Originally posted on the GBI Portal – Page 14

ICTs, social media, local government and youth-led social audits

This is a guest post from Jamie Lundine, who has been collaborating with Plan Kenya to support digital mapping and governance programming in Kwale and Mathare. The original was published on Jamie’s blog, titled Information with an Impact. See part 1 of this series here: Digital Mapping and Governance: the Stories behind the Maps.

Mapping a school near Ukunda, Kwale County

Creating information is easy. Through mobile phones, GPS devices, computers (and countless other gadgets) we are all leaving our digital footprints on the world (and the World Wide Web). Through the open data movement, we can begin to access more and more information on the health and wellbeing of the societies in which we live. We can create a myriad of information and display it using open source software such as Ushahidi, OpenStreetMap, WordPress, and countless other online platforms. But what is the value of this digital information? And what impact can it have on the world?

Youth Empowerment Through Arts and Media (YETAM) is project of Plan International which aims to create information that encourages positive transformation in communities. The project recognizes young people as important change agents who, despite their energy and ability to learn, are often marginalized and denied opportunities. Within the YETAM project, Plan Kenya works with young people in Kwale County (on the Coast of Kenya) to inspire constructive action through arts and media – two important channels for engaging and motivating young people.

Information in Kwale County

Kwale County is considered by Plan International to be a “hardship” area. Despite the presence of 5-star resorts, a private airport and high-end tourist destinations on Diani beach, the local communities in Kwale County lack access to basic services such as schools, health facilities and economic opportunities. Young people in the area are taking initiative and investigating the uneven distribution of resources and the inequities apparent within the public and private systems in Kwale County.

As one component of their work in Kwale, Plan Kenya is working with the three youth-led organizations to create space for young people to participate in their communities in a meaningful, productive way. There are different types of participation in local governance – often times government or other agencies invites youth to participate (“invited space”) as “youth representatives” but they are simply acting to fill a required place and are not considered within the wider governance and community structures.

Youth representation can also be misleading as the Kwale Youth and Governance Coalition (KYGC) reports that “youth representatives” aren’t necessarily youth themselves – government legislation simply stipulates that there must be someone representing the youth – but there is no regulation that states that this person must be a youth themselves (they must only act on behalf of the youth). This leaves the system open to abuse (the same holds true for “women’s representative” – you can find a man acting on behalf of women in the position of women’s representative). Plan Kenya and the young people we met are instead working to “create space” (as opposed to “a place”) for young people in community activism in Kwale County.

The 5 weeks we spent in Kwale were,the beginning of a process to support this on-going work in the broad area of “accountability” – this encompasses child rights, social accountability and eco-tourism. The process that began during the 5 weeks was the integration of digital mapping and social media to amplify voices of young people working on pressing concerns in the region.

To create the relevant stakeholders and solicit valuable feedback during the process of the YETAM work on digital mapping and new media, our last 3 days in Kwale were spent reviewing the work with the teams. On Thursday November 10^th, we invited advisors from Plan Kwale, Plan Kenya Country Office, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and officers from the Constituency Development Fund to participate in a half-day of presentations and feedback on the work the young people had undertaken.

By far the work that generated the most debate in the room was the governance tracking by the KYGC. The team presented the Nuru ya Kwale blog which showcased 28 of the 100 + projects the youth had mapped during the field work. They classified the 28 projects according to various indicators – and for example documented that 23 of the projects had been completed, 1 was “in bad progress”, 2 were “in good progress” and 1 “stalled.”

The CDF officers (the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer of the Matuga CDF committee in Kwale County) were concerned with the findings and questioned the methodology and outcome of the work. They scrutinized some of the reports on the Nuru ya Kwale site and questioned for example, why Mkongani Secondary School was reported as a “bad” quality project. The officials wanted to know the methodology and indicators the team had used to reach their conclusions because according to the representatives of the CDF committee, the auditors gave the Mkongani Secondary School project a clean bill of health.

One important message for the youth based on feedback on their work was the need to clearly communicate the methodology used to undertake the documentation of projects (i.e. what are the indicators of a project in “bad” progress? how many people did you interview? Whose views did they represent?).

