Originally posted on the GBI Portal – Page 44

Anti-corruption, Civil Society, Democracy & Governance, Elections, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

#ArabSpring Activists on How 140 Characters Help Unite

Syrian protests with a coffin being carried through the crowd

Photo Credit: Reuters

Current discourse on the Arab Spring excludes social media as the sole perpetuator of the movement—but scholars and activists alike, agree that technology has helped to unify and project, citizen’s feeling of dissent.

My previous post about last Wednesday’s Future Tense event explored some speaker’s discussion on the West’s connection with new technologies, as either aiding or embedding the revolution.

Other panelists, however, elicited a more homegrown, internal perception on how the uprisings evolved.

Merlyna Lim, Professor of at the Consortium of Science, Policy and Outcomes and the School of Social Transformation – Justice and Social Inquiry Program at Arizona State University, discussed origins of anti-Mubarak protests in Egypt.

She claimed it was rooted before the Tahir moment occurred, stemming from three stages of organization—networks, narratives and claim making—to mobilize collective action.

The first protest organized exclusively online, without physical headquarters, was arranged by Kefaya in 2004. Using a website called Misr Digital, Lim recalls, the organizers increased the reach of the oppositions movement through the websites by engaging weak ties.

After the death of Khaled Said on June 6, 2010, the participatory youth culture, added emotions onto their organizational network’s narrative—and Egyptians feared being killed.

Khaled Said’s passing changed Egyptian’s view on human rights violations, the panelist stated. While it was once an abstract narrative, they are now saw concrete infringements by the regime—such as corruption, torture, and eventual death.

Egyptians shared these contentions, spreading them by networks. “The Tahir moment was facilitated by cabs, signs, cell phones, word of mouth, SMS, and social media provided the organizing platform,” Lim alluded.

Ahmed Al Omran & Oula Alrifai Photo Credit: New America Foundation

Another panel convened by Oula Alrifai and Ahmed al-Omran discussed their firsthand perspectives on the violence in Syria, and the political and social issues of Saudi Arabia.

Alrifai, a Syrian youth activist discussed the origins of the Syrian protests. With no independent media and post-imprisonment of an Al Jazeera correspondent, she stated, social media and video were the only ways to get information about the revolutions to the outside work.

However, the connections to do so were not always available.

For activists, using cell phones with cameras was the easiest way to take pictures and record videos, but since they had no networks in the ground someimtes they had to cross the borders. Some activists, “were crossing the borders to go to Jordan to download the videos in Internet cafés and (would) come back and fight again or be on the street and protest, risking their lives,” Alrifai said.

Ahmed al-Omran, a blogger for his site saudijeans.org, discussed the excitement many have felt across the Gulf of the revolutions.

Though the demand for freedom and justice in his home country of Saudi Arabia is similar, the dynamic is different—elections do not exist, and Saudis are largely politically unaware because citizens are not allowed to, “practice politics”.

Ahmed only became aware of politics when he started blogging in 2004, as he was not raised discussing the government, but social media gave him an outlet to learn about them. “I think that the Internet and social media has given this generation a space where they can express themselves and engage with one another and talk about the issues that are typically hard to talk about in the public sphere,” he said.

Ahmed also stated that an uprising similar to Egypt will be difficult in Saudi Arabia because of the monarchy, but predicts it will occur because time is on the people’s side. “Money is a short term resolution, these issues need a fundamental solution,” Ahmed poignantly observed, “At some point the money will run out, the oil revenues will not be there forever”.

Though opinions vary on how imperative social media was to aiding the Arab Spring uprisings, almost all scholars and activists agree—it is an organizational tool that can bring like-minded individuals to collaborate for change.

July 20, 2011/by actualize

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

ICT’s in Health: A Crash Course

The world of ICT is expanding into the health sector, and their interactions are garnering more and more attention by the day. Therefore, we must be mindful of the beginnings and demarcations of ICT usage in health. After all, we can’t know where we are going unless we know where we came from.

Current ICT for health news in the developing world is dominated by initiatives using mobile telephony; the bread and butter of mHealth. This is not a total shock since over 85% of the world now has mobile coverage. Moreover, there are over 5 billion people on Earth with a mobile phone, and 3.5 billion of them are in developing countries. As a result, mHealth initiatives are booming in developing countries, especially in Africa and South Asia.

