Agriculture – Page 8

Agriculture, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Women in Development

Girls in ICT Portal: ITU Inspires Next Generation of Women

Pictures of leading women in information communication technology (ICT) from around the world scroll across the main page of the UN International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) new Girls in ICT Portal, launched just last month. Profiles like Sara Adams, Senior Software Editor at Google Germany, are accompanied by inspirational stories of each woman’s entry into the largely male-dominated field, just one of several ways the website aims to inspire a new generation of girls to explore career opportunities in ICT.

ITU, the United Nations specialized agency for ICT, created the new portal as part of it’s new 3-year campaign, “Technology Needs Girls”. Susan Schorr, Head of the Special Initiatives Division at ITU, discussed the vital role that successful women in ICT can play during a brief presentation at the World Radiocommunication Conference 2012, currently being held in Geneva.

“It’s very important for women and girls to have role models,” Schorr said. “We have already over 20 profiles of women spanning the globe from practically every region around the world and representing all kinds of ICT career paths because our message is that a career in the ICT sector can take many different forms.”

The Girls in ICT Portal also features an ICT studies and careers database. Users can search over 400 programs including scholarships, contest and awards, trainings and internships, online networks, tech camps, and Girls in ICT Day activities, even refining the search by geographical region. Because the portal is targeted towards young women from around the world, the website can also be read in Arabic, Spanish, French, and Russian.

In addition, a number of studies and white papers surrounding the prevalence of women in ICT can be found in the Trends, Analysis, and Profiles section of the website. Over 100 regional and private sector organizations active in the ICT sector are also featured which include a link and brief description of each.

Along with the web portal, ITU is planning to promote the new “Technology Needs Girls” campaign through two major events: An advocacy event in New York on International Girls in ICT Day, April 26, and the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2012 (WTISD): “Women and Girls in ICT”. Aiming to raise awareness to the possible uses of ICT in bridging the digital divide, these two events will focus on encouraging young women, educators, and the industry itself to promote education and careers paths in ICT for girls.

“Technology can help people,” said Doreen Bogden, ITU’s Chief of Strategic Planning and Membership at the World Radiocommunication Conference. “What we find is that girls often pursue careers where they think they can make a difference [by] becoming a doctor, becoming a teacher. We believe the same is true for ICT. It can make a difference, it can change people’s lives, and it can empower people.”

February 16, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Using Radio to Improve Local Responses to Climate Variability: The Case of Alpaca Farmers in the Peruvian Andes

Photo Credit: CDI and IRDC

The Centre for Development Informatics (CDI) at the University of Manchester with the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) recently released a report on agricultural adaption for climate change. This report, “Using Radio to Improve Local Responses to Climate Variability,” focuses on a radio program made available to alpaca farmers in the Peruvian Andes.

Life of farmers in the Andes is difficult at times are made more volatile in light of climate vulnerability. Lately there have been unexpected cold spells coupled with heavy snowfall. Peru has the largest number of South American camelids (the animal group that includes llama, alpaca, vicuna and guanaco) in the world, providing a subsistence to 65,000 families at altitudes of 3,500 to 5,000 meters, where other forms of agriculture are impractical. With climate variations that have lead to below-average temperatures and water scarcity, there has been an increased death rate of livestock, the “main income source, this loss of animals condemns further those who are already living in conditions of severe poverty.”

The study notes a lack of adaptive capacity among farmers for short-term action. To address this, the CAMELTEC project was initiated from 2008 to 2010 by Peruvian NGO Desco with financial support of Oxfam GB.

CAMELTEC broadcasted technological, social, political, and institutional information with a heavy focus on meteorological warnings, market prices of alpaca wool and husbandry advice to remote communities. CAMELTEC also aired a weekly 20-minute broadcast called Amanecer Alpaquero (Alpaca Farmer’s Daybreak) that included more specific information and discussion on pertinent problems, the show “was popular with all members of Alpaca farming families not just because of the vital information provided, but also because of its use of humor and music in transmitting its message.”

