Mobile – Page 9 – Integra LLC

The farmers with Androids…

Credit: Heather Thorne/Grameen Foundation

The Seattle-based Grameen Foundation Center launched a comprehensive Android phone-based project for Ugandan farmers recently, that could significantly improve farming processes, but sustainable is the initiate.

The project is a high-tech response to fundamental challenges in agriculture, including unclear pricing structures and markets, unreliable weather forecasts, and a myriad of inefficient/ absent extension services about when and how to plant crops. Each Android phone has an open-source data-collection app that feeds into a system called Salesforce. The Grameen innovation counters the electrical challenges in the East-African country, that would otherwise doom projects dependent on electrical power, by utilizing rechargeable batteries which solar energy can sustain.

The project is organized around 400 select farmers, known as ‘community knowledge workers’, who own Android phones—and 3 in 4 of all their peers value their high-tech extension services. But an Android phone costs US$600 plus upkeep costs, nearly twice the per capita income in Uganda. So, how do these smart phone owning farmers acquire them legitimately? The project offers select farmers loans to purchase the phones. On the surface, this approach suggests a level of sustainability, but I have a few reservations.

First, are the benefits of using a smart phone, compared to a regular phone, so great that a farmer ought to take a loan and bear upkeep costs (combined) twice his/her country’s per capita income simply to access information? Of course, information is important, but it is only one variable among many that must be resolved to result in improved earnings for the farmers. Second, even if in the long-term ‘community knowledge workers’ charge for the services they offer, and even pay a fee to the platform providers, how long will it be before they can recoup and repay their loans? What is the interest rate on these ‘Android loans’? These are critical questions that ought to be answered in order for us to truly grapple with the potential economic impact of deploying this sophisticated technology

July 21, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Health Systems, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

How is coordination possible in mHealth? Experts gather and discuss

The mHealth Working Group, a collaborative forum created in 2009 by K4Health, held a meeting yesterday that focused on the “Coordination of mHealth projects within and between organizations in the field.” The meeting brought together many experts from the field of mHealth in a meeting that was ripe with rich discussion and promising potential going forward in the field.

Representatives at the meeting came from a number of organizations including USAID, K4Health, John Snow Inc. (JSI), mHealth Alliance, and the UN foundation, just to name a few. Therefore, the meeting focused on mHealth implementation in the developing world rather than here at home where mHealth is much more sophisticated.

The overarching theme for the meeting was examining how to promote coordination amongst organizations that are active in mHealth. This is an important issue because of the lack of large scale mHealth efforts programs in the developing world and the dire lack of monitoring in existing mHealth programs.

The discussion began with the current status and perception of mHealth programs in the developing world. Michael Frost, an official from JSI, stated that mHealth is “exploding with a lot of new interest” but “needs to mature a little bit.” He also echoed claims found in the latest mHealth report, that “projects have a narrow focus, and they don’t have strong evaluation principles.”

Photo Credit: USAID

John Novak from USAID discussed the importance of external collaboration and USAID’s current efforts in structuring their standards for doing so. One of his take home messages here was that all parties involved with implementing mHealth projects, including the country government, ministry of Health, telecoms, NGO’s and medical professionals on the ground need to convene and join hands before implementing a project. One suggested way to accomplish this is creating “coordination groups” at the international and country levels that serve to bring the relevant players to the table.

Discussions about the mHealth Summit that took place early last month in Cape Town also surfaced. One presenter mentioned a case study in Bangladesh that highlighted the fruitful impact of government taking control of the telecom industry to implement mHealth initiatives at no cost to citizens. The presenter expressed that governments need to take more active roles in coordinating programs; it is an effective way to get programs rolled out.

Photo Credit: Hub

The meeting produced more than lectures and discussions. Two mHealth resources were presented that are designed to make the process of collaboration and coordinating easier. Frost from JSI discussed their mHealth center whose primary roles are to create mHealth initiatives and assist existing ones by improving communication and information sharing methods within them. The mHealth alliance introduced a new knowledge resource website called Health Unbound (Hub) that aims to bring different stakeholders together to share, collect and produce information on the intersection of technology and health. Hub is planned to be unveiled to the public in about a month.

