Originally posted on the GBI Portal – Page 57

Launching Pad: National ICT Assessments

Increasingly Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are becoming recognized as critical components of international development programs. Yet at times the USAID Missions lack staff resources that can sort through the current in-country situation and local opportunities, and assess how ICTs can be embedded for maximum benefit within their development portfolios.

One of the common ICT-related services provided by EGAT’s ICT Team has been support to the Missions through a one or two week ICT Assessment. These are typically undertake by a small team of two ICT professionals either from the ICT Team itself and/or made available through existing PASA or contractor resources. Ideally this small team is supported by Mission Staff to ensure efficient and effective use of their time on-the-ground.

These ICT Assessments vary in scope depending on the requirements of the Mission. The focus of these Assessments is to assist the Mission program staff to first gain a better understanding of the current in-country status, including; what other donors are doing in this arena, what the government is doing or planning to do, what the private sector is doing and possibly inhibitors they are experiencing, how the education is meeting the ICT challenges, etc. Then upon gaining these insights, the Assessment Team then works with Mission Program personnel to determine if there are rich opportunities for possibly expanding or imbedding ICT-related elements within the program and projects. Typically these ICT Assessments are carried out at two levels:

Countrywide ICT Assessments—a number of these assessments have been undertaken at a broad, countrywide level that includes all things ICT in nature. These Assessments look at both the public and private sectors–including the government’s ICT-related plans, policies as well as their use of ICT (e-government). It includes a look across the private sector’s use of ICTs, but also includes a special focus on the local IT private sector. The Assessment also looks at education relative to the use of ICT as well as ICT within its curriculum. Another focus within this countrywide snapshot is gaining insights into what other donors are supporting in the ICT arena.

The approach taken for these broad ICT Assessments is to gain a fresh insight into “what is” and put forward to the Mission, ideas as to “what may be of value for consideration” relative to matching the assessment findings with the Mission’s development portfolio. In virtually all of these past efforts, a number of potential opportunities surface, with the Missions often pursuing one or more ICT-related engagements as new initiatives, or as new components embedded within existing projects.

Targeted Sector ICT Assessments—another form of the ICT Assessment is that of a more narrow-targeted focus to a specific theme, topic, or sector. Examples here include scopes such as: exploring the potential for telecom market liberalization; setting up or strengthening a Universal Service Fund; establishing an ICT-user training program; examining the potential for embedding ICTs into the country’s education program, or into an existing education project; exploring the potential for launching an e-Government initiative; launching a rural connectivity initiative such as the earlier Last Mile Initiatives; exploring m-Banking, etc.

The approach taken for these more targeted ICT Assessments is to assist the Mission in gaining insights into specific opportunities that are within their current or planned development portfolio. At times these assessments result in the development of SOWs/PWS that are subsequently worked into future RFPs. In other situations this preliminary work is aimed at establishing ICT-related public-private partnerships (PPPs) for embedding into future Mission projects.

Both forms of ICT Assessments are offered through the GBI Program in support of Missions that have a sense of ICTs potential, but may not have the in-house resources or expertise required for this more detailed examination. Depending on the requirement, these ICT Assessments may be undertaken through a cost-sharing arrangement between the GBI Program and the Mission requesting the service.

May 2, 2011/by actualize

Economic Growth & Trade, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Workforce Development, Youth Development

Are apps, Facebook and mPayments the key to rural youth economic empowerment? Reality check.

Last week’s Tech Salon, hosted by ICT Works and the UN Foundation Technology Partnership, was on the topic ‘Can youth find economic empowerment via apps, m-payments and social media?’ Fiona Macaulay from Making Cents and I gave some of the opening remarks to get the conversation started (and Wayan Vota kept things lively as usual).

The premise of the Salon was that ‘today’s youth population is the largest in the history of the world, and 90% of these young people live in developing countries. The global youth unemployment rate is the highest on record, and we’re seeing discontent and disenfranchisement play out on the news each day. In fact, the revolution in Tunisia started with an under-employed youth committing self-immolation in frustration…. Technology-based models hold great promise for increasing and improving economic opportunities for young people: low barriers to entry for youth-built apps, the widespread use of Facebook and its promise as a marketing platform, the ubiquity and ease of m-Payment systems like MPESA – these should be a recipe for youth economic empowerment.

