Chocolate giant Hershey has been the target of unwanted smart phone campaigns recently in a battle to combat child labor violations. The Raise the Bar Hershey campaign, started by four activist organizations, developed “Consumer Alert” cards that include a QR code (like a barcode) to warn shoppers about the labor practices.

With the ability of ICTs to distribute information faster and farther than ever, it is no surprise that people all over the world are able to start campaigns that promote fair labor practices, transparency and equality, often gaining followers and media attention almost immediately. Those informed about a particular issue can raise awareness on it using social media like Facebook, posting a video on YouTube, or starting their own campaign on sites like Change.org, an organization that helps individuals or groups run social change campaigns. Knowmore.org empowers consumers to purchase products and support companies that promote fair trade, human rights, and democracy. The site makes it easy to determine which corporations use unethical (or ethical) practices through its browser extension that alerts consumers on where companies stand on particular issues as they browse the company websites.

The Raise the Bar campaigners claim that Hershey “lags behind its competitors” in enforcing labor rights standards among its suppliers and in tracing the source of its cocoa which comes largely from West Africa, an area known for forced labor, child labor and human trafficking. Volunteers have been placing the alert cards next to Hershey products and displays, and shoppers are able to scan the code by using smartphone applications. The QR code on the cards opens a web page on the campaign’s website, allowing consumers to take action immediately by signing a petition on Change.org or getting involved in other ways.

QR codes have been used by shop owners to offer information and coupons to shoppers as they pass by as well as to show pictures of meals on restaurant menus. The codes can be easily built by anyone using free online tools.

Other organizations also use smartphones in order to monitor businesses to ensure they are following labor laws.  Free2Work evaluates major companies around the world based on their labor policies and has established a mobile app that allows consumers to easily find companies, share information, and receive updates. The United States Department of Labor has its own smartphone application for workers to keep track of their wages to help guarantee that they receive proper compensation. Through the app, employees can track their work hours for any of their employers, as well as access information on wage laws.

As smartphones become more advanced, the potential for increasing transparency and promoting fair labor practices worldwide grows. Concerned citizens have a plethora of tools at their disposal to gain and redistribute information on a topic, allowing them to hold companies, as well as governments, accountable to fair labor standards. Time will tell whether this will force companies to step up their standards.

The World Bank approved in June a $20 million credit to support Moldova’s Governance e-Transformation (GeT) project.  According to Philippe Dongier, World Bank ICT sector manager, eTransformation is “about leadership commitment for institutional reform and for citizen-centric governance.”

The project is part of a Government initiative to address Moldova’s legacy of corruption and bureaucracy inherited during the Soviet Union era by improving and modernizing public sector governance and increasing citizen access to government services.

As part of an institutional reform, the Government established in August 2010 an e-Government Center charged to develop a “digital transformation policy, a government IT strategy, and an open data roadmap”. In April, Moldova became one of the first countries in the region to launch an open data portal.

“The initiative is aimed at opening government data for citizens and improving governance and service delivery,” says Stela Mocan, executive director of the e-Government Center.

Benefits of GeT

GeT has several intended benefits that include increased transparency. The Ministry of Finance recently released a spreadsheet of more than one million lines, detailing all public spending data from the past five years.

“Publishing information about public funds will increase transparency,” says Prime Minister Vlad Filat

GeT also intends to reduce the cost of public service delivery. Through “cloud computing” infrastructure—in which applications and data are accessible from multiple network devices—the Government also expects significant savings in public sector IT expenditure.

Promoting innovation in the civil society sector is another key feature of the project. The Bank’s Civil Society Fund in Moldova—which provides grants to nongovernmental and civil society organizations—is supporting the National Environment Center in the collection and mapping of information on pollution of water resources. Since 80% of Modova’s rural population use water from nitrate-polutated wells, this initiative aims to empower citizens with the necessary tools to hold the Government accountable on the environmental policy.

E-Government: a worldwide phenomen

According to the Wolrd Bank, “e-Government” is the use by government agencies of information technologies—such as Internet, and mobile computing—that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.

Moldova is not the only country using ICTs as part of an innovative approach to address corruption and strengthen democracy.

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan of the  State of Maharashtra in Western India recently launched an e-Governance program that aims to tackle corruption by reducing personal interaction between the public and government officials and requiring government officials to use computers in their day-to-day operations. Limiting discretion and facilitating the process of tracking all transactions decrease the incidence of corruption.

To combat fraudulent activities during elections, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) upgraded its computer and communication network in 2002 to verify the eligibility of voters who had lost their voting cards or whose names were missing from the manual voter registers in the respective polling stations.

ICTs’ potential for addressing governance challenges is significant. Through increased transparency and accountability, governments can better serve their citizens. Implementing successful e-Government initiatives in developing countries is a challenging endeavor. However, sustained political commitment to institutional reform, citizen-centric policies, and financial backing create an environment where ICT applications can improve governance.

