Photo Credit: mashable.com

A report that was released at the end of July highlighted the emergence of gamification in mobile services, especially in mHealth. In the report, the term gamification is defined as “the use of gameplay mechanics for non-game applications. The term also suggests the process of using game thinking to solve problems and engage audiences.”

Therefore, in the realm of healthcare, gamification refers to the use of game mechanics or game principles in mHealth applications. In some mHealth circles, a sub field has emerged call health games, which are games that are intended to improve the health of the users. The report suggests that gamification is the future of mobile, web and social media technology.

These gaming apps are designed to alleviate health burdens by promoting healthy behaviors and actions, and educating users on the nature of the burden itself.

For instance, there could be a gaming app on the importance of having an insecticide treated bed net for malaria prevention. The app could educate the user on how malaria is contracted and how to treat it by presenting a series of questions to answer for a prize.

At its most basic level, these apps can reward the user with virtual or actual incentives as they complete certain actions that attenuate a health burden. The incentive encourages the user to perform the action.

A recent Gartner report predicts that by 2015, more than 50% of organizations will gamify their innovation processes. “By 2014, a gamified service for consumer goods marketing and customer retention will become as important as Facebook, eBay or Amazon, and more than 70% of Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified application,” says the report.

SCVNGR founder Seth Priebatsch agrees. “It feels like the next natural evolution of human-technological interaction to me,” he says. As we complete the social layer, we’ll begin construction in earnest on the game layer.”

In the realm of health, gaming apps can be used as tools to encourage a diet plan, educate about a disease, promote drug adherence, and present treatment options. According to experts, one indirect result is that along with promoting certain actions towards improving health, the games may also generate positive attitudes and improve emotional states towards achieving better health.

Photo Credit: texttochange.org

In the developing world, one such app exists called Freedom HIV/AIDS that was implemented in India and Africa. Designed to promote HIV/AIDS awareness, the app offers games themed for its location. For instance, in India, safety cricket, and Quiz with Babu were just some of the games through which HIV/AIDS awareness was promoted.

Text to Change(TTC) is another mobile service that offers gaming apps to its participants. Implemented in Africa, TTC offers quiz games that educate participants about different health burdens. In the end of the quizzes, incentives are provided to the participants. TTC’s services have been popular with UNICEF, WHO, UN and USAID initiatives.

The games are a great way to engage people with health campaigns that may otherwise be neglected due to lack of social interaction. Another report says that gaming apps can help overcome the guilt associating with failing to complete a health program. The report says, “ Games help patients manage that guilt.  The game navigates patients through their story of successes and failures until they ultimately become victorious.”

If this is one of the roads that will be embarked by mHealth apps, and mobile apps as a whole, at least it will be a fun one. After all, when was the last time anyone had fun learning about HIV/AIDS or vaccinations?

Survey respondents use mobile phones to collect data in South Sudan. Photo: World Bank

Randomized control trials (RCTs) cannot capture the full impact of ICTs on human development because ICTs have inherently ambiguous and emergent effects.  However, RCTs can capture particular impacts of ICTs, but they cannot tell the whole story.  Evaluations of ICT4D initiatives should concentrate instead on the contribution of ICTs to human development.

In the past few years, academics and practitioners alike have advocated for measuring the contributions to human development and capabilities of ICT4D projects.  They have learned over the past decade that ICTs have various levels of impact on many aspects of social life.  They can completely revamp cultures, like the mobile phone has, or they can but countries into serious debt, like many state-subsidized computer education programs, with little to no impact.  The ways in which people utilize ICTs is often different than development workers initially expect.  As Amartya Sen expressed, “a lot of the advantages that come from mobile phone will not have a predictability feature…There are ways in which predictability of these [technologies] will defeat us.”

If traditional econometric approaches to monitoring and evaluating development projects do not capture the full contribution of ICTs on human development, then how can ICTs’ contributions be measured?

