# DIREKT Pilot Area Decision

**Decision status:** APPROVED FOR CONTROLLED PHASE 11 ENTRY — first-wave primary revalidation still required  
**Approved initial area:** Kabwata Ward + Chilenje Ward, Kabwata Constituency, Lusaka District  
**Decision date:** 2026-07-19 (Asia/Tokyo programme timezone)  
**Owner approval:** Shadreck Kudzanai Musarurwa

## Decision

The first controlled Zambia pilot is geographically limited to:

- **Kabwata Ward**;
- **Chilenje Ward**.

Explicitly excluded from the initial cohort:

- Kamwala Ward;
- Libala Ward;
- Kamulanga Ward;
- all other Lusaka wards/constituencies unless a later controlled expansion decision is recorded.

The Electoral Commission/National Assembly record identifies Kabwata Constituency’s five wards as Kamwala, Kabwata, Libala, Chilenje and Kamulanga. The selected pair creates a clear administrative boundary instead of treating the whole of Lusaka as one pilot market.

## Why this boundary

The decision is based on the existing DIREKT research plus current official secondary/operational evidence:

- Lusaka is Zambia’s largest urban/commercial concentration and reduces initial operating dispersion;
- Kabwata Constituency has active local-government road/community investment and recognizable administrative boundaries;
- Chilenje has an active market/community-services context;
- the two wards allow fixed-premises, mobile and hybrid providers to be tested without a city-wide field/support burden;
- the boundary works with DIREKT’s existing manual area/landmark/Plus Code path and does not require exact public coordinates.

This is sufficient for an owner-approved **entry boundary**. It is not evidence that customer demand, provider density, trust comprehension or field cost have already been validated by real participants.

## Candidate comparison

| Criterion | Weight | Kabwata + Chilenje | Matero comparison | Evidence/notes |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---|
| Customer demand/recruitment feasibility | 15 | 4 | 4 | both are substantial Lusaka urban markets; exact demand remains primary-pilot evidence |
| Provider/category feasibility | 15 | 4 | 4 | urban mixed-service context; exact supply counts remain to be measured |
| Discovery/trust problem learning | 15 | 4 | 4 | both support local-service trust/location testing |
| Location/addressing test value | 10 | 4 | 5 | Matero offers a stronger later stress test; Kabwata/Chilenje is lower-dispersion first entry |
| Field travel/cost control | 10 | 4 | 3 | two adjacent wards are deliberately narrower than a full alternative constituency |
| Safety/operational control | 10 | 4 | 3 | smaller first boundary reduces field/support exposure |
| Authority/community reference points | 5 | 4 | 4 | current LCC/National Assembly records exist for both |
| Device/connectivity diversity | 5 | 3 | 4 | both require real measurement; Matero retained as later stress test |
| Inclusion beyond affluent/central users | 5 | 4 | 5 | Chilenje/Kabwata gives mixed context; Matero would broaden inclusion later |
| Complaint/support manageability | 5 | 4 | 3 | smaller selected area is easier for first-wave support |
| Expansion learning value | 5 | 4 | 5 | Matero is retained as second-area comparator |
| **Weighted total** | **100** | **79/100** | **78/100** | directional secondary-evidence score, not a statistical result |

## Alternative-area decision

**Matero Constituency** is the selected comparison/expansion candidate, not the first entry area.

Official sources describe active civic investment plus water/sanitation, drainage/flood and service-access challenges. That makes Matero valuable for a later robustness/inclusion test, but it would broaden the first pilot’s operational burden before DIREKT has measured verification, support and incident capacity.

## Pilot boundary behavior

- customer invitations require declared residence/use in Kabwata or Chilenje or a service need occurring there;
- providers must actively serve at least one approved ward;
- fixed, mobile and hybrid providers are eligible;
- private provider bases remain private;
- customer location permission is optional;
- manual area/landmark/Plus Code discovery remains available at all times;
- public precise coordinates are allowed only for explicitly consented customer-facing fixed premises;
- service-area matching near the edge may include a provider located elsewhere only when that provider explicitly serves an approved ward.

## Cohort and support boundary

- maximum provider cohort: 24;
- maximum customer cohort: 60;
- three invite waves, each capped at 8 providers and 20 customers;
- support hours: Monday–Friday 08:00–16:00 CAT; Saturday 09:00–12:00 CAT;
- field-verification claims remain disabled in Wave 1 until a Zambia-based field operator/lead is appointed and trained.

See `../phase11/PHASE11A_REAL_PILOT_ENTRY_DECISION_2026-07-19.md`.

## Revalidation and reversal conditions

The boundary must be narrowed, changed or stopped when primary evidence shows any of the following:

- insufficient provider supply (fewer than 3 eligible discoverable providers in a category after supply onboarding);
- support or verification queues exceed approved thresholds;
- travel/safety burden is not manageable;
- device/connectivity conditions materially invalidate the current workflow;
- participant recruitment is strongly biased or excludes intended provider pathways;
- legal/privacy/provider approval does not permit the intended data flow;
- another area materially outperforms the selected boundary on verified operational evidence.

## Evidence sources

Current official sources used for entry selection include:

- Zambia Statistics Agency 2022 Census and population/social statistics resources;
- Lusaka City Council Kabwata and Matero constituency/community records;
- Electoral Commission of Zambia / National Assembly records identifying the five Kabwata Constituency wards;
- existing DIREKT secondary research and location architecture.

## Approval gate result

The **geography decision gate is cleared for controlled-pilot entry preparation**.

It does not clear the separate gates for DPC registration/overseas transfer authorization, qualified legal review, participant consent, real provider recruitment or primary validation. The first real cohort must revalidate this choice and may trigger a `NARROW` or area-change decision.
