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World Food Program: Help Arrives By Text In The Philippines

The Philippines is one of the most phone-savvy countries in the world, but it’s also prone to violent storms and conflict, which force people from their homes and threaten them with hunger.

In emergencies like these, WFP often helps by setting up “Cash for Work” projects that help uprooted communities get back on their feet. With the cash people earn as they work on rebuilding homes and communities, they can buy the food they need.
Now, in the texting capital of the world, WFP is testing mobile phones as a way of distributing the cash.

“It’s like a digital wallet—almost like a bank account,” said WFP Country Director Stephen Anderson, who explained that giving participants cash in the place of food rations allows them to buy a wider variety of food in a way that favours the local economy.“

Our survey shows that they are spending up to 70–80 per cent of the cash on food,” he added. “We think that’s a good thing.”

January 24, 2011/by actualize

New news

Unveiling the Links between ICTs and Climate Change in Developing Countries: A Scoping Study

This study conducted by Angelica Valeria Ospina and Richard Heeks for the Center for Development Informatics in 2010, explores the connection and potential that ICTs have for climate change.

Executive Summary:

Amidst the unmistakable signs of a changing climate, the global community is just beginning to understand the potential magnitude and severity of its impacts, not just now but for generations to come. Melting glaciers, displaced populations seeking refuge after floods, crops lost during over-extensive periods of drought, or entire villages devastated by the implacable force of cyclones and hurricanes, are just some of the stories emerging from different corners of the planet; in particular from the poorest, most vulnerable countries of the world.

Emerging evidence indicates that both acute (i.e. extreme weather events) and chronic climate effects (i.e. longer-term changes in the environment) can have serious developmental effects that hit particularly hard those countries that are already experiencing the hardships of poverty and marginalization (IPCC, 2007).

But alongside increasing awareness of the manifestations of climate change and the growing momentum of the debate, the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is starting to emerge and to shed light on potentially innovative approaches to respond, prepare for, and adapt to climate change impacts.

Sources in the field started to explore the linkages between the information society and sustainable development in the late 1990s, shifting their focus in the early 2000s from broader global environmental issues to CO2 emissions and mitigation, thus addressing more specifically the role of ICTs in climate change. However, these explorations on the role of ICTs – in the reduction of emissions through smart grids, dematerialization or intelligent transport systems and buildings, among others – have focused mainly on addressing the priorities of developed countries in regards to climate change.

Despite the prevalence of the mitigation lens among available sources, a growing body of literature indicates the emergence of research in the areas of adaptation and climate change strategies, acknowledging the priorities of developing contexts and the potential of ICTs. Experiences from vulnerable communities in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean point to the use of applications such as mobile phones, the Internet and community radio as part of climate change responses, including the strengthening of local livelihoods, natural resources management and training, access to relevant information and networking opportunities, and awareness raising, among others.

However, this constitutes a very new field of enquiry where much remains to be explored. Developing country priorities and perspectives need to become a central part of the debate, if the potential of these technologies is to contribute to more holistic, inclusive responses to the challenges posed by the changing climate.

For additional information and the full study click this link.

January 24, 2011/by actualize

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Hans Rosling Video: The good news of the decade?

About this talk:

Hans Rosling reframes 10 years of UN data with his spectacular visuals, lighting up an astonishing — mostly unreported — piece of front-page-worthy good news: We’re winning the war against child mortality. Along the way, he debunks one flawed approach to stats that blots out such vital stories.

Hans Rosling

About Hans Rosling:

As a doctor and researcher, Hans Rosling identified a new paralytic disease induced by hunger in rural Africa. Now he looks at the bigger picture of social and economic development with his remarkable trend-revealing software. Rosling developed the breakthrough software behind his visualizations through his nonprofit Gapminder, founded with his son and daughter-in-law. The free software — which can be loaded with any data — was purchased by Google in March 2007. (Rosling met the Google founders at TED.)

Rosling began his wide-ranging career as a physician, spending many years in rural Africa tracking a rare paralytic disease (which he named konzo) and discovering its cause: hunger and badly processed cassava. He co-founded Médecins sans Frontièrs (Doctors without Borders) Sweden, wrote a textbook on global health, and as a professor at the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm initiated key international research collaborations. He’s also personally argued with many heads of state, including Fidel Castro.

January 24, 2011/by actualize

New news

Hans Rosling’s TedTalk on Global Population Growth

About this talk:

The world’s population will grow to 9 billion over the next 50 years — and only by raising the living standards of the poorest can we check population growth. This is the paradoxical answer that Hans Rosling unveils at TED@Cannes using colorful new data display technology (you’ll see).