The core discussion never strayed away from the importance of coordination amongst organizations involved with mHealth initiatives. Nearly everyone seemed to agree that coordination in vital, and all parties involved in the process of creating mHealth programs must be represented in the planning process.

So the next question to ask is, how do you manage to get everyone to the table given each country has a distinct political and economic climate? How do you mediate between governments that want power, telecoms that want money and NGO’s that have ambitious goals? The answer, I learned, is multifaceted. Nonetheless I will attempt to discuss them over the next few posts with the information provided at the meeting. And even better, the answers will continue to be discussed over the next round of mHealth Working Group meetings.

July 21, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile payments in the Philippines: Future Opportunities for Growth

The following is a guest post we’re pleased to share by Salah Goss and Clara Veniard from the FSP program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Access CEED Store We often hear that M-PESA was able to scale quickly because it targeted an unmet need: urban to rural remittances. Safaricom based the initial launch of the M-PESA service on the ‘send money home’ proposition because a large proportion of split families in Kenya needed a way to send money to relatives in rural areas but had few ideal options to do so.

In many markets, however, such a clear unmet need does not exist.

The Philippines is a prime example of this. Even though mobile money providers have been in the market for over ten years, they have struggled to gain market share in the face of well known and well established payment providers. Knowledge and usage of mobile money services are low with less than 4% of users of all payment service providers reporting usage of mobile money services and awareness of four mobile money products ranging between 28% and 46%, even though more than 70% of users have access to a cell phone

Our study focuses on the demand side of domestic payment services: bill payments and money transfers

In 2010, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched a study with Bankable Frontier Associates to understand the demand for domestic payment services in the Philippines and to identify potential opportunities and unmet needs for mobile money providers to target. The study found the Philippines is an active and mature payment market, with a myriad of payment providers, including payment centers, banks and pawn shops to choose from. Only 28% of respondents reporting they make no payments and most Filipinos are aware of and using multiple service providers.

In our study, we focused on three primary types of domestic remote transactions mobile money has the potential to target: bill payment, money transfers, and loan payments. Bill payments are most common and are used by 55% of the population. They are followed by transfers (used by 33% of the population), and loan payments (used by 16% of the population). We did not explore access to financial services, although 29% of respondents claim to be saving at home or in banks, or other potential drivers of mobile money that have had success in other countries, such as public transportation and online purchases.

In this paper we use the results from the study to explore five alternative and almost equally used channels for bill payments or money transfers. Pawnshops are the preferred channel for money transfers, with 29% of Filipinos citing the leading pawnshops (M Lhuillier and LBC) as the main payment service provider in the last twelve months. Payment centers are used to pay bills by 21% of Filipinos while bank transfers are the prefer method for 17% of Filipinos for both money transfers and bill payment. Informal transfer options are the primary method for money transfers and bill payment for 15% of Filipinos. Alternatively, 13% of Filipinos pay their bills directly or are direct payers.

Existing payment channels are good but far from perfect

In order for mobile money to take off in competitive markets like the Philippines, providers will not only need to identify a high potential target opportunity, but also ensure their ability to effectively serve the market’s needs relative to the competition. We have identified user pain points in the following areas when paying a bill or conducting a money transfer: speed of delivery, trust and reliability, price, and customer service. Consumers in the Philippines have access to a number of channels that may provide either speed, trust or good customer service but none of them is ideal, leaving room for a service that gives customers more of what they value.

For bill payments, customers can pay in a bank or payment center. Both options have their short comings: although banks are trusted (especially with large amounts), they suffer from long queues, unfriendly and limited staff. Payment centers are cheap and closer to home than a biller’s office, but also suffer from long queues and delays to credit customer payments at the biller. In addition, neither banks nor payment centers are widely accessible, especially in rural areas. In fact, 32% of users reported they would be willing to pay PhP 50 (US$1.50) for bill payment services that do not require them to leave their home.

For money transfers, customers have the option of using banks,” big brand” money transfer services, pawnshops or informal channels. Pawnshops are the most popular given their ubiquity, trusted brand and speed (if picked up at the pawnshop) but the most popular pawnshops, M Lhuillier and Cebuana, are not completely customer friendly. M Lhuillier has long queues, strict verification and unsafe locations and Cebuana has high fees. The larger transfer companies like Western Union and LBC have high attrition rates due to high fees and other problems. LBC, for example, offers door-to-door service, but it can be slow and their customers complain that their neighbors know when money is delivered. Consumers also complain about the stigma of entering pawnshops. Banks offer security, privacy and trust for larger transfers, but are not always accessible.

