Originally posted on the GBI Portal – Page 46

Africa’s first apps lab

Kenya recently launched m-lab, Africa’s first apps lab. The World Bank , Nokia and Government of Findland backed project seeks to encourage innovation in the East African country, a major ICT hub on the continent.

The Nairobi-based facility will house six startups . It will also benefit from linkages with the well established iHub Consortium that includes Nairobi’s iHub, eMobils, the World Wide Web Foundation and the University of Nairobi School of Computing and Informatics. The iHub is a fast-growing incubator space for Kenyan start-ups, investors and technologists, and the m-lab will bring similar benefits. The m-lab will tackle two missing features that are crucial for a true ICT business-enabled environment to flourish: access to market and finance for embryonic enterprises.

The nature of the m-lab project and the iHub initiative underscores the reasons for the rapid expansion of Kenya’s ICT sector, which now constitutes about 5% of GDP: co-location, cohesive ICT policies, sustained expansion of service to rural areas and investment in infrastructure.

The launch of m-lab follows the staging of the Nairobi-based Pivot25 mobile app developer contest, which was created to give start-ups a platform on which to share their innovations, access funding and penetrate new markets.

The World Bank also plans to roll-out m-lab projects in South Africa, Armenia, Pakistan and Vietnam.

A three color ven-diagram pink (business), blue (technology) and yellow (users).

Credit: The World Wide Web Foundation

Business, technology and users: three areas to focus on…

July 13, 2011/by actualize

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

Recent report highlights challenges in mHealth

Africa’s first mHealth summit was held in June, in Cape Town, South Africa. As a result, the World Health Organization (WHO) produced a report entitled ‘mHealth: New horizons for health through mobile technologies’, which looked at the state of mHealth projects from 112 WHO member countries in 2009.

Photo Credit: mhealthsummit.org

According to the report, currently over 85% of the world’s population is now covered by a commercial wireless signal. Furthermore, 5 billion people own cell phones, and 3.5 billion of them are in middle to low income countries, setting the platform for increase in opportunity for mHealth growth.

The majority of member countries (83%) reported offering at least one type of mHealth service. However, many countries offered four to six programs. The report also cited the four most frequently reported mHealth initiatives as health call centers (59%), emergency toll-free telephone services (55%), managing emergencies and disasters (54%), and mobile telemedicine (49%).

Although mHealth success was lauded by officials, there was no shortage of criticisms and concerns for the future. “Although the level of mHealth activity is growing in countries, evaluation of those activities by Member States is very low (12%). Evaluation will need to be incorporated into the project management life-cycle to ensure better quality results.” said the report.

The lack of evidence prevents policymakers from supporting mHealth infrastructure and as a result funding often goes elsewhere. “In order to be considered among other priorities, mHealth programs require evaluation. This is the foundation from which mHealth (and eHealth) can be measured: solid evidence on which policy-makers, administrators, and other actors can base their decisions,” claimed the report.

mHealth report

Competing health priorities was claimed as the greatest barrier to mHealth adoption by WHO member countries. The report also points out that mHealth services are not yet integrated and are mostly small scale projects targeted for specific communities. Going forward, mHealth will need to “adopt globally accepted standards and interoperable technologies” in order to facilitate effective growth in scaling up mHealth initiatives.

The report says, “Moving towards a more strategic approach to planning, development, and evaluation of mHealth activities will greatly enhance the impact of mHealth. Increased guidance and information are needed to help align mHealth with broader health priorities in countries and integrate mHealth into overall efforts to strengthen health systems.”

In an era where mobile communication is paramount, the services of mHealth may prove to be vital in the development of many low income countries. The report did itself justice by celebrating the successes of mHealth, and then laying down the hurdles to be cleared for sustainable growth. The next mHealth summit is in December in Washington DC.

July 13, 2011/by actualize

Economic Growth & Trade, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Africa’s urban telecoms market is saturated

Rural expansion, according to telecoms analysts Frost and Sullivan, is critical for sustained growth in Sub-Saharan Africa’s increasingly important ICT sector.

