Photo Credit: Laurie Moy

GBi’s Senior ICT Advisor, Darrell Owen, spoke at the 2011 Aid and Development Forum yesterday, laying out USAID’s ICT4D strategy and how it supports the work of humanitarian and disaster relief workers.
The strategy, as Owen explained, is to address both the access to, and the application of, ICTs in development. The effort to provide access includes creating an enabling and facilitating environment, finding and utilizing new low cost, low power technologies, and supporting carrier build out in rural areas.  The second part of the strategy is to leverage the use of ICTs in USAID’s development work. In particular USAID, through the GBi, is looking into the development of cloud related services,  the identification and sharing of scalable and replicable applications, and the possible development of a “catalogue” of sorts of these applications. USAID realizes, Owen pointed out, that almost all of the ICT solution based projects are one-off solutions. “We need to stop reinventing the wheel, and start scaling these up,” he argued.

This strategy has tremendous application to the humanitarian and disaster relief industry, he pointed out. Small, portable low cost solutions suitable for rural areas also work in disaster response. Many of these solutions are capable for operating off the power grid, as well, making them useful in relief operations. GBi’s application focus serves the relief industry by identifying useful,

(l to r) Darrell Owen, David Hartshorn, Evelyn Cherow, and Joe Simmons. Photo Credit: Laurie Moy

suitable solutions, including those designed for disaster response and preparedness. Research is underway exploring complimentary, development related cloud services and their application in the field. Identifying and making available disaster response specific tools ahead of time, would make response that much quicker.

Owen, who was accompanied by Joe Simmons of NetHope and Evelyn Cherow of Global Partners United, spoke on a panel entitled ICT for Disaster Preparedness & Development: the State of the Art. The panel was moderated by David Hartshorn, Secretary General of the Global VSAT Forum, a GBi partner.

Terri Hasdorff, Vice President of Aidmatrix (Center), at the AID & International Development Forum, Washington, DC

Getting the right aid to people when and where they need it most, logistics, is still a major challenge for the global humanitarian sector. But, Aidmatrix, an Irving, Texas based non-profit that employs logistics technology to tackle systemic challenges in the highly complex aid sector, is making major gains.

According to Scott McCallum, President & CEO of Aidmatrix, “more than 35,000 corporate, nonprofit and government partners use our technology solutions to move more than $1.5 billion in aid annually, worldwide, which impacts the lives of more than 65 million people”.

The ‘humanitarian technologist’ reconfigures widely used applications in the private sector for humanitarian causes, including disaster, hunger, medical, and transportation relief. According to McCallum, Aidmatrix is akin to a wedding-registry, as it provides a one-stop shop for the “registry of needs and donations”. Last year, Aidmatrix Foundation was awarded a contract with USAID to provide $1.3 million worth of technology for efforts in Haiti, 90% of which was financed by the non-profit’s partners—Accenture, UPS, AT&T, among others.

Although more widely known for its expertise in disaster relief needs assessment and donations management, Aidmatrix’s aid sector-sensitive and technological approach could help foster and safeguard gains in global food security, if deployed contextually on a broader scale. Food insecurity is caused by a wide range of factors, including declining yields, inadequate investment in research and infrastructure, and increased water scarcity, but it is also brought about by immense waste.

Logistical woes is a key cause for much of this waste. For instance, a third of crops reaped in India, a food insecure country, never gets to market in edible fashion because of poor value chain management and practices. Aidmatrix’s technology could aid in efficiently warehousing and transporting these goods to places where they are needed most. The highly subsidized nature of Aidmatrix’s development of technologies tailored to contextual problems limits implementation costs because of it vast network of major backers in the food and technology industries.

Aidmatrix’s current hunger relief programs gives a glimmer of hope of how its efforts could transform global food security management. “Through partnerships with Feeding America, Global Foodbanking Network, United Nations World Food Programme, and other global food bank and hunger relief programs, Aidmatrix enables more food to be connected with the hungry through our hunger relief solutions.” This is done by improving communication between food banks, suppliers and agencies, as it did with the Feeding America initiative.