During the Salon we explored 3 key questions:

1) How are youth starting businesses or getting jobs in growth-oriented ICT sectors around the world?

2) How are organizations and programs utilizing technology to reach and engage young people?

3) Where should we be cautious or enthusiastic with technology with respect to youth economic empowerment?

This is the first of 3 posts on those questions, starting with Question 1:

How are youth starting businesses or getting jobs in growth-oriented ICT sectors around the world?

I was pretty skeptical about the potential for apps, Facebook and m-payments to resolve the youth employment/income crisis, at least in the context of the rural communities in Africa where I’ve worked over the past several years. So leading into the Salon, I did an informal survey among some colleagues working in Africa to find out how they observed youth making money using technology, and to see whether the idea above had any legs. My thoughts were pretty much confirmed – in the places we are working, some youth are using technology to generate income, but not so much apps, mPayments and Facebook.

In Egypt, colleagues said that youth are repairing cell phones, serving as DJs at wedding parties, setting up photocopy shops and internet cafes, selling phone calls and airtime, running shops that provide children and young people with the opportunity to play games, and using computers to make flyers and posters for certain producers and products in the communities. They also provide satellite connections for poor families to access national and international TV channels – this service is not legal but generates good income for young people.

In Kenya you’ll find youth managing Mobile Phone Kiosks popularly known as ‘Simu Ya jamii’ (community phones). These double up as phone charging points. Pirated music is big business for some youth and phone unlocking services are increasing. One colleague noted that youth are not really creating applications, but in some of our programs, they are involved in piloting new applications, and thus influencing their development. In Zambia, you don’t see much of this type of activity in rural areas, according to a colleague there. But there are village telcos being operated by youth groups and some village groups are setting up banks of solar chargers to support solar lighting. (Cool result: When they set them up at a schools, encouraging women to come each day to charge their lights, they found that school attendance increased).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTAbe35YCLY]

In Burkina Faso it’s common to see youth selling telephone scratch cards, renting out their phones, offering video services to film at private events, charging up phones for a price. In Senegal, some take phones from one area to another to charge them up for a fee. All over Africa you see video pirating and movie houses, video game houses, video downloading to mobile phones, music on flash drives and flash drives that plug into radios in cars and in collective transportation vans and busses.

There is ‘negative’ business also

Some would place ‘pirating’ and stolen satellite connections here. There is also transactional sex by girls to obtain mobile phones, which are a status symbol. We hear in some communities that adolescents with mobile phones are ‘bad.’ In Cameroon girls said that some boys only use phones to scam people and to steal. Mobiles can also facilitate prostitution. One colleague commented that in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) she has seen girls on motorbikes offering themselves by presenting their phone number on their back. We heard from youth in Cameroon that mobiles are commonly stolen and traded. Some parents in various countries do not like movie and game houses, associating them with porn and western culture.

Are youth in rural areas creating ‘apps,’ using ‘apps’ or tapping into ICT development or programming opportunities?

Not really, from what I have seen and what colleagues tell me. There are some shining stars here and there, but this isn’t very widespread yet, and the youth who are developing apps and such tend to be well-educated urban youth. This 2009 study on how the African Movement of Working Children and Youth (MAEJT) uses ICTs is quite interesting in this regard.

: How do youth obtain and use mobiles? (MAEJT study, 2009)

In Egypt, colleagues said Facebook and Twitter groups around specific issues are common among young people in communities. But using ICT specifically for generating income is not. There is inadequate awareness among poor communities on how to make this happen. Although many youth have access to cell phones, ICT is still expensive and non-affordable for many others. Most of the families who have phones in their houses do not have a direct line, which means that they cannot get access to internet through cheap lines. Internet is still very expensive. Getting jobs through the internet is only common among advantaged, well- educated youth, not disadvantaged youth.

In Nairobi, Kenya, iHub and NAiLab have a big pool of developers and there is a lot of action. In rural Kenya, however, access is limited. There is a lot of interest from the youth who have started to catch on though, so colleagues felt it was possible that there could be some type of rural-urban mentoring or connections to help rural youth get on board. In rural Zambia, according to colleagues, sheer poverty means that very few additional resources and capital are available to take on new ideas. There is still very poor mobile phone coverage in some areas, and many young people have already left for urban areas. My colleagues in West Africa did not report seeing any youth developing apps or using Facebook combined with mPayments to generate income. In Kenya, Cameroon, Uganda and some other places, innovation hubs and labs are generating opportunities, but these again seem to be available to secondary- or even more often university-educated youth from urban areas and capital cities or large cities outside the capital.

