Originally posted on the GBI Portal – Page 35

‘Seeing is Believing’ – The Impact of Social Media on the Horn of Africa

Somali women in search of food and shelter

Credit: Associated Press

An 11-year-old Ghanaian schoolboy is spearheading a campaign in support of Somalis after seeing footage of people walking in search for food.

With an ambitious target of $13 million, Andrew Andasi has raised over $4000 for victims of the famine in the Horn of Africa as of August, and is joining the ranks of celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber and Rihanna by using social media to advocate for famine relief. This ability to instantly transmit images and videos on issues as they happen could have a unique impact on disaster response and humanitarian assistance.

Social media (SM), which embodies the emerging online relational tools, methodologies, and applications that allow groups of people to interact with one another by exchanging content, opinion, and insight, continues to have significant impact on awareness creation and dissemination of information in times of emergency. The on-going humanitarian crisis at the Horn of Africa is a testament to how SM could be of immense help in times of disaster.

In addition to the immediacy of SM to responses, the new technologies and applications have shifted power from the hands of the few to the masses. SM has proven to better facilitate two-way communication than the traditional media, and also ensures richer interaction between and among people. It is relatively inexpensive and easily accessible with minimum investment of resources. SM also by their nature, are very decentralized and less hierarchical thereby providing scale and high capability of reaching a global audience. It requires minimal training, skills and expertise to use.

How is SM being used Differently in this Crisis?

Unlike earthquakes, tsunamis, and tornadoes, famine has a strong human component. Famines happen when countries and regions are not equipped to deal with extremes in weather. Notwithstanding, there have been a number of criticisms with the limited use of SM at the Horn of Africa for awareness creation and fundraising in support of the victims compared to other disasters such as the Haiti earthquake, and Japan tsunami. Examination of the use of SM at the Horn of Africa shows that these applications are progressive rather than instantaneous. Instead of a surge in the number of tweets and SMS messages as seen in natural disasters, there have been proliferation of Facebook groups such as Somalis without Borders for Drought Relief, and Africans Act 4 Africa among others. While several theories have emerged to explain the slow response – the volatile political situation in Somalia; the US debt ceiling; the mobile phone hacking scandals by the News of the World in Britain; and the killings in Norway, it is also important to understand the nature of the disaster – being progressive rather than instantaneous.

Time for Action

In July, the United Nations (UN) officially declared a famine in two regions of southern Somalia and this has extended to five regions in August. Over ten million people across the Eastern Horn of Africa are now suffering from one of the worst food crisis the world has seen in decades – United Nations World Food Program (WFP).

But the time now is for action – emergency rather than accusation. “We need the contributions of caring individuals here in the United States and around the world…we have seen this in previous crises, from the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004 to the earthquake in Haiti; individual donations can have a tremendous impact” Said the US Secretary of State. This is why we need the power of social media. The active utilization of the new ICTs and SM for disaster response continues to improve over the years. Celebrities across the world are tapping into the magic of SM to garner support for innocent women and children. For the past few months, several news headlines have appeared showing how SM is reaching out to the public about the problem and also soliciting support for the people.

Simply capturing and transmitting images and videos that other people have posted could have a significant impact on ordinary citizens like Andrew Andasi to take action – that is the potential power of SM.

September 21, 2011/by actualize

Anti-corruption, Asia, Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Eastern Europe, Elections, Governances, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Where we work

e-Government: a novel approach in tackling governance challenges?

The World Bank approved in June a $20 million credit to support Moldova’s Governance e-Transformation (GeT) project. According to Philippe Dongier, World Bank ICT sector manager, eTransformation is “about leadership commitment for institutional reform and for citizen-centric governance.”

The project is part of a Government initiative to address Moldova’s legacy of corruption and bureaucracy inherited during the Soviet Union era by improving and modernizing public sector governance and increasing citizen access to government services.

