Originally posted on the GBI Portal – Page 55

Agriculture, Health, Health Systems, Humanitarian Assistance, Infectious Diseases, Maternal & Child Health, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

UN calls for increased sustainability of mobile health clinics in Pakistan

Mobile maternal health clinic on the road. Photo Credit: UNFPA

Nearly a year after the devastating floods in Pakistan, calls are being made by UNICEF health officials to expand capacities of mobile health clinics in the country. The clinics were first developed in response to the 2005 earthquakes in the northern region of Pakistan. Although the mobile clinics have touched hundreds of thousands of lives, more will be needed with expanded capabilities to ensure their long term impact.

In October 2005, the UNFPA joined hands with the Pakistani government and created mobile health clinics, whose main focus was on maternal health needs. By 2008, these clinics had treated over 850,000 patients, mostly for maternal and child health related issues. The clinics, still running, are staffed by women and are stocked with equipment and supplies for quality maternal health care. Since 2005, UNICEF has also become a key funder for mobile health clinics in Pakistan.

The UNICEF funded mobile health clinics tackle a variety of health issues, with an emphasis on maternal and child health. These clinics are staffed by three health workers, and treat up to 300 patients on a daily basis. After the emergence of the floods that affected 20 million people in Pakistan in July 2010, these health clinics became pivotal in reaching isolated populations.

Healthcare for women and children is better now than it was before the floods and the earthquake. However, despite the welcomed success of these mobile health clinics, there has been a call to expand the capacities for the mobile health clinics in order to make them more sustainable. This is where the world of ICT can step in and lend a helping hand.

The potential for impact is highest is rural and isolated areas where resources are poor and hardest to reach. According to a UNDP report, “ICT is yet to be widely mainstreamed to assist developing countries in addressing traditional development problems with innovative solutions and approaches that are both effective and more easily scalable and replicable.”

ICT services can complement existing initiatives such as the mobile health clinics in Pakistan to attenuate health burdens such as maternal mortality, which is what the UNFPA funded clinics focused on. This would be crucial in rural areas where ICT services would be invaluable. ICT services can potentially offer live video or audio feeds to health professionals when examining patients as well as educational classes to women from urban based instructors using the mobile clinics already in use.

Once ICT services are in place, NGO’s and government agencies can directly improve citizen access to information and at the same time, immediately strengthen their own capacities to help the citizens. Pakistan and other developing nations will only continue to reap the benefits for years to come.

June 9, 2011/by actualize

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

The Broadband Commission’s New Report and an Interview with Mr. Charles Kenny

The ITU’s newly formed Broadband Commission released its first full report Monday, June 6, 2011, entitled A Platform for Progress. The report highlights the need for governments to adopt national Internet strategies in order to compete in the global market. Broadband Internet access, the report states, should be universally available through the public sphere. Others such as Charles Kenny, researcher at the Center for Global Development, argue that Internet access should be leveraged through the private sector, dictated by market needs.

The report reads, “To optimize the benefits to society, broadband should be coordinated on a countrywide basis, promoting facilities-based competition and with policies encouraging service providers to offer access on fair market terms… Developing isolated projects or piecemeal, duplicated networks is not only inefficient, it delays provision of infrastructure that is becoming as crucial in the modern world as roads or electricity supplies.”

Photo Credit: ITU, Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU Secretary-General, Vice-Chair, speaks at the Broadband Commission for digital development meeting, Geneva

Some ICT4D experts, however, are not so quick to believe the report’s broad-reaching claims. Charles Kenny, from the Center for Global Development, explains in Foreign Policy that the evidence showing Broadband access increases growth is weak. Looking at data from 1980 to 2006, one unpublished World Bank study estimates that for every 10% increase in Broadband penetration a 1.3% increase in national GDP can be expected. This is a sandy foundation, argues Kenny, for the Broadband Commission’s recommendation that countries develop, invest in and subsidize national Broadband plans. Other studies, not cited by the Broadband Commission, show limited if any growth as a result of increased Broadband access.

