Originally posted on the GBI Portal – Page 32

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

What a Crowd! Sourcing through Stories, Ideas and Questions @ ITU Telecom World 2011

Photo Credit: ITU

ITU Telecom World 2011 takes off in Geneva today with live webcasts of key events from the Opening Ceremony at 12.00-13.00 CET to the Closing Address at 16.00-17.00 CET on Thursday 27th. The forum brings together industry CEOs and world leaders, digital experts, technology gurus, and grassroots technology pioneers to tackle core issues shaping the global ICT landscape in the age of broadband technology through knowledge sharing, networking, deal making, and consensus building.

An interesting feature of this years’ forum in which Telecentre.org is collaborating with ITU to bring to bare is the opportunity for the whole world to get involved through a new model of ‘crowdsourcing.’ Crowdsourcing enables firms, organizations, foundations etc. to open up an “issue” to the public (away from a small pool of experts) and seek solution from as many ‘crowd’ as possible. Allows companies or institutions to take functions once performed by employees and outsourcing it to an undeﬁned (and generally large) network of people in the form of an open call. It is gradually being seen as a web-based business model that harnesses the creative solutions through distributed network of individuals.

Several months prior to the forum, the power of crowdsourcing was used to gather rich contributions from the general public through stories created through videos, ideas, and questions.

Over 30 stories presented through videos have been uploaded at the site. Stories cover issues such as making affordable broadband access to thousands of SMBs in the tourism industry in Vietnam; using mobile phones and TRACnet in Rwanda to help with the treatment and prevention of AIDS; deploying mobile and web tools to enable citizen reporters to give early warning about human rights violation, among others.

There are over 100 ideas brought up by people across the world from using “Justxt.org” mobile platform to empower victims of corruption by giving them the ability to anonymously report demands for bribes via cell phone using a simple SMS (UK); QUICKSMSs that will allow secondary schools to communicate with student and parents instantly (Rwanda); integration of a VoIP service on GSM mobile to allow two or more people with the Internet service on their mobile phones to communicate for free (Benin); real time validation of mobile phone “Sim Cards” for authenticity of the user to prevent cheating and fraud (India) and a host of other ideas.

The number of questions posed was rather small but covering issues such as standards in place to promote universal experience on the Internet for people with disabilities; regulatory bodies or authorities to ensure full access to the Internet by people with disabilities (USA); the challenge of achieving a digital economy whilst the digital divide is alive and well; the need for telecommunication companies, governments, and ISPs to work together to cement freedom of the internet for everyone (USA); how are governments measuring the impact of their policies for stimulating growth, GDP and employment, from the use of ICT (UK); and what or how much would it take to completely bridge the digital divide gap in our world (Lesotho).

Highlights of the 3-day program include “Pathway to a Connected World” on Tuesday that will feature ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré; Igor Shchegolev, Minister of Communications and Mass Media, Russian Federation; Jianzhou Wang, Chairman & CEO, China Mobile; and Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and Digital Economy, Australia and will be moderated by BBC World presenter Nik Gowing. The discussion will continue on Wednesday on “Digital Cities”, an issue centred around the challenges of urbanization, the Digital Cities stream features leading stakeholders in city development, including mayors of the world’s major cities, digital innovators, utility experts, industry CEOs and city planning and transport specialists. The Thursday session titled “Heads in the Cloud” will examine the rapid spread of cloud computing, and taking a look at questions around how people, organizations, and governments will handle information and interactions in the cloud environment.

Live sessions will be streamed and for full coverage visit the ITU Telecom World 2011 site and also follow events on Facebook and through the @ITU_News twitter account #ITUworld11.

October 25, 2011/by actualize

Democracy & Governance, Elections, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Liberia Elections: ICTs to ensure transparency

As Liberians prepare to elect a new President during the November 8 election run-off, the African Election Project (AEP) is using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to assist in monitoring the electoral process.

According to Africa News, citizens will be able to report election violence to the “Incidence Monitoring Platform”, a newly-established call center, and via SMS. Election observers and field officers are using social media tools to co-ordinate information transmission throughout the country. Moreover, cutting-edge call center software and a news database software are in place to track elections activities in real time.

“The use of ICT during this elections coverage will bring about transparency in the whole electoral process, ensure the timely release of electoral news to citizens residing in Liberia and in the Diaspora, issue alerts to the relevant institutions to prevent potential incidence of violence and to ensure credibility in the final outcome of the elections,” Mr Jerry Sam Director of AEP, said.

