Sierra (Technical Lead) from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (CGIAR) and John Keogh (Professor of Practice) from McGill University Center for the Convergence of Health and Economics. 

Disclaimer: Please note that the Sessions takes place in English only and will be recorded and transcribed. The recording will be published on the SASI YouTube channel and website and shared with the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (CGIAR) team.