Originally posted on the GBI Portal – Page 31

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

Is mHealth Taking Off in the Middle East?

A recent report compiled at the United Arab Emirates’ Mobile Show illustrates that citizens overwhelmingly believe that the mobile industry in the Middle East can have a positive effect on the health sector, emphasizing the great potential for mHealth in the region.

Mhealth – or mobile health – is a consistently reported topic in the ICT4D field, with projects popping up in developing countries on a daily basis. While many of these projects are being undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, there is less news on mHealth initiatives in the Middle East.

Photo credit: mHealth Insight

Take Health Unbound (HUB), for example, the mHealth Alliance’s open source database of mHealth projects around the world. Of the 217 projects in the database, only about 8 are located in the Middle East, as opposed to 37 in Southeast Asia and a whopping 109 in sub-Saharan Africa.

But recent reports indicate that more attention is being given to mHealth in the Middle East. One article states that the Middle East has been a “hotbed for mHealth development,” reporting on various mHealth initiatives in the region. Qatar’s Supreme Council of Health announced that it will launch an app that locates clinicians, physicians and other health resources in the country, and two mobile companies in Qatar have partnered up to offer health and wellness education using mobile phones. In addition, the first mplushealth conference will take place at the Arab Health Exhibition and Congress in Dubai in January. The conference will bring together healthcare professionals, insurance providers, government regulators and telecommunications decision-makers to explore mHealth opportunities in the Middle East and hopefully pave the way for the sector to thrive.

The UAE Mobile Show report also revealed challenges that need to be overcome before mHealth can take off in the region. 73 percent of respondents indicated that patient-physician confidentiality was a major concern in implementing a mobile health system, as well as privacy, security, high costs, network infrastructure and technology.

Photo credit: AMEinfo.com

These obstacles may be part of the reason that mHealth initiatives in the region have remained primarily in the hands of independent mobile app developers, without much governmental support. But as attention on mobile health in the Middle East continues to grow, the region could be one to watch for future mHealth innovations.

November 1, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Broadband target for 2015: access to 50% of developing world’s population

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) set a new broadband challenge to the global information and communication technology (ICT) community following ITU Telecom World 2011 held last week in Geneva: ensure that 50% of the world’s population has access to broadband Internet.

The multinational event consisted of a series of conferences that brought together leading industry players, government heads, young digital innovators and technological talents looking to harness the power of technology to address local and global issues.

Broadband challenge

The Broadband Leadership Summit, one of the featured events, sought to address challenges in broadband deployment, because of the crucial role this plays for economic growth and job creation.

According to the World Bank, broadband contributes more to GDP growth than other telecom services (i.e. fixed, mobile and internet) and every 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration generates a 1.3 percent increase in economic growth.

The summit stressed the importance of promoting broadband with concrete policy measures and developing locally relevant content. The Broadband Commission for Digital Development challenged world leaders, governments, industry players and civil society organizations to work together and ensure that at least 50% of the developing world’s population, including 40% in households, are using broadband internet by 2015.

Youth and ICT

To highlight the importance of youth in the ICT sector, ITU also sponsored the inaugural Young Innovator and Digital Innovator competitions, which brought 45 finalists from 22 countries to showcase the latest information and communication (ICT) solutions to today’s challenges.

“Youth are the future, and nowhere is this more true than in our fast-changing industry, where innovation is being driven by a new generation of ‘digital natives’ for whom ICTs are a natural and intrinsic part of the world. I have no doubt that many of the 45 young innovators ITU has hosted this week will go on to big things, and help further reshape our digital world,” Dr. Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General was quoted as saying in ITU’s press release.

Winners, voted by delegates in Geneva and around the world via online polls, were:

Nigerian Fab-Ukozor Somto, one of three winners in the Young Innovators category, won with the MS2C (Mobile Skills to Cash) texting service that matches NGOs, private companies, and public sector opportunities to text-messaged skill-sets of citizens seeking work.

And in the Digital Innovators category, Andrew Benson from Sierra Leone, won with Digital Hope, a service that uses digital tools to empower amputees to sell their own home-made goods.

“The ITU Telecom World 2011 Young Innovators workshops provided a bridging effect to actually help you migrate your idea from theoretical concepts to something that is useable practical and feasible,” young innovator Komborerai Murimba from Zimbabwe was quoted as saying in ITU’s press release.