As part of an institutional reform, the Government established in August 2010 an e-Government Center charged to develop a “digital transformation policy, a government IT strategy, and an open data roadmap”. In April, Moldova became one of the first countries in the region to launch an open data portal.

“The initiative is aimed at opening government data for citizens and improving governance and service delivery,” says Stela Mocan, executive director of the e-Government Center.

Benefits of GeT

GeT has several intended benefits that include increased transparency. The Ministry of Finance recently released a spreadsheet of more than one million lines, detailing all public spending data from the past five years.

“Publishing information about public funds will increase transparency,” says Prime Minister Vlad Filat

GeT also intends to reduce the cost of public service delivery. Through “cloud computing” infrastructure—in which applications and data are accessible from multiple network devices—the Government also expects significant savings in public sector IT expenditure.

Promoting innovation in the civil society sector is another key feature of the project. The Bank’s Civil Society Fund in Moldova—which provides grants to nongovernmental and civil society organizations—is supporting the National Environment Center in the collection and mapping of information on pollution of water resources. Since 80% of Modova’s rural population use water from nitrate-polutated wells, this initiative aims to empower citizens with the necessary tools to hold the Government accountable on the environmental policy.

E-Government: a worldwide phenomen

According to the Wolrd Bank, “e-Government” is the use by government agencies of information technologies—such as Internet, and mobile computing—that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government.

Moldova is not the only country using ICTs as part of an innovative approach to address corruption and strengthen democracy.

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan of the State of Maharashtra in Western India recently launched an e-Governance program that aims to tackle corruption by reducing personal interaction between the public and government officials and requiring government officials to use computers in their day-to-day operations. Limiting discretion and facilitating the process of tracking all transactions decrease the incidence of corruption.

To combat fraudulent activities during elections, the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) upgraded its computer and communication network in 2002 to verify the eligibility of voters who had lost their voting cards or whose names were missing from the manual voter registers in the respective polling stations.

ICTs’ potential for addressing governance challenges is significant. Through increased transparency and accountability, governments can better serve their citizens. Implementing successful e-Government initiatives in developing countries is a challenging endeavor. However, sustained political commitment to institutional reform, citizen-centric policies, and financial backing create an environment where ICT applications can improve governance.

September 20, 2011/by actualize

Anti-corruption, Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Economic Growth & Trade, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Rule of Law

Raising the Barcode: Using Smartphones to Monitor Labor Practices

Chocolate giant Hershey has been the target of unwanted smart phone campaigns recently in a battle to combat child labor violations. The Raise the Bar Hershey campaign, started by four activist organizations, developed “Consumer Alert” cards that include a QR code (like a barcode) to warn shoppers about the labor practices.

With the ability of ICTs to distribute information faster and farther than ever, it is no surprise that people all over the world are able to start campaigns that promote fair labor practices, transparency and equality, often gaining followers and media attention almost immediately. Those informed about a particular issue can raise awareness on it using social media like Facebook, posting a video on YouTube, or starting their own campaign on sites like Change.org, an organization that helps individuals or groups run social change campaigns. Knowmore.org empowers consumers to purchase products and support companies that promote fair trade, human rights, and democracy. The site makes it easy to determine which corporations use unethical (or ethical) practices through its browser extension that alerts consumers on where companies stand on particular issues as they browse the company websites.

Consumer alert placed next to Hershey displays in supermarkets

Photo credit: news.change.org

The Raise the Bar campaigners claim that Hershey “lags behind its competitors” in enforcing labor rights standards among its suppliers and in tracing the source of its cocoa which comes largely from West Africa, an area known for forced labor, child labor and human trafficking. Volunteers have been placing the alert cards next to Hershey products and displays, and shoppers are able to scan the code by using smartphone applications. The QR code on the cards opens a web page on the campaign’s website, allowing consumers to take action immediately by signing a petition on Change.org or getting involved in other ways.

QR codes have been used by shop owners to offer information and coupons to shoppers as they pass by as well as to show pictures of meals on restaurant menus. The codes can be easily built by anyone using free online tools.