So, is this bit about apps, mPayments and social media all hype? I’ll explore that a bit more in post 2 of the series. In post 3, I’ll cover the longer term considerations for ICTs and youth economic empowerment and some broader aspects that need to be kept in mind.

May 2, 2011/by actualize

Humanitarian Assistance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Information sharing at the community level

When in Japan earlier this month I had the pleasure of meeting with Dr. Unni Krishnan who is a Humanitarian Coordinator for Plan International, one of NetHope’s member organizations. Dr. Krishnan who is an experienced disaster expert who has been to most of the major disasters in the past years told me a very interesting story of information sharing practices at the community level in one of the affected areas in Japan.

In one of the evacuation centers that Dr. Krishnan came into he saw that there was a big whiteboard with notes written in Japanese. Around the whiteboard there were teenage kids who were running around. He asked his colleague from Plan Japan what was happening there.

The colleague explained that the whiteboard contained a number of questions and answers. When the teenage kids were asked they explained that they had created this information sharing “platform” for the community there. People kept asking questions about the situation and the response. The kids decided to help facilitate this process, by gathering the questions that everyone had and then work on getting the answers from those in charge.

So when a member of the community had a question like “when is the next clothes distribution going to be?” the kids would run around and ask the people responding until they found an answer. The answer would then be written on the note and hung up on the whiteboard.

I loved this story because it reminds us of a few crucial items to keep in mind at all times.

First of all is the importance of information at the community level. We very seldom inform the affected communities themselves of our plans. We are to busy informing ourselves, our donors or the government, but forget the people who are affected. I wonder if the affected communities even know of the massive time we put into writing situation reports that very few people end up reading.

Secondly it reminds us of involving the affected community in the information sharing process. They are the ones who know what the community wants to know. They are the ones who can communicate that information back in a way that the community understands and appreciates. Lets also not forget the healing power of giving them tasks to help their own people. That takes their mind of the devastation around them even if only for the few moments they work on helping their own people.

Thirdly this story reminds us that technology is not always needed to share information. Yes maybe it can be shared more quickly and broadly through help of technology, but the underlying process and need doesn’t require technology to be present. We should therefore focus on improving our information sharing processes and address the needs of the communities for better information and then figure out ways to utilize technology as a tool for enhancing that process and helping meet the need.

So lets start putting focus on the affected communities and how we share information with them and obtain information from them.

April 28, 2011/by actualize

Energy, Environment, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Woven Garments Harvest Energy, Provide Light

Huichol women sewing and using portable light unit

Photo Credit: Portable Light

Maria Carillo sits at a table weaving a beautiful Huichol textile and talking to her mother who threads a needle to work on her intricately beaded piece of artwork. The sun is beginning to lower in the Mexico’s western sky and the looming darkness threatens their ability to work. These pieces must completed and sold tomorrow in the market nearby so the family can pay for Maria’s school.

Maria set down her needles, picks up her nearby woven handbag, and hangs it high above the table where her and her mother sit. After being switched on, the handbag produces a warm glow of light in the darkened hut, and work resumes.

She is using the Portable Light Unit, a simple, versatile textile with tiny solar nano-technology cells that can be woven into energy harvesting bags, or other textiles, using local materials and traditional weaving and sewing techniques.

One of the Huichol textiles

Maria is Huichol or Wixáritari, a semi-nomadic indigenous group located in western central Mexico living in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range, internationally recognized for their production of intricate and colorful textiles.

Similar to the two billion other people who live without access to electricity, the Huichol people live in rugged terrain, where the centralized electrical distribution is costly to implement and maintain. Building the infrastructure often causes irreparable cultural and social damage for indigenous peoples as well as environmental damage to their lands. The combined lack of resources, and damage to their homes, leaves them inadequately prepared and economically displaced.

The Portable Light Project, a non-profit initiative led by Kennedy & Violich Architecture and Global Solar Energy, aims to combine clean energy and lighting with local indigenous textile production. This helps local communities adopt the new technology, adds value to it by including their own work, and heightens economic production; all without removing the Huichol from their traditional way of life.