Established in 2008 by the Institute for ICT Journalism in strategic partnership with the Open Society Initiative, AEP aims to enable citizen and journalists to provide timely and relevant information and knowledge while undertaking monitoring specific and important aspects of governance. One of its objectives consist of providing relevant ICT tools for stakeholders involved in the electoral process.

Incumbent and recent Nobel Laureate, President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, gained the most votes but failed to pass the 50% threshold needed for outright victory in last week’s elections. Despite fraud allegations, opposition leader Winston Tubman, a former UN diplomat, has agreed to contest the run off.

BBC reports that with 96% of the vote counted, Johnson-Sirleaf has 44% against 32% for Mr Tubman, the electoral commission announced. Turnout was 71%.

October 25, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

2011 mHealth Summit Q&A

The mHealth Alliance is building on the monumental success of last year’s mHealth Summit, which saw more than 2,600 attendees from nearly 50 countries. This year, the mHealth Alliance joins HIMSS and NIH as organizing partners for the FNIH-presented mHealth Summit. The Summitwill bring together leaders in government, the private sector, industry, academia, providers, and not-for-profit organizations from across the mHealth ecosystem and around the world. It will take place December 5^th-7^th at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center located just outside Washington, DC at the National Harbor.

As everyone gears up for the 2011 mHealth Summit, I have received a lot of questions. Some have been logistical, while others have been about the content of the Summit. I thought it might be helpful for those thinking about attending or planning to attend if I post questions as I get them along with answers. Here are a few I have gotten so far:

Q: What is the best airport to fly into and how do I get from the airport to the Gaylord?

A: There are three major airports that serve the Washington, DC metropolitan area, including Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI), and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). Super Shuttles can be taken from all of these locations, and the Gaylord offers hourly shuttle service from Reagan National Airport (DCA). Please visit Shuttle & Metro page of the mHealth Summit site for more information.

Q: Unfortunately, I missed the early registration period. Is there a discount code available?

A: Yes! The mHealth Alliance has a discount codefor the mHealth Summit. If you enter the code mHA11 during the registration process, you will receive $50 off a Full Access Pass. The Full Access Pass will get you into all of the Super Sessions, the Concurrent Sessions, the Exhibit Floor, the Monday Evening Reception, and the Keynote Luncheon on Tuesday. For more information about the different levels of passes available, please visit the registration page.

Q: How much of a focus will there be on maternal health projects?

A: The Maternal-newborn mHealth Initiative (MMI) is an important initiative of the mHealth Alliance. By focusing on maternal-newborn health as a lens to the application of ICTs to health systems, the mHealth Alliance is working toward health systems transformation to improve health outcomes for all populations. As such, maternal health is a very important topic for us, and it can be found throughout the summit program. A few panels and events that may have maternal content include, but are not limited to: mHealth Business Models in Maternal Health, The Intersection of Mobile Health and Public Health – Towards Greater Understanding and Collaboration, Deployment Case Studies for the mHealth Field Worker, and several sessions of the mFinance track. There will also be a Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA): An Exchange with Partners side event, which will feature active discussions with its in-country and global partners. Visit the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) site to learn more about their activities around the world.

Q: How much of a focus will there be on mHealth in the developing world?

A: Making sure that the experiences of people in the developing world are represented at the mHealth Summit is a priority of the mHealth Alliance. Panels and events that focus on this include, but are not limited to: Global Policy and Regulatory Perspectives of mHealth, Global Regulatory Frameworks: Understanding Regulatory Concerns Across Different Markets, Government Role in Scaling mHealth: Collaborations to Launch National mHealth Strategies, Successful mHealth Business Models in Emerging Markets, A New Model for National-level mHealth Planning, and the above mentioned MAMA event. The mHealth Alliance will also host a side event featuring mHealth national stakeholders from around the globe. At the National Stakeholders: Learning from the Global South event, panelists will share the successes and challenges they have faced in bringing a diverse group of stakeholders together to tackle issues like policy and regulation, interoperability, data security, and intersections with other mServices.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to comment below, and I will try to answer you as soon as possible.

Thank you so much for your interest in the mHealth Summit. If you would like to register, please click here. We hope to see you there!