There is significant value in presenting balanced feedback that challenges the internal government (or NGO) audits – for example the data on Kenya Open Data documents that 100% of CDF money has been spent on the Jorori Water Project mentioned above, but a field visit, documented through photos and interviews with community members reveals that the project is stalled and left in disrepair. This is an important finding – the youth have now presented this to the relevant CDF committee. The committee members were responsive to the feedback and, despite turning the youth away from their offices the previous month, invited them to the CDF to get the relevant files to supplement some of the unknown or missing information (i.e. information that people on the ground at the project did not have access to, such as for example, who was the contractor on a specific project, and what was the project period).

Kwale youth with staff from Plan Kenya, officers from the CDFC and the local Youth Officer

Samuel Musyoki, Strategic Director of Plan Kenya who joined the presentations and reflections on November 10^th and 11^th, reported that:

“The good thing about this engagement is that it opened doors for the youth to get additional data which they needed to fill gaps in their entries. Interestingly, they had experienced challenges getting such data from the CDF. I sought to know form the CDFC and the County Youth Officer if they saw value in the data the youth were collecting and how they could use it.

—

The County Youth Officer was the most excited and has invited the youth to submit a business proposal to map Youth Groups in the entire county. The mapping would include capturing groups that have received the Youth Enterprise Fund; their location; how much they have received; enterprises they are engaged in; how much they have repaid; groups that have not paid back; etc. He said it will be an important tool to ensure accountability through naming and shaming defaulters.

The 5 weeks were of great value — talking to quite a number of the youth I could tell — they really appreciate the skill sets they have received-GIS mapping; blogging; video making and using the data to engage in evidence based advocacy. As I leave this morning they are developing action plans to move the work forward. I sought assurance from them that this will not end after the workshop. They had very clear vision and drive where they want to go and how they will work towards ensuring sustained engagement beyond the workshop.”

The impact of digital mapping and new media on social accountability is still an open question. Whether the social accountability work would have provoked similar feedback from duty bearers if presented in an offline platform (for example in a power point presentation) instead of as a dynamic-online platform is unknown.

The Matuga CDF officers were rather alarmed that the data were already online and exposed their work in an unfavourable light (in fairness, there were some well-executed projects as well). There is a definite need to question the use of new technology in governance work, and develop innovative methods for teasing out impact of open, online information channels in decision-making processes and how this is or isn’t amplifying existing accountability work. There is definite potential in the work the young people are undertaking and the government officers consulted, from the Ministry of Youth Affairs and local CDF Committee (CDFC) stated that they were “impressed by the work of the youth”.

Within the community development systems and particularly the structure of devolved funding, there is a gap in terms of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) that the CDF committee to date has not been able to play effectively. As Samuel Musyoki stated the youth “could watch to ensure that public resources are well utilized to benefit the communities.” The Youth Officer even invited the youth to submit proposals for assistance in buying GPS gadgets and computers to strengthen this work.

Continuing the on and offline integration

As discussed, the work in Kwale on various issues is dynamic and evolving. The 5 weeks we spent with the teams were meant to provide initial trainings and support and to catalyse action that would be continued by the youth in the area, with support from Plan Kenya. Not only did we provide training to the young people, but Plan Kwale staff were also involved in the process and started documenting their work through the tools and techniques introduced by our team. With these skills, the Plan Kwale staff will support the on-going field mapping and new media work. We are also available to provide remote assistance with questions about strategies and technical challenges.

Some of the future activities include:

Holding a “leaders forum” during which the youth interact with a wider cross-section of stakeholders and share their work.
Continuing work on their various websites – updating the sites with results from social auditing work to be carried out throughout the last weeks of November, as well as digitizing previous information collected during historical social auditing.
Validating the data by revisiting some project sites and documenting projects that haven’t been done yet, gathering stories from some of the Project Management Committees, taking more photos, and potentially conducting surveys within the communities to get more representative views on project evaluations.
Each group also needs to develop a more structured advocacy strategy to direct their activities in these areas.
All teams expressed interest in developing proposals to submit to the Ministry of Youth Affairs, through the Youth Enterprise Fund and CDF Committee, based on the suggestion of potential funding for this process. Plan Kwale staff, as well as some of the Country Office advisers offered to support the youth in developing these proposals.
Most importantly, the teams want to consult the wider community in their respective areas to demonstrate the relevance of YETAM, including the skills they have gained, to the community stakeholders (beyond the relevant government authorities

The potential of new technologies, including digital mapping to promote accountability, is only as powerful as the offline systems into which it is integrated. Without offline engagement, existing community systems of trust and recognition will be threatened and thus undermine any online work. The youth must remain grounded within their existing work and use new technology to amplify their voices, build their network, share their stories and lessons and learn from and engage with others.