Miquel Carillo, Huichol Community Leader in Santa Catarina describes the frustration of their hardships without a light source:

We don’t have light. We can only work during the day. Nobody can do anything. We just wait for the sun to come up again

The Portable Light project provides kits containing a flexible, two-watt solar film, rechargeable battery, USB port, and an LED light and training on how to weave them into garments.

Bags can be worn during the day to recharge

By integrating the solar panels with the woven textiles, electronic devices can be easily charged while people go on with their everyday work; and fully charged LED lights allow four hours of visibility, enabling communities to work and study after dark.

The integral USB port is used to charge cell phones, which connects Huichol artisans with art dealers and stores in urban areas without removing them from their homes.

The Huichol people and indigenous weaving projects are not the only way Portable Light Units are being utilized to better the livelihoods of communities in developing regions.

Nicaraguan girls using the bags for Paso Pacifico Photo Credit: Sheila Kennedy

A environmental education program in Paso del Istmo Biological Corridor in Nicaragua uses the bags to help protect endangered sea turtle nests. Villagers work as rangers to prevent turtle poaching at night. They use the Light Units to charge cell phones so they can communicate the location of nests, and women use them to build eco-tourism businesses at night.

In rural Haiti, the bags are being used to support the NGO Maison De Naissance, a network of traveling health workers who provide prenatal and basic medical care. Health workers and midwives use the Portable Light Units as a renewable light and power source for house visits and night procedures. The USB port is used to charge cell phones and medical devices, connecting them with physicians at the clinics who have better intel to help make accurate diagnoses.

Health worker in Haiti using Portable Light Photo Credit: Lee Cohen

The Portable Light Project is a promising example of how to combine economic productivity with environmental conservation in remote areas, but some critics remain skeptical.

Few argue that there is not an economic model to produce mass amounts of the Portable Light Units to supply the huge demand for electricity in rural areas. Others contend that the garments will not be able to withstand rugged conditions common in developing regions.

Frederic Krebs of the Rios National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy in Denmark who designed a low cost, plastic solar lamp for Africa, expressed his hesitancy. He maintains through his research that a high degree of ruggedness is required before portable solar lights can help people developing regions. It was in Krebs opinion that such textiles are, “simply not wearable enough yet.”

These are components of the Portable Light Project that need to be addressed before it can be used all throughout developing regions. However, the Portable Light Project holds promise for bringing a renewable source of light into communities who otherwise have been sitting in the dark.

PHoto of studying using the portable light

Photo Credit: Sheila Kennedy

April 28, 2011/by actualize

Humanitarian Assistance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

The Value of Preparedness

Six weeks ago the devastating force of mother nature reminded us again how things can change in a matter of a few minutes. For the first time we were able to watch live images of the destructive power of tsunamis as they struck the coast of Japan following a massive 9.0 earthquake. I have spent most of my time since March 11th, working on supporting the NetHope member organizations active in Japan.

It now appears that over 27,000 people died as a result of the earthquake and the tsunami that followed. Over 500,000 people were affected and close to 70,000 families lost their homes. Many towns and villages along the coast were totally wiped out.

But instead of focusing in this blog post on the aftermath of the disaster then I rather want to focus on what didn’t happen because of how Japan has invested in disaster risk reduction activities or what is often called emergency preparedness.

It is my firm believe that if this disaster had struck any other country than Japan then we would have seen the number of deaths multiply by a factor of 5-10. Ever since the big Kobe earthquake in 1995, the Japanese have spent lot of effort on disaster risk reduction activities. This includes systems for monitoring earthquakes and tsunamis. This includes systems for warning about impeding earthquakes and tsunamis. It includes running training and awareness programs for citizens.

Japan has a very extensive network of earthquake detectors. These monitor both the S and P waves (see this Wikipedia article for a great overview of how the difference between those two waves can be used in early warning). When a strong earthquake is detected through these monitors then a public warning is issued. I got to experience this first hand when visiting Japan at the start of April when a series of 6.5-7.1 aftershocks struck within a 48 hour period. In one case I was in a meeting on the 31st floor of a building an through the loudspeakers we were told a strong earthquake had been detected and would arrive in 10-15 seconds. About 7 seconds later we could feel the tremor. This of course works best when the earthquake strikes at a bit of distance, but there are also examples, at least from Taiwan that I know of where this is used to automatically slow down high speed trains and open up elevator doors.