Radio was chosen as the medium for engaging farmers because of its low setup, operating costs, and “the availability of cheap battery-powered AM radios means that the majority of Alpaca farming households have access to local radio broadcasts.” Radio is deemed the best option for communication because it has the best reception coverage in the andean topography where it has been “historically cost-prohibitive to construct infrastructure such as paved roads, electricity and fixed telecommunications up to the farmsteads.” Though most farmers have mobile phones, the utility is limited.

The CAMELTEC project had three goals:

– strengthen local organizations such as farmer-cooperatives to enable the introduction of sustainable (including climate-sustainable) livestock practices

– improve the quality and quantity of alpaca wool being produced, through good husbandry and reproductive management practices

– improve income through changes to wool output and through better market access

The project is deemed successful, decreasing livestock mortality by 12% and saving an equivalent of US $500 on average per farmer. Another benefit of the radio program was its access to females, addressing traditional gender barriers that make it difficult for women to be involved in community farming meetings. The program has encouraged “a more systematic approach to breeding, the utilization of farming cooperatives for marketing of alpaca wool, and a more commercial approach to farming; all of which have helped to either maintain or raise income levels.

Photo Credit: CDI and IRDC

What made CAMELTEC successful? “Deep local knowledge and experience were vital… building as it did on Demsco’s many years of working with local farmers” to gain trust and expertise. However the inability to deliver skill knowledge and the high price of batteries limited the project. The study concludes with the suggestion of strengthening radio programing related to climate change adaptation to improve institutional building.

February 16, 2012/by actualize

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

Nigerian ICT looks to mobile money

Nigeria’s $25 billion mobile money market is set to top the agenda at the 66^thTelecom Consumer Parliament (TCP) meeting on Friday. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and telecom operators hope the conference will address challenges facing the industry.

Eugene Juwah is gearing up for Friday's event. (image: file)

The monthly event, held in Lagos, brings together government and operators to discuss issues in Nigerian telecoms industry.

Eugene Juwah, the NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, said the topic of the next event will be “Mobile Payment: The Consumer Perspective”.

Total mobile money transactions in emerging markets is expected to grow at an annual compound rate (CAGR) of 54%. From $25 billion in 2010, to $215 billion in 2015.

“There is also a forecast that mobile money subscribers will grow from 133 million users in 2010 at a CAGR of 40% to reach 709 million users in 2015,” his office said.

February 16, 2012/by actualize

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

Mobile Africa Report 2011: Regional Hubs of Excellence and Innovation

This report draws on primary research (including questionnaires sent to key mobile stakeholders in Africa) as well as secondary research (reports and articles from AfricaNext, BizCommunity, Dataxis Intelligence, International Telecommunications Union, Africa Analysis, Voice of America, TMCNet, BizCommunity, Computerworld Zambia – see full list at end of report).

In 2008, imports of data enabled phones exceeded that of non-data enabled phones in many African markets. In 2009, the undersea cables hit East and Southern Africa in a big way. In 2010, mobile operators became serious about data availability and cost packaging for everyday Africans. 2011 is expected to bring a new type of data-enabled mobile user in Africa, and brings the mobile web to center stage.

McKinsey estimates Africa’s gross domestic product at about US $2.6 trillion, with US $1.4 in consumer spending. Africa’s population growth and urbanization rates are among the highest in the world.

Yunkap Kwankam and Ntomambang Ningo, authors of the paper titled “Information Technology in Africa: A Proactive Approach,” maintain that African countries can bypass several stages in the use of ICTs.

On the technology front, Africans can accelerate development by skipping less efficient technologies and moving directly to more advanced ones. The telecommunications sector continues to attract a flurry of public and private investment.

Alex Twinomugisha in Nairobi, manager at Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative, says telecom investment in sub-Saharan Africa is coming not only from foreign sources but also local banks. But the investment should be in software and services as well, not just cabling infrastructure.

To learn more about the state of mobile in Africa, download the entire report here.

February 16, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

One Tablet Per Child: Walter Bender Discusses Future of OLPC

While listening to Walter Bender, founder and executive director of Sugar Labs, speak last week at USAID’s Mobiles for Education (mEducation) Monthly Seminar Series in Washington, DC, it was difficult to decide if he was more interested in discussing the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)program’s new XO 3.0 tablet, or the educational philosophy that has spurred its development.