February 27, 2012/by actualize

Kenyan undersea cable goes live in April

The Lower Indian Ocean Network (LION2), Kenya’s fourth submarine cable, will become fully operational in April this year, the local telecommunications ministry revealed on Thursday.

Map outlying the LION2 undersea cable

The LION2 cable is a 3000 km line extending from Nyali, via the island of Mayotte, located in the northern Mozambique Channel from Mauritius and is set to significantly boost the nation’s bandwidth. Kenya already enjoys connectivity through The East African Marine System (TEAMS), the Eastern Africa Submarine Cable System (EASSy) and SEACOM.

Orange Kenya, involved with laying cables via its parent company, France Telecom, confirmed the schedule, adding that the cable arrived in Mombasa in December last year and is awaiting connection. Work continues to finish the cable’s connection at the Mombasa landing station, the company said.

Angela Ng’ang’a-Mumo, Orange Kenya’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, told reporters that progress on LION 2 “is on target”. Orange said the construction of the 1.28 Tbps cable “is expected to cost approximately KES 6.2 billion.”

According to reports, the cable is part of a bigger project by France Telecom and 12 members of the Lower Indian Ocean Network to build a submarine cable linking Madagascar to the rest of the world via Reunion Island and Mauritius.

Samuel Poghisio, Kenyan Information Minister, said he was confident that “once it is switched on, LION2 will intensify competition in the industry and help further lower Internet connectivity charges”.

Joseph Mayton

February 24, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

An ICT4E Lesson Learned: Offline Content is Key

I recently made one of the biggest ICT4D mistakes in the book. Pay close attention, and see if you can pick it out.

When I was in Arusha, Tanzania last month, I was working with a primary school that recently set up a learning lab with 13 donated computers. The technology was not being used because the teachers were not sure how it could be leveraged for education. The computers were simply collecting dust.

The semester before the trip I wanted to develop something that would allow the school to use the computers effectively. I began searching for online educational content relevant to the Tanzanian curriculum and found all sorts of learning materials, games, and software downloads. Once I had collected a good chunk of quality content, I created a website and placed links to each of my findings alongside the specific curriculum objective that they addressed.

Did you catch it? My big mistake, I mean…

The school wasn’t connected to the Internet yet. How could I possibly have overlooked something like that?

To make a long story short, even though I was told the school would be connected when I arrived, there were some bureaucratic problems that slowed the process of getting Internet access there. About three weeks into my trip, the Internet was finally hooked up, but the wait had cut into the majority of the time that I had allocated for teacher training.

Moral of this story: Do not rely on the Internet. Offline content is key.

While Internet access is spreading rapidly throughout developing countries, it is important that ICT4D projects do not place all of their trust in its availability. There are still countless communities throughout world without access, and many of these communities have several obstacles preventing them from obtaining access. Even when rural communities have the infrastructure to connect, Internet subscriptions in these areas can constitute a large percentage of per capita income. Individuals simply cannot afford Internet access.

It’s important to note that access is not the only issue. Let’s imagine for a second that the school I was working with did have Internet when I arrived. This still would have been problematic since bandwidth in most developing countries remains limited – definitely not conducive to streaming online educational games and videos.

Relying on Internet content also makes projects less transferable. If I found that my idea was successful, and I wanted to scale it out to other schools, I would likely run into the same Internet issues elsewhere. In using the cloud as a solution, remember that weather is always local. Having offline content is much more reliable and practical.

The good news is that there is tons of content that can be downloaded from the Internet in order to accumulate offline content. Wikipedia allows you to download entire libraries of information, and I found plenty of open source educational games that proved to be very helpful to the instructors at the school.

So how did I fix my project?

By the end of my trip, the entire focus had shifted from allocating online material on the website to installing offline content on the computers. This proved to be a much more reliable means of technology use in the school.

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February 24, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Education, Education, Education Partnerships, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Attention ICT Innovators: Have you Considered Peace Corps?

No, I don’t actually mean you should commit to 2 years of service in the Peace Corps (though if you have the time, “life is calling” as the PC recruiters say), but what about joining forces with them? With over 9,000 volunteers, 40% of which focus on education and another 12% in business and ICT, and spanning the globe in about 76 developing countries, isn’t that a resource worth exploring?