Although alternative channels are not perfect, mobile payment providers find it difficult to convince consumers to try a mobile payment service as evidenced by low usage figures (4%) compared to other payment options. According to our study, users of one type of payment providers tend to be sticky. Our survey conducted among users of payment services found that fewer than 10% of one-time users have stopped using a service. They also tend to think their payment service is the best, providing high scores on trust, convenience, speed, security, fees and customer service. Users say they would utilize a new payment service in addition to their current service, rather than in lieu of it.

Some segments are still not served by formal providers

Mobile payment providers also have an opportunity to target market segments not served by formal providers such as personal direct payers and users of informal service providers.

33% of the population still pays for their bills and loans directly at the biller’s office, and do not use other intermediaries such as banks or payment centers. The vast majority of personal direct payers (75%) indicate that they trust only themselves to deliver payments, although 57% agreed that paying bills would be easier to do via a third party. Perhaps by tackling the issue of trust, mobile money operators can convince these potential customers, who tend to be male, to try their services for the convenience they can offer.

Users of informal service providers may also be a potential market niche. 25% of all users use informal service providers on a regular basis for smaller, regular transactions. These users tend to be rural and poor women who generally make bill and loan payments intra-island. In fact, these users in rural areas rarely pay bills or loans through formal service providers, and when they do, they use the leading pawnshop. Although informal options are low cost, they suffer from delays, the sender has no automated confirmation of when the money arrives, funds can be stolen, and unanticipated costs may arise (such as tips or paying for food or petrol of the deliverer). Similar to a country that does not have many formal payment options, such as Kenya pre-MPESA, providing an alternative to the existing options can meet a need that resonate strongly.

Lower value transfers are an untapped opportunity

Mobile payment providers may also have an opportunity to facilitate lower value transfers between family and friends that occur informally and that higher cost channels (including pawnshops) cannot profitably serve. Our study found that 52% of Filipinos receive money from friends and family (either as a loan or a remittance) in the event that they need to make a purchase or pay a bill but do not have enough money. The rest seek money from alternative sources: 15% will do something to earn the money themselves, 12% will wait for their salary and 10% will go to an ATM to withdraw cash. Filipinos also regularly send or receive money, for emergencies, daily household expenses, education, bill payment, or business expenses. Sweeping these low value transactions through mobile money services would mean a significant increase in their volume of transactions as well as customers. In addition, 33% of all users said if they could make cross payments between mobile money schemes, then they might find this persuasive enough to try them.

Next steps for mobile money providers

During the last ten years, mobile money providers in the Philippines have struggled to gain traction in the market. They compete against an active payment market with numerous strong alternative channels for bill payments and money transfers. However, these alternatives are far from ideal, according to customers themselves, and niches exist in the payments market that have not been targeted.

Mobile money providers have an opportunity to attract customers away from existing payment options, persuade customers to use their services in addition to their current payment provider or to target segments that are not currently served by formal payment providers, such as personal direct payers and users of informal service providers. In addition, they may have an opportunity to capture lower value transfers.. The challenge faced by mobile money will be to encourage customers to try their service and to convince them through early trials of the superior value of the service. The extent to which they will succeed in doing so will depend on the investment mobile operators are willing to make in strategic marketing, getting their fee structures right and creative partnerships with banks and others that may add value to the customer experience.

You can download the full report from the BFA website.

July 21, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Health Systems, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

ICT’s in Health: A Crash Course

The world of ICT is expanding into the health sector, and their interactions are garnering more and more attention by the day. Therefore, we must be mindful of the beginnings and demarcations of ICT usage in health. After all, we can’t know where we are going unless we know where we came from.

Current ICT for health news in the developing world is dominated by initiatives using mobile telephony; the bread and butter of mHealth. This is not a total shock since over 85% of the world now has mobile coverage. Moreover, there are over 5 billion people on Earth with a mobile phone, and 3.5 billion of them are in developing countries. As a result, mHealth initiatives are booming in developing countries, especially in Africa and South Asia.