The proliferation of mobile phones in the sub-region is phenomenal: nearly a half of all Africans have cellphones, compared to a mere 2% a decade ago. This exponential growth in mobile subscription and usage is redounding significantly in economic and social terms, as ICTs are localized and used to structure and strengthen key industries. The economic impact of the industry is evident through the work of organizations like TextToChange, Ushahidi and communities like MobileActive.org, which all leverage mobiles for innovative development interventions.

But the massive wave of mobile adoption happening across Sub-Saharan Africa, despite a significant lag in broadband access, is vastly uneven: there’s a pernicious urban-rural divide that leaves tens of millions of vulnerable people behind.

I reckon that contemporary market imperatives will change this. This is premised on the fact that although mobile subscription is on the uptick, and is projected to grow, the market is highly concentrated in urban spaces. The high concentration of subscribers in urban corridors is exacerbated by intensifying competition, which makes for impending market saturation. This is likely to dwindle the telecoms giants’ share of the nearly $60 billion industry.

As the profit motive gets squeezed, rural expansion will become an inevitability. In fact, that is the case today, but a series of structural problems is slowing this market-led roll-out into more rustic places. Chief among the impediments is the cost of doing business in the sub-region. According to The World Bank Enterprise Surveys, indirect costs pose a competitive burden on African firms. These costs, largely associated with infrastructure and service provision, are usually significantly higher in less developed contexts, particularly rural parts of already highly undeveloped countries such as those in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Despite the challenges to expansion, there is great incentive for those telecoms firms with the foresight to expeditiously move into unconnected/under-served rural markets. Those that do will reap great benefits in the short to medium term.

The inevitable shift towards rural service provision will be costly, but that will also create opportunities to restructure cumbersome organizations with limited income streams. As Frost and Sullivan’s ICT Business Unit Leader for Africa, Birgitta Cederstrom, notes, outsourcing, managed services and co-location are set to become critical operational strategies.

The expected growth in broadband subscription in Africa to 265 million by 2015 should spur a shift from heavy concentration on voice subscription to more low-cost data strategies and models. This will be increasingly important for meeting the needs of urban consumers and enterprises.

July 12, 2011/by actualize

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

#Berish2.0: The Ire of Malaysian Protests

Photo Credit: Saeed Khan/AFP

Social media may have helped fuel the 50,000 demonstrators who gathered in Kuala Lumpur this past Saturday demanding electoral reforms—despite the Malaysian government responding roughly and deeming the peaceful protests illegal.

Police fired tear gas and water cannons at the dissidents demanding change from a electoral system that they claim has unjustly favored the ruling party since the country’s independence from Britain in 1957.

The recent rally puts pressure on Prime Minister Najib Razak in the racially stimulated Southeast Asian nation, as Malaysia’s next general election is planned for 2013.

Peaceful protesters in Malaysia’s capital were met with police violence, and 1,667 arrests over the span of the weekend, according to reports. In lieu of the aggressive response, Amnesty International urged the UK government yesterday to press Najib to honor the freedom of assembly

“As a current member of the UN Human Rights Council, the Malaysian government should be setting an example to other nations and promoting human rights. Instead they appear to be suppressing them, in the worst campaign of repression we’ve seen in the country for years”, Donna Guest, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia-Pacific. Amnesty International, states.

Bersih (The Coalition for Fair and Clean Elections) is the oppositional NGO that organized the electoral reform movement called Bersih 2.0.

Bershish 2.0 Poster

The original Berish protests occurred on November 23, 2006 in the Malaysian Parliament, such attendees included political party leaders, civil society groups and NGOs, including People’s Justice Party (PKR) president, Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail

The electoral reform demands of Berish 2.0, also known as 709, can be summarized in the eight following points:

Clean the electoral roll
Reform postal ballot
Use of indelible ink
Minimum 21 days campaign period
Free and fair access to media
Strengthen public institutions
Stop corruption
Stop dirty politics

Social media’s role in the Malaysian movement was to coordinate groups and record demonstrations.

As of today, the Berish 2.0 Facebook page had over 169,000 fans calling for Najib’s resignation, and the official Twitter account had close to 18,000 fans.

Though there are 10 million Facebook users in Malaysia, the preferred social media platform, protesters shared information over Twitter on how to circumvent sealed off roads and closed train stations to get to the protests.

@ask_ivan's Google map of the Malaysian government's roadblocks

While Facebook and Twitter were used for mobilization purposes, videos circulated on Youtube broadcast the movement to the world.