October 25, 2011/by actualize

Humanitarian Assistance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Turkish earthquake: Tweets speed up relief efforts

Rescue workers try to save people trapped under debris after an earthquake in a village near the eastern Turkish city of Van October 23, 2011.

Social media are contributing to relief efforts, following a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the eastern Turkish city of Van on Sunday.

The death toll has risen to 265 and 1,140 people were injured as nearly 1,000 buildings collapsed in the town of Erics, the earthquake’s epicenter, according to Minister Idris Naim Sahin.

As rescue teams work against the clock to find survivors, authorities fear that these numbers could increase with around 100 people believed to be stuck under the rubble, as reported by the Associated Press news agency.

Erhan Çelik, a journalist for Turkey’s Kanal 7 TV station used Twitter to drive relief efforts. Within hours of the seismic activity, Çelik asked his 22,000 Twitter followers to offer accommodation for homeless quake victims using the #ÊvimEvindirVan hash-tag and got tremendous response.

“There are 17,000 mails in my inbox. I’ll send them all to the Istanbul governorate. I thank you all in the name of earthquake victims,” Çelik was quoted by The Guardian.

Çelik also used Twitter to convince three mobile phone companies, including Turkcell, to grant quake victims free texts and talktime to communicate with their loved ones.

The Disaster Social Network IEM provides up-to-date information on the 7.2 magnitude earthquake. IEM is monitoring social media sites for the most current and relevant information available by providing links to Twitter, Facebook, Videos, photos, and news articles to enable online users to get first-hand accounts of disaster and recovery efforts.

For instance, users can view footage of the earthquake.

http://youtu.be/g-cclZDH0XI

Based on relief efforts in Haiti and in the Horn of Africa, social media are playing a crucial role in speeding up the response and recovery time following natural and man-made disasters.

October 25, 2011/by actualize

Democracy & Governance, Elections, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Tunisia Elections: Politicians engage voters through YouTube

Tunisians are set to vote on Sunday in first landmark elections since the Arab Spring. Google has partnered with Tunisia Live to offer training workshops on Google tools and social media for politicians to engage with voters.

Photo of woman showing inked fingers, indicating she's voted in the Tunisian election

Photo Credit: Tunisia Live

Tunisia Live, a startup news portal, launched Tunisia Talks on YouTube where citizens ask questions to politicians. According to Google’s official Blog, so far more than 400 questions have been submitted and over 40 members of political parties and independent coalitions have taken part in the initiative.

In the upcoming elections, Tunisians will select representatives for the new Constituent Assembly, which will ratify a new constitution and appoint a new transitional government that will schedule elections for a permanent government.

These elections are not only significant to Tunisia’s political future but their success would further advance regional democratization.

Uprisings triggered by the actions of Sidi Bouzid, a unemployed Tunisian who set himself on fire to protest against joblessness, brought an end to 23-year regime of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January.

October 21, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Airtels’ mMoney Market for Ghanaian: An ICT4D Model

Photo Credit: Airtel

The Sales Director of Airtel Telecommunications Mr. Luck Ochieng ‘outdoored’ an advanced form of mobile banking in Ghana on Wednesday by stating that “this innovative mobile service would help customers to overcome many challenges the public go through when transacting business in their daily lives.”

The mobile money service in Ghana will allow customers to pay their postpaid and DStv bills; pay for goods and services; contribute to their loans and savings; send airtime to themselves, to friends and to family on Airtel or other networks; send money from their Airtel Money account to other Airtel money customers; send money from their Airtel Money account to people on other networks; receive money on their Airtel Money account; and perform Cash-in and Cash-out activities i.e. buy or sell Airtel Money and much more.

This is a huge move in the area of information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) in Ghana, which is expected to impact lives from the ordinary citizen through the corporate sector to the national government. With an estimated 80% of Ghanaian being “unbanked”, this opportunity could not have come at any other better time than this. The caption of the news at the Ghanaweb site tells it all “Airtel subscribers can pay ‘trotro’ fares with phones.”

Mr Ochieng emphasized the importance of the service to enhance public safety through a ‘cashless society’ where one could make direct purchases with e-money instead of the actual exchange of cash from one source to another. The Ghanaian society is on high alert in recent years with the rise in attack by armed robbers on market women who carry huge sum of money across the regions for payment of goods and services. In addition to the cost of human lives that are lost in some of these attacks, the indirect consequences on businesses, primary producers, and the transport sector is unbelievable.