I’ve been thinking about this lately since there seems to be a growing amount of speculation about how new innovations in information communication technologies (ICT) are being introduced into classrooms throughout the developing world without enough, or any, teacher training to ensure sustainability. Take for example the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. It drew a lot of criticism after it first released the XO 1.0 laptop for lack of teacher-focused training programs on how to use the devices and it is soon to become even more controversial with the release of the much talked-about XO 3.0 tablet.

Amidst reading the numerous critical blogs and some rather heated debates, I’ve started to wonder: What on-the-ground research is being done to assess the need for some of these new innovations in a specific country in the first place? What resources, particularly people, are already available to help introduce and support the teacher training needed for local teachers to deem the technology useful and relevant within the unique cultural context?

In Cambodia, where I recently served as a Peace Corps Volunteer at the Prey Veng Regional Teacher Training Center (RTTC), the Khmer have a saying: “Don’t take the straight or winding path. Take the path your ancestors have taken.” And new innovations in ICT can be seen as just that — a long winding path of new and confusing devices, unfamiliar to an aging population of school officials and teachers that think they have fared well enough as educators without the help of new gadgets.

Last month, leading experts and stakeholders in the field of mobile learning discussed how people’s perceptions of mobile phones are impeding progress in mobile learning in the recently released UNESCO Mobile Learning Week report:

Perhaps due to the intellectually-light and entertainment-heavy content that has been optimized for mobile devices over the past decade, the primary social challenge is convincing people that phones are NOT a barrier to learning.

Even in American classrooms, mobile phones can often be thought of as a distraction, most commonly used for texting and watching YouTube videos, rarely ever thought of as a valuable teaching aide that teachers could already be using if they had the training or interest to explore its potential on their own.

And mobile devices are just the tip of this growing iceberg of ICT, OER, FOSS, and a plethora of other acronyms used in this field. So once the need and appropriateness of a technology is determined useful for a particular country and educational environment, who might be able to help train teachers how to use and develop it? Who has three months of intensive language training and culture-sensitivity seminars, works and lives with the locals, has a wide range of connections within the school system, and strives to understand the complexities of the education system? That’s right — the tech-savvy Peace Corps Volunteers.

Now that’s an assumption and generalization that all PCVs know and care about what’s going on in the ICT4D field and have any interest of being involved in such endeavors — dealing with stray dogs and gastrointestinal diseases is a challenge enough. But why not reach out to the volunteers in your ICT-destined country and give them a chance to use some of those international relationship building skills that they spent hours cultivating during training.

And Peace Corps is just one of several organizations that send volunteers into the developing world. VSO UK and VSO International, Volunteer Service Overseas organizations, are quite similar to Peace Corps volunteers in regards to their culture and language immersion and 26% work in the education sector. The interactive map below shows where Peace Corps and VSO volunteers are currently serving and the program sectors that they work in. Almost every country has volunteers working in the education sector and some have already launched information technology-related projects:

View Volunteer Programs in Education and ICT in a larger map

February 23, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Biodiversity, Environment, Environment, Environmental Compliance, Forestry, Land Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Successful Community-Based Forestry Management

Photo Credit: CARPE

The Congo Basin is a critical tropical forest that supplies vital regional and worldwide ecological services. It is one of the largest tropical rainforests in the world, home to thousands of endemic plant and animal species such as lowland gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and forest elephants. More than eighty million people depend on its abundance of timber and other natural resources for their livelihoods. A paradoxical note is that despite the richness of the Congo Basin, the people near it are some of the poorest in Africa. The forest is constantly cleared to make room for agricultural pursuits and to feed urbanized areas’ hunger for lumber. In addition to deforestation and forest degradation, illegal hunting and commercial bushmeat trade are major threats to biodiversity.

The Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) is a USAID longterm and regional initiative formed in 1995 in association with a consortium of government and NGO partners that concentrates its resources on six principal forested countries in Central Africa: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo. Uganda, Rwanda, Chad, Burundi, Rwanda and Sao Tome Principe are also involved in the initiative. CARPE is intended to be a 20-year process, resulting in complete local guidance. A major objective of CARPE is to protect forest resources by reducing degradation and protecting biodiversity. Modern tools such as Landsat satellite-derived maps, remote sensing, GIS, and geospatial databases are used for planning and monitoring of the forest. With this information, threatened species are under the protection of local communities and logging is controlled.