Hans Rosling

About Hans Rosling:

January 24, 2011/by actualize

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Cn U Hlp Me? I Hve A ??

A Peace Corps Volunteer harnesses the power of text messaging for good health

Written by by Shannon Cummings

In a few short years, messaging (also called “SMS” for Short Message Service), has seemingly replaced phone conversations, letter writing and the traditional two cans attached by a long string as the primary form of communication for young people worldwide. Imagine if young texters in the developing world could get quick and accurate answers to their most personal sexual health questions anonymously, by simply sending an SMS. In Namibia, Peace Corps Volunteer Rashid Khan has developed a program that does just that. Khan is harnessing the global texting trend to fight rampant sexual health misinformation that contributes to a towering HIV infection rate and many unwanted pregnancies.

When Khan arrived in country, he immediately became aware of the lack of knowledge and resources Namibian youth had regarding sexual health. “After talking to local youth, both formally and informally, it became very clear that there exist serious misconceptions about pregnancy, sex, circumcision and other important topics,” explained Khan. And he was right—in his region “lack of knowledge” was listed among the top factors driving the HIV infection rate by the 2008 National HIV Sentinel survey. As a whole, the country of Namibia has an 18% HIV infection rate.

After discussing possible ways to address this problem, Khan learned of an automated, menu-based health information system started by two volunteers in the Philippines. This program allows consumers to access an abundance of pre-written health information through text messages. Khan recognized the potential to implement a similar system in Namibia, where cellular phone service is widespread and text messaging in the cheapest and most frequently used way to communicate. Together with Jennifer Moore, a fellow Namibian PC Volunteer, he developed the Health Education Response System (HER) in February of 2009.

Rashid Khan

Optimistic, but not content, Khan realized that “a fully automated system could only address the most basic of questions.” Searching for a more complete solution, he stumbled upon a North Carolina-based text line designed to answer sexual health questions from teenagers called the “Birds and the Bees Text Line.” Realizing that the demand in Namibia was present for such a service, Khan designed software so that by sending a question via SMS, consumers receive a tailored answer from a trained health Volunteer that is both accurate and timely. Additionally, the program was expanded to deliver SMS in a round robin fashion to a pool of 10 Volunteers across the country. Consumers can still view the pre-written content by texting MENU, and then following the directional guide through a menu of choices. A directory of anti-retroviral (ARV) clinics with complete contact information can be accessed by texting “ARV TownName”.

In Namibia, HER has proved transformative. The system’s popularity was evidenced in June of 2009 when nearly 2400 SMSs were processed to and from 325 unique clients. One key feature of the system is the anonymity of the questioner.

“Our goal was to answer the questions people couldn’t ask anyone else—to be a reputable, anonymous source of information,” said Khan.

By filtering all SMSs through a central server so that both Volunteers and consumers are shielded from each other’s phone numbers, anonymity is preserved. This lends itself to frank and open questions that the asker may deem too private, embarrassing or demeaning to ask without the veil of anonymity.

Another powerful attribute of HER is its connection “to a complex monitoring and evaluation system that automatically tracks, compares and reports themes of conversations.” Without identifying the data source, the records can be used as a database to inform other health-related projects of frequently asked questions and common misconceptions. The hope is that this wealth of information will contribute to a more informed and effective fight against the spread of disease bred by ignorance.

On top of all of this, the program has been meticulously designed with sustainability in mind. “Sustainability and replication were goals from the beginning. I designed the software to be installable and maintainable by anyone with minimal training,” Khan said. Not only have Khan and his group been able to secure free service from MTC, Namibia’s largest mobile network, they have also partnered with Lifeline/Childline which provides counseling to clients in need. Lifeline/Childline is in talks to take over the program when Khan completes his service and leaves Namibia.

In June 2009 alone, the HER program system exchanged 2,382 SMSs with 325 unique clients.

Khan’s success implementing HER serves as a model to others motivated to make a difference in their corner of the world. When asked for the advice he would offer someone with an idea to improve his or her community, Khan remarked:

“Dive right in today. Take inspiration and help wherever you find it.”

For more information see the PeaceCorps Press Release on the project here

January 24, 2011/by actualize

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M4D Overview 1.0: the 2009 Introduction to Mobile for Development

Written and compiled by Gudrun Wicander at Karlstad University in Sweden, M4D Overview 1.0 is a the 2009 introduction to mobile for development. It describes and discusses how mobile devices are used in the developing world to enable economic and technological growth in developing countries. The report presents a broad overview of various reports and studies, ranging from United Nations organisations to reports from mobile operators and producers. These reports outline how developing nations can, and do, use mobile devices to bring essential services, such as medical advice and education, to rural areas.

