MobiHealthNews held their first webinar, last Thursday, February 11,to discuss mobile health news and trends that will likely emerge during the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) 2011 annual gathering this year in Orlando. The webinar, which was attended by health professionals and practioners around the world was the first of its kind to predict future innovations and trends in mobile health.

Brian Dolan, MobiHealthNews editor, discussed the increasing expansion of peripheral health devices. Most of these were manufactured to assist medical practitioners in the developed world, but a few stood out as contenders for development context:

iHealth blood pressure dock

  • iPhone ECG case developed by AliveCor called the iPhonECG is a great new device. This gadget turns your Apple iPhone 4 into Electrocardiogram (ECG) by putting it into a special $100 case, however it has not been approved for sale in the U.S. yet. This would possess the capability to help healthcare works in the field monitor electrical activity of the heart and detect any heart disease, allowing them to assess the patient’s level of risk more accurately.
  • Cellscope which turns a cell phone into a high-magnification microscope.is a revolutionary approach to curing infectious disease are a huge upcoming trend that will launch throughout the year and gain FDA approval.

    The CellScope

The HIMSS will hold its annual conference on February 20-24, where hundreds of corporate and non-for-profit members come together to collaborate on their mission to transform healthcare through effective use of IT and management systems.. Each year a few innovations stand out among the crowd. Two years ago, one of the big themes that emerged was that an electronic medical records (EMR) vendor developed a smartphone application. Last year, tablets such as the iPad, emerged as catalysts for mHealth devices to grow in usage.

I work with a small NGO in the Cook Islands called Te Rito Enua. We recently concluded a pilot project funded by the Asian Development Bank to test the use of participatory GIS techniques to help develop community-scale climate adaptation strategies.  Some of our key findings echo those Oregon State University scientists Sally Duncan and Denise Lach.  As reported in the People and Place blog, they observe that

“Exchange of ideas and knowledge with the assistance of a technology that is both analytical and visual draws participants into new kinds of inquiry, calling upon broader kinds and definitions of knowledge and experience. In such a setting, GIS technology lends itself to the mapping of ideas as well as landscapes.(emphasis is mine)

In our own work, we found that that the approach provides communities with the tools to assess climate risk  according to their own frames of reference. Linking models with personal experience and traditional ecological knowledge gave the communities tangible evidence of climate risk that empowers them to own the problem and develop personal and collective responses based on their own needs and priorities.  The participatory GIS process highlights behavioral and development issues that affect the vulnerability of individual households and the community at large. There was a discernable sense of empowerment by participating communities in developing vulnerability maps and planning on the basis of the spatially organized information.

Replicating the process is problematic though.  We opted to use expensive high-end commercial GIS software to match the system used by the government. All the GIS expertise in the country (basically 2 people at the start of the project) were schooled in the use government system. We needed to work with those people.  But the high end systems are a formidable barrier to entry; acquiring the software, hardware, and training costs thousands of dollars.   Communities and NGOs lack those resources, and the emerging, computer-savvy generation lacks learning opportunities.  In our final report, we recommended the use of open source software and support for regional training to build up the GIS community.

Fortunately the support for open-source GIS is growing fast.  Some resources for beginners include:

The Participatory GIS Forum (www.ppgis.net) (and be sure to see the very helpful email list for PPGIS, links on the site).

Mapping Across Borders/Digital Distractions blog ( https://mikedotonline.wordpress.com/ )

Quantum GIS open source software (www.qgis.org)

And  a new site, Training Kit on Participatory Spatial Information Management and Communications (https://pgis-tk-en.cta.int/)

Don’t forget that good data layers can often be found at Data Basin, and you can upload and share your files there.  (www.databasin.org)

I’ve experienced significant resistance to participatory mapping in the past from the GIS technical community.  It is true that you can produce complete garbage in GIS.  And garbage, in planning, can be dangerous.  But the answer doesn’t lie in treating geospatial planning as an esoteric art and shunning the novices.  The answer lies in widening the pool of experts and providing support for grassroots initiatives.  Duncan and Lech observe:

“The frequent repetition of the phrase “re-framing the debate” during focus-group discussions highlighted the progression from the one-way communication model, in which scientists impart their findings, to the dynamic process of engaging GIS technology as a tool of inquiry, mediation, and communication. Ideas suggested for a broader debate included making assumptions explicit on GIS maps, using the power of GIS to examine new questions, and sharing responsibility for new kinds of learning. …”

Duncan, S. and Lech, D.  2006.  GIS Technology in Natural Resource Management:  Process as a Tool of Change.  Cartographica 41:3, 201-205.  DOI: 10.3138/3571-88W4-77H2-3617.

Sounds like development to me.

[The Te Rito Enua project report can be downloaded at https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1735507/ADB%20SGI%20report/Final%20Report-web.pdf]

Vine map superimposed on Google Earth; sources Benjamin White and Google Earth, all rights reserved

Over the past year, I’ve been working with a Cook Islands NGO, Te Rito Enua, with funding from the Asian Development Bank, to develop a pilot project on participatory GIS  as a tool to assist island communities to develop climate adaptation strategies. While there, Mona Matepi, president of TRE, called my attention to the problem of invasive vines on the island. Three species of woody vines* are colonizing the island forests, causing massive deforestation. They overtop and kill trees, replacing the forest with a solid jungle of vines.  Since Rarotonga is dependent upon surface water for its entire supply, and since vines were killing the trees in its forested watershed, it seems like a non-trivial issue.  Nobody knows how the vines will affect water supply.  Will they reduce surface water supply through evapotranspiration?  Will they hold the soils as well as the trees they are replacing?  How will they respond to the more frequent cyclones and droughts that climate models predict?  And, if they are a problem, how can they be controlled?  Many questions to answer – our challenge right now is to find support for research into the issues and the options available.  If no one does anything, there’s a chance, and its not a tiny one, that there could someday be a humanitarian crisis that would have severe implications for one of the dwindling number of robust Polynesian cultures remaining.

I asked University of Maryland doctoral candidate Benjamin White, a remote sensing specialist, for advice on how to illustrate the extent of the vine infestation.  The island is rugged and steep, difficult to map on foot.  But I was able to take some measurements using a handheld GPS unit.  Ben offered to have a go at classifying the vines using my field observations as training data.  Commercial remote sensing imagery provider GeoEye donated high-resolution (4m and 1m) satellite images. Ben developed a sophisticated neural net classifier, and processed the images as R/G/IR reflectance, reflectance-based NDVI, principal components, mean texture and a quick reflectance to “dense vegetation” classification.   The final result was uploaded to Google Earth for visualization purposes; Google Earth data is not useful for this kind of application, but overlaying the classification results on a Google Earth image gives a context in terms of location and topography.  Additional satellite imagery could provide complete ground coverage and (subject to availability) time series to measure change in land cover.

I’m hoping that the image will drive home how bad the problem is, and mobilize some support for Te Rito Enua and the Cook Islands government to get a handle on the vine problem.

Heartfelt thanks go to Ben White and the University of Maryland Geography Department, GeoEye, and the Asian Development Bank for support.

* the vines are Cardiospermum grandiflorum, Mikania micrantha, and Merremia peltata.

via GREEN HAND.

Information and communications technology has a growing role in international development.  Global connectivity through the Internet and through mobile phone technology is bringing people closer together to trade, share, and learn in a wide range of sectors, from agriculture, to manufacturing, financial services to water supply.