Academic scholars have led the way on devising new measurement schemes about the contributions of ICTs.  For the best decade, scholars have advocated examining ICTs from a functional, utility-based measurement, which in many ways cannot be traditionally quantifiable.  Recently, this discussion has been stimulated by the UN’s adoption of the multi-dimensional poverty index last year, as well as a UNDP publication specifically on the contribution of ICTs and the human development and capability approach (HDCA).  An increasing number of publications on ICTs and the HDCA are appearing among the large development organizations and certainly amongst academics.

Furthermore, the advocacy for ICTs for capacity development is not exclusively rhetorical.  This past month, the UN and the government of Bhutan announced a new project specifically to increase the capacity of government officials by utilizing ICTs.  Make no mistake, we are coming to a gradual consensus: you do not know all the affects ICTs will have on social life or human development, so you should keep your measurements broad and largely informed by project beneficiaries.

 

Photo credit: Millenium Villages

Last week, renowned development economist and special advisor to the UN secretary for the millennium development goals, Jeffrey Sachs, wrote a series of public articles advocating for use of “cutting-edge technologies” to fight the current epidemic and to create sustainable solutions to avoid famine in the first place.  He said that the Millennium Villages are a good example of ways to use technology in order to anticipate and prevent drought and famine from spreading.
What technologies are the Millennium Villages using?  How do these technologies inform and assist villagers to mitigate potential food insecurity and the affects of climate change?
As listed on the Millennium Villages website, the main goals that for ICTs include:

  • Establish and improve mobile telephone and internet connection
  • Greater access to energy, improved transport and information and communication technologies (ICT)

In addition, each village has individualized goals and projects, depending on their circumstances and resources.  Many of the villages have implemented mHealth initiatives, computer laboratories, other ICT-related projects.  Just a few have organized ICT projects to ensure energy and environmental sustainability.  Those few include:

  • Dertu, Kenya – In 2008, in partnership with Ericsson, Dertu received a cell tower and Internet connectivity; Sony-donated laptops provide Internet access at the school
  • Ruhiira, Uganda – Schools and clinics now have access to electricity through low-cost solar technologies
  • Ruhiira, Uganda – Partnership with Zain and Ericsson has increased cell phone coverage through the construction of cell towers

Perhaps additional ICT-based projects are underway to ensure environmental sustainability and avoid the long-term effects of drought, but they are not listed on the Millennium Villages website.  Sachs’ claim that ICTs have decreased famine and anticipated drought in the Millennium Villages, then, is possibly true, but is not verified by documented evidence available on their website.  A more detailed evaluation of the villages is needed, or a report synthesizing the lessons learned from the ICT projects completed.
As many have pointed out over the past few months during the famine and drought in the horn of Africa, famine is preventable when the circulation of goods is active and well-planned.  Stable distribution of goods, and monitoring of climate change and weather patterns is key to ensuring food security, environmental sustainability, and consistent agricultural production.  ICTs can aid in all of these practices, but their effectiveness is in need of additional documentation and review.

Produce at market

Credit: Google

Food security in the Horn of Africa hinges on greater investment in ICT infrastructure and capacity building. In large part, this will depend on the transfer of technology. But experts note that even a modest increase in technology transfer and information, through the agriculture value chain, could improve yields, distribution and ultimately strengthen food security.

The World Food Program (WFP) backed an initiative in March this year that is a step in the right direction. WFP provided US$45, 000 worth of ICTs for a Food Security Graduate Program at Addis Ababa University. The ICTs provided the institution with the tools and facility needed to boost efforts to develop a local hub for knowledge generation and dissemination for food security. A weak policy and financial environment has led to inadequate research, a lack of appropriate technologies and weak dissemination of existing smart tools. So, lowering food insecurity in the region requires greater effort.

Improving food security is a key development challenge for the Horn of Africa, the world’s most food insecure region according to the FAO. Over 45% of the 160 million strong population remain food insecure, higher than the average even for Saharan Africa. The World Bank says the region must attain a 4% expansion in GDP and similar growth in agricultural expansion, along with lower population growth rates, to become food secure in the medium-term. This all seems like a catch-22 situation for an already difficult political and economic landscape. Where do we start?