Raise the Bar Hershey QR code- smart phone app takes consumers to website

Photo credit: raisethebarhershey.org

Other organizations also use smartphones in order to monitor businesses to ensure they are following labor laws. Free2Work evaluates major companies around the world based on their labor policies and has established a mobile app that allows consumers to easily find companies, share information, and receive updates. The United States Department of Labor has its own smartphone application for workers to keep track of their wages to help guarantee that they receive proper compensation. Through the app, employees can track their work hours for any of their employers, as well as access information on wage laws.

As smartphones become more advanced, the potential for increasing transparency and promoting fair labor practices worldwide grows. Concerned citizens have a plethora of tools at their disposal to gain and redistribute information on a topic, allowing them to hold companies, as well as governments, accountable to fair labor standards. Time will tell whether this will force companies to step up their standards.

September 20, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Health, Non-communicable Diseases, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Beyond “an App for that”: Using mHealth to fight NCDs

As the global health community gears up for the upcoming United Nations High-Level Summit on non-communicable disease (NCDs), I thought it would be useful to explore the ways in which mobile technology can play a role in the efforts to reduce the burden of NCDs globally. NCDs include cardio-vascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory diseases. The combined impact of these diseases contributes substantially to global poverty rates and places strain on healthcare systems worldwide.

With a growing urban population and lifestyle changes, particularly in diets where fast foods have become a greater part of the local diet, obesity and diabetes rates tend to grow rapidly. NCD rates are frequently driven by the combination of lifestyle changes and environmental shifts and require more innovative thinking around behavioral change and social movements in order to make long-term changes.

mHealth applications for NCDs are already quite common in parts of the world where diabetes rates, in particular, are high. This can be found in personalize-able mobile applications such as Glucose Buddy, or in social media campaigns such as TuAnalyze, which uses Twitter to drive higher compliance rates for hemoglobin A1c testing (a bit of a gold-standard when it comes to diabetes care).

Beyond diabetes, there are NCD prevention applications, such as the anti-smoking Text2Quit, demonstrating the potential to find interventions with the capacity to scale into national campaigns. On the respiratory disease front, Asthmapolis, is an innovative approach that combines sensors with mapping to track the contexts in which people with asthma use their inhalers and furthers our public health understanding of asthma and the environment. Tracking programs that enable dieters to monitor food intake and exercise can be effective tools for fighting obesity and cardio-vascular disease.

In order to realize the full potential of mobiles, however, we should take a few cues from the recent mass mobilizations and social movements in the Middle East where Facebook and Twitter were utilized to facilitate social change movements in Egypt and Tunisia.

Similarly, long-term efforts at prevention in public health have rarely succeeded without complementary sustained social movements that reduce the social barriers to behavioral change and create stronger enabling environments for personal lifestyle changes to succeed. This could include more walkable cities, better access to health foods, and changing environmental drivers that affect cardiovascular diseases and respiratory health outcomes.

We’ll likely need to move beyond the “app for that” ethos to engaging with social networks and technology in ways that can promote both well-being and the underlying social transformations required to sustain behavioral change in a health landscape that must navigate a long-term global financial crisis where resources are in short supply.

September 20, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

How to convey the new WHO Mental Health Intervention Guide to workers in the field?

On paper? Online? On smartphone apps? Via SMS or voice?

This 89 pages mhGAP-IG is issued in 2010 and now available in several languages. The guide consists of decision trees for the most important psychiatric conditions.

1. Use of paper versions:

Reading: Additional shipping and transport costs can be a hurdle in low and middle income countries (LMIC). One can download the guide from the WHO website, but then one faces the high costs of (color) print and copies.

Training: Face2face trainings seem the most ideal option, but the in most LMIC there is a shortage of health tutors. And a face2face training necessitates the movement of the health worker away from the field, which interrupts the delivery of services and is expensive.