4In coming weeks and months, we will feature innovations in ICT for environmental protection and the sustainable use of natural resources in these pages.  Today we will begin with an overview of some of the different ways in which ICT can be used, and give a few examples of innovative products that we think can make a difference.  Someday, we would like to have an exhaustive survey of tools. Those of you who are reading this are almost certainly already familiar with the topic.  If that’s the case, you’ll know the power of social networking.  Let’s do a little social networking of our own and share ideas about ICT for natural resources – either innovations that you feel the world should know more about, or ideas that you have for innovations that should be brought to the attention of technology community.

ICT can make a difference in natural resource management in several ways.  A major contribution the improvement of information used for decision making and access to that information. The science of data management is called informatics, and sometimes when the term is used for environmental sciences, it is called ecoinformatics. A key to good data management is interoperability. To better understand trends and causal relationships, it is necessary to combine data from different sources. Doing this requires the development of standards and protocols for describing phenomena, as well as quality control to ensure that the knowledge that results is based on facts.  We will review ecoinformatics in more detail in later posts; for now, have a look at Data Basin, a fantastic tool for curating data that can be located in space and time using maps.  Data Basin provides a way to host and manipulate data sets to create knowledge – to tell a story based upon observations.  But it goes further – it includes a reputation system for ranking data sets, and social networking tools to bring data users together to interpret, critique, and collaborate in the development of knowledge products.

Of course, information is not very useful if it is not accessible.  And access to reliable information has long been a barrier to effective decision-making in many parts of the world.  This is changing.  Not only is direct access to the Internet expanding, but mobile smartphones can be used in many parts of the world to send and receive data.  An exciting development is the use of mobile applications, or “apps”, to address specific needs.  For example, the World Bank DataFinder app can be used to quickly access economic data from the World Bank’s own data servers. (Unfortunately, the first version is exclusively written for the iPhone, a device not readily available in much of the developing world.)  Mapping apps are proliferating, allowing access to topographic and thematic maps.  And farmers can use apps to learn the price of, and even sell, their commodities.  The World Bank is also sponsoring an Apps for Development competition to find new uses for World Bank data recently made publicly available.  Unfortunately, many of the submissions deal with global policy issues and there are few practical tools for natural resource management, agriculture, health, and other pressing development issues on the ground.  This will change once a demand from the field emerges, and we find better ways to link application developers with development and natural resource management practitioners. In 2009 USAID sponsored a competition, Development 2.0 through NetSquared, a technology service for social benefit organizations sponsored by Techsoup Global, a non-profit organization that helps NGOs to access donations of hardware, software, and training from the ICT industry.  Innovative partnerships such as USAID’s collaborations with NetSquared and NetHope.  NetHope is a partnership of technology providers and humanitarian organizations working to solve technology challenges.  NetHope is a Global Broadband Innovations Initiative partner.

The ability to remotely sense and monitor natural resources is an important new tool for scientists and managers.  In future weeks we will explore how ICT is being used to monitor global change, monitor biodiversity in the tropical forest canopy, monitor coral reefs, track the chain of custody of logs harvested in West African rainforests, and detect forest fires in Central America.  ICT has the potential to help identify potential links between a changing climate and disease outbreaks, forest and agricultural pests and food prices.

ICT can have significant affects where time lags are a barrier to achieving goals.  For example, early responses to emergencies such as forest fires or pest/disease/invasive species outbreaks are much more cost effective and more likely to be successful than late responses. It can also make a difference when markets are involved. For example, carbon credit monitoring can be made much for efficient, and importantly, the confidence in the effectiveness of the investment can increase when time lags concerning data about the status and extent of the resource can be eliminated. Note how the artificial boundaries created by thinking in terms of “sectors” such as agriculture, environment, and health, can blur when using data in innovative ways made possible through ICT tools.

ICT can also empower communities by enabling them to collect their own data, making it possible to overcome barriers to effective participation due to nonexistent or inaccessible information, and lessen their dependence upon often inaccessible outside experts.  Using ICT communities can monitor resource use, integrate traditional ecological knowledge with scientific data, and participate as full partners in decision-making processes.  A participatory Geographic Information Systems (computer mapping) community already exists, and an international grassroots mapping network is sharing progress using low-cost tools such as digital cameras and kites or helium balloons to create highly detailed area maps.