Some of the topics covered in M4D Overview 1.0 include descriptions of mobile services, how mobiles are used in everyday life, and factors influencing the acquisition, adoption and usage of mobiles. The report also turns its focus to Africa, and examines numerous reports from e.g. Tanzania. Included in M4D Overview 1.0 is a discussion about why m4d is worth considering, and examples of m4d projects in developing countries.

M4D Overview 1.0 is intended for a wide reader audience, and is directed to “d-people without m-knowledge” (that is to say, developers without mobile media knowledge), “m-people without m-knowledge” (mobile media experts with no background in the developing world), and newcomers to the field who have neither a development background nor knowledge in mobile media.

Click this link to access the PDF to the full report.

January 20, 2011/by actualize

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USAID Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program Uses Mobile Technology to Improve Health Care

The Maternal and Child Health Integrated Program (MCHIP) is the USAID Bureau for Global Health’s flagship maternal, neonatal and child health (MNCH) program. Awarded in September 2008, MCHIP focuses on reducing maternal, neonatal and child mortality in 30 priority countries, contributing to Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 4 and 5.

Designed by USAID as a “Leader with Associate Cooperative Agreement” (LWA), MCHIP can be funded by USAID Missions and Regional Bureaus through traditional field support and other mechanisms. In addition, MCHIP can accept Associate Awards that Missions, Regional Bureaus or Global Offices develop with the Leader organization and oversee directly.

MCHIP takes “what works” to scale by working with USAID Missions, national and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, communities and partner agencies. Based on country context and identified gaps in providing services at the household,community and referral levels, MCHIP designs program strategies to ensure that services reach women and their families.

What MCHIP Is Doing Using Mobile Technology

Nearly half of all births in developing countries occur in facilities, yet the quality of care provided is often unknown. Reported clinical practice may differ greatly from observed practice. MCHIP has developed a Maternal and Newborn Quality of Care (MNH QoC)Toolkit consisting of five mobile, electronic data-entry tools for assessing the quality of services provided in hospitals and health facilities. These are primarily checklist tools for observing health worker performance related to services provided for labor and delivery and essential newborn care. The tools are designed to capture health worker responses to spontaneous complications, such as pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (PE/E) or postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), two of the leading causes of maternal death.

As of November 2010, MCHIP MNH QoC assessments have been conducted in five African countries, providing baseline data for quality improvement activities for maternal and newborn care at facility, regional and national levels.

Maternal and Newborn Health QoC Mobile Toolkit

Obstetricians and nurse-midwives are trained to use mobile phones for capturing observational health worker performance data at hospitals and health facilities;
Data is entered on Windows Smart Phone forms with Range, Logic, Skip and other data quality controls;
Data includes clinical observation checklists on labor and delivery services, antenatal care, facility inventories, health worker maternal and neonatal knowledge tests, register, maternity chart and partograph review;
Quantitative and qualitative data is captured via interviews, simulations and observation checklists including audio noted and pictures of partograph;
Data is backed up to internal SD card and then transmitted via GPRS to in-country servers; and
Results are uploaded to the Web in predefined table, graph and map templates.

A Tool for Improving Quality of Care

The overall goal for MCHIP is to contribute to the reduction of frequent, preventable maternal and newborn deaths through increased quality of known life-saving interventions in countries facing the highest disease burden. Mobile phones have improved the quality of data and expedited the timeliness of results reporting. Specific needs for effective interventions for screening, prevention and treatment of obstetric and newborn complications are being identified as results come in from the MNH QoC Assessments.

Data collected and analyzed provides an opportunity to guide development of program interventions to improve the quality of facility-based maternal and newborn care services. By providing a baseline and end line measures in countries where the survey is part of an evaluation of interventions being implemented, data also provides an opportunity to inform policy change and resource allocation. These indicators and data collection tools can be used in multiple countries to provide information on key screening, prevention and management of interventions of the most frequent direct maternal complications.

Click here to view the poster presented by USAID at the mHealth Summit 2010. Also check out this Youtube Video of MCHIP’s own David Cantor speak as part of the panel discussion at the Summit.

January 20, 2011/by actualize

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Facebook for Farmers: Technology empowers China’s rural workers

Mr Qing, ploughing in the fields, relies on China Mobile's farming service

The BBC recently reported on Nongxintong, a network created by China Mobile to deliver news and information directly to rural farmers via their cell phones.