2. With the internet/desktop/laptop:

Reading: Distribution on CDs is cheap. Online reading offers also the use of go-to tabs, notes storage, information charts and a find-utility. The main disadvantages of internet/computer is the constant need of a computer nearby and standby, which is a rarity in most LMIC.

Training: Beside the benefits of no travel and no interruption of the daily work, the internet gives health workers also the opportunity to study on own pace and preferred time.

3. With mobile apps on smartphones:

Reading: Smartphones can have a high added value for previously unconnected people. Smartphone prizes drop and they are growing in popularity in LMIC. The guide can be read on an app.

Training: Education via a smartphone apps offers the same benefits as the internet learning, like nice attractive tools and designs. The extra advantages are the pocket format; easy taking it with you.

4. With mobile phones (no wireless internet):

Reading: Service in developing countries will rely heavily on text messaging and voice in the years ahead. One can convey parts of the guide by SMS or voice, piece by piece, or certain parts on request. One can even run an automated SMS reply manager.

Training: Conducting a training in the mhGAP-IG solely by mobile phones is possible, but only an option of one really can’t reach the health worker via another channel.

Conclusions and recommendations:

-Not one of the 4 distribution channels is the best of all, so create materials in all 4

-Concert international and implement what’s most suitable on a local level

-Connect and cooperate with innovators in LMIC

-Look for creative funding channels, including NGOs and telecom providers

-Learn, lend and copy from other health fields, which are a long way ahead in technical innovations.

Full article with links and examples on the in2mentalhealth website

September 20, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Technology’s Role in Self-managed Diseases

Closeup of a digital blood glucose meter reading

As a person living with type 1 diabetes, technology has been a medical part of my daily life for more than ten years. Diabetes is largely a self-managed disease, meaning that the person living with diabetes must manage the day-to-day balance between severe short-term effects and equally severe long-term effects. Technology can be a great help in this – in the last ten years I’ve tried at least about ten different types of blood glucose meters, four different insulin pumps, and I am always wearing a continuous glucose monitor.

I’ve also tried some of the mobile apps available to assist with diabetes management – tracking blood glucose levels, calculating carbohydrate and the amount of insulin to take with each meal, recording exercise events and so much more. I know I’m not the only one who has tried these devices; when technology plays a part in your own chronic disease management, you tend to incorporate technology from non-medical devices as well.

It should be no surprise to me, then, that a popular Twitter Chat group organized as Diabetes Social Media Advocates, or #dsma, recently devoted an entire hour-long discussion to the topic of mHealth earlier this month. Questions ranged from “What would you like your mobile device to help you with managing your diabetes?” to “What are your thoughts on the FDA regulating mobile apps that uses platforms for medical device functions?”

The answers were all over the place – some people weren’t interested in using their mobile phones for anything but making calls and receiving email, others wanted to see all of their devices, including medical devices and mobile phones, have the ability to communicate with one another. One person even said that he’d love a phone that could take a picture of a meal and estimate the amount of carbohydrate for you. Initially he was joking, but someone quickly told him that that function is in development, although struggling with accuracy right now.

Of all the topics and crazy ideas that came up, only one question received consensus: “Does mHealth have the potential to change the way we take care of our health or manage diabetes?” Everyone answered yes. But these are all smartphone-owning, diabetes-tweeting, tech-savvy folks. What about the rest of the 346 million people with diabetes around the world?

A quick check at the HUB Database will show you that 15 technologies, programs, and organizations have contributed to the database and tagged diabetes. Some focus on medication reminders, others provide vital information to health care workers. One program even developed a game-like system that monitors interaction with a virtual pet to let friends or relatives know that the person is active – allowing more opportunity for an independent lifestyle.

This is one of the great aspects of mHeatlh: it focuses on the health problems and identifies innovative solutions. Not remembering to take your meds? Your phone can help! Not checking in with your loved ones despite the fact you could fall into a coma? Your digital pet can help! In this day and age, when 70% of mobile phone subscriptions are in developing countries, phones can be seen as health tools – especially for those of us with self-managed diseases.