But what about other forms of ICTs that play a role in healthcare? What are they and how do they work? This crash course on the intersection between ICT and Health will explore the different avenues within that intersection and how to distinguish them from one another to prevent confusion.

Avenues of ICT and Health

Avenues are the different types of structured practices that implement ICTs in the health field. An avenue in the intersection of ICT and health will utilize old technologies, new technologies or a convergence of both in a structured and systematic way to achieve positive health outcomes. These are the different avenues:

eHealth: The term eHealth refers to the practice of using and being supported by electronics in healthcare. eHealth is the umbrella concept for many other avenues of ICT and health such as telemedicine and mHealth. The term is interchangeably used with health informatics by some experts. The term characterizes a way of thinking, an attitude, and a commitment for networked, global thinking, to improve health care locally, regionally, and worldwide by using information and communication technology. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), eHealth is the quintessential embodiment of the intersection of ICTs and health. Electronic health record systems, health information systems, mHealth and telemedicine all fall under the jurisdiction of eHealth.

Telemedicine: Technically, telemedicine has been around for decades, ever since doctors on one end of the phone have consulted patients on the other end of the phone. It pertains to providing remote clinical care through forms of telecommunication and information technologies. What distinguishes telemedicine from telehealth, since they are sometimes incorrectly used interchangeably, is that the former delivers clinical care while the latter offers clinical and non-clinical care such as health research and education. Telemedicine services include live patient consultation over phone or video, remote patient monitoring, medical and health information acquisition, and emergency telemedicine.

mHealth: Also called mobile health, mHealth is a form of eHealth that uses mobile devices such as mobile phones and PDA’s for health services. The Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe) defined mHealth as medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other wireless devices. mHealth capitalizes on mobile telecommunication services such as SMS, general packet radio service (GPRS), third and fourth generation mobile telecommunications (3G and 4G systems), global positioning system (GPS), and Bluetooth technology.

Health Informatics: This is the field that aims to analyze the information needs of consumers, implement ways to disperse information to consumers and health professionals, and integrate consumer preferences into medical information systems. The field uses devices, resources and methods to store, obtain, retrieve, and disseminate information for healthcare purposes. Health informatics mostly uses computers but also takes advantage of clinical guidelines, advanced medical devices, and ICT services.

July 19, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Family Planning, Health, Health, Maternal & Child Health, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Delivering babies in Ghana just got a little easier

Pregnant woman on phone. Photo Credit: MOTECH

A new mobile phone service was recently launched in Ghana that provides free access to health information in ensuring safe pregnancies. The service, aptly named Mobile Midwife, offers text or voice messaging on maternal health to pregnant women.

Mobile Midwife was developed as part of the U.S. based Grameen Foundation’s MOTECH Ghana initiative, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is just one more result of rising donor attention to mHealth services. Its creation continues a trend of mHealth initiatives being churned out in Africa.

Educating women and making them aware of the maternal health risks associated with pregnancies are the cornerstone goals of the service. To make it convenient for the user, the service comes in several different languages, and is presented by text or voice via mobile phones. Additionally, the messages are time specific concurring with the woman’s stage of pregnancy.

When a pregnant woman registers for the service, they are asked to give the expected due date for delivery of the unborn child and their location. Then, periodically, the woman receives messages informing when appointments are due or overdue to remind them to visit the health clinic for check-ups.

The users also get reminders for specific treatments, information about milestones in fetal development, nutrition facts, tips on the benefits of breastfeeding and other pregnancy-related and prenatal health information. It also provides information that demystifies local pregnancy myths and helps users overcome the widespread fear of visiting doctors or health clinics.

MOTECH also rolled out a similar mobile health service earlier in the year that enables nurses in rural Ghanaian health facilities to automate much of their record keeping and reporting, which formerly took 4-6 days per month. The service is in the form of a java–based mobile phone application.

Both Mobile Midwife and the application mentioned above have made life easier for everyone involved in the process of delivering a baby.

One Ghanaian mother said to Grameen, “I would like to advise my pregnant friends to go to the hospital to enroll into MOTECH, to listen to the messages and also to practice what is said because it helps a lot…I used to be scared about pregnancy but now with the messages I am no longer scared and it has taken away my worries and that we feel ok and then the pregnancy is ok.”