But what about other forms of ICTs that play a role in healthcare? What are they and how do they work? This crash course on the intersection between ICT and Health will explore the different avenues within that intersection and how to distinguish them from one another to prevent confusion.

Avenues of ICT and Health

Avenues are the different types of structured practices that implement ICTs in the health field. An avenue in the intersection of ICT and health will utilize old technologies, new technologies or a convergence of both in a structured and systematic way to achieve positive health outcomes. These are the different avenues:

eHealth: The term eHealth refers to the practice of using and being supported by electronics in healthcare. eHealth is the umbrella concept for many other avenues of ICT and health such as telemedicine and mHealth. The term is interchangeably used with health informatics by some experts. The term characterizes a way of thinking, an attitude, and a commitment for networked, global thinking, to improve health care locally, regionally, and worldwide by using information and communication technology. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), eHealth is the quintessential embodiment of the intersection of ICTs and health. Electronic health record systems, health information systems, mHealth and telemedicine all fall under the jurisdiction of eHealth.

Telemedicine: Technically, telemedicine has been around for decades, ever since doctors on one end of the phone have consulted patients on the other end of the phone. It pertains to providing remote clinical care through forms of telecommunication and information technologies. What distinguishes telemedicine from telehealth, since they are sometimes incorrectly used interchangeably, is that the former delivers clinical care while the latter offers clinical and non-clinical care such as health research and education. Telemedicine services include live patient consultation over phone or video, remote patient monitoring, medical and health information acquisition, and emergency telemedicine.

mHealth: Also called mobile health, mHealth is a form of eHealth that uses mobile devices such as mobile phones and PDA’s for health services. The Global Observatory for eHealth (GOe) defined mHealth as medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices, such as mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other wireless devices. mHealth capitalizes on mobile telecommunication services such as SMS, general packet radio service (GPRS), third and fourth generation mobile telecommunications (3G and 4G systems), global positioning system (GPS), and Bluetooth technology.

Health Informatics: This is the field that aims to analyze the information needs of consumers, implement ways to disperse information to consumers and health professionals, and integrate consumer preferences into medical information systems. The field uses devices, resources and methods to store, obtain, retrieve, and disseminate information for healthcare purposes. Health informatics mostly uses computers but also takes advantage of clinical guidelines, advanced medical devices, and ICT services.

July 19, 2011/by actualize

Economic Growth & Trade, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

ICTs and their salvific economic power…

A a grey cellphone with a sad yellow face on its screen, bandaged left arm, a crutch under in it right hand, and a broken antenna.

Credit; Google Images

ICTs are spoken of in almost salvific economic terms by many dogmatic evangelists. The fact that these are potent tools, yet not a silver-bullet, is easily missed. Shouldn’t the truth to this tale already be known? The few available studies suggests that ICTs do present significant economic opportunities, but, as a recent Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study reinforce, access alone cannot bring about sustained economic development.

As I contended in a previous blog, the findings of the IDB study, the first systematic examination of the impact of ICTs, should be instructive. In particular, it highlights the importance of building and boosting capacity in order for countries to capitalize on the gains in access. Of course, this is all very logical, but the manner in which the ICT space in some contexts operate seems to confuse the concept of access with use, two patently different and important elements for the potency of ICTs to be realized.

Aside from access, the IDB report notes three key points, the scarcity of resources and cost-benefit (that’s newer is NOT always better), the importance of complementarity, and public-private cooperation. These factors are key to our understanding of disparities between countries and regions with respect to how ICTs have been successfully leveraged. Essentially, ICTs work better in places where the policy environment and capacity is better.

In my previous blog, I talked about the main thrust of the report, so it is fitting that I now share with you a few of the successful ICT projects studied by the researchers. As you glance over these projects, bear in mind the lesson above: newer is not always best, simplicity is often what rules in many interventions.

Here are a few examples of the successful projects profiled in the IDB report:

1)Savings Reminders—BOLIVIA

Clients who received monthly reminders saved 6% more than individuals who did not.
Reminders that mentioned a specific future expenditure of the individual increased his/her savings by 16%.

2) Internet-based Sexual Education—COLOMBIA

Significant improvements in sexual knowledge and attitudes (STD prevention, condom use, pregnancy prevention and sexual violence/abuse)
Kids are more able to identify safe and risky sexual practices, STD symptoms and violent/abusive sexual situations
More importantly, behavioral change: teenagers initiate sexual activity later and have fewer sexual partners
Reduction in pregnancies, from 2.2% to 1.3%

3) Government Efficiency and Computers—BOLIVIA

Use of ICT to improve efficiency in the issuance of national ID cards
Productivity of computer use (as opposed to typewriters) increases by more than one third.