According to USAID’s analysis, The Magnitude and Causes of Food Insecurity and Prospects for Change, improving the economic policy environment—and a host of other structural problems such as security— is key. So, while ICTs can help to improve the region’s precarious food security situation, much more must be done to create an ICT enabling environment— further evidence that ICTs are merely tools.

One structural challenge is the cumbersome nature of intra-regional trade. ICTs, particularly logistics technology and applications used to speed up cross border movement, could help to better move food surplus from country to country (and region to region). At various points in recent time countries in the lower part of the Horn of Africa, including Kenya and Tanzania, have been in a position to shift their surplus to neighboring Ethiopia, and other northern states that are perennially food insecure.

However, the food security and ICT discussion in this region, as I have contended, is very complex. One must consider all the systemic domains and even broad issues of income distribution, which slants the distribution of food in Kenya and Tanzania, even in times of food excess on a national scale, in the favor of a few.

 

Malnourish child in hospital Photo Credit: Abdi Warsameh, AP

Photo Credit: Abdi Warsameh, AP

Farhiya Abdulkadir, 5, from southern Somalia, suffers from malnutrition and lies on a bed at Banadir hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia. Her growth is stunted, her belly engorged, and the muscular tissues keeping her organs functioning are slowly wearing away—the five-year-old is deteriorating to death.

Farhiya is dying from famine, starvation, and malnutrition; but a packet of the peanut buttery Plumpy’nut could help bring her back to life.

The U.N. declared a famine late last month in parts of southern Somalia where tens of thousands of people, mostly children, have died, in what aid officials call the worst humanitarian crisis in the troubled country in over two decades.

Despite dire conditions, where one-third of the population of Somalia is facing starvation, militant Islamist group al-Shabaab has been deflecting international aid where help is needed the most.

A couple weeks ago, Edward Carr who works in famine response for USAID on the ground in the Horn of Africa, observed that despite similar drought conditions in Kenya and Ethiopia, the state of Southern Somalia is critical, “we cannot get into these areas with our aid…famine stops at the Somali border”.

How does he know, then, exactly where aid is needed, how much is needed, and will be needed in the upcoming months?

The USAID-supported Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) is a system helps to identify timely information on the most affected areas, urging the global humanitarian community to move quickly and scale up their relief efforts on evolving food security issues.

FEWS NET summarizes the causes for the famine as:

The total failure of the October-December Deyr rains (secondary season) and the poor performance of the April-June Gu rains (primary season) have resulted in crop failure, reduced labor demand, poor livestock body conditions, and excess animal mortality.

FEWS NET estimates that a total of 3.2 million people require immediate, lifesaving humanitarian assistance, including 2.8 million people in southern Somalia—highlighted areas are the Bakool agropastoral livelihood zones, and all areas of Lower Shabelle.

So what is the next step?

FEWS NET identifies these issues, and using a group of communications and decision support tools, recommending decision makers to act quickly in order to mitigate food insecurity in Southern Somalia. These tools include briefings and support for contingency and response planning efforts.

Currently, FEWS NET has helped organizations, such as the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO), the Red Cross, and U.N. groups, such as the World Food Program (WFP), who are on the ground delivering aid, obtain timely information on what is needed and where.

Last Wednesday, WFP deployed a plane from Kenya with 10 tons of food—one of the many airlifts of the nutritional packets that will take place in the upcoming months.

The FEWS NET Food Security Outlook in the Horn of Africa for August-September 2011 predicts that in these upcoming months, the famine will inevitably spread and last until at least December.

Hopefully, the FEWS NET is the type of system that will help automate an humanitarian response from the international community—helping internally displaced children like Farhiya suffering from malnutrition, eat something before their condition deteriorates.

 

Man holding video camera casts a shadow on a Film Aid logo

Photo Credit: Film Aid

From July 14-21, this year, refugees at the Dadaab, Kakuma, and Nairobi camps in Kenya enjoyed a new film each night as part of the annual FilmAid Festival, run by FilmForward and FilmAid. The film festival provided entertainment to refugees, as well as a portal for reflection and hope. In addition, educational films were showcased during the day about pressing issues in the camps, such as healthcare, agricultural production, gender-based violence, and drug abuse.
The impact of FilmAid’s programs are difficult to quantify and measure. They affect individuals psychologically and emotionally, but not directly economically or in terms of educational achievement or literacy. Arguably, however, the entertainment and education provided by FilmAid gives people hope, helping them to continue struggling for survival at the refugee camps.