ITU Telecom World 2011 marks the 40^th anniversary of ITU’s commitment to serving the global ICT community through knowledge-sharing, networking, and connecting innovators in the public, private and civil society sector to apply the power of technology in addressing real world issues.

November 1, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Education, Extension Service, Food Security, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Reforming Ag. Extension, One ICT at a Time!

Photo Credit: M-Kilimo Project

Two recent case studies on some ICTs for agricultural development projects supported through the GSMA Development Fund – mAgri Program reveal an emerging trend within the broader Agricultural Extension Services (AES) and specifically in the developing nations, that worth commenting on. The revealing trend I’ve noticed, is that, either drastic policies and actions be taken to restructure the current educational systems of agricultural extension agents/officers or nations be prepared to seed-off their agricultural advisory services to the private sector (full privatization).

The projects are M-Kilimo in Kenya which has been developed as a result of cooperation between Rockefeller Foundation and KenCall the largest BPO Company in East Africa. The second project is IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL), which is also a tri-lateral venture between Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO), Airtel, and Star Global Resources Ltd.

The following two stories tell the kind of impact these two ICT4Ag projects are having on the lives of rural farmers in the respective countries.

Sanjay Mondal, a farmer from India had his cucumber farm infested with necrotic leaf lesions. After discussing his problem with IKSL staff remotely, the disease was diagnosed and a topical spray of Sectin fungicide in the ratio of 2mg per litre of water was prescribed. The total cost of the treatment was 500 Indian rupees. The yield increased by 50% as a result, and income also went up by 50% (India – IKSL).

Nahomi, a chicken farmer in Kenya had problem with thin weak egg shells that did not allow her to sell or store the eggs in that quality. She called M-Kilimo and the livestock expert on the other end of the line suggested that she gives the chicken a feed rich in calcium. By using a calcium rich poultry feed or adding fishmeal to the feeds will increase the calcium content of her feed, the expert explained. Now, Nahomi’s chickens are laying good quality eggs and she can sell more eggs as a result of the advice and availability of M-Kilimo experts (Kenya – M-Kilimo).

A closer look at the design and operational models of IKSL and M-Kilimo predicts the future demise of most National Agricultural Extension Services (NAES) if the necessary reforms of the current educational systems delay. I will attempt to explain my argument from two perspectives – the human resources level of extension staffs and the medium of delivery of the information to the end users (which is also a factor of ICT human resource development).

Human Resource – Agricultural Extension and Education

The traditional agricultural extension service as the main platform for delivery of new innovations, technologies and information to farmers, has its strength in the extension staffs. The extension agent/officer/worker is seen as a “Change Agent”. These officers are mostly public servants trained and equipped to be, most of the time, in direct contact with their clients, the farmers. Even though the service has been engulfed with a host of problems, its human interaction capability is still strong which helps not only to deliver new innovations but also train users how to use these technologies through field demonstrations. However, my personal experience tells me of the poor quality of extension staffs currently on the field in most developing countries due to a number of issues.

A recent study I conducted with over 30 agricultural extension officers from three agricultural districts in Ghana shows that only 39% did receive some form of undergraduate degree in agriculture. The remaining 61% is made up of either certificate in agriculture or diploma in agriculture obtained in the late 70s and early 80s.

The IKSL and M-Kilimo projects have tended to improve upon this traditional human resource development in extension. For example the IKSL project acknowledged that the quality of its experts is critical for their success since these experts decide the content of the messages that are being delivered to the users. As a result, they have a minimum qualification of first degree in agriculture for their first line of staffs that are in direct contact with the users; highly experienced academics and specialists in agriculture for second line experts; and the third line of 10 specialists who regularly convene to vet and validate contents being delivered to the users.

M-Kilimo also has similar model with emphasis on trustworthy and effective system to deliver appropriate information to the end user. The project also requires the experts to have a minimum of bachelor’s degree in agriculture and at least 2 years of relevant field experience. This first line of experts is supported by Subject Matter Experts (SME) to help provide quality assurance service for content and delivery. Also the contents are obtained from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, National Weather Station, and other Research Institutes within and outside the country.

