Agriculture – Page 16

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

Africa’s Agribusiness Dream: How can ICTs Help?

Photo Credit: Timbuktu Chronicles

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 31, 2011/by actualize

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

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

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

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

Girls with phone in Haiti after earthquake- from USAID

Photo credit: USAID

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

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

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

Graph from Richard Garfield mobile data in Haiti article

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

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

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

October 26, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Animal poaching: Is there an app for stopping that?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 25, 2011/by actualize

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

Monitoring and Evaluation in mHealth: Opportunities and Challenges

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

JhPiego circumcision promotion through texting service

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

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

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

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

Jhpiego male circumcision project in Tanzania- behavior change evaluation

Potential link to behavior change in Jhpiego male circumcision project

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

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

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

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

October 25, 2011/by actualize

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

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

Photo Credit: ITU

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 25, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

2011 mHealth Summit Q&A

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 25, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Airtels’ mMoney Market for Ghanaian: An ICT4D Model

Photo Credit: Airtel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 20, 2011/by actualize

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

Will Nigeria Turn to mHealth to Achieve its Healthcare Goals?

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

Omobola Johnson, Nigeria's Minister of Technology and Communications

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

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

Photo credit: eHealth Nigeria

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

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

October 19, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mobile Money Service: An Innovation for Rural Women

Photo Credit: Africa News

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

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

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

How did the story change with Mobile Money Services?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

October 14, 2011/by actualize

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

How to Disseminate Maternal Health Information to Rural Women

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

Photo credit: Open Ideo

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

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

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

October 14, 2011/by actualize

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