This service is extremely pertinent since Africa exhibits some of the worst maternal health records in the world. Fourteen of the fifteen countries with the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world are in Africa. Furthermore, African countries are far behind in meeting Millennium Development Goals set for 2015; especially for those associated with maternal health. Perhaps services like this can lend a helping hand.

July 18, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Health Systems, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

MIT researchers link camera technology to healthcare

MIT researchers recently created a smartphone device designed to detect cataracts. Called Catra, the device uses “off -the-shelf components” as opposed to the highly expensive and highly space consuming technologies normally used to detect cataracts.

Using Catra device on smartphone. Photo Credit: EyeCatra

The research group is part of the MIT media lab that won the MIT Global Challenge competition back in May. Taking advantage of mobility through mobile phones and an inexpensive design, Catra was designed for use in the developing world.

The device, which attaches to the screen of a smartphone, costs about $2, whereas a slit lamp examination conventionally used to examine cataracts cost up to $5,000. And unlike conventional slit lamp examinations, Catra does not need a skilled human operator to administer the test and read the results, Catra does everything for the patient.

Catra utilizes a technique, which allows the user to respond to what they visually experience. It scans the lens of the eye section by section. The user then sees projected patterns and presses a few buttons to map the light attenuation in each section of the eye. This information is collected by the device creating an attenuation map of the entire lens. This allows individuals to monitor the progression of the severity of the cataract on their phones.

Catra vs. Slit Lamp technology. Photo Credit: MIT

This is not the MIT media lab’s first project to improve the health of the eye. They are working on a series of projects involving eye care. They developed and released Netra, an application and smartphone attachment for eye exams via mobile phone, last year.

Cataract is a condition where clouding builds up in the lens of the eye. It is the leading cause of avoidable blindness worldwide. Furthermore, ophthalmologists, doctors that specialize on the eye, are scarce in the developing world with one ophthalmologist per million people in some areas. When cataract leads to vision loss, it prevents people from being productive citizens in their community. It leads to high levels of illiteracy and poverty, and can impair a society’s economic and health sectors.

Using mHealth to tackle cataract is a crucial development. However, smartphones are not ubiquitous in the developing world. And it’s for a reason. Even though the Catra device may be cheap, the phones on which they operate are much more expensive. This needs to be considered when implementing Catra on a wide scale in the field. However, with the potential of this kind of technology, it is likely that MIT media lab will find a way.

July 14, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health Systems, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Recent report highlights challenges in mHealth

Africa’s first mHealth summit was held in June, in Cape Town, South Africa. As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO) produced a report entitled ‘mHealth: New horizons for health through mobile technologies’, which looked at the state of mHealth projects from 112 WHO member countries in 2009.

Photo Credit: mhealthsummit.org

According to the report, currently over 85% of the world’s population is now covered by a commercial wireless signal. Furthermore, 5 billion people own cell phones, and 3.5 billion of them are in middle to low income countries, setting the platform for increase in opportunity for mHealth growth.

The majority of member countries (83%) reported offering at least one type of mHealth service. However, many countries offered four to six programs. The report also cited the four most frequently reported mHealth initiatives as health call centers (59%), emergency toll-free telephone services (55%), managing emergencies and disasters (54%), and mobile telemedicine (49%).

Although mHealth success was lauded by officials, there was no shortage of criticisms and concerns for the future. “Although the level of mHealth activity is growing in countries, evaluation of those activities by Member States is very low (12%). Evaluation will need to be incorporated into the project management life-cycle to ensure better quality results.” said the report.

The lack of evidence prevents policymakers from supporting mHealth infrastructure and as a result funding often goes elsewhere. “In order to be considered among other priorities, mHealth programs require evaluation. This is the foundation from which mHealth (and eHealth) can be measured: solid evidence on which policy-makers, administrators, and other actors can base their decisions,” claimed the report.

mHealth report

Competing health priorities was claimed as the greatest barrier to mHealth adoption by WHO member countries. The report also points out that mHealth services are not yet integrated and are mostly small scale projects targeted for specific communities. Going forward, mHealth will need to “adopt globally accepted standards and interoperable technologies” in order to facilitate effective growth in scaling up mHealth initiatives.