Over the span of the weekend 2,000 Youtube videos were uploaded with 2,774,812 total views based on the single keyword “Bersih 2.0″ on YouTube

As the case with the Arab Spring protests, the truth behind the movement is told by first hand perspectives of civil society, not the political parties. Social media is not a panacea current uprisings, but rather serve as a medium for organization and propagate that truth.

July 12, 2011/by actualize

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

SMS campaign in India to reach 5.5 million people

Blood bags. Photo Credit: anemia.org

HLL Lifecare Ltd, one of the largest blood bag manufacturers in India, launched a massive SMS blood donation campaign last month, targeting to reach over 5.5 million customers belonging to the top telecommunications company, BSNL.

The campaign, launched by state Health Minister Adoor Prakash on Blood Donation Day last month in Kerala, a southern state in India, wanted to highlight the virtue of blood donation as a civil responsibility for those who are able in order to help those in need.

Prakash also created a help desk called ‘Heart Beats’ designed to assist prospective blood donors. This was funded by the Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust (HLFPPT), an organization affiliated with HLL Lifecare, in association with the Kerala State AIDS Control Society.

The purpose of the help desk is to funnel the donors to the patients. Individuals who want to donate blood voluntarily can register their details, including name, place, blood group and phone number either at the help desk or to the help desk via SMS. They are intended to be set up at local health care centers and can also assist patients during emergencies.

India has harbored SMS blood donation programs in the past. Indianblooddonors.com is a website that serves as a database listing for thousands of blood donors from over hundreds of Indian cities. It was launched in 2000 with the SMS component implemented a few years later.

It works in the opposite way of HLL Lifecare’s system. A person in need of blood sends out a text message to a special number, mentioning, in a particular format, his name, city and the blood group required. Within a few seconds, he gets a return SMS with the name and number of a donor in that city.

Photo Credit: HLL Lifecare

Despite having the capability of saving lives, this was a little known service in India. However HLL Lifecare’s current campaign seems to be aiming for much more publicity and awareness on blood donating.

India frequently engages with shortages of blood supply. India usually faces deficits of up to millions of units of blood per year.

Furthermore, isolated populations usually have difficulties reaching out to blood donors and suppliers and often don’t get the blood they desperately need. India’s telecommunications industry is the fastest growing in the world. Nearly 75% of the population, about 900 million people, has mobile phones. Hopefully, this SMS campaign will bring light to the issue of blood donations and help curb the burden by taking advantage of mobile phone prevalence and growth in the country.

July 12, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture, Food Security & Rural Development, Areas of Expertise, Climate Change, Environment, Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Global alliance to reduce agricultural greenhouse gasses

Agriculture is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and this makes finding a balance between increasing food production and limiting greenhouse gas emissions a major challenge.

In fact, there are few global research projects with a focus on reducing agricultural greenhouse gases, compared to the energy and transport sectors. But this could all change for the better.

Over a year and a half ago New Zealand launched the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, and this year its membership grew to 30 countries. The Alliance aims to coordinate the research of the world’s top scientists in agricultural emissions in a bid to find ways of increasing food production and ensuring food security without increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Alliance has successfully increased international cooperation and investment in research for livestock, paddy rice production systems and technologies to limit the loss of carbon and nitrogen from crops and soils.

July 11, 2011/by actualize

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

Mobile Khabar to Bring News & Empower via Mobile

Manin turban next to a bus stop featuring a mobile advertisement

Photo Credit: Jan Chipchase

On August 11, Afghans will be able to receive free access to radio news broadcasts, cricket scores, and other informational audio content through their mobile phones.

The USAID project—named Mobile Khabar, roughly translated to “News” in Dari and Pashtu”—is made to improve Afghans’ access to information and empower local journalists.

With 28 percent illiteracy, and an estimated 60 percent of Afghans using mobiles, cellular phones are a widely used technology more accessible than radio and have a much wider reach.

Troy Etulain, the project’s architect and a senior advisor for media development in USAID’s Office of Democracy and Governance, says that when the system is up and running in a month, users will be subscribe to local radio reports by dialing a four-digit code on their cellphones.