  • We will also review some yet unmet needs that ICT can fulfill, such as:
  • Real-time access to information to help port inspectors to identify pests while performing their duties (e.g., warehouses, docks)
  • Access to keys to help parataxonomists working to identify specimens of rare or harmful species
  • Remote upload of information from field observations and query of decision support tools that can be used in a dynamic situation like a disaster response.
  • Information on spot markets for natural resource products and for reservations and logistics for remote tourism facilities such as ecotourism operations, often associated with parks and protected areas.

Some additional considerations involve the possibility of social barriers to the use of ICT.  For example, women and men may have different access to ICT, as well as different needs and different ways of approaching its use.  Frequently, access to tools and equipment by women remains problematic even when ICT is available to the community. We will look for examples of how use patterns, specific needs, and cultural contexts are being used to maximize women’s participation in technology transfer.  More technology-savvy youth may dominate ICT, limiting its use by elders and thereby failing to access important historical knowledge and perspectives.  As with gender, care should be taken in introducing technologies to ensure that its use doesn’t promote inequality or skew the generation of knowledge.

Here are some tools for natural resource management that we will look at in more depth.

1) GPS. Global Positioning System. Used for recording location, useful for georeferencing data entry and producing maps.  Often integrated into cameras and smartphones. Geotagging photographs links a visual record to an observation.

2) GIS. Geographic Information System.  Manipulates georeferenced data in “map layers” to permit overlaying and comparing different types of information. GIS can integrate georeferenced field observations (e.g., from GPS) with remotely sensed images from satellites and aircraft, and digitized maps of terrain, landcover, infrastructure, demography, etc.  Extremely complex to use and expensive in commercial versions; open source GIS is growing rapidly to overcome barriers to entry by communities, small businesses and local government.  The discipline of participatory GIS (PGIS) focuses on making tools and techniques available to communities for natural resource planning. The PGIS community provides peer to peer technical assistance through a web site and email list.

3.  Telecommunications.  Voice, text (SMS) messaging, and other data transmitted over handheld devices used in natural resource management for managing, monitoring and reporting.

4.  Remote sensing.  Some satellite remote sensing data has been made freely available and is accessible providing the technology is in place to receive and process it.  Other data, primarily from high resolution commercial instruments, can be extremely expensive.  Efforts to overcome these barriers include:

  • Terralook, a service developed by NASA and provided by USGS includes georectified LANDSAT and ASTER images as high resolution JPEG compressed images.  Terralook provides a free opensource viewer that allows users to do basic measurements, annotations, and classifications of the images.
  • Several projects have supported the development of a hybrid GPS and camera system that can be mounted on fixed and rotary winged aircraft for mapping along transects, with software to connect tiles to provide a large-scale georeferenced image that can be used with GIS systems (high resolution cameras have been able to capture images as small as 5 cm at 1500′ elevation).
  • Automated remote monitoring.  An early example of the use of ICT for natural resource management was the US Forest Service’s Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) deployed throughout western forests in the US to monitor fire weather.  Advances in technology now make it possible to create environmental sensor networks using high-tech miniature robots to record minute changes in the environment and transmitting the data to computers through telecommunications networks or satellite uplinks.  In the USA, a consortium of research institutions has created a National Ecological Observatory Network to monitor environmental impacts and changes. With the costs declining, these tools will soon be within reach of developing countries, to monitor critical watersheds, environmental impacts of extractive industries, and the habitats of rare and endangered species.

Technology transfer is an important tool for achieving global goals for economic development, biodiversity conservation, and the protection of ecosystem services.  It can help to advance effective governance and rule of law through a more informed, mobilized public and better monitoring of resource use to ensure that it is lawful as well as sustainable.  As a package, better governance and better information will provide an improved chance to lift the rural poor of the world out of poverty.