September 20, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Cablegate on African broadband: 2007 (Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia)

Quite a few WikiLeaks cables deal with the behind-the-scenes of African broadband affairs. Using CablegateSearch.net we have listed the “juiciest” cables (if African broadband can be described as such), below. The U.S. was very interested in broadband, most notably ownership of the SEACOM fiber-optic cable and competing with Chinese investment.

{WikiLeaks}

Next up are four cables from 2007. The main themes are Ghana’s ICT initiatives, Kenyan fiber projects (which will succeed – SEACOM, TEAMS, or EASSy?), and fiber investment in Ethiopia (via U.S. or China?) :

Ghana

Summary: As of 2006-7, Ghana has multiple ICT projects underway that should vault the nation into a regional leader. Further privatization is needed, as is rural connectivity, but mobile growth and ICT training facilities look promising.
U.S. viewpoint: Ghana’s ICT sector is promising but faces challenges in privatization, regulatory gaps, power supply, and general business climate. Government projects should have positive results for the private sector.

Notes:

60% of investment in ICT has failed since 1992.
ICT contributed 6% to the GDP in 2005 versus 1.8% in 2000.
In 2003, >50% of fixed lines were in the Accra area. Only 10% of the Ghanaian population lives here.
Four mobile operators all offer broadband as of 2006.
Internet cafes charge US $0.45 – $1.60 per hour.
Ghana is extending an existing 600km fiber optic cable ring connecting Accra, Tema, Kumasi, and Takoradi.
Broadband over power-line was explored.
E-government, m-banking and e-agriculture intiatives were discussed.
Run-down of 7 education initiatives.
Link: Ghana’s ICT Development: Is The Glass Half Full?, October 11, 2007

Kenya

Summary: Numerous (3 or 4) fiber-optic services are ready to undergo construction. Last-mile solutions are not far behind.
U.S. viewpoint: High-speed broadband will allow East Africa to connect with opportunities for job growth and a global marketplace starting in 18 months. The upside is enormous.

Notes:

SEACOM expects their undersea cable to be live by March 2009. (was eventually July 2009)
The perception of progress on EASSy is a distraction that has caused potential customers to delay in committing to SEACOM.
Link: Kenya And East Africa: A Step Closer To Fiber Optic Connectivity, August 13, 2007

Ethiopia

Summary: Ethiopia plans on purchasing 14,000km of fiber cable from China. Negotiations to connect via Djibouti have been flat for 3 years.
U.S. viewpoint (adopted from Ethiopian Minister’s comments): Ethiopia needs approximately ten years to transform its ICT sector. There is debate whether to use Chinese or American companies as examples or investors. State-owned ETC must lower rates in order to accelerate development.

Notes:

A massive US $158 million project will bring fiber transmission backbone, mobile services in 9 cities, plus hundreds of thousands of wireless phone lines. The goal of completition is September 2007.
Plans are in the works to connect to cables in Kenya, Sudan, and Djibouti.
Ethiopia needs major human capital over the next 5-8 years.
The ICT Minister has traveled to India, Egypt, and China. He has plans to visit Silicon Valley.
Link: Ethiopia: Laying Groundwork For Development Through Fiber Optics, May 3, 2007

Kenya

Summary: U.S. firms, along with Kenya, are racing to give East and Southern Africa broadband connectivity to the rest of the world. SEACOM look to be completed within two years.
U.S. viewpoint: Kenya must decide whether it will merge with SEACOM or go ahead with its TEAMS cable. Additionally, the U.S. strongly favors the SEACOM cable over TEAMS or EASSy, writing how, “the good news is twofold: first, that at least one of the three cables is moving towards fruition; and second, that the current frontrunner will be owned, managed, and built by U.S. companies.”