4) Environment: Case of ‘Green’ Bags—MEXICO

Digital messages and banners in Mexico City and elsewhere
Clients exposed to information reduce new bag consumption and tend to increase consumption of reusable bags, 12 percent.

Key lessons: Information is key, more so than delivery in some cases. And, ICTs cannot do it all: The success rates of indigenous women in the Bolivian project is much lower. As with all projects, a myriad of systemic domains and factors are at play—be they discrimination, ignorance, or simply bureaucratic delay!

Overall, the study touch on the major areas. It can be best summarized as: start small, evaluate, and then scale up!

July 19, 2011/by actualize

Economic Growth & Trade, Economic Policy and Governance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Trade & Investment

Hong Kong in Honduras

Trujillo, Honduras - Site of first charter city. Photo: MundoTV

Dr. Paul Romer, economist professor at New York University, is in talks with the Honduras government to establish “new reform zones,” designed to attract foreign investors. The “charter cities” would be about 1000 square kilometers in size, and be run by foreign developers with their own laws, leasing the land from the Honduras government.

I corresponded with Dr. Romer about the role of broadband technology in charter cities, particularly in Honduras. His responses to my questions are listed below. Additionally, Dr. Romer’s presentation at TEDGlobal2009 can be seen here, and an update on the progress in Honduras from TED2011 is located here.

President Lobo of Honduras supports the “cuidad modelo” concept, and endorsed it to government officials. Last month, the President announced that Trujillo would be the first charter city, with investors from South Korea, Canada, and England, as well as support from the Inter-American Development Bank.
The importance of terrestrial fiber cables for broadband connectivity to charter cities will probably be essential to their economic success. Additionally, if the cities are to slowly be incorporated into the rest of Honduras’ economy, it will be crucial that traditional businesses in Honduras go online in order to trade with the businesses present at the charter cities.

The social and political implications of a charter city are hotly debated, as critics express their concerns that charter cities are too similar to colonialism and require nations’ to lose their sovereignty. These issues are complex, and should be debated. Despite this, Dr. Romer’s vision is thought-provoking and is being put into practice in Honduras. His answer regarding the role of broadband in charter cities, are listed below:

1. What would be the role of ICTs, particularly broadband Internet in a charter city?

As the developing world urbanizes this century, the cities that will stand out will be the ones that join the global network of hub cities. ICT is one of the key interfaces that will link hub cities to one another, along with the shipping container and the airplane.

The driving force of economic life is the non-rivalry of ideas. Because we can share ideas, each idea has a value proportional to the number of people who use it. Cities are enormous sources of value because they allow us to share ideas in face-to-face exchanges with ever more people. Digital communications are a critical link for sharing the ideas that arise in one city with others around the world. The cities that make it efficient and safe for people to exchange goods, travel, and share information electronically will benefit enormously from an enhanced access to new ideas.

2. Would the Internet be considered a fundamental good in charter cities that should be provided by the government, such as electricity or water, or would it be left to the private sector?

The Internet is an extremely important service. That said, I’m not sure that there is one best way to deliver such utilities across all contexts, or that delivery should breakdown on strictly public or private lines. For much of the developing world, government provision and self-finance, supplemented by sovereign debt, might not be enough to provide citizens with access to adequate utilities and infrastructure. Governments will have to find ways to harness the private sector in order to provide adequate levels of service.

3. Do you envision the Internet being a platform for communication essential within charter cities or is it expendable?

Low cost bandwidth and redundant connections will be essential for any city that aspires to be a global hub.

4. In particular with Honduras, what technologies do you envision being publicly provided?

The Hondurans are discussing a model of land-based public finance in the new city. The autonomous development authority that is responsible for governing the new city would retain ownership of the underlying land and lease parcels to private developers to build residences, industrial parks, etc. The development authorities revenue would therefore depend on the value of the land.

This system gives the local authority an incentive to think like a sophisticated real estate developer and ask the right question when thinking about what the governing authority should do, either on its own or by working with private firms: What maximizes the value of the land?

Certain things come immediately to mind such as low-levels of crime and pollution, high quality schooling, and access to sear and air ports, but access to broadband and mobile telephony would certainly be important factors as well.