Eric Youngren, founder of Solar Nexus International, serves as a catalyst for reliable, rural power solutions in the developing world.  The Solar Nexus power center is an innovative solution for electricity that brings the quality tested North American off-grid solar installations to areas of the world where similar systems are rarely found.

The SolarNexus is an all-encompassing system, where all the high quality electronics necessary to convert the energy generated by the solar PV panels (or any other source of renewable energy) into power that is stored in batteries for later use.

SolarNexus power centers are sold as part of a complete package, shown here. The package includes PV panels, deep cycle batteries, mounting hardware, code-compliant wiring, and instructions

SolarNexus power center is designed for permanent indoor installation and includes instructions, training and support to ensure successful installations and build capacity in local communities. To understand how the Solar Nexus system operates, view this great introductory explanation on the Solar Nexus International website

Installation was performed by Ensol, of Dar es Salaam, TZ Photo Credit: Eric Youngren

A project was launched in April 2010, Solar Nexus International shipped 30 complete SolarNexus systems — including PV panels and deep cycle batteries — to Tanzania for a project run by the U.K. based charity SolarAid. The systems would be used to provide light and power to schools that were beyond the radius of the electricity grid.  The mission was to replace the old, smokey, and potentially dangerous kerosene lanterns with effective, compact fluorescent light. This improved visability would allow more local children to attend the schools.

Eric traveled to Tanzania to assist in the training of local installation crews and help facilitate aptitude.  One main goal of the founder and his company is to improve the knowledge, skills and capacity of the solar installers in the developing world to ensure the system’s sustainability and overall impact.

Visit the Solar Nexus International website and their blog for more information on current projects

The Journal of Health Communication (JHC) is seeking inputs for a special edition focused on measurement and evaluation outcomes for mHealth.Manuscripts of no more than 3,000-words will be accepted until March 28, 2011

Cover of UHCM JournalJournal of Health Communication is now exclusively using an online submission and review system, Manuscript Central through which authors submit double-spaced manuscripts and track their progress. Hard copies of manuscripts will not be considered. Authors should enter the requested information into the system and submit the following files: (a) a cover letter file, containing any comments to the editor; (b) a manuscript file (submitted in Word or WordPerfect), containing the entire text of the article, including the title page (authorship omitted), the abstract, all text, references, footnotes, and appendixes; (c) figures and tables, which may either be included at the end of the manuscript file or submitted as separate files. Manuscripts, abstracts, references, figure and tables must conform to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2001, Fifth Edition) guidelines.

**Please indicate in your online submission form and in your cover letter that this is an invited submission for the mHealth Supplement**

Only original manuscripts submitted to Journal of Health Communication will be considered for publication. The cover letter should include a statement that it has not been published elsewhere and that it has not been submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere.. All manuscripts submitted to this journal undergo editorial screening and blind peer review. Authors will be notified of the disposition of their manuscripts expeditiously.

For this suppliment, articles should be no more than 3,000 words plus appropriate charts, tables, and references. All parts of the manuscript should be typewritten, double-spaced, with margins of at least one inch on all sides. Number manuscript pages consecutively throughout the paper. Authors should also supply a shortened version of the title suitable for the running head, not exceeding 50 character spaces. Each article should be summarized in an abstract of no more than 200 words. Avoid abbreviations, diagrams, and reference to the text. Manuscripts, including tables, figures, and references, should be prepared in accordance with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition.

The editors cannot respond to individual queries regarding the appropriateness of planned contributions. Please consult recent issues of the Journal regarding our scope of coverage of health communication issues. On our web site, you can view abstracts in specific subject areas at no charge. All other questions should be e-mailed to Wendy Meltzer at journalofhealthcommunication@gmail.com .

Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material from other sources and are required to sign an agreement for the transfer of copyright to the publisher. All accepted manuscripts, artwork, and photographs become the property of the publisher.