During the day, FilmAid runs its MADS (Mass Audience Daytime Screening) educational films. When possible, the films are produced in part by local people in the camps. Here is an example of a short film produced in Haiti last year to educate refugees on the importance of planting crops and how to water them sufficiently.

 

Additionally, FilmAid worked with local refugees in the three camps to produce short films, which are then shown at the film festival. The films display a level of self-awareness and touch on present social issues in the camps themselves. These films are the epitome of local content produced for a local need.
Last week, FilmAid received a $50,000 grant from the Hollywood Press Association, in part due to their efforts in the Horn of Africa. Grants such as this keep the organization funded and functioning.

I wrote a blog post a few weeks ago about a series of ways that Somalia could get broadband Internet connectivity.  The article was reposted in several British, Somali and Kenyan online newspapers and was even criticized by a group of IT professionals in Somaliland.  Given the hunger crisis outbreak in the Horn of Africa since then, I want to revisit the issue of connectivity in Somalia.  It appears that mobile and Internet access is being recognized as a crucial need for humanitarian agencies.

Photo: AP

Information and communication technology (ICT) services during humanitarian crisis are much improved from a few years ago.  Ushahidi and Frontline SMS have demonstrated the power of text services.  Mobile money by MercyCorps in Haiti provided some organized method of food distribution and sustained economic activity.  The government of Luxembourg recently partnered with the World Food Programme to test a connectivity kit to restore voice and text communications when power systems are wiped out during natural disasters.  The list could go on.

A famine is different than other disasters, however.  It does not affect ICT infrastructure directly as a hurricane or tsunami would.  ICTs, then, can play a key role in organizing humanitarian relief efforts during a famine or crisis of any sort.  In addition, ICTs can prevent famines because of the increased communication they can provide.

Remember economist Amartya Sen’s claim that a famine has never occurred in a working democracy?  Famines are not so much a result of a lack of food, but rather a lack of effective distribution and communication.  Democracies, with all their checks and balances of power, give enough voice to the people so that food is delivered when needed.

I argue that the amount of communication inherent in a democracy is the real key to the distribution and production of food that stops a famine.  Public communication, not necessarily democracy, stops famines.  In fact, what Sen defines as a “working” democracy, is simply a democracy where people of all social classes have a voice.  A “working” democracy, then, is itself founded on the principles of the equality of communication.

It isn’t social media that will end the famine, but it is a process and steady cycle of communication between social groups.  The more communication, the less social injustice—famine included.  This type of communication can better occur with significant ICT infrastructure, which allows people in different locations to still communicate and share ideas.

One of the better ways to increase communication in a nation is mobile and Internet services along with IT infrastructure.  I spoke with Bitange Ndemo, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICTs and a Director of the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK), this week about possible broadband cable connections with Somalia.  He was optimistic and outlined some possibilities, contingent on the Somali political environment.  Ndemo explained that Kenya has broadband cables and a microwave just 2 km from the border with Somalia in Mandera.  Both Kenyan and Somali telecoms have approached CCK, hoping to make a connection into Somalia.  However, Kenya has declined as of now, for security risks.  If they route the cable into Somalia then they risk privacy concerns and people cutting the cables.  Given the political instability in Somalia right now, Kenya has yet to route the cable.  Somalia remains unconnected to the rest of the East African Backhaul System, and still remains without any lighted fiber-optic cables, greatly limiting Internet usage and global communication.

It may seem strange for a government to invest in expensive broadband cables when its citizens are struggling to find enough food, but perhaps such an investment would end up ending its struggles with famine.  Or, instead of the Somali government investing in IT infrastructure, they could grant easier regulations to private telecoms, and let them route and light cables throughout the nation.  This would leave the government with less control over the telecommunications industry, but would save any financial costs.