The report says, “Moving towards a more strategic approach to planning, development, and evaluation of mHealth activities will greatly enhance the impact of mHealth. Increased guidance and information are needed to help align mHealth with broader health priorities in countries and integrate mHealth into overall efforts to strengthen health systems.”

In an era where mobile communication is paramount, the services of mHealth may prove to be vital in the development of many low income countries. The report did itself justice by celebrating the successes of mHealth, and then laying down the hurdles to be cleared for sustainable growth. The next mHealth summit is in December in Washington DC.

July 13, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

SMS campaign in India to reach 5.5 million people

Blood bags. Photo Credit: anemia.org

HLL Lifecare Ltd, one of the largest blood bag manufacturers in India, launched a massive SMS blood donation campaign last month, targeting to reach over 5.5 million customers belonging to the top telecommunications company, BSNL.

The campaign, launched by state Health Minister Adoor Prakash on Blood Donation Day last month in Kerala, a southern state in India, wanted to highlight the virtue of blood donation as a civil responsibility for those who are able in order to help those in need.

Prakash also created a help desk called ‘Heart Beats’ designed to assist prospective blood donors. This was funded by the Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust (HLFPPT), an organization affiliated with HLL Lifecare, in association with the Kerala State AIDS Control Society.

The purpose of the help desk is to funnel the donors to the patients. Individuals who want to donate blood voluntarily can register their details, including name, place, blood group and phone number either at the help desk or to the help desk via SMS. They are intended to be set up at local health care centers and can also assist patients during emergencies.

India has harbored SMS blood donation programs in the past. Indianblooddonors.com is a website that serves as a database listing for thousands of blood donors from over hundreds of Indian cities. It was launched in 2000 with the SMS component implemented a few years later.

It works in the opposite way of HLL Lifecare’s system. A person in need of blood sends out a text message to a special number, mentioning, in a particular format, his name, city and the blood group required. Within a few seconds, he gets a return SMS with the name and number of a donor in that city.

Photo Credit: HLL Lifecare

Despite having the capability of saving lives, this was a little known service in India. However HLL Lifecare’s current campaign seems to be aiming for much more publicity and awareness on blood donating.

India frequently engages with shortages of blood supply. India usually faces deficits of up to millions of units of blood per year.

Furthermore, isolated populations usually have difficulties reaching out to blood donors and suppliers and often don’t get the blood they desperately need. India’s telecommunications industry is the fastest growing in the world. Nearly 75% of the population, about 900 million people, has mobile phones. Hopefully, this SMS campaign will bring light to the issue of blood donations and help curb the burden by taking advantage of mobile phone prevalence and growth in the country.

July 12, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile Khabar to Bring News & Empower via Mobile

Manin turban next to a bus stop featuring a mobile advertisement

Photo Credit: Jan Chipchase

On August 11, Afghans will be able to receive free access to radio news broadcasts, cricket scores, and other informational audio content through their mobile phones.

The USAID project—named Mobile Khabar, roughly translated to “News” in Dari and Pashtu”—is made to improve Afghans’ access to information and empower local journalists.

With 28 percent illiteracy, and an estimated 60 percent of Afghans using mobiles, cellular phones are a widely used technology more accessible than radio and have a much wider reach.

Troy Etulain, the project’s architect and a senior advisor for media development in USAID’s Office of Democracy and Governance, says that when the system is up and running in a month, users will be subscribe to local radio reports by dialing a four-digit code on their cellphones.

Troy Etulain in Afghanistan wearing army fatigues with soldier on right

Troy Etulain in Afghanistan Photo Credit: World Learning

The information will include everything from national cricket scores to English lessons offered through the Afghan foreign ministry. Additionally, audio bloggers will contribute to commentaries through a system similar to voicemail.

The system uses interactive voice response, or IVR and provides free, customizable menus of news and public information via mobile, making a variety of topics for the caller to choose from.

For example, a user could listen to a requested cricket update then hear a story about HIV/AIDS in her hometown, followed by the option to leave a message. The system can also be programmed to tell the user the number of AIDS patients nearby, letting her know that she’s not alone and creating a virtual community similar to other social media sites.