Ghana has gone through the various stages of information and communication technology development (ICTD) over the years. This is seen in the significant progress being made in terms of i) developing national ICTs policy to guide the deployment of the technology across the country; ii) the setting-up of an independent regulatory body that is overseeing the overall process to ensure free and fair competitive market; iii) the presence of multiple telecommunication operating companies in the Ghanaian market; iv) revolving funds such as the universal service and access fund (USAF) and other private-public-partnership activities that are in place for financing broadband extension to remote area; v) the development of the physical infrastructure of ICTs in Ghana ahead of a number of its neighboring countries; and vi) the sound environment for developing the technologies associated with the infrastructure for effective functioning are being created.

It is time to look more into information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) – the application of the technologies to improve lives and reduce poverty. So is is time for the implementation of services such as e-governance (connecting all local and central government departments with functioning websites and email addresses); e-agriculture (connecting rural farming communities, empowering them to use the technologies and linking them to market); e-education (connecting scientific and research centers universities, colleges, secondary schools and primary schools with ICTs); e-health (connecting health centers and hospitals with ICTs, especially the rural ones with the urban centers), e-democracy (enabling ordinary citizens to have their voices heard through community access points, connected public libraries, cultural centers, museums, and post offices); and the m-banking services.

Juniper Research predicts that active users of mobile money services will double in the next two years, exceeding 200 million worldwide by 2013. This is an opportunity that no one would like to miss. Airtel is in the right position to take the mobile money industry in Ghana with their “Best Mobile Money Product or Solution” award during the 16th Annual Global Mobile Awards at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year.

October 20, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Bringing Global Broadband to the Doorsteps: Who is Doing What in Africa?

US-Africa Summit

Since the field of information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) has been cautioned not be a standalone sector but rather integrated into the existing areas of development, successful projects have seen a number of collaborations among development partners. The recently ended 8th Biennial U.S.-Africa Business Summit organized by the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA) in Washington, DC epitomized such collaborations.

One of the workshops at the summit on “Talking to the Future: Bringing Global Broadband to the Doorsteps”, brought together panelists from the World Bank, Microsoft, SEACOM, the Island of Tenerife, and the Nigerian Identity Management Commission to discuss efforts that are being put in place to deliver broadband Internet to remote communities. Areas covered include infrastructure development such as data centers, fiber optic cables and Internet exchange points; regulatory environment; identity management to ensure safe use of the Internet; innovative technologies and their applications in education, health, agriculture, and other sectors; and local content development that includes Africans themselves.

Image Credit: GBI

The discussion took off with an intellectual introduction from the moderator – the immediate past CEO of Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization (CTO), Dr. Ekwow-Spio Garbrah using the acronym “PROFIT” to describe the broadband Internet environment. A sound Policy environment to ensure availability and accessibility to the net; the Regulatory environment by national countries to allow for free and fair competitive market; a smooth Operating environment by the companies; the Funding or Financing of broadband to accelerate infrastructure development; development of the physical Infrastructure itself; and the Technologies associated with the infrastructure for effective functioning. This opened the ground for each panelist to fit their areas of operation into one or more of these “PROFIT” areas.

The World Bank

The presentation by Mr. Doyle Gallegos from the World Bank seems to cover almost all the areas of broadband deployment under the ‘PROFIT’ acronym. According to the Bank, ICTs are the most significant tools that can be used to fight poverty right now and the bank is doing everything possible to deliver low-cost value added service to the population. The bank’s primary role is to provide finances for infrastructure but at the same time, it gives technical assistance to governments to promote right enabling environment, assists its clients to create legislation, right national ICTs policies, and right regulations in order to promote private sector development. Over the last 5 years, the World Bank has invested an amount of USD 700 billion into the ICT sector through private investment guarantees and ICT is one of the best performing sectors in the World Bank Group’s portfolio, both in terms of returns and development impact

The bank is also ensuring that people learn how to use the ICTs, and how to use digital computers. Also in the area of infrastructure sharing through open access, lowering the cost of use of these technologies to ensure the access to broadband, open access legislation, and pricing mechanisms. The World Bank is also concern with the issues of spectrum management and considers it as a biggest potential problem in the growing area of data communications, and data traffic in the future. It is therefore doing everything possible to ensure that spectrum become available to entrepreneurs, mobile operators, new emerging operations that we haven’t seen through simple sharing blocks. It is also involved in innovative Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) to invest in regional networks in Africa – East, West, Central Africa, etc.