Notes:

Payment and signed contracts have secured SEACOM in the global queue of fiber cables.
The government of Kenya has promised an operational fiber system by 2008. They may feel that TEAMS can be completed before SEACOM due to its shorter length.
Some feel that EASSy’s monpolistic ownership structure will preclude cheap bandwidth delivery, and even if it success there, it may not return profits given the competition with SEACOM.
Link: U.S. Companies In Lead To Bring Fiber Optic Connectivity To East And Southern Africa, April 20, 2007

September 20, 2011/by actualize

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

Nigeria’s elections set new records in use of social media

In Nigeria, a study says, elections held last April brought the use of social media in the political field to new levels. UN Africa Renewal’s André-Michel Essoungou reports.

By André-Michel Essoungou

In 2008, then US presidential candidate Barack Obama broke new ground by using social media in ways never seen before. Yet it was Goodluck Jonathan, the recently elected president of Nigeria, who took the extraordinary step of announcing his bid for the highest office on Facebook. On Wednesday, 15 September 2010, he informed his 217,000-plus fans on the world’s most popular networking platform of his intent. Twenty four hours later, 4,000 more fans joined his page. By the day of the election, on 16 April 2011, he had over half a million followers.

Mr. Jonathan’s online campaign was only one illustration of the social media fever that gripped Africa’s most populous country (with around 150 million people) during its most recent presidential, parliamentary and local elections. A report by two researchers who helped track online traffic during the month-long polls argues that the country’s use of social media reached unprecedented levels.* “Nigeria set a new record for recent African elections in the number of reports tracked using social media,” it says. In addition to the approximately 3 million registered Nigerians on Facebook and 60,000 on Twitter, almost every institution involved in Nigeria’s elections conducted an aggressive social networking outreach, including the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), political parties, candidates, media houses, civil society groups and even the police.

The report notes that between 10 March and 16 April 2011, the electoral commission posted almost 4,000 tweets, many in response to voter queries. Using Twitter, commission officials at polling stations around the country also were able to communicate among themselves, and even confirmed the death of one of their members who had been attacked. “Twitter ultimately proved to be the most efficient way to interact with INEC,” the document authors report. The commission’s use of social media led to its website receiving a record 25 million hits in three days during the presidential election. “By using social media to inspire voters, the electoral commission has redefined elections in Nigeria,” analyzed Punch, the country’s most circulated newspaper.

The boom in use of social media during elections also helped the media expand their readerships. Shortly before the polls, the Daily Trust newspaper had 32,000 fans on Facebook. A few weeks later, the number had more than doubled to 65,000, placing its online reach beyond its print distribution of 50,000. To build up its fan base, the newspaper also used social media in its reporting. Journalists solicited and used questions from Facebook fans for interviews with the chairman of INEC. Since the elections, the Daily Trust has further increased its Facebook presence, with 95,000 fans by July 2011.

The online networking platforms reflected popular interest. Unsurprisingly, social media use reached its peak during the presidential election on 16 April. On that day, a total of 33,460 text messages and 130,426 posts on Twitter and Facebook were sent by some 65,000 voters.

The content was mixed, the authors point out. “Social media, especially Twitter, was used to report occurrences [of fraud] — truthful as well as fabricated.” Yet, they add, it played a mostly constructive role during the post-election violence by exposing unfounded rumours.

“Social media tools,” the report concludes, “revolutionized the efficiency of election observing by increasing coverage and reporting, while minimizing costs…. They changed how information was disseminated in Nigeria. Citizens accessed information directly and more accurately, resulting in unsurpassed participation in politics during the 2011 elections.”

That upbeat assessment, however, needs to be put in context: An estimated 70,000 people posted contents online during Nigeria’s polls, but they were just a tiny fraction of the registered 73 million voters. Still, a new trend appears to have begun.

___

Africa Renewal www.un.org/africarenewal

September 18, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

CRS & ICT: Data collection and the Humanitarian Cloud

Shaun Ferris (CRS) demonstrates data collection methods. Photo credit: KDMD.