Deploying Aidmatrix’s technology more broadly in international development work  is likely to reduce global hunger, by matching appropriate chunks of the billions of pounds of foods wasted annually with many of the 850 million people suffering from hunger every day. Nearly all charitable food in the US already goes through Aidmatrix, through its partnership with Feeding America. The non-profit has also gained a toehold in Europe, where its largest partner is the UK-based FareShare, and Asia,  through vibrant partnerships with organizations such as Second Harvest in Japan. On a smaller, yet increasing scale, Aidmatrix is making inroads  in South America and Africa.

The opportunities are immense. Aidmatrix is certainly a model for safeguarding and fostering global food security.

The GSMA, a global body that represents the interests of over 1000 mobile operators and suppliers, launched the mFarmer Initiative Fund today, in Cape Town South Africa. The Fund, which will run until 2013, is backed by financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

If successfully implemented, the mFarmer Fund will enable the provision of more efficient farm extension services to 2 million of the world’s poorest farmers. The Fund will target “mobile communications service providers, in partnership with other public and private sector agricultural organizations, to provide information and advisory services to smallholder farmers in developing countries living under US$2 per day”.

The initiative will target 12 countries: India, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. However, the technologies developed and lessons learned will be shared globally. The mobile sector advocate said the initiative will function through competitive and deadline-driven grants. For more on the criteria for grants from the mFarmer Fund, please click here.

The Fund is part of GSMA’s thrust to fully deploy and integrate mobile technology into agricultural management, to boost productivity and ensure food security, under its flagship Mobile Agriculture (mAgri) Programme.

The GSMA project will further promote demand-driven, use inspired mobile tools for farmers. The rapid rise in mobile phone subscriptions, in even the outskirts of the developing world, presents opportunities to improve the lives of those at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

Mobile maternal health clinic on the road. Photo Credit: UNFPA

Nearly a year after the devastating floods in Pakistan, calls are being made by UNICEF health officials to expand capacities of mobile health clinics in the country. The clinics were first developed in response to the 2005 earthquakes in the northern region of Pakistan. Although the mobile clinics have touched hundreds of thousands of lives, more will be needed with expanded capabilities to ensure their long term impact.

In October 2005, the UNFPA joined hands with the Pakistani government and created mobile health clinics, whose main focus was on maternal health needs. By 2008, these clinics had treated over 850,000 patients, mostly for maternal and child health related issues. The clinics, still running, are staffed by women and are stocked with equipment and supplies for quality maternal health care. Since 2005, UNICEF has also become a key funder for mobile health clinics in Pakistan.

The UNICEF funded mobile health clinics tackle a variety of health issues, with an emphasis on maternal and child health. These clinics are staffed by three health workers, and treat up to 300 patients on a daily basis. After the emergence of the floods that affected 20 million people in Pakistan in July 2010, these health clinics became pivotal in reaching isolated populations.

Healthcare for women and children is better now than it was before the floods and the earthquake. However, despite the welcomed success of these mobile health clinics, there has been a call to expand the capacities for the mobile health clinics in order to make them more sustainable. This is where the world of ICT can step in and lend a helping hand.

The potential for impact is highest is rural and isolated areas where resources are poor and hardest to reach. According to a UNDP report, “ICT is yet to be widely mainstreamed to assist developing countries in addressing traditional development problems with innovative solutions and approaches that are both effective and more easily scalable and replicable.”

ICT services can complement existing initiatives such as the mobile health clinics in Pakistan to attenuate health burdens such as maternal mortality, which is what the UNFPA funded clinics focused on. This would be crucial in rural areas where ICT services would be invaluable. ICT services can potentially offer live video or audio feeds to health professionals when examining patients as well as educational classes to women from urban based instructors using the mobile clinics already in use.