Photo Credit: IKSL

Medium of Delivery – Timely and Remote Access to Information

Even though the traditional medium for agricultural extension has improved over the years including the mass communication technologies such as radios and televisions; and recently with mobile phones, the face-to-face interaction still dominates most NAES. Extension officers are expected to visit individual farmers’ field and other farmers groups to deliver new information. This continues in the wake of high extension officer-farmer ratios (1:3000 and over), one of the primary indicators used to measure the intensity of extension coverage in a country. Ironically, most of the public extension officers who have access to the new ICT facilities through public telecenters, and other community information centers are not well trained and equipped to use them to facilitate their work.

The result is the deplorable condition of information or knowledge gap as seen in the stories of the two farmers above prior to the intervention of M-Kilimo and IKSL in Kenya and India respectively. But how many rural farmers have access to M-Kilimo and IKSL and similar projects across the developing nations?

With the IKSL and M-Kilimo projects, a critical part as seen in the stories above is ‘remote delivery of information to users’ – either through their mobile phones or SMS messages. The use of these tools facilitates timely delivery of information to users. Apart from the information communication systems that are put in place, ICT human resources development of the helpline experts is important. These features of the emerging information communication systems are helping to ensure more accurate, appropriate, timely and remotely accessible information to end users such as rural farmers whose farming success are previously determined by extension agents/officers.

Implications for National Agricultural Extension Services (NAES)

ICTs are not here to replace the rich human interactions between rural agricultural farmers and extension agents. It should be recognized that the social capital created through face-to-face interactions during extension visits are irreplaceable. ICTs are “technologies” that can enable social behaviors. But without some drastic reforms of the existing extension system, especially the educational standard of the extension staffs, I see the gradual downfall of the public agricultural extension system in most developing countries. Could this be a journey towards a kind of partnership/collaboration in the future where research and development will remain in the public domain while extension and advisory services go to the private sector? With the general acceptance of “Agribusiness Models” across the world within smallholder agricultural production, I do expect to see changes within agricultural extension and advisory services in the next few years – I do expect to see more private sector involvement in extension delivery.

November 1, 2011/by actualize

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

Innovative Solutions to Water and Sanitation Challenges Emerge from Collaborative “WaterHackathon”

The World Bank and several technology partners held the first global WaterHackathon, inviting computer programmers, designers and other ICT specialists to develop solutions to water and sanitation (WASH) development challenges.

Photo credit: World Bank

The hackathon took place simultaneously in ten locations, including Washington DC, Nairobi, Bangalore, and Lima. The World Bank reports that “nearly 1000 people registered worldwide to participate in the event…to try to solve – ‘hack’ – more than 100 water problems.” A team of water experts sat down with ICT experts to identify these problems beforehand, which were related to on-going World Bank water projects.

One of the pre-defined problems was with the water utility customer service center in Botswana. The center is often so overwhelmed by calls regarding bill status that many customers abandon payment efforts or are forced to travel to the service center just to receive simple answers about their bills.

The winning hack team, comprised of students from George Mason University at the Washington DC Hackathon, developed a prototype that simulated customers in Botswana sending and instantly receiving SMS messages with simple answers to bill-related questions. The solution could save customers time as well as improve revenue and operating efficiency for the water utility.

Other winners included a tool created by a team in Kampala that crowd sources and visualizes water-related problems in communities, as well as a smartphone tool to help consumers understand their water usage over time. In Bangalore, a winning team developed an app that links an SMS stream to an ongoing project, allowing implementers to track, gather, and analyze data about their projects. OpenStreetMap made hydrological data from the Ministry of Agriculture public for the first time at the Lima Hackathon.

Water Hackathon in Lima; courtesy of World Bank

Each Hackathon location provided outlets for showcasing and refining the winning solutions, some winners receiving spots in local technology centers to further develop their products. Event organizers will continue to track the outcomes of the events, and many teams have connected with teams in other locations in order to foster future collaboration.

October 31, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Extension Service, Food Security, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Africa’s Agribusiness Dream: How can ICTs Help?