By the end of his presentation, however, it was clear that both are inherent to launching an effective and sustainable program utilizing the new technology. As former co-founder of OLPC, Mr. Bender now focuses his time and energy on developing and improving Sugar, an open source desktop environment which promotes learning through connectivity, collaboration, and what Mr. Bender calls “off the grid accessibility”, the ability to take the computers into virtually any learning environment.

And the new tablet promises to do just that. Upon first look, the tablet doesn’t seem much different from the original laptop besides being thinner since there’s no keyboard. The lack of keyboard is a feature that Mr. Bender seemed torn about saying that keyboards are needed for developing writing skills but that the device should evolve with the introduction of new technologies, tablets being the big new innovation in mobile computers.

The easily recognizable bright green and white rugged exterior is still present but now the 8-inch screen is protected by a green silicone cover. The child-friendly tablet was designed with the same consideration for durability, cost, and conservation of power that has made the OLPC program so well known, but now it features solar panels on the inside of the cover to power it in addition to the power adapter and hand-crank powered battery from the previous laptop.

Of course, the education-specific user interface of Sugar still remains and can be baffling to anyone not already familiar with it’s icons, a wide array of small visual representations of each activity that doesn’t resemble Microsoft’s or Apple’s familiar icons. But in Sugar’s design lies Mr. Bender’s philosophy and aim: a simplicity so intuitive that children can understand it as well as modify it and create new programs for their own use.

As exciting as the introduction of the new tablet was for the small group of attendees at the seminar, Sugar was the focus of the discussion and one that Mr. Bender talked passionately about. Designed on OLPC’s principle of “Low floor, no ceiling”, it’s designed for inexperienced users, providing a platform, or low floor, on which to explore, create, and collaborate without any limits to its possibilities.

Exploration is key to Mr. Bender’s philosophy. Designing Sugar and the computers from a “constructivist” perspective, he referred to Swiss developmental psychologist, Jean Paiget, and his learning theory of “learning by doing” when discussing the intuitiveness of the system. “We want to raise a generation of independent thinkers and problem solvers, “ he said after displaying a picture of students taking apart and fixing one of OLPC’s laptops. “Every deployment has students who repair computers and they are designed so that students can fix them themselves.”

Already deployed in over 30 countries, the largest and most well known example is Uruguay with the largest saturation of one laptop per each of 395,000 children in primary school from grades 1-6. Now in its third year, Mr. Bender highlighted a few examples of how kids are becoming empowered through the technology and developing their own programs. Kids like 12 year old Augustine who created his own program called Simple Graph, one that creates just that. Mr. Bender said that innovations like this are examples of how students are becoming self-sufficient. “These are key indicators that something different is happening, something good.”

Walter Bender giving an example of how to create your own program

Photo Credit: Chrissy Kulenguski

But this portfolio assessment, one that emphasizes qualitative over quantitative results and what Mr. Bender calls a powerful and primary assessment tool, is one of several points for criticism of the OLPC program. Others include not providing enough, or any, teacher training and support when introducing the laptops and not being able to meet the original goal price of $100 per laptop that was set when the program first started.

More recently, a new low-cost competitor, the Aakash tablet, has entered this developing market. The Android-based computer has gained a lot of attention since it was first developed by the Indian government as part of the country’s aim to connect 25,000 colleges and 400 universities in an e-learning program and made available at subsidized prices. In accordance with OLPC’s open source philosophy, chairman Nicholas Negroponte already offered full access to OLPC technology at no cost to the Indian team of developers.

Sharing ideas and new innovations is also one of Mr. Bender’s learning goals for the OLPC program: to have students learn through “doing, reflecting, and collaboration”. He believes that the new XO 3.0 tablet has a prominent role in the emerging market of mobile computers for education. Though what that role will be exactly in the coming years of new innovations and innovators, has yet to be seen.

February 15, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Environment, Environment, Environmental Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

3 Essential Environmental Education Apps

With a wealth of options available to educators and practitioners alike, here are some of the best inexpensive mobile apps for young professionals and civic groups responsible for moderating the local environment and climate change.

Easy

SPARKvue – Winner of Tech & Learning Magazine’s 2010 Award of Excellence, SPARKvue brings real-time measurement, data visualization, and analysis to science education everywhere . Using Bluetooth interface, the application can connect to over 70 PASCO sensors for measuring pH, temperature, force, carbon dioxide levels, and many more. The app can be used by students to inquire, explore, and display data.