Ultimately, though, the manner in which Somalia increases public communication is not as important as making sure that something is done to increase IT infrastructure throughout the nation.  At the end of the day, food security concerns are tied to communication capabilities, and mobile and Internet infrastructure can play a significant role in decreasing the probability of famine.

 

 

 

woman with baby in somalia Photo Credit: UN

Photo Credit: UN

Amartya Sen famously once observed that famines rarely occur in democratic or even relatively free societies, rather from inequalities built into the societal mechanisms of food distribution. The current famine declared by the U.N. in Southern Somalia, exemplifies his case and point.

New mobile technologies and ICTs in aid projects, however, can be used to streamline the coordination between aid organizations on the ground, populations desperate for aid delivery, and those funding the projects abroad—and make them more sustainable.

As Charles Kenny points out, the modern expansion of international markets and improved international assistance have drastically reduced the probability of famines solely resulting from weak governance.

Alternatively, the government—or those in charge—must deliberately choose to deprive their people of food and, “…actively exercise the power to take food from producers who need it or deny food assistance to victims,” Kenny writes in Foreign Policy.

The political atmosphere within the two regions of Southern Somalia is a huge factor towards the most recent accumulation of mass malnutrition and starvation.

Lacking a sovereign state, citizens must rely on the governance provided by the decentralized al Shabab—who blames food aid for creating dependency—which does little to ensure access to food, preventing malnutrition, or improving livelihoods of the population.

In February 2010, the militant group ousted the World Food Program (WFP), followed by their expulsion of three other aid agencies, where they were accused of spreading Christian propaganda.

Photo Credit: BBC

Photo Credit: BBC

Al Shabab removed the food aid earlier this month, declaring that agencies without hidden agendas were free to operate in their areas. Later, they announced that expelled agencies, namely WFP, remained banned.

Despite these efforts of dissuasion, WFP airlifted 10 tons of food to Southern Somalia last Wednesday. Mobile technologies can used to track this aid to ensure that it is kept out of the hands of al-Shabaab and into the hands of the malnourished.

Ensuring that they honor their word and delivering aid are two battles to overcome, encouraging harmony for further aid distribution is another.

If al-Shabab upholds their promise to allow food aid in the upcoming months, there should be coordination to make these programs and projects happen efficiently and sustainably—between Southern Somalia’s civil society, the government, and aid agencies who hold the resources.

Aid agencies should capitalize on ICTs to enhance the collaborative effort between organizations and individuals with eyes on the ground, and those pulling the funding strings up in Washington.

Edward Carr who works in famine response for USAID on the ground in the Horn of Africa, says,

…we are going to have to use our considerable science and technology capacity to really explore the potential of mobile communications as a source of rapidly-updated, geolocatable information about conditions on the ground to which people are responding with their livelihoods strategies

Although this new way of collecting information for benefit incidence analysis is useful for tracking who each dollar benefits, it is only resourceful in the long-term if put into a local social context.

Who is the most impacted, but most importantly, why- is what truly matters in the long run.

 

 

Google map showing disaster spots

Credit: Google

The international response to the ongoing famine in the Horn of Africa has been deemed too slow by a host of observers and some people on the ground. However, the relief effort is gradually improving. One indication of this improvement is the ingenious ways in which ICT is being used to bring attention to the disaster and enable people from around the world to contribute to the relief effort.

Here’s a round-up of some ways in which ICT is being used to aid the response.

  • The launch of Kenya4Kenyans, an indigenous campaign built around an app which allows Kenyans (and others) to learn about the gravity of the famine gripping the region, and donate via mobile payment, enabled by m-pessa. It is user-friendly with only a couple of screens and few links to click. The reviews for this app suggests that it works well despite its very basic features.. Kenyans4Kenya is backed by m-pesa, Safaricom Foundation, KCB Foundation, Kenya Red Cross and Media Owners Association… an all Kenyan line-up. Learn more about Kenyans4Kenya here.