Photo Credit: Timbuktu Chronicles

Earlier this month, the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) held its 8^th Biennial US-Africa Business Summit in Washington DC. One of the key focus areas at the summit was the agribusiness sector in Africa with sessions and workshops covering topics such as “Winning for Farmer Entrepreneurs and Investors”; “Partnering to Build an Integrated Agribusiness Sector”; “Financing a Dynamic African Agribusiness Sector”; “Removing Barriers to Create Opportunities in Regional and Global Trade”; and “Leveraging Development Assistance to Support Private Enterprise”. Stories and experiences from a number of participants who are already in the market in certain parts of Africa clearly show the increasing interest in changing Africa’s agricultural sector from an “AID Recipient” to a “BUSINESS Partner”. This of course, calls for a number of changes including the perception of agriculture by the smallholder farmers that need to be undertaken in Africa’s bid to revamp its agricultural sector.

As an agricultural information specialist, I followed with keen interest the proceedings at the said US-Africa Business Summit with special concern for agricultural development in the continent. What I saw and heard at the summit during the discussions on issues such as farmer entrepreneurship, partnership, financing, removing barriers for regional trade, and leveraging development assistance within the agricultural sector, seemed to be missing a major component – information and communication technologies (ICTs). In fact, one would have expected most of these discussions to have some element of ICTs as enabler or catalyst for the entire agricultural value chain. Especially given the Information Economy Report 2011: ICTs as an Enabler for Private Sector Development (PSD), published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) that pointed out clearly that the potential of leveraging ICTs to develop the private sector is far from fully exploited.

Access to information by smallholder farmers is key for producing high quality products to meet market specifications both locally and international. ICTs are key in gathering and delivering timely and accurate agricultural information for farmers to be able to do just that. Smallholder farmers are currently using ICTs in pre-production and production activities across the world that the business sector needs to exploit and leverage upon in Africa. This is being achieved through the reformed and modernized Agricultural Advisory Service (AAS), which connects local farmers to research, market, and policy. Popular applications that should interest companies and institutions interested in Africa’s agribusiness include Grameen AppLab Community Knowledge Workers; Farmer Voice Radio Project; M-Powering Farmers, and other radio services across the developing world.

Farmers also lack access to credit for their production and there are a host of financial services using the new ICTs to facilitate the flow of financial services to smallholder farmers in the developing world. Mobile payments, mobile money, or mobile banking applications are being used to make financial transactions more accessible, faster, and safer for rural farmers. These services also link farmers to financial services and make it easier for them to save money obtained from their farm activities for other social services. These are great opportunities for entrepreneurs and the business community interested in investing in Africa’s agribusiness to explore. Examples include the M-PESA currently operating in countries like Kenya and Tanzania; Mobile Money in Ghana, Uganda, Zambia and others.

Also worth exploring is ICTs for market. When one talks about business, the first thing that comes to mind is “market” and markets affect smallholder agriculture production from inputs supply such as seed, agrochemicals, farm machinery to the outputs or products delivery to the final consumer either in the local, regional or international market. Access to market information helps farmers find out about market prices, make decisions regarding when to harvest, how to negotiate with intermediaries, etc. ICTs models such as esoko in a number of Sub-Saharan Africa countries, e-Choupal and Reuters Market Light in India, Manobi in Senegal, Infotrade in Uganda, and Zambian National Farmers Union MIS are just the tip of the iceberg.

The traditional agricultural extension service, which has been a public platform over the decades, is undergoing a lot of reforms to create an enabling environment for the private sector to heavily invest in the ICTs sector. With the new models of agricultural extension reforms such as decentralization, privatization, commercialization, pluralism, and partnerships, there should not be any barrier for the private sector in using ICTs to enhance their agribusiness in Africa. American and European businessmen and companies interested in Africa’s agriculture should not make mistake by ignoring the importance of “information” in their business – ICTs can help when recognized and incorporated into the agribusiness plan!

October 31, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Humanitarian Assistance, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Release of Geospatial Study Shows Improved Response to Disasters Using Mobile Phones

A recent study undertaken in Haiti found that mobile phones can deliver critical information on population movement rapidly and accurately following disasters.

Richard Garfield presented the findings from the research he conducted with several other public health specialists and social scientists at a recent mHealth working group meeting using data from mobile phone networks before and after the 2010 earthquake that rocked Haiti. The publication explains how the research team used position data of SIM cards from Haiti’s largest mobile phone company, Digicel, to estimate population movement trends following the earthquake and the subsequent cholera outbreak.