 

 

 

On paper? Online? On smartphone apps? Via SMS or voice?

This 89 pages mhGAP-IG is issued in 2010 and now available in several languages. The guide consists of decision trees for the most important psychiatric conditions.

1. Use of paper versions:

Reading: Additional shipping and transport costs can be a hurdle in low and middle income countries (LMIC). One can download the guide from the WHO website, but then one faces the high costs of (color) print and copies.

Training: Face2face trainings seem the most ideal option, but the in most LMIC there is a shortage of health tutors. And a face2face training necessitates the movement of the health worker away from the field, which interrupts the delivery of services and is expensive.

2. With the internet/desktop/laptop:

Reading: Distribution on CDs is cheap. Online reading offers also the use of go-to tabs, notes storage, information charts and a find-utility. The main disadvantages of internet/computer is the constant need of a computer nearby and standby, which is a rarity in most LMIC.

Training: Beside the benefits of no travel and no interruption of the daily work, the internet gives health workers also the opportunity to study on own pace and preferred time.

3. With mobile apps on smartphones:

Reading: Smartphones can have a high added value for previously unconnected people. Smartphone prizes drop and they are growing in popularity in LMIC. The guide can be read on an app.

Training: Education via a smartphone apps offers the same benefits as the internet learning, like nice attractive tools and designs. The extra advantages are the pocket format; easy taking it with you.

4. With mobile phones (no wireless internet):

Reading: Service in developing countries will rely heavily on text messaging and voice in the years ahead. One can convey parts of the guide by SMS or voice, piece by piece, or certain parts on request. One can even run an automated SMS reply manager.

Training: Conducting a training in the mhGAP-IG solely by mobile phones is possible, but only an option of one really can’t reach the health worker via another channel.

Conclusions and recommendations:

-Not one of the 4 distribution channels is the best of all, so create materials in all 4

-Concert international and implement what’s most suitable on a local level

-Connect and cooperate with innovators in LMIC

-Look for creative funding channels, including NGOs and telecom providers

-Learn, lend and copy from other health fields, which are a long way ahead in technical innovations.

Full article with links and examples on the in2mentalhealth website 

On August 22, the ICT for Development (ICT4D) Learning Network hosted an expert panel on how ICTs, or information and communication technologies, are enabling agriculture and improving livelihoods worldwide. The event, held at the USAID Public Information Library, was co-organized by Appropriate IT and the USAID-funded  FACET Project, which is being implemented by FHI 360. FACET works to enhance agricultural value chains and facilitate trade in agricultural products across Sub-Saharan Africa by providing technical assistance on the use of ICT tools to improve competitiveness and productivity.

The first presenter on the panel was Grahame Dixie, the Agribusiness Unit Team Leader for the World Bank’s Agriculture and Rural Development department. Dixie’s presentation covered a lot of the new research by IFPRI and others about how farmers and people in agriculture value chains are using ICT and what the effects are. Focusing mainly on telephones (both public land lines and private cell phones), he explained that there is good evidence that phones are raising rural income (Peru), improving commercial farmer income (Philippines), and leading to changes in cropping mixes and marketing methods (Morocco). That said, according to Dixie, the most important function that phones seem to serve is to connect players in the value chain in a way that promotes trust between them, leading to sharing of critical market intelligence.

In Grahame Dixie’s experience, a critical area where technology can play a big role is logistics. To illustrate this point, he told this story about women backyard poultry producers in Bangladesh: “[The women] found out that the prices that they received for their chickens was less than half that of the prices in the nearest major market. They decided to contact the visiting trader and demand an explanation for paying so badly. The trader explained that he had to cover all his costs of getting to and back from their village over the few chickens they could sell him, and he could not afford to pay them more. How many chickens would he need to buy to be able to pay sensible prices? Fifty, he replied. They found that he has a cell phone and now actively seek out sufficient chickens to sell from an extended group, and call him in when they have aggregated a sensible critical mass. The prices have increased–and this in turn has incentivized the production of more chickens.”

After talking with farmers, researchers have found that the most useful market intelligence appears to be the simplest—contact information, especially of buyers, input suppliers, and transporters. They also found that the crops for which ICT integration generates the most farmer benefits are high-value, semi-perishables. Another finding was that the person in the value chain who seems to benefit most is the trucker/trader with a cell phone. Dixie wondered if there may be a way to squeeze that additional profit now accruing to the trader to either end of the value chain to push more benefits to the farmers and/or end buyers.

As his presentation focused so heavily on cell phones and SMS technology, Dixie concluded with a brief look at costs. According to him, the prices of SMS messages in many countries are high and bordering on “iniquitous,” especially when compared to the cost of actually transmitting the message. The current cost/price structures, he said, might mean a role for regulators or possibly an open source software for broadcasting SMS.