Prior to the development of CARPE, vast areas of the Congo Basin were unknown. Since then, a number of initiatives and activities have taken place, resulting in an overall evaluation in 2011. In this evaluation, CARPE was deemed extremely successful for introducing large-scale ecosystem management approaches. Tens of thousands of individuals have been trained in a variety of conservation methods and techniques. With empowerment through such training and motivation that educates and organizes local groups to play an active role in forest and biodiversity conservation programs, civil society is being strengthened. This is seen as critical, circumventing the often inefficiently administered and economically weak centralized governments. The tools practiced allow for an understaffed patrol to communicate with a wider audience, limiting the “weak state management of these resources (that) creates a vacuum where local populations are often stripped of benefits as stronger or elite groups including private companies expropriate natural resources at sub-national and local levels.”Where will CARPE head in the coming years? The implementation of land use management plans for micro- and macro- zones, strengthening of government capacity and transparency are key.

February 23, 2012/by actualize

Connectivity, Legal & Regulatory, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Somalia gov’t intends to create independent telecoms regulator

Few nations lack a dedicated telecommunications regulator. These days, most have an independent regulator, some have a state-controlled regulator, and a couple only have a ministry that more-or-less covers regulatory duties. Not surprisingly, Somalia is one of the few African nations that lacks a regulator. (For reference, Libya, Seychelles, and Western Sahara are the others.)

Although Somalia’s Ministry of Posts & Communications oversees all telecoms operations, the government is scattered and ineffective (the ministry website hasn’t been updated since 2009).

However, we were shocked to read how Somali telecommunications stakeholders recently hammered out a draft communications law that will establish a legal framework for Somalia’s nascent telecoms industry. Ministry of Posts & Communications representatives were even present to discuss the main goal of the workshop: to establish a well-defined independent regulator by the end of the year. The hope is that the regulator, to be designed as the Somali Communications Commission, will promote investment, encourage fair competition, and diligently monitor prices for services.

Hopefully the law can pass relatively quickly, but not so hastily that it lacks substance. A lot is riding on the Communications Act. As the Minister of Information, Posts, and Telecommunications points out, the act will be “a key step in the process of strengthening the rule of Law in Somalia”. The banner for the event even highlighted the ability of ICT to bring peace.

Banner for the 13-14 Feb session in Mogadishu {Horn of Africa News}

Of course, the question remains whether the SCC, once created, will enforce (or be able to physically enforce) the telecoms law.

February 23, 2012/by actualize

Mobile Money, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Women in Development

Mobile Money and ROSCAs: The Intersection of Technology and Informal Financial Services

Photo Credit: Nin Andrews

As reported in the working paper “Mobile Money Services and Poverty Reduction: A Study of Women’s Groups in Rural Eastern Kenya,” women’s groups in Eastern Kenya are using M-PESA as a part of an informal savings product. Through the Vinya wa Aka Group (VwAG), along with support from the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), 21 women’s groups were provided with financial literacy training which included investment, savings, money services, and management. After their initial training, Dr. Ndunge Kiiti of Houghton College and Dr. Jane Mutinda of Kenyatta University stated that the goal of the research was to see how mobile money services could be used as a tool in the women’s groups to reduce poverty in Eastern Kenya.

While all the groups had formal savings accounts along with other investments, the groups still continued to use an informal savings vehicle that has traditionally been used in areas that lack access to an institutional savings product. ROSCAs, Rotating Savings and Credit Associations, are groups of people who form in order to force themselves to save on a schedule. The group members will meet weekly for a set number of weeks, and in each week, each person “deposits” their savings for the week. But, instead of letting the money accumulate each week , a specific person in the group receives the entire pot for the week. The idea is that each week each group member saves a specific amount (say $100) with the understanding that when it is their week, they will receive the pot. For example, if there 10 group members, each week for 10 weeks one individual will receive $1,000. During the weeks that a member does not receive the pot, they still must deposit $100, even if they have already received the pot. This is an example of a social contract in which the group members hold the other members accountable to pay each week. ROSCAs are especially popular when individuals are looking to make a larger purchase (i.e. stove, TV, merchandise for their business) and they do not have a formal financial product to save the money.