Mr Gallegos stated that national governments in Africa have to open up and partner with private businesses. Other areas touched by the speaker include data centers, IXP, e-legislation, – e-commerce, e-documents, m-banking, etc. It concluded that a lot have been done but the bank still need to put in more.

SEACOM

Mr Brian Herlihy from SEACOM – a privately owned and operated pan-African ICT enabled company that is driving the development of the African Internet also emphasized the company’s efforts in infrastructure development projects in East Africa that is being replicated in West Africa through the development of the fiber optic cables. The company is also involved in a number of innovative commercial solutions to exploit other commercial relationships. SEACOM is known to have financed and developed the first broadband submarine cable system along the eastern and southern African coastlines, bringing with it a vast supply of high quality and affordable Internet.

The Island of Tenerife

Mr. Carlos Alonso Rodríguez, the Vice President of the Island of Tenerife – the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, agreed with the previous speakers about the fact that mobile Internet services may not be the answer to Africa and other developing nations even though it is having significant impact across. As a result, the government of Tenerife is investing in infrastructure development through fiber optic cables and data centers.

The Island is also using a publicly funded approach to developing the state of the art data centers across the country, a model that the representative argued, could be used in the continent of Africa and the Latin American countries. This approach brings the issue about the pros and cons of publicly funded infrastructure projects in the ICT sector in the developing nation. In order to benefit from these investments, the Island is also investing in the services sector through the use of e-education, e-governance, among others to benefit the ordinary people and to be able to generate revenue from the investment.

Through the ALiX Project, Tenerife is expected to enhance its competitiveness in the global telecommunications market. The project will become a Neutral Access Point for West Africa and the Canary Islands, developing cable connectivity between new and existing African and Latin American submarine cables and creating the southern gateway to Europe for telecommunications.

Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC)

Mr Chris E. Onyemenam, the Director General of Nigerian Identity Management Commission (NIMC) narrated the country’s experience in terms of the application of ICTs – that is the content for development. He recounted the weak experience of Nigeria in the ICTs sector for some years back but through the leadership of the former military leader, General Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria has made remarkable progress through the development of national telecommunication policies and the focus on ICTs. He argues that the Internet communication is till low in Nigeria with the mobile sector moving very fast and efforts are in place to “leapfrog”.

In order to leverage on the mobile and broadband Internet penetration in the country for positive impact on the various sectors, the national identification efforts was introduced in 2007 across government agencies to optimize the use of the scarce resources. Prior to NIMC, the various identification schemes, including the database and issuance of identification cards both in private and public sectors, resided with the respective organizations. There has been no unique set of principles, practices, policies, processes and procedures that are used to realize the desired outcomes related to identity.

The NIMC program started with the registration of all citizens of Nigeria who at the commencement of the Act have attained or who thereafter attain the age of 18, and issuance of a National Identity Card (NIC). This was aimed at controlling illegal immigrations to the country, validation of other civic documents like passports, setting up a reliable personal identification system for the purpose of secure commercial transactions with financial institutions, etc.

Instead of waiting till 18 years, the NIMC is in the process of registering Nigerian at birth to address issues such as fraud and multiple identities. At the moment, the national identification database is being established and will be maintained and managed by Nigerians. Other steps that are being taken include, assignment and issuance of a unique National Identification Number to individuals who have been registered, introduction and issuance of General Multipurpose Cards, undertaking of data harmonization, administration and provision of secure connectivity to existing systems, and provision of card acceptance devices and other identity services alone or in partnership with third parties.

With the issues of ‘419’ in Nigeria i.e. identity fraud, theft issues, and misrepresentations, the system is designed and based on the assumption that ‘if you cannot stop them from illegally acquiring the passport, then you can manage the process”. And this is being done through the registration and issuing of ID for legal residents and at birth. This will make it difficult for individuals to engage in future fraud activities.

Microsoft

Dorothy Dwoskin, Senior Trade Policy Director from Microsoft stated that, as a technology developing company – hardware and software, the company believes that technology could act as an engine of growth and development. The company believes that access to market is great but we also need the goods and services to be able to get to the market. As a result, the company has a priority to make the good and services get to the final consumer across the finished line. Microsoft works with local entrepreneurs to ensure market through business information centers, and digital literacy.