I personally corresponded with Mr. Kenny via email last week regarding the role of governments and private companies in National Broadband Networks. His responses are listed here:

1. In your opinion, what is the role of the Internet in fulfilling the MDGs?

The Internet is definitely a factor in speeding progress towards poverty reduction, lower mortality and more widespread educational opportunities. At the same time, the Internet is neither necessary nor sufficient for such progress. Take health: the interventions necessary to dramatically reduce child mortality are things like widespread vaccination, the use of bed nets, breast feeding, and sugar-salt solutions to counter diarrhea. The Internet may be able to help in rolling out these approaches, but that role is decidedly secondary.

2. Where can Broadband have its greatest impact – health, education, governance, economy, or agriculture?

To date, the biggest impact of broadband in developing and developed countries alike has been in entertainment—allowing widespread access to interactive gaming and streaming video. Looking forward, there are surely applications across all of the areas you list, but it is far too early to suggest where the biggest impact will be.

3. Should Broadband services be provided by governments, private companies, or a combination?

Private companies. It is too early to say that there is a big justification for public financing of Broadband networks; we just don’t know if there is a considerable public good impact. Regardless, if the telecoms industry has taught us anything it is that private competitive provision of information infrastructure has lowered prices and extended access far more rapidly than government provision. So even if the government wants to finance broadband network rollout, it should work through the private sector.

4. Should countries pursue a National Broadband Network or leave the market to organically construct networks?

Leave it to the market. Command and control has sometimes, but rarely, worked as a development strategy. But the fast-moving area of ICTs isn’t a good place to try it. Given how little we know about Broadband’s economic and social impact, this isn’t an area where governments should be throwing money regardless.

Despite Mr. Kenny and others’ doubts, the Broadband Commission recommends governments develop their own National Broadband Networks. Their report can be downloaded here.

Photo Credit: CGDev.org

Charles Kenny is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. His current work covers topics including the demand side of development, the role of technology in quality of life improvements, and governance and anticorruption in aid. He has published articles, chapters and books on issues including progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, what we know about the causes of economic growth, the link between economic growth and broader development, the causes of improvements in global health, the link between economic growth and happiness, the end of the Malthusian trap, the role of communications technologies in development, the ‘digital divide,’ and corruption.

June 9, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Cross Cutting, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

It’s HUGE… It’s World IPv6 Day!

The internet boasts a 40 year history, but today marks one of its most historic days. Today is World IPv6 Day, a celebration of the largest experiment in the history of the Internet. IPv6, or Internet Protocol Version 6, will be tested before it replace IPv4 as the Internet’s main pillar/communications protocol.

IPv6 is designed to solve the problems of the existing Internet Protocol by providing 4 billion times the number of IP addresses now available. Less than two months ago, the Asia Pacific region ran out of IPv4 addresses, and North America will run out of IP addresses by Fall 2011. So, today’s glitch free test-run of IPv6 is both timely and important.

If you use Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Verizon, Facebook or the services of any of the other 200 companies participating in the test run today, you will be part of a game-changing experiment.

However, IPv6 is not backward compatible with IPv4, which means website operators must upgrade their network equipment and software to support IPv6 traffic. But it is worth it! IPv6 allows an unlimited number of devices to be connected, and its addresses use four times the bit power of IPv4’s 32-bit addresses.

June 9, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Humanitarian Assistance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

The Role of ICTs in Humanitarian Crisis: Aid and International Development Forum 2011, Day One

Leaders from businesses, governments, NGOs, and non-profits gathered today in Washington D.C. for the opening of the Aid and International Development Forum 2011. At the first workshop, Innovation in Information, speakers issued a universal call to the humanitarian sector: there is a need for technologies that are simple, usable, and pre-planned.

Adamant, unabashed, and bold, Joe Donahue, CEO of iMMAP, and Keith Robertory from the ICT department of the American Red Cross, both heavily criticized the technology industry for their counterproductive actions respecting humanitarian crisis. Robertory advised, “Treat technology like a black box. It doesn’t matter what goes on internally, but rather what goes in and what comes out.” Donahue went further, “I’m tired of flying in sexy technologies…what looks good in Washington doesn’t look good in the field.”