A variety of emerging technologies connects the digital fieldworker to the value chain, according to Shaun Ferris of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in his presentation, “CRS ICT4D Strategy,” at the ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) August Meetup. According to Ferris, project progress tracking and data sharing are two of the challenges his organization faced while collecting data from their beneficiaries. New technologies and/or new uses of existing technologies are helping to bridge this gap. In his presentation to the ICT4D group, Ferris showed the audience that a combination of hardware, software, and data-sharing technologies were used to ensure a more efficient transfer of data.

In partnership with the IT-focused non-governmental consortium NetHope, CRS beneficiaries and the international agricultural community share their information via the “Humanitarian Cloud.” The Humanitarian Cloud concept borrows its name from the information technology term, “cloud computing.” Cloud computing, is “anywhere access” to data or, more simply, web-based data. Universal access to data is vital in ensuring equal distribution of services, particularly to underserved areas. Connecting to this Humanitarian Cloud from rural areas with limited internet access, however, was one of the challenges faced by Ferris’ project.

Recognizing the reality of intermittent internet access, the CRS project needed a data collection tool that was both available offline (for data input) and online (for data transmission). In addition, they needed software which was available on mobile devices such as tablet PCs and smartphones. To address this need, they found software in which they could create customized forms and collect data, both on- and offline. Using a form designed in iFormBuilder and accessed via mobile device, the fieldworker or project staff member are now able to add data to the Humanitarian Cloud.

Access to remotely-shared data, however, is not without its caveats – as one participant brought up in her question to Ferris. Ethical use of the data, as well, is an important consideration, continued the questioner, of which only the most technologically savvy of the fieldworkers might be aware. Ferris echoed the questioner’s concern and mentioned that data integrity, fieldworker privacy, and responsible use of data in a “Facebook world” factor into their internal confidentiality processes. To better address confidentiality of the data, Ferris mentioned the opportunity to learn from the best practices of mobile health data collection projects. While data usage and confidentiality is important, the overall benefit, as another participant mentioned, of sharing data and the various positive outcomes it can produce, can be a worthwhile tradeoff in supporting fieldworkers.

Ferris also put the call out for Ag Technology providers and practitioners in his announcement of a possible CRS ICT4D conference in DC in November 2011.

September 14, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Two Questions on the Sustainability of Grameen’s Android App for Farmers

The Grameen Foundation Center launched a comprehensive Android phone-based project for Ugandan farmers recently, that could significantly improve farming processes, but how sustainable is the initiative?

The project is a high-tech response to fundamental challenges in agriculture, including unclear pricing structures and markets, unreliable weather forecasts, and a myriad of inefficient or absent extension services about when and how to plant crops. Each Android phone has an open-source data-collection app that feeds into Salesforce.com.

The Grameen innovation counters the electrical challenges in the East-African country, that would otherwise doom projects dependent on electrical power, by utilizing rechargeable batteries which solar energy can sustain. (PC World reports on this in detail)

The project is organized around 400 select farmers, known as “community knowledge workers“, who own Android phones – and 3 in 4 of all their peers value their high-tech extension services. But an Android phone costs US$600 plus upkeep costs, nearly twice the per capita income in Uganda. So, how do these smart phone owning farmers acquire them legitimately? The project offers select farmers loans to purchase the phones. On the surface, this approach suggests a level of sustainability, but I have a two questions:

Are the benefits of using a smart phone, compared to a regular phone, so great that a farmer ought to take a loan and bear upkeep costs (combined) twice his/her country’s per capita income simply to access information? Of course, information is important, but it is only one variable among many that must be resolved to result in improved earnings for the farmers.
Even if in the long-term ‘community knowledge workers’ charge for the services they offer, and even pay a fee to the platform providers, how long will it be before they can recoup and repay their loans? What is the interest rate on these ‘Android loans’?

These are critical questions that ought to be answered in order for us to truly grapple with the potential economic impact of deploying this sophisticated technology.

September 14, 2011/by actualize