“If the technology connects, empowers or protects them or helps make other people who are not part of the community aware of them and their potential, then it’s doing profoundly new things,” Etulain declares.

USAID funding for the project runs on a $7 million grant that may increase to $16 million if option years on the main contract are fulfilled.

Mobile Khabar is just one part of USAID’s media development program in Afghanistan—the largest the agency has ever funded using new technologies, and regional journalism training centers, to seek and fill information not covered in newsrooms.

Within the centers, professional Afghan journalists and citizen bloggers are being trained in everything from Internet media skills and business management, to the reporting basics, such as ethical objectivity and story selection, Etulain says.

One of the common ways USAID utilizes these journalistic skills on the ground, is supporting community radio stations with the goal of making their operations solvent and the programming relevant to their audience, which encourages civil society participation.

For example, a call-in show that allows citizens to question their elected officials or covers topics that might not otherwise get airplay, like domestic violence or school dropout rates.

Mobile Khabar is a platform that allows local radio stations to become available on mobile phones, an innovative approach that extends the reach of information while encouraging sustainable economic development.

“From a media development perspective, this says to a local radio station in Mazari Sharif: ‘OK, now you have a national audience,” Etulain explains, “Wherever people have access to mobile phones, they can listen to you. And you get paid more the more people that listen to you.”

USAID funding for the project’s programs and bloggers are distributed based on their popularity: the more listeners they attract, the more money those programs and bloggers will earn, he says.

The Mobile Khabar project is a complement between old journalism and new technologies, providing an accessible avenue to inform Afghan civil society on relevant content. All while empowering local journalists to speak up and contribute information on what they see to their people.

July 11, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health Systems, HIV/AIDS, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

HIV/AIDS: A window of opportunity for South Sudan

Photo Credit: antiimperialism.com

As South Sudan prepares for independence, the celebrations will be tempered by the grim reality that awaits them. The nation is plagued by numerous health burdens due to decades of civil war resulting in a lack of trained health workers and poor infrastructure, and inadequate health and education systems. One such burden is HIV/AIDS. Dr. Wichgoah Piny, the state’s HIV/AIDS commissioner said that about 116,000 people are known to be infected by the virus in South Sudan, 46,000 of which are being treated at hospitals within the region. This number lies in the middle ground when looking at the rest of Africa. East Africa generally has a higher prevalence whereas West Africa exhibits a lower prevalence of the disease. Some estimates say up to 4.7 million in South Sudan are at risk of acquiring the disease.

But those numbers could grow exponentially in the coming years. The World Health Organization (WHO) has described HIV/AIDS prevalence in South Sudan as “a ticking time bomb” and a threat which needs a cooperative and collective effort to fight in the new nation. Dr. Olivia Lomoro, the GoSS Undersecretary in the Ministry of Health who spoke at a South Sudan AIDS conference warned, “HIV/AIDS is a real issue in Southern Sudan despite the efforts we have put to fight it. It remains a threat and a time bomb we are expecting.”

UNAIDS officials in South Sudan

Dr. Mohamed Abdi, the WHO Director in South Sudan said that, “AIDS is a big problem in South Sudan and we need to fight it together.” He said that in more than two years he had worked in the region, very few people were getting treatment.

The consequences of a surge in HIV/AIDS could be catastrophic. The health infrastructure is already poor as it stands. An HIV/AIDS epidemic would paralyze the health sector for years and impair growth in other sectors. This could result in a crisis that no new government would be prepared to handle.

So in a sense, this is a defining moment for the future of health in South Sudan. As the new government establishes itself and its policies, it has the opportunity to be forward looking in the development of its health infrastructure. If HIV/AIDS is afforded a chance to “blow up” as WHO fears, the country will immediately be sunk further into a health crisis.

This presents an opportunistic entry point for the implementation of ICTs into the health sector in South Sudan.

Opportunities

A survey completed in 2006 by WHO revealed that over 910 health facilities existed in South Sudan. At the time, a majority of those facilities were claimed to be in a “deplorable state”. However, Dr. Lomoro recently pledged that Lakes state now has a new hospital which is going to be used as a teaching hospital to help in delivering quality health. She also mentioned investments through the Chinese government will be used to build new health centers and rehabilitate old ones. Incorporating ICTs in the rehabilitation process will pay dividends for the health sector in the future.