I’ve been asked to be an editor of the environment and natural resources sector page of the GBI blog, so I’m writing a few words by way of introduction.  My name is John Waugh.  I live in the rural Virginia Piedmont, and have three decades of experience in natural resource management, running the gamut of conservation. I started out as a firefighter for the US Forest Service and US National Park Service (a little shout out to the old Flathead IR and the Arrowhead Hotshots). By turns I became a technician on fire ecology studies, a Park Ranger, and then, as a Peace Corps Volunteer, the manager of two World Wildlife Fund projects in West Africa.  This was followed by a long sojourn at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), where I helped to develop a marine program, managed UN relations, and represented the conservation community at a range of intergovernmental processes addressing biodiversity conservation.  Work has taken me to over sixty countries on every continent except Antarctica.  For the past several years, I’ve been working as a private consultant conducting program evaluations, developing and implementing projects, and providing advice on conservation strategies and planning.

Through all of this, I’ve been watching with interest the liberating role that technology can play in natural resource management.  Recently I returned to Liberia after a 24 year absence to assist a USAID funded project on land rights and community forestry.  In a meeting with government community leaders, I experienced a moment of cognitive dissonance when cellphone calls interrupted the flow of the discussion.  24 years ago, it would have been impossible for community leaders to consult with their base while sitting in a meeting in Monrovia.  When technology can facilitate information exchange in real time, participation becomes a real possibility.

I recently completed a participatory GIS project with colleagues in the Cook Islands (I know, I know – you go bust your butt for 30 years and you too may get your chance!).  The goal was to facilitate community-based climate adaptation planning using maps.  We superimposed data collected by the community using handheld GPS units with satellite imagery, existing government map layers, and climate models, and  produced custom maps as the starting point for adaptation planning.  Sally Duncan and Denise Lach of Oregon State University describe what can happen: “the deliberative interactions … altered the power held in the privileged knowledge of scientists….GIS technology routinely used to generate such interactions, [can] potentially contribute to the development of new knowledge communities, in which public participation, scientific research, local/traditional ecological knowledge, and technology combine to change the nature and the locus of power in natural-resource management. …”

Of course technology can just as easily be used to achieve the opposite results.  The potential is huge and the change is rapid.  I look forward to exchanging views with the GBI Portal readers on opportunities, and on good practices, for the use of technology for NRM.

I also blog (intermittently) at www.green-hand.net, where you’re welcome to visit and chew the fat.

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the Soros Economic Development Fund have announced they will  invested $1.25 million of equity into Esoko, a Ghanaian technology firm. The investment in Esoko will give small holder African farmers and businesses timely crop information that can be shared via text messaging, enabling farmers to increase their incomes.


Mobile phones allows farmers to access crucial crop and market informaiton

Esoko’s software takes advantage of rapidly growing mobile-phone usage in Africa.  The technology allows farmers affordable and timely access to market information that can help them negotiate better prices and improve the timing of getting their crops to market.

“Our platform was developed by African software engineers here in Accra, Ghana, and has been a totally local, market-driven initiative,” said Esoko CEO Mark Davies. “IFC and SEDF have a strong track record of helping local companies get the funding and advice needed to expand into new regions and markets. With their support we hope to export this African technology all around the world.”

Esoko’s software allows different parties in the agricultural value chain to exchange real-time market information.  Farmers receive current demands, prices of crops, and the location of seeds and fertilizers directly on their mobile phones.  Businesses can track how their products are used and market themselves to new customers.  Associations and governments can share critical information with thousands using a simple bulk-text messaging feature.  Esoko’s technology is being used in nine African countries and expanding quickly.

“SEDF’s investment helps break the information barrier for African farmers so they can generate more income,” said Stewart J. Paperin, president of the Soros Economic Development Fund, a nonprofit investment fund that works to alleviate poverty and community deterioration.  “A more transparent marketplace enables farmers to negotiate fair prices, improve their timing on getting goods to market, and move between markets to sell products.”