But more importantly on March 11th was the early warning and training on the potential of tsunamis. Japan being a country that “frequently” gets struck by tsunamis has developed a very good system of monitoring ocean movements, but also of warning people. Regular evacuation drills are done in coastal areas and people are educated on the dangers of tsunamis. It was especially this effort that saved tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives on March 11th.

It has often been said that a dollar spent on preparedness saves at least six dollars in response costs. With the March 11th earthquake being the most costly disaster ever worldwide, with at last $300 billions in material damage according to government estimates, that figure might easily have risen substantially and caused even greater effects on the overall world economy.

It is therefore important for donors and governments around the world to learn a lesson from the people of Japan. Even though it might sometime be difficult to justify spending money on preparedness it is at times like these that we are reminded of its value. Lets make strategic decisions to move in that direction before the images of the devastation in Japan are too easily forgotten.

On May 10th-13th, 2500 representatives of national governments, regional and international organizations, civil society and non-profit organizations come together for the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction. It is my challenge to those showing up there, including myself, that we put our money and action where our mouth is and not just talk about preparedness but actually start working full-force on preparedness activities that will pay off multiple times when the next disasters strike.

April 28, 2011/by actualize

Health, Infectious Diseases, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

World Malaria Day 2011

Photo Credit: TopNews

Yesterday commemorated the fourth World Malaria Day and increasingly ICTs are being used in the battle to fight against this deadly disease.

In 1997, Dr. Julia Royall was named the chief of international programs at the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health to create a telecommunications network to support scientists working on the Malaria Multilateral Initiative in Africa.

Dr. Julia Royall Photo Credit: NIH

Dr. Royall explains that she soon became interested in, “NLM’s attempt to reach the end user with information”.

In 2007-2008, Dr. Royall was a Fulbright Scholar in Uganda and traveled to a Mifumi, a remote village in the Eastern district or Tororo, Uganda to conduct research on 300 received bed nets that had been received.

Along with a team of medical students from Uganda’s Makerere University Faculty of Medicine they conducted an observational survey to see how the 300 families were using bed nets to protect themselves from malaria carrying mosquitoes.

She quickly discovered that nets were not being used properly due to widespread misunderstandings about the disease and the purpose of how to use the nets themselves within the community.

In the village, they eat outside at dusk when mosquitos presence is at a peak; believe that health effects of malaria are due to “witchcraft”; and standing water around houses attracts the bugs near windows and doorways.

The World Health Organization has reported a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds in Africa.

After this baseline research, Dr. Royall passionately pursued developing a new method to demonstrate that information can be targeted to improve health awareness among underserved populations in Africa.

She decided to work with the local community to produce informational tutorials on malaria prevention, which Dr. Royall deems as “health information intervention”.

Dr. Royall with Makerere University Medical Students Photo Credit: NIH

Collaborating with Makerere University medical faculty, students, and a team of artists and translators, she produced an interactive tutorial to try and discover if ICTs have an impact on malaria mortality rates.

Dr. Royall field tested the malaria tutorial in the Mifumi village villages by students and then translated into three local languages: Luganda, Runyankole, and Luo. She wanted to see how this ICT could be used:

We wanted to see if such a ‘health information intervention’ from NLM through medlineplus.gov could make a difference

Makerere University medical students then took the lead in making and distributing booklets, posters and audio CD formats to be used on the radio, an important communication tool in rural Uganda.

Dr. Royall was adamant about making the content culturally relevant to ensure overall sustainability. Cultural context also has an affect on the results of preventative malaria campaigns.

“We had to be careful,” she said, “about working with these communities to define what the products would look like.”

Screen shot of the tutorials in English

Her health information intervention tutorials have resulted in reduced mortality in Eastern Uganda:

ICT interventions, are making a difference at the village level

Dr. Royall’s virtual tutorials have promise for other malaria prevention projects facing similar barriers. All of the materials are available online here to anyone with access to the Internet in the five languages (Luo, Japadhola, Luganda, Runyankole Swahili and English)

In addition to the tutorials, health workers can use a laminated presentation to explain how malaria works and there is also an audio version in the five languages available for radio broadcast and illiterate communities.