Microsoft is also working with AECOM on a USAID program to help find some very important solution to simple problems that ultimately facilitate trade. AECOM has been implementing the Trade Facilitation and Capacity Building Project in a number of African countries including Malawi, Namibia, and South Africa to effectively manage the Southern Africa Trade Hub that was established to assist Southern African businesses to take greater advantage of the global trade initiatives. The Hub is designed to function as a central point where local enterprises can gain access to US markets through business linkages, capacity building services, and problem-solving trade facilitation.

At the moment custom information and data has to be entered manually at each post or each country thereby giving chances for fraud and delay in the clearance process as good and services are traded between countries. It is believed that a days’ delay in goods and services from one country to another has a negative impact on the overall GDP of the country. But at the moment with the manual custom clearance activities, Botswana has about 28 days of delay, Namibia has around 29 days delay, and South Africa has 30 days for clearing goods and services at the customs.

“So if we can automate the activities of custom and clearing agencies, it will be good for business and trade for governments by increasing competitiveness and revenue stream of companies and governments,” Said Ms Dwoskin. Automating information to reduce these long days of clearing goods and services at these ports will facilitate trade. Microsoft is therefore helping to create a single unified approach so that transactions between these countries is automated so that by the time the good moves from one country to another, the information/data entered at one points is already available at the other end. Connecting all computers so that once the data is entered at one point, information is shared among all others on the network.

According to Ms. Dwoskin, Microsoft is also concern with local content and therefore ensuring local software development in wherever it goes, and in Africa the company has strong base by using the local people to develop local content or local software that are relevant to Africa’s economy.

Other questions and responses led to the “5As” acronym of broadband Internet namely Access; Affordability; Availability; Adoptability; and Adaptability. Also in terms of relevant content with broadband utilization, instead of ‘3G’ which some refer to as ‘Girls, Games and Gambling’, Africa needs ‘4Es’ – Employment; Empowerment; Education; and Enterprise.

In all, the discussion centered around various ways of innovating upon traditional broadband capabilities in order to aid in the development of growing markets, the possibility of introducing e-commerce solutions for micro-financed businesses, and the feasibility of streamlining/optimizing regulatory frameworks to work in favor of spectrum coordination in times when rapid deployment and cross-border mobile and wireless communication may be needed to deal with emergency situations.

Broadband in itself is not a business, and therefore investing in broadband requires that services and applications are implemented after building the infrastructure.

October 20, 2011/by actualize

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

Will Nigeria Turn to mHealth to Achieve its Healthcare Goals?

Nigeria may be joining a number of African countries in prioritizing mHealth as a way to improve the country’s troubled healthcare system. At a recent mobile Health workshop in Nigeria that was put together by the African telecommunications company MTN, stakeholders voted for the nation to adopt a mobile healthcare system.

Omobola Johnson, Nigeria's Minister of Technology and Communications

According to some, Nigeria is among the countries leading the way in using mobile health services. Several mobile companies operate there, with MTN serving the largest population percentage followed by Globacom, Zain and Etisalat. The Nigerian Communications Commission estimates that around 105 million of the country’s 155 million people were subscribed to a mobile service provider in August 2011.

Nigeria faces many challenges in expanding its healthcare system, such as a lack of infrastructure, a shortage of trained healthcare professionals, high illiteracy rates and unreliable power sources. The nation’s government has made some efforts to address these challenges in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals. The National Primary Healthcare Development Agency operates under the Health Ministry to promote and support the development of a high quality primary healthcare system.

Photo credit: eHealth Nigeria

But is the Nigerian government prioritizing mHealth as a means to improve healthcare delivery? Omobola Johnson, Nigeria’s recently appointed Technology and Communications Minister, has been pushing toward nationwide mobile coverage as well as the implementation of emergency call centers and phone lines. However, when Johnson revealed the Ministry’s mandate at the end of August, the use of mobile devices for improved healthcare was not mentioned specifically.

Many individuals, private companies, civil society organizations, and aid agencies feel that Nigeria should embrace mHealth as a mechanism for repositioning the country’s healthcare system. Through fuller adoption of mHealth into the healthcare delivery system, many more people could be reached. But the government will need to place mHealth at the top of the agenda and support mHealth initiatives should the emerging field succeed in improving Nigeria’s healthcare.