Moderate

Environmental Formulator – Environmental Formulator was created for environmental engineers and contains conversion formulas and 40-area calculations. Major areas covered in the program include: Air Quality, CFC, Cogeneration, Cost Benefit, Beach Pollution, Lake Pollution, River Pollution, Soil Pollution and Waste Conversions.

Difficult

eChartBook- Environmental Correction Chart Calculator – Designed to replace paper, the eChartBook Mobile offers access to Halliburton’s environmental correction algorithms wherever you are for a complex array of sensors. The application also includes a number of useful general charts and tools for determining water saturation, borehole salinity, formation dip calculations, and cross plots.

February 15, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Nigeria to join Zambia for e-voucher: who’s next?

Photo Credit: OGALA

A new plan using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to facilitate smooth delivery of inputs to farmers will soon be implemented in Nigeria.

“With this system, we can trace if somebody is supplying bad fertilizer, supplying sand instead of fertilizer; we know where it comes from as opposed to the old system,” said the Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina.

According to the minister, farmers will from now get fertilizer and seed allocation through their mobile phones. Adesina made this known on Sunday in Abuja while fielding questions at a News Agency of Nigeria forum, where he said the strategy was couched in the new fertilizers voucher scheme. The system is designed to ensure transparency and good governance in the distribution of fertilizers and ensure that the fertilizers and seed companies functioned as business entities, not as contract from government.

The old system of fertilizer distribution in Nigeria according to the minister, whereby government bought and distributed fertilizers, was laden with corruption and inefficiency and also led to rent seeking and exploitation of farmers. It is expected that the implementation of these electronic voucher scheme using mobile phones and biometrics will ensure authenticity of the provider and the user for effective monitoring of the inputs.

This comes barely 2-weeks after my recent piece on The Myth of E-Voucher Schemes for Enhanced Fertilizer Use which lamented on the future use of ICTs within the agricultural value chain for input delivery. The post cited the Zambian experience which shows that e-voucher system empowers smallholders to obtain subsidized inputs from private firms (giving the firms, in turn, an incentive to expand and improve their business).

I look forward to seeing similar developments in other countries like Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania that are still stuck with the paper voucher to the disadvantage of the smallholder farmers.

See here for full article.

February 14, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Environment, Environment, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Data Basin: A Mapping Tool for All

Data Basin, an online system, is quickly growing in popularity among practicing educators and community groups that wish to tell compelling stories with graphics. Data Basin connects users with spatial datasets, tools, and expertise through a user-friendly platform where “individuals and organizations can explore and download a vast library of datasets, upload their own data, create and publish analysis, utilize working groups, and produce customized maps that can be easily shared.”

In a presentation on its potential, Jame Strittholt, Data Basin’s founder and Conservation Biology Institute‘s Executive Director called it Google Earth on steroids meets Facebook, allowing groups to communicate with each other by integrating conservation data, mapping, and people. The site contains groups for specific topics and issues and centers for targeted geographies. The core functions of Data Basin are free and a fee-based consulting service is available for those who wish to take full advantage of its features or store significant amounts of data. Currently a great variety of biological, physical, and socioeconomic data is available. Maps can be kept private, within groups, or open to the public.

Data Basin was created out of the need for a central access point for environmental conservation related datasets that people can explore. The tools are easy to understand and use, making it an excellent resource for nonprofessionals or those unfamiliar with ArcGIS. Data Basin was implemented by the Conservation Biology Institute in partnership with ESRI.

February 14, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Environment, Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Pollution Prevention

Air Quality at Your Fingertips

Amobilefuture released a free app called Pollution that features realtime air quality on an interactive geolocative regularly updated map for more than 1,380 cities worldwide. The app takes advantage of 100,000 base stations worldwide, allowing anyone to track measured exposures to electromagnetic, air and water pollution. It also monitors pollution and emissions to soil. It provides detailed lists of nearby pollutant facilities, with discharge details and volumes. The app’s purpose to to inform about the potential presence of pollutant sources in a comprehensive way.