The farmers, who generally don’t have access to the internet, receive text or audio messages with market prices, job opportunities, warnings, advice, buyers and sellers. There is also a mobile phone hotline aimed at those with rural businesses.

Click here to read the original article.

January 19, 2011/by actualize

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GBI Presents “Rural ICT Solutions for Feed the Future”

Eric White, of the GBI team, gave a presentation to a gathering of USAID infrastructure specialists from missions around the world about the importance of investing in ICT infrastructure. He specifically highlighted the importance of wireless voice and broadband connectivity in meeting the US Government’s goals under the new “Feed the Future” program.

Food Security, Mr. White explained, can come either through improving domestic agricultural output and distribution or through improved cross-border trade facilitation. He highlighted ways that ICT infrastructure improves both. After pointing out that agricultural development is the flip side of rural economic growth Mr. White explained how numerous studies, at both the macro and micro level, have found a 10-1 relationship between expanding ICT coverage and GDP growth. A 10% increase in ICT penetration is generally associated with a 1% increase in GDP growth rates.

Mr. White then explained how it is possible to work with private sector firms to expand ICT access to rural people in developing countries. He pointed out the remarkable willingness-to-pay of even the very poor when it comes to communication. Even people living on only a few dollars a day are willing to pay up to 10% of their income for access to communication. Given that relatively large willingness-to-pay and a relatively low cost of capital it is in fact possible to reach every developing country resident with wireless technology through the smart use of targeted subsidies and investment in emerging low-cost technologies.

Eric White ftf presentation

View more presentations from Integra LLC.

January 19, 2011/by actualize

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The Impact of a Mobile Phone Literacy Program on Educational Outcomes: Literacy Learning in Niger

This is a research paper compiled by the Center for Global Development, an independent, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to reducing global poverty and inequality and to making globalization work for the poor. The paper evaluates and draws conclusions about a mobile education program, called Project ABC in Niger.

The pilot phase of Project ABC began with the Catholic Relief Service (CRS), in partnership with UC Davis, Tufts, and Oxford University and shows how SMS can turn mobile phones into a platform for adult literacy and market information for agricultural communities.

Projet d’Alphabetisation a Base Cellulaire, or Project ABC, works with non-formal education centers established by the CRS Niger Food Security and Nutrition Program (2007-2011), is funded by USAID/Food for Peace, and is implemented with Care and Helen Keller International. The project uses multimedia phones that have been programmed with a digital curriculum in the local languages of Hausa and Zarma, and incorporates a practical literacy component tied to obtaining market information via text message.

In the first year of ABC, participants learn basic cell phone technology, including SMS. In the second year, interactive multimedia phones and a digital curriculum that includes phonetic activities and varied texts are used to further develop literacy skills. Participants also use skills in literacy, numeracy, and basic cell phone technology in a companion program that teaches them how to request and retrieve market information via SMS.

The final research paper indicates that mobile phones have had an impact on participants’ literacy skills, and the model could be sustainable in the long run:

Overall, students demonstrated substantial improvements in literacy and numeracy test scores, suggesting that the adult education curriculum is effective in increasing learning. Students in mobile phone villages showed substantial additional gains in literacy and numeracy exam scores.

There is also evidence of persistent impacts: eight months after the end of the first year of classes, students in ABC villages retained what they had learned better than the non-ABC students. These effects do not appear to be driven by differences in the class time devoted to students, teacher experience or teacher and student attendance. Rather they can be partly explained by the effectiveness of mobile phones as an educational tool: Students in ABC villages used mobile phones more frequently to make calls, write SMS and search for price information as compared to their nonmobile phone counterparts. The program suggests that simple and relatively cheaper information and communication technology can serve as an effective and sustainable educational tool for rural populations.

According to Isbrandt, the program is operational in 56 literacy centers in the rural regions of Dosso and Zinder, in primarily agricultural villages. As is the case in most rural settings in West Africa, local language reading materials are otherwise scarce. Participants in the program include 1,400 learners, half of whom are women

For the full research paper and the evaluations in the PDF format, please visit this link.

References

Aker, Jenny C., Christopher Knoll and Travis J. Lybert, “ABC, 123: The Impact of a Mobile Phone Literacy Program on Educational Outcomes,” Center for Global Development Working Paper, September 2010

Isbrandt, Scott (2009) Cell Phone in West Africa: Improving Literacy and Agricultural Market Systems. Retrieved September 1, 2010.

January 18, 2011/by actualize