Their call for simple technologies that match the technological astuteness of its users was particularly relevant at this conference, where the aid industry was in full swing. Despite its backing by USAID, MCC, and the World Bank, the conference was primarily full of businesses, some more focused on selling their products than alleviating suffering and poverty.

Other presenters, however, reiterated that their focus was on helping people, not their bottom line. Alf Ellefsen, from the UN World Food Program, highlighted the use of three Internet connectivity technologies used by his agency during humanitarian crisis. One such technology, emergency.lu, includes the rapid deployment of satellite based Internet connections that can be delivered to natural disaster sites within 20 hours. The satellites are then set up around the disaster zone, effectively restoring communication between key humanitarian and government agencies in order to organize relief efforts.

Key to the conference was the theme of innovation and public-private partnerships. The diversity of organizations present at the conference demonstrated USAID’s commitment to global alliances across sectors in order to combat poverty.

June 8, 2011/by actualize

GBI Highlights, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

2011 GBI Summer Intern Program Underway

2011 Summer Interns, l-r, Jeff Swindle, Katie Leasor, Tyrone Hall

Left to Right, Jeff Swindle, Katie Leasor, Tyrone Hall Photo Credit: Laurie Moy

GBI is pleased to welcome the 2011 class of Summer Interns! After a very competative selection process, four interns have been selected for the GBI 2011 Summer Program, which began on May 31. The group represents universities from the DC area as well as Massachusetts and Utah.

Katie Leasor is a M.A. candidate at American University for the International Media program with a focus on using information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) in Latin America. Originally from New Jersey, Katie graduated from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island with a double major in Global Communications and Spanish. During her time at Roger Williams, Katie studied for a semester at the University of Wollongong in Australia and spent a summer in rural Guatemala, working in an orphanage called Casa Guatemala and a biodiversity conservation center in Petén. Katie speaks Spanish and will be contributing to the ICT4Democracy and Governance site.

Tyrone Hall Originally from Jamaica, Tyrone has recently completed his MA in International Development and Social Change at Clark University and has been accepted into the PhD Program in Media and Communications at the London School of Economics. Tyrone has worked as a journalist in Jamaica, Austria, Barbados and the United States and recently won the ACP-EU Innovations in ICT for Agriculture and Rural Development contest after defending his proposal to tackle Jamaica’s two main agricultural challenges: information asymmetrics and praedial larceny. Tyrone speaks French and Spanish and will be contributing to the ICT4Agriculture and ICT4Environment sites.

Jeff Swindle has completed a BS in Sociology at Brigham Young University and will be attending University of Cambridge in the fall to begin an MPhil in Development Studies. Originally from Arizona, Jeff has has traveled extensively studying development and particularly the relationship between rural connectivity and economic development. Jeff just returned from Mexico where he assisted in research for Concero Connect, a Grameen social business that brings high-speed Broadband internet access to rural villages. Jeff speaks both Spanish and Portuguese, and he will be writing for the Connectivity 4 Development and ICT4Education sites.

Shazad Ahmed (not pictured above) is currently studying at George Washington University, working on a Masters of Public Health, focusing on Global Health with an emphasis on design, monitoring and evaluation of programs. He has a BS in Neurobiology from University of Maryland and has studied at Universidad de Granada as well. He speaks Spanish and Bengali and has experience working for global nonprofits and community health projects, and conducting clinical and lab research. Shazad will be writing for the ICT4Health site.

June 8, 2011/by actualize

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

Kenyan Telecoms Giants and Universities Collaborate to Innovate

A culture of collaboration between telecommunications giants and leading local universities make Kenya a leading player in the world of mobile innovations.

Today, three universities- Moi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), and Nairobi University- s igned a deal with telecommunications supplier Huawei, and service provider Safaricom to “boost ICT skills among students in the east African nation”. Under the agreement, the curriculum will be refashioned to reflect industry trends. Students will be given real world exposure through a competition for Android applications development.