But again, whether things like infrastructure, utilities, or technologies are publicly or privately provided is somewhat of an open question. I can think of a couple scenarios in the Honduran context.

Suppose an equilibrium is reached where everyone expects a city of a given size to emerge in Honduras. There are several services with big fixed costs that could be provided by either the city administration or the private sector. Think for example of telecoms. The efficient financing arrangement would be for the city administration to pay for the provision of the telecoms infrastructure (fiber and wireless) and then price bandwidth using congestion pricing. In the case of fiber, congestion pricing might imply a zero price, but the city administration could finance fiber through the increase in the value of its land. Consumers would capture the entire consumer surplus from being able to use bits at marginal cost, and would be willing to pay more to live there as a result. So absent any constraints, the efficient arrangement might be for the city administration to rely more on its own ability to borrow against increases in the value of the land and less on monopoly prices charged by private sector providers.

Now consider the other case. Suppose that there is some uncertainty about whether the equilibrium with a fully developed city will be sustained and therefore some constraint on the city administration’s ability to borrow against the future value of the land. In this case, one might want to rely more on private sector financing. The city administration could give private concessions for services like telecoms, roads, utilities that will not be fully competitive. It could regulate pricing, setting some kind of average cost pricing that keep monopoly distortions from being too big, but allowing for the unavoidable level that comes with prices above marginal cost. This will, in the long run, make the city less attractive as a place to live and show up in the price of land, but might be a second-best solution to the initial financing problems.

One might also use a transitional approach, like build, operate, transfer, where the city administration takes over infrastructure later and shifts toward marginal cost/congestion pricing later.

The point is that given these tradeoffs, the right division is between private and public finance in the early stages of development will have to be made in response to public expectations that affect the city government’s ability to borrow. There is some capital like equipment and structures that can be provided in a competitive market and that the private sector can provide entirely on its own, but much like roads, telecoms, and utilities it could go either way.

5. Do you have any strong opinions regarding the ITU’s Broadband Commission and the need to provide Internet to all people worldwide?

I certainly sympathize with the intentions, but I’m not a big believer in mandates or millennium goals or codified rights as a way to force governments to do their job well. I believe it is better to harness the power of competition by letting people vote with their feet. The vision behind charter cities is to help in creating a world where every family has a choice to move between several well-run cities that are actively competing for their residency. If would-be migrants had those kinds of options, governments would have the right incentives to extend things like broadband services to all people.

July 19, 2011/by actualize

Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Workforce Development

Mobile Money to Pay Rwandan Teachers

Ange is a teacher at the Rubona Public School living too far from the nearest branch of the Rwandan Teachers’ Credit and Savings Cooperative, or the Umwalimu SACCO, to receive her monthly salary.

She relies on her payment each month to put food on the table.

To resolve this problem, Umwalimu SACCO announced last month commencing a mobile money transfer service to pay members living in areas where the cooperative has no branches.

Currently, the cooperative has 16 branches countrywide, with about 57, 000 members.

Teachers living in rural areas similar to Ange, complain of having to trek long distances to access their salaries and loans, which is costly and time consuming, so SACCO decided initiate a mobile money transfer system.

Umwalimu SACCO, is a Rwandan cooperative of credit and saving which gives out loans and salaries to teachers, allowing them to set up income-generating activities to complement their measly monthly pay

The typical salary for Rwandan teachers is $40 per month. To supplement this, requests for start-up loans to engage in activities such as making mandazis (donut-like pastries) and selling them to other teachers on school grounds, is standard.

Jean Marie Vianney Nzagahimana Photo Credit: Rwandan Patriotic Front

Jean Marie Vianney Nzagahimana, the Chairman on the Board of Directors of the cooperative, recognizes that mobile payments allow teachers to be paid on time, while spurring further economic development and growth.

“We knew about the problem and that’s why we came up with this system to further address teachers’ needs. We cannot do it at once but we will be addressing them beginning with priority areas,” Nzagahimana says.

Although MTN and Tigo are currently offering money transfer services in Rwanda, Nzagahimana said that the SACCO money transfer system is to be implemented in partnership with South African company, MFS. Teachers will be able to get overdrafts through the same process.

The cooperative is also looking to expand beyond merely providing fiscal provisions for the teachers, aiming to meet the demand for new services from one of the biggest cooperatives in the country.

The Umwalimu SACCO cooperative has experienced rapid growth. Their financial assets have nearly doubled in a year from 3b Rwandan franc (Frw) in 2009, to Frw 7.3 billion in 2010.