Girls with phone in Haiti after earthquake- from USAID

Photo credit: USAID

The researchers originally set out to find this data in order to respond to the disaster in Haiti. Knowing that 1 in every 3.8 people in Haiti owned a cell phone, they collaborated with Digicel to track the number of calls and the location of those calls over the course of a year, before and after the earthquake. Most mobile users were based in Port-au-Prince where the earthquake was centered. While cell reception was down for a few days immediately following the quake, the network capacity was rapidly re-established, making the phones easy to trace.

A 22 % decline in phone usage in Port-au-Prince after the quake correlated with the massive outflow of population from the capital, which was widely known. In the aftermath of the disaster, the UN and Haitian government had created maps based on eyewitness observation to track population movements. But because these were reliant on eyewitnesses, there was no way to tell how accurate the data was.

In fact, the mobile phone usage analysis showed different results from these official maps, showing movement that was more spontaneous and seemingly more accurate. Many of those who evacuated Port-au-Prince originally returned back within 7 days, and this was something the official numbers did not catch right away. Months after the earthquake when the UNFPA carried out a survey in Haiti to retrieve more accurate numbers of where people were and when, the mobile phone data was much more closely associated with these results. The mobile phone data also helped to estimate where the cholera outbreaks were happening and to get people out of the danger zones.

Graph from Richard Garfield mobile data in Haiti article

Estimated net changes of the Port-au-Prince population compared to the capital's population on the earthquake day

Garfield emphasized that while these results do not indicate that mobile data should be used as final, official counts on death tolls, it can provide initial estimates while waiting for more accurate counts. The key point is to mine the data rapidly and assist in a quick response.

Will this research lead to improved quick responses for future disasters? It certainly could be combined with current disaster relief efforts following the recent earthquake in Turkey, such as Google’s Person Finder app or social media response.

October 26, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Bringing Global Broadband to the Doorsteps – Money is NOT the Issue?

Photo Credit: 8th Biennial US-Africa Summit

While moderating a session at the just ended US-Africa Business Summit, the immediate past CEO of Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah responded to a question from me about the experience of the panelists on the presence and administration of Universal Service and Access Fund (USAF) in the continent of Africa. In his response, Dr. Spio-Garbrah stated that “money is not the issue when it comes to extending broadband Internet to remote communities across the world for rural people to be able to participate in the information society”. In other words, there might be enough funds to support the deployment of broadband Internet to most rural communities that are currently not connected. So what does this mean to the ‘unconnected communities’? To know that there could be enough funds somewhere but due to the poor administration of the funds, poor management of the funds, or non-utilization of the funds, they are still being left out in the global Internet revolution.

I find the statement made by the moderator very interesting. I wonder if some of the key stakeholders on the panel such as the World Bank, Microsoft, and SEACOM really understood the implications of the statement. In other words, where do we put the blame? On the national governments; on the regulatory and policy environments; or on the telecommunication operating companies? I am wondering if these organizations or corporations are aware of the existence of USAF in some of the countries they are operating in Africa but have not exploited these funds in anyway to support their Puplic-Private-Partnership (PPP) activities. While almost all the panelists have argued that there is so much investment going into infrastructure, policies, applications/services, funding, and regulatory mechanisms to support African countries (in this context), why is it that the administration and management of USAF is still a challenge in most of these countries – at least the countries that have established the fund? What of other countries that have not even initiated USAF due to the poor telecommunication regulatory environment that exist in those countries?

In responding to my question (which was virtually avoided by the panelists), Dr. Spio-Garbrah gave a background to USAF by stating that most countries, through their regulatory bodies have applied a levy of between 1-5% of the total gross income of the operating telecommunication and mobile phone companies to establish USAF. This has resulted in the generation of a large volume of such funds all over the world, which has to be used to ensure access to broadband by all. He cited the World Bank’s estimate some years back about 10 billion dollars that was generated as a result of USAF. But unfortunately, this fund has not been adequately utilized, and in some countries lying down dormant. He stated that this fund is available and can be blended with World Bank funding, USAID funding, and private sector funding to be able to get the broadband to the rural people – the last mile. To get broadband to those who needed the Internet more to be able to perform their basic e-businesses and reduce traveling hundreds of miles to the nearby city once they have access to a simple $30 tablet.

So if it is true that ‘money is not the issue’, then why this picture – I mean the global picture. The under 40% global penetration of Internet – 30.2% to be specific based on the Internet World Statistics for March 2011? But of more interest to me, are the figures from the developing world – Africa, Asia, etc. Looking at the statistics from the figure below, there is no doubt that policy makers, regulators, governments, and donors need to work together to leverage their investments in the ICTs sector in order to benefit the ordinary citizen.