Huawei’s East African training center in Nairobi will be the focal point for much of the training. This puts Kenya on the cusp of honing the skills of the next generation of mobile innovators, which will accelerate the rapid pace at which it produces cutting-edge mobile apps.

Collaboration between industry and Kenyan universities is widespread. A consortium of stakeholders, including Nairobi University, joined forces to create m:lab, which is a leading force behind Kenya’s mobile application successes.

June 8, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Farmer to Farmer, Livestock, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Sustainable Agriculture

Kenya, the Land of the Apps churns out the iCow

Kenya is arguable the epicenter of the worldwide mobile application frenzy. The east-African nation churns out a new top-rated, demand driven application nearly every six months. The latest innovation is iCow,

iPhone screen shot of the iCow app

a voice based mobile information application for diary farmers. Green Dreams Ltd, the developer, says iCow will help farmers optimally manage livestock breeding.

The earthy app is rapidly winning over agriculturalists and tech enthusiasts. It won first place in the recently held Apps4Africa competition, a U.S funded project. The iCow has also been lauded by the Social Development Network (SODNET) and Biovision Africa Trust.

The iCow will help farmers efficaciously track a cow’s estrus cycle, manage nutrition and breeding, which will enable them to yield more milk and calves—the two indicators of a cow’s economic value. This demand-drive and culturally appropriate technology complements the ubiquitous cellphone to address key agricultural challenges. Chief among these challenges are: Poor record keeping; outmoded and hard to acquire and comprehend calendars, including the cardboard wheel system; and the gaping information vacuum.

The iCow app address these problems. It will deliver prompt farmers about their cow’s nutrition, illness and diseases, vaccinations, milk hygiene, milking technologies and techniques. This will be done via a series of voice prompts and SMS messages that will be sent to the farmer throughout the cow cycle. Critically, the voice-based nature of this application combats the problem of literacy, a major impediment to ICT4D.

The iCow is Green Dreams’ most recent plugin for the flagship app, Mkulima Farmer Information Service and Helpline (Mkulima FISH), which is being developed.

June 7, 2011/by actualize

Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Governances, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Brazil Govcamp Continues Gov 2.0 Global Growth

”]”]Governments from across the world are using e-government to deliver timely, accessible information to citizens while increasing the transparency and efficiency of delivering public services.

Sao Paulo, Brazil is now adopting ope n source e-government software as an early adopter of open government 2.0.

On June 8, 2011 Microsoft will be sponsoring Govcamp Brazil to facilitate the collaborative discussion and create an open learning environment to foster understanding in this emerging field.

E-governance takes the input of many parties, within the governing body, civic society, and needs the participation of private sector to service them. As a result, there has been an the technology of Government 2.0 has been highlighted, rather than the results it enables.

As former U.S. deputy CTO Beth Noveck pointed out, though, there is more to these new tools: “Gov 2.0 is a popular term but puts the emphasis on technology when our goal was to focus on changing how government institutions work for the better.”

Microsoft’s involvement in Brazil’s initiative demonstrates the global company’s exclusive and evolving role in looking outwards, where Government 2.0 and e-government is increasingly more prominent around the world.

Rodrigo Becerra of Microsoft provided this insight on the purpose of the Gov 2.0 camps:

This is a space for creating connections to happen between citizens, organizations, groups and governments that may otherwise not exist. We have done them in Berlin, Mexico City, Colombia, Moscow, Toronto, London, Sydney, Wellington, Boston, India, and we’ll sponsor the Brazil event in the coming month. We specifically have local organization committees running each event, We conduct them in all local language and invite social media, competitors and partners to revel in the discourse to help drive the progress of the Gov 2.0 movement

The open source software represents how the Government of Brazil wants to create a solution where civic society has documentation and support online.

It also generates knowledge networks, shares information, and fosters the growth of domestic technology, as the systems design can be adapted to local Brazilian needs.