The cooperatives financial budget for the next fiscal year worth Rwf 11.7 billion, converts roughly to $US 18 million.

“We are committed to at least establish a permanent SACCO office in every district by the end of July,” Nzagahimana asserts “This (is) done to get close to teachers and facilitate access to our services, which we also want to expand beyond financial ones. We are working on one laptop per teacher and solar energy at every teacher’s house.”

The financial services provided by SACCO are encouraging more teachers to educate Rwandan children in the classroom, while the cooperative’s new mobile payment system ensures that educators receive the money they deserve—in the time and place they need it.

July 19, 2011/by actualize

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

More Technologies, Same Social Inequalities

Photo Credit: CharlesFred on flickr

Since the Arab Spring uprisings, human rights activists worldwide have championed the power of technology, mainly the Internet and mobile phones, as tools for democracy and change. Evidence shows that they are right, social media played a role in bringing down dictatorships in the Middle East and North Africa. But other evidence shows that technology actually often reinforces social inequalities in other instances, giving more voice to the powerful, further drowning out the meek cries of the politically weak.

Social media has been successful when all social classes unite to take down the big bad evil dictators. The Arab Spring is the contemporary poster boy for this movement. The proletariat united, rose up, and took down the bourgeois in Tunisia and Egypt, and is still fighting in Syria, Libya, and other nations. Twitter hashtags and facebook groups were large players in mobilizing protestors, who came from all backgrounds—rich, middle-class, and poor—and simply communicated with their mobile phones to organize mass movements.

It seems logical, then, to assume that social media and technology penetration will lead to more democracy and social justice. The more blackberries in a country, the less the economic disparity. The more rural telecenters, the less political corruption. Or at least so goes the thinking.

Studies show otherwise. To the extent that inequalities between social classes are affected at all by the increase in ICT usage, they often became stronger and disparity increases. In a DFID study in 2005 on telephone use in India (Gujarat), Mozambique, and Tanzania, researchers found the most wealthy and educated people used phones more and with greater frequency, in both urban and rural areas. Other studies show that not only do more educated and wealthier people have greater access to ICTs, they also value them more, and use their for more development related activities as opposed to entertainment than poorer populations. Furthermore, the rich and smart are far more likely to produce digital content, solidifying the stronghold of the elite in societal knowledge production.

The relationship between ICT penetration and social inequalities, then, is more complex than the Arab Spring would suggest. The difference with the Arab Spring is that the people united to take down one leader, whereas daily life features far more social classes and political opinions, halting social change, or at least considerably slowing it down. While technology helped bring social justice to entire nations, it did not eliminate social classes within the nations.

In order to decrease social inequalities in ICT usage, then, ICT designers and national policymakers should consider stipulations to favor usage of their technology by marginalized social classes. Whether it be reducing costs to allow poorer classes to buy the product or developing voice recognition technology to engage the illiterate, extra effort will be needed to reduce the social inequality of ICT usage. Preliminary efforts by USAID’s Women in Development initiative show promise; other agencies should mimic their efforts to increase ICT usage among digital minority populations. Without these extra efforts to assist marginalized populations, ICTs will only further embed developing nations with social and economic inequalities, leading to future instability and lower quality of life.

July 19, 2011/by actualize

Democracy & Governance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

The Dissident Internet: Who Opens the Gateway?

Photograph: Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

This year’s Arab Spring revitalized claims that information technologies can serve as a catalyst for fueling revolutions and liberate oppressed citizens. Amid the most recent Syrian and Libyan eruptions, though, opinions on the role of the U.S. government and Western companies are largely divided.

While some argue that the U.S. has created programs to help activists circumvent censorship technologies and amplify their voices; others argue that Western companies are the creators of censorship technologies and the Internet should be taken back from the corporations.

Last Wednesday, Future Tense sponsored an event in Washington exploring the promise and limitations of new technologies in spreading democracy.

Two panelists on different sides of the spectrum weighed in the West’s role in these initiatives.

Michel Posner, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, discussed the U.S. government’s approaches to conflicts in the Middle East, citing $70 million in grants being spent toward these endeavors.

He noted approximately 12 circumvention programs currently being funded by the U.S. State Department including a cell phone panic button, Internet suitcases, a “slingshot” for censored content, and training to help activists operating in repressive areas.