Farmers receive relevant information directly to their phone

Esoko is also publishing the first commodities indices in Africa, a powerful tool in helping ensure that farmers are fairly compensated for their crops, as formal commodity exchanges are very rare on the continent.  The company is initially publishing two indices that provide prices for 12 agriculture commodities in seven markets in Ghana.

“African technology firms are innovating and expanding beyond their domestic markets and we see a great opportunity to help ensure they have the proper financing for long-term growth,” said Kent Lupberger, Global Head of IFC Techonology, Media, and Telecom.

“Esoko is giving people practical tools to improve their lives and lift themselves out of poverty.”

The Center for Global Development, released a paper indicating that mobile phones can impact literacy skills, and a sustainable model  may have been found. The paper is the result of an evaluation of a mobile education program, called Project ABC in Niger.

Projet d’Alphabetisation a Base Cellulaire, or Project ABC, works with non-formal education centers established by the Catholic Relief Services Niger Food Security and Nutrition Program (2007-2011), is funded by USAID/Food for Peace, and is implemented with CARE and Helen Keller International.

The project uses multimedia phones that have been programmed with a digital curriculum in the local languages of Hausa and Zarma, and incorporates a practical literacy component tied to obtaining market information via text message.

In the first year of ABC, participants learn basic cell phone technology, including SMS. In the second year, interactive multimedia phones and a digital curriculum that includes phonetic activities and varied texts are used to further develop literacy skills. Participants also use skills in literacy, numeracy, and basic cell phone technology in a companion program that teaches them how to request and retrieve market information via SMS.

According to the report:

Overall, students demonstrated substantial  improvements in literacy and numeracy test scores, suggesting that the adult education curriculum is effective in increasing learning. Students in mobile phone villages showed substantial additional gains in literacy and numeracy exam scores.

There is also evidence of persistent impacts: eight months after the end of the first year of classes, students in ABC villages retained what they had learned better than the non-ABC students. These effects do not appear to be driven by differences in the class time devoted to students, teacher experience or teacher and student attendance. Rather they can be partly explained by the effectiveness of mobile phones as an educational tool: Students in ABC villages used mobile phones more frequently to make calls, write SMS and search for price information as compared to their nonmobile phone counterparts. The program suggests that simple and relatively cheaper information and communication technology can serve as an effective and sustainable educational tool for rural populations.

According to Isbrandt, the program is operational in 56 literacy centers in the rural regions of Dosso and Zinder, in primarily agricultural villages. As is the case in most rural settings in West Africa, local language reading materials are otherwise scarce. Participants in the program include 1,400 learners, half of whom are women

References

Aker, Jenny C., Christopher Knoll and Travis J. Lybert, “ABC, 123: The Impact of a Mobile Phone Literacy Program on Educational Outcomes,” Center for Global Development Working Paper, September 2010

Isbrandt, Scott (2009) Cell Phone in West Africa: Improving Literacy and Agricultural Market Systems. Retrieved September 1, 2010.

There are 22 days left to submit proposals for innovative ways to address disaster recovery for the World Reconstruction Conference (May 10-13 2011  in Geneva).  Winners will be invited to the conference.  All qualified entries will be invited to submit a poster presentation of their idea.

From the website:

“The focus of the competition is on innovation in services, products and approaches that have been implemented at the local level in disaster recovery and reconstruction. The aim is to:

  • showcase innovative and new solutions developed in the wake of disasters;
  • develop awareness for their use in other and future recovery operations;
  • provide a space to build partnerships to address key challenges in scaling up and replicating.

“Sectors of interest include but are not limited to: housing, water and sanitation, education, health, energy, transportation, information and communication technology (ICT), monitoring and evaluation, environment, governance and institutional strengthening.”

Let’s get some ICT proposals out there.

Copyright © 2020 Integra Government Services International LLC