February 10, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

How Design and Collaboration Can Improve mHealth

We have all seen or heard of an organization developing and implementing an innovative solution and then one or two months later the product is in the corner of the health clinic. It has not been used since the organization finished its initial training. While the outsiders who came in saw it as innovative, it clearly did not resonant as a solution to the users. But why? It seemed so obvious to the developers that this product would solve a glaring problem. Why wouldn’t these health workers want to use this application?

Photo Credit: Tecca

But not to worry. This is something that all organizations and companies deal with. Do you remember Windows Vista, Nokia’s N-Gage, and HP’s TouchPad? Well, each company would hope that you do not. There is an endless list of failed technology products and services. With the movement of leveraging high tech products in international development, especially in global health, failure has become a part of the dialogue in the sector. So much so that MobileActive began hosting FailFaire, where organizations utilizing technology in their projects can come and speak about their “failures.” The idea is to learn from mistakes that others have made. In the most recent FailFaire in New York, many of the stories were focused around design and collaboration issues. Not simply physical design issues (like there were too many buttons on the device), but multiple issues that the designers and implementers did not take into account.

While design has been on the forefront minds in the corporate world for many years (see iPhone and IDEO), design in the social sector is a relatively new idea. In order to decrease the number of failures, organizations have created partnerships with design firms. They are bringing user-centered design to the social sector. Below are some examples:

Reboot has worked with United Bank Limited (UBL) in Pakistan and the Gates Foundation to expand branchless banking via mobile phones.

IDEO.org is assisting Evotech in the further development of their low-cost endoscopy device. It is used during obstetric fistula procedures in developing countries.

Frog Design teamed with the Aricent Group, PopTech, iTeach, the Praekelt Foundation, and Nokia Siemens to design programs to support HIV/AIDS patients as well as expand awareness and knowledge about the disease.

Design Strategy

By focusing on the human-centered design, the product/service takes into account the culture and needs of the targeted consumer. As the pioneer in human-centered design, IDEO wrote a paper in 2010 for the Stanford Social Innovation Review entitled “Design Thinking for Social Innovation.” In the paper, they discuss some of the issues with design in social projects. Along with looking into the culture and needs of the end-users, they mentioned that the project failed because the intervention had not been properly prototyped with the users and receive direct feedback from them. Human-centered design also sees a need to have the intervention fit into the infrastructure of the communities. The overall idea is to have the product/service that solves a problem that the user or community has. In order for this to occur, IDEO sees the solutions coming from focusing on those on the ground instead of the design process occur from outside the targeted community. Along with the design, they also believe that there must be a well thought out distribution and implementation strategy because that can kill a project too. Their most important strategy to the human-centered design process is observing people in their experiences and behaviors. This will tell the designers more than any survey because it can be difficult for people to explain what they need, especially if they do not know what that really is.

Collaboration

In order for the human-centered design to occur, there is a need for greater collaboration in mHealth. mHealth is a complex web of networks as it includes individuals from all areas affected in the sector – mobile operators, ministries of health, telecommunications regulators, community health workers, doctors, technology developers, global health NGOs, etc. As mentioned before, by understanding the problem and how a solution would be used in the field, the technology is more likely to be adopted. The creation process needs to understand all the aspects involved in the usage of the product/service. By creating a collaborating environment, no matter who the end user is (a mother, family, community health workers), the team has the experience and knowledge to look deeply into all the internal and external issues that are causing the problem. Once those are understood, then the group can start to see how the intervention can be both designed and implemented in the field with the end-user in mind. With this focus, there will be a clear incentive for the end-user to utilize the technology. Without understanding how a technology will improve their lives, there will be a low adoption rate. And then the technology becomes useless and another wasted investment.

The process of creating greater collaboration and utilizing a design strategy is easier said than done. Clearly money is an issue when including a design firm in the development of a mHealth product. It would be beneficial to include extra funds in budgets for the design process. The funds should be used to design the look, functionality, and business plan of the mHealth intervention as well as allow for greater collaboration. The end goal of developing a design strategy and increasing collaboration is to create products/services that will solve a problem but also that will be used by the indented users.

February 10, 2012/by actualize

Case Studies

Contact Details

Quick Links

About

Expertise

Impact

Join

Sign up for Updates