October 19, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile Money Service: An Innovation for Rural Women

Photo Credit: Africa News

I remember vividly carrying bundles of millions of Cedis (Ghanaian Currency) in my car about 9-10 years ago, and driving from Tamale (the Regional Capital) to the remote rural communities to pay local farmers for their seed cotton during marketing. You can imagine all the risks involved in carrying such a huge sum of money across districts with no security – the danger of being attacked by armed robbers, the chance of loosing the money, the risk involved in counting and paying individual farmers accordingly without over or under-payment, the challenge with safe handling of these money by the local farmers themselves, the temptation of overspending the money by the rural farmers immediately after receiving their payments, and the risk associated with “banking” the money in their thatched houses.

Don’t forget about my earlier view of a typical ‘rural’ community – lack of basic social facilities such as credit union or banks. I saw my own mother ‘banking’ her money in some special plastic bags and hiding it from us (the children) and later discovering that the value of the money has depreciated such that she could not use it – don’t forget about the skyrocketing inflation rates in Ghana in the mid-late 80’ after the military coup. I also remember interesting stories of my cotton farmers about ‘banking’ their money in the home under mattresses and being discovered by their children; hidden in a pots and being destroyed by red ants and other insects; buried in the ground and forgotten or swept away by a flood; kept under the roof of their building and being destroyed by fire, among others.

Basically, rural women who are mainly farmers, have the challenge of banking or storing the money they obtain at the end of the farming season safely and inaccessible from others as well as from themselves. These rural women also at some point of their life, need to either send some of this income to their relatives outside their village or receive money from their children in the cities. This ability of transferring money to others, or location-shift one’s own money is also an issue. It is also important for the rural women to have sufficient money (or credit) available in the right format or currency when it is required, especially at the start of a new farming season or the beginning of school year where they have to spend on their kids. Finally, the challenge of actually making saving for future use and for purchases of more expensive farm equipments cannot be ignored.

How did the story change with Mobile Money Services?

Mobile money service is seen as one of the world’s fastest growing industries, following the success of the growth of the ‘mobile’ industry over the past two decades where billions of transactions are done using mobile devices. With leadership from M-PESA in Kenya, innovative mobile payment solutions that enable customers to complete simple financial transactions including person-to-person money transfer have been emerging and transforming rural lives. Mobile money services has its presence already in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Benin, Cameroon, Guinea Bissau, Swaziland, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa in addition to Kenya with Liberia being one of the newest countries across Africa to adopt this innovation.

Rural women all over the world are now using mobile money services to facilitate their work. When asked about the mobile money service being provided to her by Lonestar Cell MTN and Ecobank Liberia Limited, a market woman has this to say:

“In trying out the Mobile Money service, I have been able to send money to my son in Buchanan to pay his fees at the Grand Bassa Community College where he is a student and not worry whether the money I sent would reach him. I found the service very effective, convenient and affordable. Clearly, this is better than any other money transfer service I have ever used” (Woman from Liberian Rural Community).

Within the mobile health sector, the application of mobile money service is seen in the use of Medical Smart Cards that allow people who have no access to medical plans or insurance cover to save money through the use of M-PESA transfers. Savings are used to pay for primary health care, specified laboratory tests and drugs at pre-contracted prices. A combination of mobile banking, public information, and free treatment are used in Kenya to give women access to fistula repair. Women can call a free hotline, and if money is needed for transport to a fistula unit this is transferred via M-PESA. Using mobile money services make treatment a reality for women who otherwise would not have been in the socio-economic position to get an operation.

A study conducted on the use of mobile money services in “Kenya Case Study: Who Is Using Mobile Money?” shows that slightly more than half of the mobile money market (56%) live in rural areas and 51% of the users of mobile money services are women. Another study conducted in Kenya in 2009 about the impact of mobile money on the rural people revealed that M-PESA is boosting their income through cheaper, more accessible, and safer money transfer options. The research also shows M-PESA is empowering rural women because it makes it easier for them to solicit and receive money from their husbands and other contacts in Kenyan cities. Remittances through M-PESA relieve many women in rural areas of the burden of traveling by bus to cities to receive money from their husbands, a process that for some could take as long as one week. Also the M-PESA mobile money transfer system is used in Tanzania for example to pay for the transport of women suffering from fistula, children with cleft palates and other disabilities.