In these women’s groups, they saw M-PESA as a benefit in order to receive payments on time from the ROSCA group members. Instead of having to attend each weekly meeting to make the payment, women transfer the money using M-PESA. This allows for group members that are not located in the area, either permanently or because of travel, to still be a part of the group and make timely payments.

This is a great example of how end-users will always dictate how a product or service is used. In the case of the women’s groups, they saw a way to leverage M-PESA in order to make their ROSCAs more efficient. While M-PESA was not originally developed for ROSCAs, this is another way for Safaricom to market its services. These types of reports are very valuable since it shows how customers are using a product or service. By understanding how and why the service or product is being used, companies can further tweak their model or even create other innovative products to match the needs of the customer.

February 23, 2012/by actualize

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

Social Media @ IFAD’s 2012 GC Meeting

Photo Credit: IFAD

The 35th Session of International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD’s) Governing Council (GC) is currently underway with innovative use of social media for more inclusive, interactive and impact-oriented forum.

The 2-day event with the theme “Sustainable smallholder agriculture: feeding the world, protecting the planet” takes off officially on Wednesday at IFAD’s headquarters in Rome with side events such as Fourth global meeting of the Farmers’ Forum and Haiti post-earthquake support program for food security and employment generation in affectted areas taking place on Tuesday.

The meeting is expected to provide a platform for Member States, partners and the public to discuss and debate what needs to be done to enable smallholder farmers to contribute to raising food availability by 7% by 2050 that is required to feed a growing, more urbanized population.

To stimulate the conversation, IFAD’s strong team of social media reporters are on the ground to get you informed and get you involved. The social reporters will keep the outside world informed through blogs, tweets, posting interviews and pictures on the following IFAD social media channels.

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ ifadnews
Blog: http://ifad-un.blogspot.com/
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/IFADTV
BlipTV: http://ifad.blip.tv
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IFAD
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/ifad

Live tweets will be displayed on the twitter wall in the Plenary Hall, in the meeting rooms and in the atrium. Delegates are encouraged to share their ideas, views and insights via social media channels using #ifadgc hashtag.

The virtual audience can follow the proceedings and interact with the prominent guests and panelists on the above social media channels. Plenary sessions, high-level panels, center stage events and regional and other events taking place in the Plenary Hall and Oval Room will also be webcast respectively at the following urls:

To get more information on IFAD’s Governing Council, visit here.

February 21, 2012/by actualize

Anti-corruption, Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Sierra Leone poised for success with transparency portal, ACE fibre cable, 3G

Sierra Leone has carried the momentum from the October 2011 landing of the ACE fibre cable in Freetown and is off to a progressive start to 2012.

We must all be ready now to embrace change, change in our attitude towards one another, change in our attitude to our work and responsibilities. All of those changes should translate positively into progress and development for our country.” – President Ernest Bai Koroma, 2008.

What’s happened in the mobile and Internet industry this year? Thanks to great reporting by Sierra Express Media, we have quite a few stories to be excited about as Sierra Leone positions itself as a regional ICT leader:

The government (including President Koroma) launched Transparency Sierra Leone, an online portal to increase its level of openness. (More on this below)
GoSL announced plans to revise the existing Telecommunications Act to reverse the monopoly of Sierratel over the GoSL international internet gateway before the ACE cable is operational later this year. (A study by the GSM Association in February 2007, citing Kenya, Nigeria and Egypt as case studies, showed that competition in the international gateways market can reduce call prices by up to 90 percent and double call volumes.)
Airtel launched 3G service on February 3rd (Africell began offering 3G access in 2011).
The Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) launched an online system to manage system contains mineral rights, export licenses, and related payments.

The transparency portal encourages interaction and collaboration between citizens and the government. Citizens may ask questions and read about government projects. In return, the government can be expected to implement suggestions and remain honest about how the nations’ resources (ie. people’s taxes) are spent. In fact, Dr. Kelfala Marrah, Chief of Staff in the President’s Office, made some excellent points at the launch event:

people will pay taxes without hassle when they see how their money is spent
the village square is now the internet
impose attacks and you will be rewarded for imposing attacks

The site has a very clean layout with large text. Homepage slides are uncluttered. Registries allow for quick filtering based on region. The color scheme (green, white, and blue) even matches the flag!