Credit: Internet World Statistics

This also reminds me of a European Union document that argues that despite the numerous success stories about the administration and use of USAF, there are equally a number of horrible stories. The document cited reasons such as funds that have been established in law but have not been operational as many as 5 years later. Others have determined levies, over-collected and under-spent. Still other funds are over spent by providing subsidies for unsuccessful projects, or for inefficient use in projects. Some have initiated projects but have not been able to coordinate them amongst different levels of government and different affected government departments. Some of the funds also have not made their collections and disbursements public on a periodic basis and have not held regular Board or Trustee meetings in order to facilitate project design, development and implementation. All these reasons boil down to the management and administration of the funds.

National governments in the developing nations have the opportunity to better utilize this fund through the GBI’s Universal Service & Access Funds Project which expands awareness/best practices, and provides technical assistance for both new and existing Funds. The GBI Program builds off of earlier successes in supporting USAFs in Asia and Africa through the Last Mile Initiative (LMI).

This blog is my reflection on a session titled “Talking to the Future: Bringing Global Broadband to the Doorsteps”, during the 8th Biennial U.S.-Africa Business Summit that was held between October 5-7, 2011 in Washington, DC, organized by the Corporate Council on Africa’s (CCA). Participants came from across the world – Africa, Europe, Asia and US.

October 26, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

3G available in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville)

The title of this video from ABN is misleading – 3G service has been launched for the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) and not for the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Last month, we mentioned that Bharti Airtel had plans to roll-out 3G services in seven African nations. Well, that day has come for Congo-Brazzaville. On paper, October 25, 2011 marks a historic day in the telecommunication chronicles of Central Africa.

Let it sink in. 3G mobile service (HSPA+, 21Mbps) is available in Brazzaville. Press releases and media stories tout the promise of enhanced multimedia functionality for subscribers in the region. Youth will supposedly have faster access to mobile social media. Businesses will be able to perform video calls on-the-go. Indeed, 3G is theoretically supposed to close the “digital divide,” but will it instead worsen the gap with the wealthy using the service and the poor still relying on 2G, cafes, or no access at all?

ABNDigital’s interview with Tiemoko Coulibaly, CEO Airtel Africa, Francophone leaves many answers on the table:

When asked why it took so long to get 3G to central Africa, he replied that governments take time to issues licenses.
Infrastructure? Something along the lines of 2G systems serving as a basis.
Demand? …is important. Youth are especially interested and “the demand is there.”
Local ecosystem? IBM is taking care of IT needs and will help build local ecosystem.

Either way, the Republic of Congo’s Internet situation has come a long way since 2009 when one hour of unreliable Internet access could cost upwards of CDF 1,000 (nearly 2 USD). Progress takes time. 3G access from Airtel will encourage competitors to also offer 3G (or 4G, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves) – a move that will eventually lower prices and increase the quality of service. For now, though, we should applaud the government of Congo-Brazzaville for awarding a 3G license and hope they give the technology the support it needs to benefit the people.

October 26, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Animal poaching: Is there an app for stopping that?

Normally we write on less glamorous (but crucial) subjects like telecoms operators, fiber cables, or ICT policy. Now, we turn our attention to an urgent cause in need of technology: the protection of African wildlife.

Technology has yet to effectively reduce the number of illegal wildlife killings in areas like South Africa and Kenya. In fact, rhino poaching has increased in South Africa this year, with 324 white rhinos lost so far this year. By comparison, poachers killed at least 333 rhinos last year, and only 13 officially in 2007. Prior years saw 15-100 rhino deaths in South Africa – not nearly as severe as the past couple of years. One possibility is that official statistics don’t accurately reflect the actual number of taken animals. However, the demand for rhino horns, for example, has increased due to a variety of sources.

The white rhino – more valuable to the tourism industry than to the black market.

As domestic pressure to illegally kill these animals diminishes, however, the void is rapidly filling with Asian demand for rhinoceros horns. For one, the supply chain has shortened with the growing number of economic collaborations between China and nations like Kenya. Even if African governments no longer condone poaching, foreign crime channels will find a way through the backdoor. In 2009, Yolan Friedmann, CEO of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, commented on how poaching is becoming more hi-tech. Along those lines, why can’t poaching prevention counter the advances in poachers’ organization, weaponry, and transportation?