View this video on her story:

April 26, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Farm Extension Services: an Update

Photo Credit: Mr.S.Vithiyatharan

Two weeks ago, USAID held an event on the current initiatives using ICT to strengthen Farm Extension Services (FES). Judy Payne, ICT Advisor at USAID, was joined by Chris Locke, Managing Director GSMA Development Fund, to update the ICT4D community on new initiatives, approaches, and challenges in FES.

To start the discussion, Judy Payne provided an overview of some promising examples under USAID’s Fostering Agriculture Competitiveness Employing Information Communication Technologies Project (FACET). Some of these include Reuters Marketing Light, Mali Shambani, Community Knowledge Worker, Manobi, and Digital Green. She did not linger on the technicalities of these projects, opting to focus on how new technologies can complement traditional tactics for the most sustainable use.

The combination of the “push” and “pull” information allows a feedback loop from the farmer to the organization, crucial for monitoring and evaluation. “Push” services are those are those that are being used to provide the farmer with information, such market information through SMS or voicemail. “Pull” services consists of the feedback from the farmer, such as their queries on demand in the market via SMS.

Ms. Payne asserted that the combination of new ICTs with more traditional tactics, such as face-to-face training and verbal feedback, are necessary for the most efficient implementation.

She also explained that collaborative new business models, such as sponsor mobile network operators (MNO) and farmer pay services, are non-agricultural components of FES that ensure well-defined distribution channels and access to users.

Chris Locke, Managing Director, GSMA Development Fund

Chris Locke of the GSMA Development Fund echoed the importance of leveraging the private sector and combining ICT channels for FES in current e-agriculture projects.

The Development Fund works with mobile operators to accelerate mobile solutions for people living on under US$2 per day. They have been working with the Gates Foundation and USAID on a new e-agri initiative called mFarmer in Kenya and India.

Currently in its second phase of the project, the goal of the mFarmer program is to work with MNOs and partners to support the launch of quality agricultural value-added-services accessibly to over 2 million smallholder farmers. The program aims to provide a sustainable way for farmers to obtain critical agricultural information that can help them improve their farm productivity and income.

The role of GSMA in this program is to develop this content database for ICT-enabled farm extension services to share and create, but building alliances with local MNOs is equally important.

Mr. Locke discussed how partnerships with local MNOs play a major role in disseminating information in developing areas. Local private sector involvement allows organizations to tap into previously established distribution channels that are culturally relevant and have widespread reach.

Unlocking the power of MNOs provides potential nation wide scalability. He argued these are distribution channels where:

Operators have the capacity to spread it across at a national level

Post-discussion, it was apparent (as it always is) that there has to be more than just the use of ICTs to help rural farmers in FES projects. ICT channels should be complemented with traditional tactics to heighten impact and sustainability; and organizations should establish alliances with local MNOs to leverage their local distribution channels.

April 25, 2011/by actualize

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

Using Mobiles to Monitor the 2011 Nigerian Elections

woman placing paper ballot for Nigerian elections

Photo Credit: DailyMail

For many of the 73 million registered voters in Nigeria, the decision they were faced with on election day was not just who to vote for, but how to cast their ballot safely.

This year’s election, only the 3rd national election held in Nigeria since military rule ended in 1999 was fraught with difficulties and confusion, including two postponements of the election after what officials call “logistical problems.” Previous votes- in 2003 and 2007 – were marred by allegations of widespread ballot stuffing, voter intimidation, and violence.

Amidst this backdrop, Nigerian voters turned to social media and mobile apps to help them make their voices heard.

Mobile phone applications and SMS were utilized to monitor and evaluate official election results and processes. Looping this information back to Nigerian citizens empowered their action and created an effective and transparent means for free and fair electoral processes.

One application called ReVoDa, is part of the EnoughisEnough (EIE) Nigeria’s RSVP campaign, and connected voters to monitor and evaluate the entire election processes. This is a medium where citizens could report incidents such as ballot box thefts, violence, the late arrival of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials, police behaviors, and ultimately, the election results. INEC officials are responsible for running the elections, thus they represented the voice of the people to the authorities.

With ReVoDa, EiE Nigeria had the potential to turns the 87,297,789 Nigerians with mobile phones, 43,982,200 with Internet access and 2,985,680 on Facebook into informal election reporters.