Posner described the Internet as crucial to assisting these past revolutions, and for those in the future.

In the next 20 years five billion people worldwide who will come online, he projected—will an open Internet allow them to take part in the global conversation? Or will they have web-filtered content similar to the search engine Baidu in China, or have to go on a censored, religious network like Iran’s Halal?

Poser argues that the U.S. government’s role in Internet freedom is standing for universal human rights to help empower civil society, “It is up to the people of each country to build societies in which governments respect not some rights part of the time, but all of the rights of the governed, every day. The role of the international community is to offer support — technological and institutional.”

This “international community” also involves large technology companies like Microsoft and Google, in order to maintain an open Internet, he stated—pressing corporations to join the Global Network Initiative.

Some, though, believe that corporations need to change their course of involvement entirely.

Baidu error message

Rebecca MacKinnon Senior Schwartz Fellow at New America Foundation and co-founder of Global Voices, found current inclusion for a free Internet difficult, noting that Western technologies companies sell censorship software to the oppressive regimes.

Governments rarely act directly to restrict the Internet and instead, she maintains, policies are mediated through privately owned and operated services, as in the case with Baidu and Halal.

Post-revolution activists in Egypt uncovered a contract for surveillance software made by a Western company being used all over the Middle East and similar software still is, MacKinnon asserts.

With the, “West Censoring the East”, she remarks, how can the Internet evolve in a way to serve the citizen instead of serving other powerful entities? How can people in power use it without abusing it?

The only way the Internet can only be kept free is if Western “netizens” engage online, and insist on structural and policy changes that would expand throughout the globe.

These changes, MacKinnon observes, must start in the West because other governments will then duplicate its structure,

“Internet freedom starts at home not only on a political and government scale, but also in our companies,” she concludes.

July 18, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

CellBazaar: The market’s in your hand!

Think, an international nonprofit think-tank focused on circulating digital technologies for development, launched a glitzy mobile innovation, CellBazaar, aimed at improving agriculture in Bangladesh, with the tag-line “the market in your mobile phone”.

Credit: CellBazaar

Over a million people have signed-up and upwards of 250 million regularly use it.

CellBazaar is touted as a virtual marketplace, for GrameenPhone’s 20 million mobile subscribers, where demand and supply are brought together. This is important to the extent that market prices are commonly debased by poor transport infrastructure that increases costs.

To use CellBazaar, adopters will post the produce they wish to sell via a mobile phone, which will be fed into an online platform. The mobile element is important as internet penetration in Bangladesh is extremely low, roughly 0.03%. The mobile-enabled technology that powers this innovation also overcomes literacy challenges by utilizing voice messages to read out posts.

By expanding market opportunities for traders and farmers , CellBazaar will allow previously marginalized agricultural enterprises to flourish: earning larger profits and selling in bulk from a more advantageous position due to reduced costs.

While this technology tackles marketing, a major challenge to farmers around the globe, there are many other elements within the agricultural sector that ought to be improved to ensure sustained development and food security: harvesting, packaging, storing, and transporting. In a subsequent article, I will examine these issues as I take an in depth look at the food crisis currently crippling parts of the Horn of Africa.

CellBazaar is slated to expand to developing markets similar to Bangladesh, particularly East Africa and South Asia.

Learn more about CellBazaar here.

July 18, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Mapping for Informed Decision Making in Rwanda

Mapping and Geographic Information System (GIS) have long been used in Rwanda for sectors such as agriculture and economic growth. The need for these innovative tools and skills, however, are just now being recognized in other fields, including health. As a monitoring and evaluation expert, I have seen how useful geography and maps can be to monitor and improve programs, and I was interested to learn more about how they were being used and enhanced in the field.

For four days, I joined 18 public health professionals at a GIS training in Kigali, Rwanda, organized by MEASURE Evaluation and Monitoring and Evaluation Management Systems (MEMS) and supported by USAID in collaboration with National AIDS Control Commission (CNLS ). The participants represented many local Rwandan organizations such as MEMS, the Ministry of Health, the Center for Treatment and Research on AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and Other Epidemics (TRAC Plus), and National University of Rwanda’s School of Public Health.

Andrew Inglis and training participants use qGIS and local data to produce maps that can be used for monitoring HIV programs.

GIS is a unique tool that allows people to interact with their data. Rather than comparing data in charts or graphs, mapping data through geography allows data users to identify essential trends and associations that may not be apparent in other formats. By building local capacity in GIS, we are expanding “evidence-based decision making” for high quality and strategic health programs.