At this stage, the Internet serves to raise global awareness of wildlife issues. WildlifeDirect, a non-profit registered in both the United States and in Kenya, hosts dozens of wildlife conservation blogs which are updated regularly by specialists who are on the ground in Africa. Best yet, the blogs are grouped by region (with most hailing from Eastern Africa).

Blogging is a great start to raising awareness. The next logical step would be to add crowd-sourcing efforts to spot poaching (Ushahidi is a potential platform). However, monitoring the vast open spaces of Africa is not as simple as monitoring election violence. Very few people live in proximity to rhinos or elephants. Plus, mobile Internet is not ready available in remote areas, meaning that mobile apps are currently out of the question.

Another solution would be to install remote cameras to monitor clandestine activity. Presumably, real-time video could be transmitted via WiMAX to a fibre node which then would relay the signal to a monitoring station. Again, such a task is made difficult by tens of thousands of acres of open land (and the ability of helicopters to circumvent roads).

We’ve created a Twitter list (@oafrica/african-animal-activism) to follow the online efforts to encourage animal conservation, prevent the slaughter of endangered species, and protect their habitats. Fifteen of the twenty accounts on the list have Klout scores of 40 or greater.

October 25, 2011/by actualize

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

Monitoring and Evaluation in mHealth: Opportunities and Challenges

Last week’s mHealth working group meeting laid out the opportunities, challenges, and potential of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) within the mHealth sector.

JhPiego circumcision promotion through texting service

Poster in Swahili promoting male circumcision through SMS service, part of Jhpiego program

Several experts in the field presented their experiences of monitoring and evaluating mHealth projects, emphasizing the considerable potential that mobile projects offer in generating robust and accurate data. Kelly L’Engle, a behavior scientist at FHI 360, discussed the need for M&E in order to gauge the impact of mHealth. She claimed that mHealth technology is not being fully leveraged and that the current mHealth research “doesn’t provide evidence on actual impacts…or answers to critical research questions…”

James BonTempo from Jhpiego presented on evaluating behavior change evidence from a text message project that promotes male circumcision (MC) for HIV prevention in Tanzania. He referred to this evidence extraction as “mining the data exhaust” – that is, the data generated as a byproduct of ICTs, the “trail of clicks” that ICT users leave behind.

The MC program offered a toll-free text-messaging/SMS service. With the service, individuals could request to receive information on the benefits of MC (using key word: TOHARA), where to find MC services (WAPI), as well as receive follow-up care information after undergoing the circumcision (BAADA). While the SMS platform was intended to capture requests to the three keywords and generate access logs for system performance monitoring, Jhpiego has analyzed this data in order to see if there was a relationship between requests for the MC data and actual utilization of MC services.

Jhpiego male circumcision project in Tanzania- behavior change evaluation

Potential link to behavior change in Jhpiego male circumcision project

The data set included 12,056 keyword requests sent by 4,954 users. After performing a Chi Square analysis on the data, the project team found that requests for information on the benefits of MC (TOHARA) was not strongly associated with going to receive the circumcision. However, it was found that those who requested where to find the data (WAPI) did have a statistically significant association with undergoing the circumcision. These results are consistent with pathway models of behavior change, indicating that those who simply wanted to know more about MC were not quite prepared to undergo the procedure, but those looking for service availability were ready to use the services.

The associations found in this particular project imply that providing text or voice messages that tell people where to get a particular service could be more effective in encouraging clients to utilize that service. M&E that finds results such as these could help project leaders design SMS services that generate more useful data.

Like most forms of M&E, there are limitations on findings that use mobile data. There is a lot of information that mobile devices do not provide, such as which phones belong to whom and who actually sends the text messages; this makes it difficult to link messages to specific individuals. In the MC case, data analysts found an association, but did not necessarily know the nature of the association. It can also be challenging to find the time or manpower to rake through the massive amount of data that is produced by mobile devices.

While M&E in mHealth has its limitations, it is difficult to find data that can be collected and analyzed as quickly, cheaply, or easily using other means. Paper, radio, and television simply do not offer the same kind of easily-mined data exhaust that mobile does.

October 25, 2011/by actualize

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