ReVoDa allowed voters to report as independent citizen their observations from their respective

polling units across Nigeria, having registered to map their mobile number, name and polling unit number to specific locations. This allowed EiE Nigeria to send relevant information about the electoral process to registered users; and users can view and share reports of electoral processes with one another.

Subsequent to their connectivity, users could choose from the ReVoDa Mobile App or connect via regular SMS, the latter seems to a more popular alternative. Users would create a profile, enter their Polling Unit Code and Name and are then registered on the EiE Nigeria network.

A week prior to the polls opening, ReVoDa, was downloaded by over 7,700 people. Building on the reports received on April 9 for the National Assembly elections, they saw 466 new incident reports from ReVoDa users across 35 of 37 states – compared with 27 states the week before.

Report map of final election results

A similar program called ReclaimNaija has corresponding aims, but provides deliverable reports directly to the

corresponding electoral bodies.

ReclaimNaija uses FrontlineSMS to receive and send text messages reports, and Ushahidi to visually map the election reports. Alike to ReVoDa, ReclaimNaija makes it possible for citizens to monitor the electoral process and report incidents of electoral fraud.

Unlike ReVoDa though, ReclaimNaija has a direct line of communication with electoral officials. Instead of having a database that merely aggregates information and contains reports, they send the reports directly to INEC. By providing evidence of detrimental electoral processes, it can be combated and corrected.

Femi Taiwo, a member of INITS Limited, a Nigerian company that helped set up the technical side of ReclaimNaija’s monitoring system, says:

On election days, citizens have been frustrated by a number of things; missing names, seeing ballot boxes stuffed or even stolen and other electoral fraud and yet being unable to do anything about this. This time however, is the time to speak out”

ReclaimNaija's map of the final election numbers

ReclaimNaija uses FrontlinSMS or calling dedicated numbers in four major languages (Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba and Pidgin) as the gateway platforms to placing reports to promote electoral transparency.

Another difference between these two programs is that ReclaimNaija achieved a large amount of participation through voter education forums for community leaders, spread across Nigeria’s 36 states, and the capital Abuja. By engaging community based social networks, they ensured the information got across to large segments of society and has been crucial to RecalimNaija’s monitoring and evaluation.

Public launch of the reclaimnaija.net citizens reporting platform on the 2011 elections

Public launch of the reclaimnaija.net citizens on the 2011 elections

During the January 2011 Voters Registration Exercise, ReclaimNaija received 15,000 reports from the public over two weeks, highlighting the importance to have a election monitoring service to offset problems and expose fraud.

The election registration process proved this; on receiving messages about problems such as lack of registration cards, ReclaimNaija was often able to communicate with the INEC, thus helping improve the efficiency of the registration process.

One message received through ReclaimNaija during the first attempt at the National Assembly election said:

more than half of registered voters here [in my voting station] couldn’t find their names… Is this an attempt to reduce the number of voters in Lagos?

These type of citizen based reports and monitoring systems have become a valuable source of information for the INEC to create an environment for fair and balanced elections. ReclaimNaija collate reports and send directly on to the INEC in real time.

“If the INEC hadn’t seen these reports they would not have known about the level of problems being experienced by Nigerians; there would not have been this kind of proof” says Linda Kamau, an Ushahidi developer was in Nigeria to see the launch of ReclaimNaija system.

Kayode R. Idowu, Chief Press Secretary for the INEC Chairman, responded positively to ReclaimNaija and citizens actively reporting incidents to the Commission, “…through SMS and voice calls on phones, or by emailing. Such reports should reflect useful details such as location, time and action involved in the incident, to enable the Commission respond appropriately”.

Clearly, there is a great power in leveraging the use of ICTs to ensure that Nigerian voices were heard in this past election and streamline the efficiency and safety of the electoral process.

April 21, 2011/by actualize

Business Enabling Environment, Economic Growth & Trade, Economic Policy and Governance, Enterprise Development, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Morocco Launches Project to Fund Innovations

Morocco has launched three new projects, including a $US 65 million research fund, to encourage partnerships between researchers and businesses and boost investments on cutting edge innovations.

The project includes building four new ‘innovation cities’—science and technology hubs that will host research centers, specialized companies and business incubators—will establish the Moroccan Center for Innovation (MCI), and three research funds worth $US 65 million.