The potential of mobile money in the Ghanaian market is so huge with an estimated 80% of Ghanaian being “unbanked” – meaning they conduct their transactions outside the banking sector with no access to financial services. Mobile money is reducing the transaction costs of financial services for Ghanaian in rural areas, saving the cost of travel and time spent visiting the nearest town to access financial services, providing people with a way to transfer money safely and keep (or even increase) their savings.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the USAID-funded project in Haiti, Integrated Finance for Value Chains and Enterprises (HIFIVE) announced the launch of the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI) to stimulate the development of mobile money services in Haiti in 2010. The following two stories show the outcome of this project:

In a cybercafé in downtown Port-au-Prince, Jean Yves deposits money into his TchoTcho Mobile account. Michel, his brother who owns the business, recommended that he register for this mobile money service so that he doesn’t have to carry money across town and risk being robbed. Taking his brother’s ad-vice, Jean Yves deposits cash at the cybercafé and withdraws it via his phone when he arrives at his final destination.

One hour away in the busy port town of Saint Marc, Carmen receives a text message saying that Mercy Corps has deposited US$40 of food aid into her T-Cash account. She picks up her bag and heads off to her local merchant to purchase rice and beans using her phone.

The USAID’s Fostering Agriculture Competitiveness Employing Information Communication Technologies (FACET) project which helps USAID missions and their implementing partners in sub-Saharan Africa to use information and communications technology (ICT) more successfully — via sustainable and scalable approaches — to improve the impact of their agriculture related development projects including Feed the Future projects, shares its experience with the use of mobile money in agriculture in “Using Mobile Money, Mobile Banking to Enhance Agriculture in Africa”. Also with the setting up of the mFarmer Initiative Fund, there is the hope that more rural women will have access to mobile phones and be able to utilize mobile money services to improve their lives.

A recent report “Mobile Money Transfers & Remittances: Markets, Forecasts & Vendor Strategies 2011-2015” by Juniper Research predicts active users of mobile money services to double in the next two years, exceeding 200 million worldwide by 2013. The principle behind mobile services including mobile phones and mobile banking with the structural support from information communication technologies is something that has come to change lives in rural communities in particular. Mobile money services have come to stay. Different models, applications, and innovations will evolve over the years for simplicity, ease of use, less costly, and more compatible to a variety of mobile devices across the developing world.

October 14, 2011/by actualize

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

How to Disseminate Maternal Health Information to Rural Women

There are numerous ICT projects that focus on maternal health, many designed to reach women in rural areas where there is a severe lack of healthcare services. Mhealth in particular – the use of mobile phones to improve health – has taken off as a tool for providing critical information to pregnant and new mothers. In USAID’s MAMA project, for example, pregnant women in Bangladesh receive weekly information updates via text or voice message.

Photo credit: Open Ideo

But what is the best method for disseminating health information to rural women? How can the women learn and interpret the information in a way in which they can understand its value, making certain behavior changes if needed? Vikram Parmar, a professor at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, attempted to find this out through research conducted in India with 120 women from seven different rural villages. Parmar wanted to know how to motivate users of a Primary Health Information System (PHIS) to adopt positive health practices through designing and developing a Health Information System that maximized information dissemination.

Parmar wanted to explore how to improve information dissemination where health ICT projects had fallen short in three areas. First, he was concerned with the limited impact of Health Information Systems in educating rural users, as well as ICT-based health interventions such as film showings and radio program broadcasts that had not improved the health practices of rural target audiences. Secondly, the typical content and design of Health Information Systems did not encourage regular use due to the “non-persuasive setting of health interventions,” resulting in an information gap between rural women and primary health information. Finally, HIS deployed to rural users were based on content developed for urban users, resulting in a mismatch between the information given to rural women and the information they actually needed. In particular, maternal health and other personal women’s health issues had not been addressed.

Parmar proposed addressing these problems by employing a user-centered design framework to develop ICT interventions (see framework in full below). He tested this framework in the context of the PHIS. The results of his exploratory research indicated that the rural women’s knowledge had improved after interacting with the PHIS, signifying the importance of understanding user needs, taking into account existing social beliefs and practices related to health issues. Using this framework could improve information dissemination, resulting in positive change in rural women’s health-related practices.

October 14, 2011/by actualize

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