Once ICT services are in place, NGO’s and government agencies can directly improve citizen access to information and at the same time, immediately strengthen their own capacities to help the citizens. Pakistan and other developing nations will only continue to reap the benefits for years to come.

The ITU’s newly formed Broadband Commission released its first full report Monday, June 6, 2011, entitled A Platform for Progress.  The report highlights the need for governments to adopt national Internet strategies in order to compete in the global market.  Broadband Internet access, the report states, should be universally available through the public sphere.  Others such as Charles Kenny, researcher at the Center for Global Development, argue that Internet access should be leveraged through the private sector, dictated by market needs.

The report reads, “To optimize the benefits to society, broadband should be coordinated on a countrywide basis, promoting facilities-based competition and with policies encouraging service providers to offer access on fair market terms… Developing isolated projects or piecemeal, duplicated networks is not only inefficient, it delays provision of infrastructure that is becoming as crucial in the modern world as roads or electricity supplies.”

Photo Credit: ITU, Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General, Vice-Chair, speaks at the Broadband Commission for digital development meeting, Geneva

Some ICT4D experts, however, are not so quick to believe the report’s broad-reaching claims.  Charles Kenny, from the Center for Global Development, explains in Foreign Policy that the evidence showing Broadband access increases growth is weak.  Looking at data from 1980 to 2006, one unpublished World Bank study estimates that for every 10% increase in Broadband penetration a 1.3% increase in national GDP can be expected.  This is a sandy foundation, argues Kenny, for the Broadband Commission’s recommendation that countries develop, invest in and subsidize national Broadband plans.  Other studies, not cited by the Broadband Commission, show limited if any growth as a result of increased Broadband access.

I personally corresponded with Mr. Kenny via email last week regarding the role of governments and private companies in National Broadband Networks.  His responses are listed here:

1.      In your opinion, what is the role of the Internet in fulfilling the MDGs?

The Internet is definitely a factor in speeding progress towards poverty reduction, lower mortality and more widespread educational opportunities.  At the same time, the Internet is neither necessary nor sufficient for such progress.  Take health: the interventions necessary to dramatically reduce child mortality are things like widespread vaccination, the use of bed nets, breast feeding, and sugar-salt solutions to counter diarrhea.  The Internet may be able to help in rolling out these approaches, but that role is decidedly secondary.

2.      Where can Broadband have its greatest impact – health, education, governance, economy, or agriculture?

To date, the biggest impact of broadband in developing and developed countries alike has been in entertainment—allowing widespread access to interactive gaming and streaming video.  Looking forward, there are surely applications across all of the areas you list, but it is far too early to suggest where the biggest impact will be.

3.      Should Broadband services be provided by governments, private companies, or a combination?

Private companies.  It is too early to say that there is a big justification for public financing of Broadband networks; we just don’t know if there is a considerable public good impact.  Regardless, if the telecoms industry has taught us anything it is that private competitive provision of information infrastructure has lowered prices and extended access far more rapidly than government provision.  So even if the government wants to finance broadband network rollout, it should work through the private sector.

4.      Should countries pursue a National Broadband Network or leave the market to organically construct networks?

Leave it to the market.  Command and control has sometimes, but rarely, worked as a development strategy.  But the fast-moving area of ICTs isn’t a good place to try it.  Given how little we know about Broadband’s economic and social impact, this isn’t an area where governments should be throwing money regardless.

Despite Mr. Kenny and others’ doubts, the Broadband Commission recommends governments develop their own National Broadband Networks.  Their report can be downloaded here.

Photo Credit: CGDev.org

Charles Kenny is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. His current work covers topics including the demand side of development, the role of technology in quality of life improvements, and governance and anticorruption in aid. He has published articles, chapters and books on issues including progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, what we know about the causes of economic growth, the link between economic growth and broader development, the causes of improvements in global health, the link between economic growth and happiness, the end of the Malthusian trap, the role of communications technologies in development, the ‘digital divide,’ and corruption.