Troy Etulain in Afghanistan wearing army fatigues with soldier on right

Troy Etulain in Afghanistan Photo Credit: World Learning

The information will include everything from national cricket scores to English lessons offered through the Afghan foreign ministry. Additionally, audio bloggers will contribute to commentaries through a system similar to voicemail.

The system uses interactive voice response, or IVR and provides free, customizable menus of news and public information via mobile, making a variety of topics for the caller to choose from.

For example, a user could listen to a requested cricket update then hear a story about HIV/AIDS in her hometown, followed by the option to leave a message. The system can also be programmed to tell the user the number of AIDS patients nearby, letting her know that she’s not alone and creating a virtual community similar to other social media sites.

“If the technology connects, empowers or protects them or helps make other people who are not part of the community aware of them and their potential, then it’s doing profoundly new things,” Etulain declares.

USAID funding for the project runs on a $7 million grant that may increase to $16 million if option years on the main contract are fulfilled.

Mobile Khabar is just one part of USAID’s media development program in Afghanistan—the largest the agency has ever funded using new technologies, and regional journalism training centers, to seek and fill information not covered in newsrooms.

Within the centers, professional Afghan journalists and citizen bloggers are being trained in everything from Internet media skills and business management, to the reporting basics, such as ethical objectivity and story selection, Etulain says.

One of the common ways USAID utilizes these journalistic skills on the ground, is supporting community radio stations with the goal of making their operations solvent and the programming relevant to their audience, which encourages civil society participation.

For example, a call-in show that allows citizens to question their elected officials or covers topics that might not otherwise get airplay, like domestic violence or school dropout rates.

Mobile Khabar is a platform that allows local radio stations to become available on mobile phones, an innovative approach that extends the reach of information while encouraging sustainable economic development.

“From a media development perspective, this says to a local radio station in Mazari Sharif: ‘OK, now you have a national audience,” Etulain explains, “Wherever people have access to mobile phones, they can listen to you. And you get paid more the more people that listen to you.”

USAID funding for the project’s programs and bloggers are distributed based on their popularity: the more listeners they attract, the more money those programs and bloggers will earn, he says.

The Mobile Khabar project is a complement between old journalism and new technologies, providing an accessible avenue to inform Afghan civil society on relevant content. All while empowering local journalists to speak up and contribute information on what they see to their people.

July 11, 2011/by actualize

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

Kenya and South Sudan Sign Fiber Agreement

Southern Sudan and Kenya plan to construct a fiber optic cable link between the two nations as part of a larger project entitled “four-in-one.” The project includes the construction of a railway line from Lokichogio to Juba, road rehabilitation, an oil pipeline, and fiber optic cables.

The Deputy Director of Kenya Southern Sudan Liaison Office (KESSULO), Albert Origa explained: “We have developed a paper which has been presented to the Cabinet for approval. If approved, we will embark on the reconstruction of the railway and roads network, roll out a fiber optic cable and oil pipeline to connect the two countries.”

If connected, the cable will provide a stable information link for South Sudan to connect with the rest of Africa’s terrestrial fiber networks. And, of course, the railway line and oil pipes are promising economic developments for both nations.

Railroad station in North Sudan, similar to the places where the railway and adjacent fiber will be placed. Photo: Tim McKulka/UN Photo

Mr. Jama Mohammed, board member on Kenya’s Frontier Optical Networks (FON), also confirmed the plans. In a personal interview last week, before the Kenyan and South Sudan governments reached an agreement, Mr. Mohammed told me that the Kenyan government had built fiber to Lokichogio already, and was looking for a private telecom to manage the system and light the fiber. FON, however, was originally hesitant to sign until receiving a license in South Sudan, who announced recently a suspension of all telecommunications licenses until further notice. With the agreement reached this week, however, it appears that the Government of South Sudan will be willing to work with a private business to manage the system.

July 8, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Environment, Land Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

South Sudan: Millions trek home to a delicate environment

With a greater sense of collective security and a fast-growing economy fueled by its budding oil industry, most of The Republic of South Sudan is poised for recovery and development at the onset of nationhood.

Although South Sudan’s slate of challenges are not easily enumerable, issues relating to the environment, including land degradation, deforestation and the impact of climate change, must be addressed with urgency. This constellation of challenges threaten the newly independent nation’s long-term peace and stability, food security and sustainable development.