More about Kenya4Kenyans

  • There has been a Twitterfest, too. Africans have been mobilizing like never before, asking for the international community to send aid, and even prescribing what kinds and where to send it. The International Business Times says more than twenty tweets per minute regarding the famine is being produced. The leading hashtags are #HornOfAfrica, #Famine, #Drought, #Somalia, #Kenya and #Ethiopia.
  • The World Food Program’s (WFP’s) social media initiative, WeFeedback, which allows you to donate in a fun and meaningful way, has also taken off tremendously. Learn more about WeFeedback here.
  • 40 Hour Famine 2.0 for iPhone/iPod Touch. This is World Vision Australia’s official famine iPhone application, a mobile companion to the 40 Hour Famine website. Here’s a detailed description provided by the developers … allowing you to monitor your progress towards your 40 Hour Famine target, to access a secure iPhone formatted donation website so you can collect donations straight from your iPhone, and to mail your friends from the app, or let everyone know you’re doing the 40 Hour Famine on facebook, twitter and myspace. You can even access the 40 Hour Famine stories, videos and facts about the Global Food Crisis and the focus countries of the fundraiser.Our 40 Hour Famine goat helper will encourage you along the way, with important messages and encouragements leading up to, during and after the 40 Hour Famine weekend.It’s free, and it’s a great way to track your progress and fundraising in this year’s 40 Hour Famine.Our 40 Hour Famine goat helper will encourage you along the way, with important messages and encouragements leading up to, during and after the 40 Hour Famine weekend. It’s free, and it’s a great way to track your progress and fundraising in this year’s 40 Hour Famine.”


Somali refugee with her child

Credit: WFP/Judith Schuler

Responding to the food security needs of those affected by famine in the Horn of Africa is an enormous logistical challenge…

The most severe drought in a half a decade has made the already unstable region, particularly Somalia, an even more food insecure place. The United Nations is on the cusp of declaring a full-blown famine in Somalia, having deemed nearly a third of the country’s regions (5 of 18) to be experiencing a famine, which means more than 30% of people in those areas are subject to malnutrition—a quarter of all Somalis can relate. Upwards of 12 million people are caught in this perilous situation that also found toeholds in sections of Dijibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya.

The food crisis (and all out famine in parts) is made worse by drought, but high fuel and food prices, and longstanding conflict in the region are primary causes. This makes for an especially complex emergency, where getting the right kinds of aid to people when and where they need it most, logistics, requires smart tools and strategies. This gives credence to the rapid shift in how development aid is being managed and deployed, to a point where technology becomes a vital tool in emergence response.

The ongoing crisis in the Horn of Africa underscores this. The last issue of The Economist carried an article with an insightful lead that quotes a text message from a Somali affected by famine. The sender declared ‘“MY NAME is Mohammed Sokor, writing to you from Dagahaley refugee camp in Dadaab. Dear Sir, there is an alarming issue here. People are given too few kilograms of food. You must help.” Mr. Sokor texted his appeal to two United Nations officials, in London and Nairobi, after finding their numbers on the internet while surfing at a café at the north Kenyan camp.

As many have observed, Mr. Sakor’s strategic use of a near ubiquitous ICT, his mobile-phone, signals the rapidly transforming relationship between the senders and receivers of aid. It is clear that greater accountability and agility will become a demand from the bottom-up. Increasingly, aid recipients will influence the kinds of aid they receive, where and how they get it. In the humanitarian operation of the future,” says Save the Children’s Mr Porter, “beneficiaries of emergency aid will use technology to tell us what they need—cash, food, or education—find out from us what to expect, and track its arrival, just as we can track an order from Amazon.com now.”

But, the relationship between food security and logistics supersedes complex humanitarian scenarios. As I contend in a previous blog, food insecurity is caused by a wide range of factors, including declining yields, inadequate investment in research and infrastructure, and increased water scarcity, but it is also brought about by immense waste. Logistical woes is a key cause for much of this waste. For instance, more than a third of crops reaped never gets to market in edible fashion because of poor value chain management and practices.

Long term development of the agricultural systems in the region must focus on using logistics technology to improve transportation and warehousing of produce. It’s crucial that we reduce food waste in the drive to improve food security.

 

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