South Sudan is being held captive by a number of health issues such as measles, yellow fever and tuberculosis to name a few. Furthermore, South Sudan has up to 80% illiteracy rates in some parts, which make communicating through ICTs invaluable. The most basic forms of ICTs like radio, television and mobile phones can build a communication bridge for the illiterate to keep them connected and informed.

Dr. Lomoro also pointed out that the first target for the Ministry of Health in the Government of South Sudan is the training of health personnel in all the ten states of South Sudan in order to deliver quality health services to the population in a professional standard. One way to go about this would be to include ICT training in that workforce development. Taking this route would build workforce capacity and bolster the development of ICTs in the country.

The population returning from Sudan proper and surrounding African countries are also coming back with health work force skills. So there is a hope that as people return, their skills will be used in improving service delivery.

Several factors exist that support the idea of integrating ICT into the health infrastructure of South Sudan

Present ICT Usage

The market for ICTs is ripe and growing in South Sudan. The initiatives that would make a big impact in fighting HIV/AIDS using ICTs utilize mobile phones and radios as the media for communication. These media platforms are the largest in South Sudan.

Photo Credit: biztechafrica.com

A 2007 survey entitled “Media Access and Use in Southern Sudan,” showed that radio was the main source of information for the population as a whole with 59% of respondents citing the radio as a source of information, the highest out of all forms of media. Additionally, HIV/AIDS awareness radio programs make up 17% of the most popular radio programs. This indicates that HIV/AIDS discussions already have a base in South Sudan media.

Mobile phones on the other hand don’t enjoy such high rates of usage as radio due to 30% coverage rates. However, the mobile phone network has expanded considerably since 2005 and is predicted to keep expanding in the near future. Also noteworthy is that only 14% of South Sudanese get their information from newspapers and 13% from television according to a report. It’s clear that radio and mobile phones are the most widely used avenues of communication in South Sudan.

Plans to expand broadband cables

As recently reported, South Sudan is on the shortlist to receive fiber optic broadband cables. Broadband services make it possible to interconnect affiliated healthcare facilities around the country so that they can utilize and share scarce human and technical equipment resources to deliver quality and affordable healthcare services. These cables can establish a foundation for ICTs not just in health, but for all sectors in South Sudan.

Past Successful HIV/AIDS Programs

South Sudan won’t be the guinea pig for using ICTs for HIV/AIDS either. There have been quite a few successful HIV/AIDS programs in the past that succeeded in similar environments:

Targeting Nomadic Populations – USAID and other external NGO’s worked together in Nepal in 2005 to introduce a radio program on HIV/AIDS awareness by integrating entertainment into its programming

Capitalizing on existing media penetration:

o Radio – Tanzania also introduced the Tunajali HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Radio Program in 2010 with the help of PEPFAR.

o Mobile – Two mobile phone programs, Text to Change(TTC) and Freedom HIV/AIDS used mobile phones to reach thousands of people to educate them on HIV/AIDS

Photo Credit: freedom HIV/AIDS

South Sudan should approach some of the major NGO’s on the ground to help implement these initiatives that use ICTs. Organizations like USAID, WHO, UNICEF and the UN have spearheaded many initiatives like the ones described above in the developing world. They should at the very least try to do the same in South Sudan. They need to realize the opportunity at hand.

Possible ICT Policy

So the framework to set South Sudan off on the right foot is present just as they kick off their sovereignty. However, an HIV/AIDS epidemic is a threat. The markets for intervention exist, proven initiatives exist and they can be adopted using the aforementioned plans to establish new broadband cables. All of the stars have aligned. The tricky part is getting officials to the table and churning out an action plan. This will involve NGO officials talking with South Sudanese Government officials and making this opportunity a priority.

South Sudan has already seen its darkest days. They want to move now from being a hub for relief efforts to a hub for development. The health sector can benefit tremendously from using ICTs to prevent an HIV/AIDS disaster. Once HIV/AIDS is under control, the ICTs can be utilized strategically to tackle other health issues, as they are being done all over Africa and the developing world. If not, it may not be long before South Sudan encounters its darkest days once again.

July 8, 2011/by actualize

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