Click to enlarge. {Transparency Sierra Leone}

Also positive:

a focus on national issues and not political debate
collaboration between regulator, finance ministry, infrastructure authorities, broadcasters, and journalists
the idea centre allows for user submissions (only one has been added as of writing)
a blog is frequently updated with news of projects
social share buttons in the footer
FAQs explain how to participate and even how to comment on posts
the president has created a YouTube video (viewed 200 times since January 20th)
‘Agenda for Change’ is prominently displayed as a PDF link, as are links to government websites

The nation is now busy preparing for the operation of the ACE cable later this year. After all, capacity is useless if there is no demand or if the cost structure doesn’t make sense for consumers. Profits from the ACE gateway are expected to contribute to Sierra Leone’s economic progress. The government is clearly not taking any chances is missing this tremendous opportunity.

February 21, 2012/by actualize

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

M-PESA responds: Benefits and Challenges of using mobile money to reduce poverty for women in Kenya

This is a guest post by Dr Ndunge Kiiti of Houghton College, New York and the GSMA mWomen programme.

M-PESA Responds

The M-PESA staff members were grateful for the feedback provided by the women’s groups. First, the workshop provided them with a broader context in which to understand how these groups were using their services in the rural areas. Second, they were able to spend quality time explaining how the women might confront and address some of the challenges they have faced as a result of the services. The challenges and M-PESA’s suggested responses are listed below.

Fraud

Several of the women had lost money to fraud. The M-PESA staff acknowledged the women’s concerns and highlighted that reported cases were always investigated. They emphasized several tips to prevent M-PESA fraud including:

Calling M-PESA to confirm the request prior to responding to a text message regarding their account (the phone number, which would require a small fee, was provided)
Checking to see if the text message is actually from M-PESA – if it was it would have the M-PESA logo and/or name)
Being aware of their account balance
Ensuring their pin number is always kept safe

It was also brought to the groups’ attention that M-PESA has introduced a new Safaricom SIM card which allows individuals to save the phone numbers used for M-PESA transactions. This enables the individual to just scroll and pick the accurate number instead of having to retype the number every time it is used. This reduces the problem of sending money to the wrong number. The M-PESA staff provided the SIM card service at the workshop and many of the women paid for the service and got their old SIM cards replaced. The women expressed gratitude for the service.

Network/Connectivity Problems

Why some areas face network problems was explained by the M-PESA staff. The company recognizes that network coverage is a problem in some rural areas. A key challenge for M-PESA is the platform or technology has faced limitations in keeping up with the demand, as the users of the service continue to increase across the country. The women were encouraged to report coverage issues to an M-PESA outlet, if there is one in their area, rather than an agent. They were also given a number to call or text, when they have access to service, to report these complaints to give the service provider the opportunity to rectify the problems. Again, this would require a small fee.

Cost

The challenge of cost for service was discussed; even though the service was deemed very useful by users, sometimes the costs involved proved challenging for them. The M-PESA staff explained their service costs, what they entail and how they have worked to keep them affordable for Kenyans. There was mutual agreement that M-PESA has tried to be fair in terms of pricing. In fact, it came out in the conversation that one of the reasons it was being used by all 21 women’s groups was because it was the most competitive in the mobile money market.

Services for Special Populations

In relation to services for special populations, such as the elderly, illiterate or visually impaired, there were no easy answers. M-PESA staff suggested that they would look into the possibilities of programs that might assist special populations to have positive experiences with their service.

Group Communication and Dynamics

On one hand, mobile money allows for money to be sent to facilitate planning at meetings, even if a member needs to be absent. However, some groups argued this can perpetuate the lack of meeting attendance, thus limiting the social aspects of the group meeting and affecting the socio-psychological support that comes from face-to-face group interactions. Since this issue relates more to the training and capacity building carried out by those running women’s groups, it was not addressed by the M-PESA in detail. However, representatives of the organization running the women’s groups encouraged members not to allow the use of technology to erode or limit their face-to-face communication by not attending meetings. The groups were encouraged to continue reminding members that a key part of their mission is being a support system for one another which require face to face communication.

Summary

Overall, despite the numerous challenges mentioned, the groups made it clear that the benefits of using mobile money services outweighed the disadvantages. In addition, bringing together M-PESA staff and their end users was mutually beneficial. The women’s groups were able to gain information, knowledge and services that will continue to help them with their poverty reduction activities. The M-PESA staff were able to garner insights and understanding that may contribute to framing policies and practice for mobile money services.

February 21, 2012/by actualize

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