But an effective response requires copious, accurate and reliable data that isn’t readily available. This paucity of information about South Sudan’s environmental landscape is due to unique factors brought about by the more than two decades long civil war with its now northern neighbor. The war, which ended with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, displaced nearly a half of the population of 8 million and claimed nearly 2 million lives.

Throughout the years of displacement, previously overgrazed lands and wildlife were naturally replenished to some degree. But as an estimated 4 million people return to their ancestral lands on the cusp of independence in a resource rich but ecologically unsound and economically stagnant society, the natural gains made in restoring the environment is in jeopardy. It would be illogical to suggest that the return of a displaced people is within and of itself the cause of this crisis, rather, it is the lack of information about where people will settle and the state of the environment in those places that is at the core of the problem.

To respond to this challenge, the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) ought to make more coordinated use of the 2005 post-conflict environmental assessment it commissioned UNEP

Photo Credit: Frank Langfitt/NPR

to conduct. The finding from the UNEP study may be transformed into a resource akin to Virtual Kenya, an online interactive web platform for charting human environmental health with related material for those with no access to the internet. This is one tangible way in which ICTs, including GIS technologies may be used to tackle South Sudan’s environmental challenges.

As I’ve noted in previous blogs focused on South Sudan and the role of ICTs, there is limited scope for the use of high tech ICTs at this point, due to systemic and structural impediments, including literacy, connectivity, access and market environment. However, traditional technologies such as radio ought to be used to provide timely, accurate and contextually appropriate information about environmental conservation. It is important that the farming community, the largest economically active block in the country, be sensitized about this. Land degradation, for instance, is heightened by population pressure, intensification of agriculture, water-logging and salinity, among other things. Both water-logging and salinity are caused by poor irrigation and drainage, deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion and poverty.

So, as South Sudan claims nationhood, it is imperative that the environment be a priority for the GoSS and its people. A clear ICT strategy with medium to long-term goals is needed. It ought to emphasize how ICTs will be leveraged to improve basic farm extension services to reduce poor soil management, and other agricultural related causes of land degradation. The wider thrust to sensitize the nation about environmental issues ought to also prioritize the well-being of wildlife, much of which was devastated during the war. There is clear economic, environmental and social benefits to be reaped from this.

As with so many nations on the cusp of self-determination, South Sudan can take a path that will secure the fortunes of its people. The preservation of the environment is central to achieving this, and that is only possible if there is national buy-in. Too few governments have been proactive in informing their citizens.

July 8, 2011/by actualize

Economic Growth & Trade, Enterprise Development, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Tech Transfer, Workforce Development

UN University Releases study on Tech Skills in Sudan

The Maastricht Economic and social Research institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU‐MERIT) last month released its “Assessment of skill and technology indicators at the macro‐micro levels in Sudan.”

The research uses new primary data from macro and firm surveys and provides a new contribution by examining five hypotheses on the causes and consequences of low skill and technology indicators at the macro and micro levels in Sudan:

First- that the interaction between the deficient educational system – caused by low quality of education- and the high share of unskilled workers leads to poor provision of training; low skill levels; skills mismatch; low transfer of knowledge/external schooling effect; weak technology indicators and dependence on foreign technologies at the micro level.
Second- that the poor local technology indicators/indigenous capability to build the local technology and heavy dependence on foreign technology can be attributed to lack of R&D activities/efforts, due to a lack of funding, low skill levels, weak linkages, lack of networks systems and collaboration between universities and industry/firms, low transfer of knowledge and a lack of entrepreneur perspective.
Third- that the transfer of knowledge/external schooling effects is successful at the micro level but unsuccessful at the macro level due to low educational qualifications and deficient educational and training systems.
Fourth- that skill and technology indicators are significantly determined by firm size and industry.
Fifth- concerns the consistency of upskilling plans at the macro-micro levels.

Finally, one advantage and interesting element in the analysis is a new contribution to the Sudanese literature, explaining the causes, consequences and interaction between the low skill and technology indicators and the transfer of knowledge. Recommendations include further efforts to improve skill and technology indicators and transfer of knowledge at the macro and micro levels which are all essential for economic growth and development in Sudan.

July 8, 2011/by actualize

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