June 7, 2011/by actualize

Asia, Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Where we work

Indonesia Aims to Have 30% Broadband Penetration by 2014

The Indonesian Ministry of Economy recently publicly announced its goal to increase “meaningful” broadband penetration by 30% by 2014. The goal is optimistic; Internet penetration was 12.3% in 2010, only 18% of which was broadband, making broadband penetration around 2.2% of the population.

In the Jakarta Declaration for Meaningful Broadband released on April 14, 2011, a collection of government and private industry ICT leaders in the Indonesia agreed on the goal to bring “meaningful” broadband access – affordable, usable, and empowering – from under 3% to a ten-fold increase of 30% within three years. This “big push” for broadband penetration is founded on a US$9.2 billion plan. The plan includes $4.3 billion public-private partnership (PPP) funding allocation, linking PT Telecom’s fibre optic cable to “last mile” initiatives to connect rural, more isolated areas. According to estimates, Elizabeth Aris, expert on National Broadband Networks, states that such a PPP would leave costs at “$3 a month per consumer.”

Photo Credit: Digitaldivide.org

Critics of the fund claim that Indonesia has more pressing needs, that broadband should be left entirely to the private sector, and that Indonesia’s goal is implausible. The Meaningful Broadband Working Group is not deterred, however. Craig Smith, former Harvard Professor and current director of the Investment Group Against the Digital Divide, explains that the Indonesian government has set specific goals to minimize the gap in income inequality, but additional goals to increase GDP.

“The problem with GDP growth is that it only benefits the wealthy. So, the government says let’s use broadband that could create equitable growth… The problem is that they did not understand the critical mass of broadband… is important to require the equitable growth,” Smith said. In other words, broadband penetration is an economic equalizer as well as accelerator, but only when large investments into IT infrastructure are made.

June 7, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Humanitarian Assistance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Serious Gaming—It Plays to Develop

Screenshot of the game Peacemaker

You can now play an active role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as either the Israeli Prime Minister, or the Palestinian President, straight from your living room.

Will you put pressure on the United States to publicly condemn your enemy? Will you withdraw your settlements from the Gaza Strip? Your decisions will render a live computer generated response. Similar to the importance of real life, timely decisions in the Middle East, your decision will affect if the entire region will be at peace or explode in violence.

”]This is the aim of the “serious game” called the Peacemaker developed by Asi Burak, and co-founder of GamesforChange.org.

These “Serious Games” are burgeoning agents for social change being used in the development world by advocates, nonprofit groups, and technically keen academics searching for new ways to reach young people.

The main idea is the player becomes immersed in a real-world situation where human rights, economics, public policy, poverty, global conflict, news, and politics are some issues confronted in the games.

The player deliberates and makes conscious choices while they play and those actions either benefits one side or harms another, making a complete resolution difficult.

Objectively, the player can play as many times as they need to resolve the issue to win the game.

As Jarmo Petäjäaho from Finland, states in a review after playing Peacemaker, “Making the policy decisions in the game and pondering the possible ramifications on all parties really makes the issues hit home and stay with you. It is a wonderfully efficient and fun way to study the real world.”

That is the true beauty behind all the efforts: games are innately helpful in simplifying large, complex systems and teaching them to people.

Two weeks ago Tech@State had a two-day Serious Games conference where game creators, technology executives, and social entrepreneurs, exchanged ideas and experiences on the best mechanics of games for social change.

While most of the games focused on issues of international affairs, public policy and diplomacy, one group focused on how to leverage this educational tool for developing nations lacking computers.

Playpower, created by a group of programmers and researchers, is a great, simple educational tool to bring video gaming to developing nations.

By constructing a $10 TV-compatible computers out of discarded keyboards and outfitting them with cartridge-based educational games, the Playpower team aims to make learning games affordable for “the other 90%.”

The Serious Games shown at the conference is rowing as a tool used for social change, but no one knows how sustainable the method may be.

USAID is interesting in exploring the effects of the gaming venture on development.

An Innovations for Youth Capacity & Engagement (IYCE) game is currently in development with the Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance (DCHA) Bureau in conjunction with Nethope. The game targets resolving youth and social issues in Jordan.

June 7, 2011/by actualize

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