There was a lot of enthusiasm during the training about GIS. The training provided an excellent forum for the participants to talk about innovative ways they are already using the GIS tool. Participants discussed plans to create new programs that would allow for better ownership and monitoring, to improve supply chain management, and to integrate services, all things that will support and enhance the projects that USAID and its partners are implementing.

MEASURE Evaluation trainers, Andrew Inglis and Clara Burgert, introduced the concept of GIS maps and their ability to link to a database that is capable of capturing, storing, querying, analyzing, displaying and outputting data. In addition to teaching concepts such as how to interpret maps and how to effectively use spatial data, the training provided participants an excellent opportunity to gain practical experience.

Prior to the training, data was collected from each of the representing organizations so they could to make a map during the training and present to the group. All the participants also left with qGIS, an excellent free mapping tool, giving them something to work with as they began to hone their new skills and build their organizational capacity.

Andrew Inglis is a firm believer building capacity through the use of geographic and spatial data for program planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and advocacy. He explained, “The goal of capacity building is to turn potential into reality. During the January 2011 stakeholders meeting the potential value of GIS towards evaluation of HIV prevention programs were recognized, however, the lack of capacity within the national institutions is a major barrier. The aim of the capacity building is to start to realize this potential and reduce the capacity barrier to the use of GIS within national institutions.”

After the training, MEASURE Evaluation wrapped up the week with an Open Forum, hosted by the CNLS, inviting participants and other stakeholders to discuss how best to put these newly acquired skills to use. The goal was to create linkages between the HIV/AIDS and health sectors (and other related sectors) and to promote the sharing and use of data linked to geography in Rwanda. It was energizing to be there, discussing with Rwandan colleagues how they can use GIS and mapping tools to connect better with each other, improve the way they plan, implement and monitor health services, and ultimately improve the health outcomes in their country.

As Solomon Kununka, Management Information Systems Specialist from MEMS, put it, “This has initiated me into the GIS community. Now I want even more training. But, I have the basics. I can make maps for my supervisor and me, to be used for decision making.”

July 18, 2011/by actualize

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

Delivering babies in Ghana just got a little easier

Pregnant woman on phone. Photo Credit: MOTECH

A new mobile phone service was recently launched in Ghana that provides free access to health information in ensuring safe pregnancies. The service, aptly named Mobile Midwife, offers text or voice messaging on maternal health to pregnant women.

Mobile Midwife was developed as part of the U.S. based Grameen Foundation’s MOTECH Ghana initiative, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It is just one more result of rising donor attention to mHealth services. Its creation continues a trend of mHealth initiatives being churned out in Africa.

Educating women and making them aware of the maternal health risks associated with pregnancies are the cornerstone goals of the service. To make it convenient for the user, the service comes in several different languages, and is presented by text or voice via mobile phones. Additionally, the messages are time specific concurring with the woman’s stage of pregnancy.

When a pregnant woman registers for the service, they are asked to give the expected due date for delivery of the unborn child and their location. Then, periodically, the woman receives messages informing when appointments are due or overdue to remind them to visit the health clinic for check-ups.

The users also get reminders for specific treatments, information about milestones in fetal development, nutrition facts, tips on the benefits of breastfeeding and other pregnancy-related and prenatal health information. It also provides information that demystifies local pregnancy myths and helps users overcome the widespread fear of visiting doctors or health clinics.

MOTECH also rolled out a similar mobile health service earlier in the year that enables nurses in rural Ghanaian health facilities to automate much of their record keeping and reporting, which formerly took 4-6 days per month. The service is in the form of a java–based mobile phone application.

Both Mobile Midwife and the application mentioned above have made life easier for everyone involved in the process of delivering a baby.

One Ghanaian mother said to Grameen, “I would like to advise my pregnant friends to go to the hospital to enroll into MOTECH, to listen to the messages and also to practice what is said because it helps a lot…I used to be scared about pregnancy but now with the messages I am no longer scared and it has taken away my worries and that we feel ok and then the pregnancy is ok.”

This service is extremely pertinent since Africa exhibits some of the worst maternal health records in the world. Fourteen of the fifteen countries with the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world are in Africa. Furthermore, African countries are far behind in meeting Millennium Development Goals set for 2015; especially for those associated with maternal health. Perhaps services like this can lend a helping hand.

July 18, 2011/by actualize

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