Moroccan education minister Ahmed Akhchichine said that three innovation cities will be built this year in Fez, Marrakech and Rabat, and the preparations for a fourth center in Casablanca are underway and will be ready next year.

The goal of the Moroccan Centre for Innovation, who leads the strategy, is to track down potential inventors at the country’s universities and provide them with the financial backing to implement their innovations.

The funds will support grants for young researchers, and the research and development divisions of certain companies according to Ahmed Reda Chami, Morocco’s minister of industry, commerce and new technologies.

Youssef Ait Ali, an inventor, said that these grants could help in removing the financial blockades that have continuously obstruct the rolling out of new inventions.

“The government is prepared to raise the amounts that are budgeted for encouraging innovation and creativity to keep up with the demand,” Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar said.

We’re waiting for your proposals, ideas and projects, and we will provide the necessary means to realise them on the ground

These government-backed initiatives have the financial and regulatory framework to heighten and sustain innovation throughout the country. Akhchichine is hopeful at this projects prospects, “Last year, Moroccan universities managed to produce 40 patents, compared with less than 10 patents in the previous year”, he said, giving credit to the government incentives.

Moroccan inventors and innovations unions welcomed the new projects but emphasized that there is still a long way to go for the country to maintain a threshold of innovation,

Abderrahim Boumediane, president of the Moroccan Inventors and Innovators Association, said most of the government’s reforms in the innovation field could turn out to be ineffective as, “Morocco still doesn’t have a ministry for scientific research”, which hampers the sustainability of such projects.

However, according to Akhchichine, the government is currently working to reform this measure and is in the process of creating a legal and regulatory framework for scientific research.

April 18, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Rural Connectivity Challenge: Extending Access to the Rural Edge

Photo source: PCFastlane

Over the past several years a tremendous amount of progress has been made in narrowing the urban-rural “Digital Divide.” This has primarily been accomplished through market liberalization and subsequent build out of mobile networks–some of which reach into rural localities.

While this urban-rural gap is being narrowed, this is not universal. Further, it is primarily a voice phenomenon. With regards to Internet and specifically broadband, this divide remains, and in relative terms it continues to grow even wider in most rural locations.

A May 2008 report from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) report entitled, “Measuring Information and Communication Technology Available in Villages and Rural Areas,” defines this challenge in the following manner:

At the time of the report, the total population of developing countries stood at 5.1 billion;
Of this total, approximately 56 percent, or 2.85 billion lived in rural areas;
This rural population lived in 2.96 million discrete rural localities, with an average population of 1,826.

More recent data estimates while there are approximately 5.0 billion mobile subscribers world wide–out of a world population of 6.7-6.8 billion, somewhere between a population of 1.0 and 1.5 billion live in rural localities where they are without any mobile coverage. A likely near-equal number are without “affordable” coverage.

The Global Broadband and Innovations (GBI) Program places a priority on addressing this urban-rural gap, with a focus on two key areas;

Enhancing Universal Service Funds (USFs), and
Promoting deployment of low cost connectivity solutions.

Universal Service Funds–A growing number of countries have established USFs, however, often these are not well designed to reach optimal benefit, nor are they managed such as to provide maximum value. The GBI has been designed to provide targeted technical assistance (TA) to help countries with better design and operations of their USFs. Current efforts are underway in partnership with Intel in carrying out a series of regional USF Workshops to move this agenda forward. Another project is underway in Africa through support of the Africa Bureau, to provide TA to a number of countries where TA will make a near-term impact.

The focus of USFs is no longer simply placing a phone or two into a rural community, but rather seeking to leverage both broadband and voice connectivity for expanding socioeconomic opportunities into these rural communities.

Nor is the focus such as to create an approach for subsidizing on-going operations of carriers operating in rural localities. There is also a focus on leveraging USFs to fund needed CapEx, where–where by working with the carriers and high tech firms producing low-cost solutions, financially sustainable approach can be deployed for connecting the lower-income, lower-density rural communities.

Low Cost Broadband and Voice Solutions–This parallel effort is also being undertaken by the GBI Program. Here the GBI is engaged in research and dialog to identify low-cost rural connectivity solutions. This focus is on providing wireless community-wide convergent networks that provide both broadband and voice services.

Preliminary research has uncovered a small but growing number of innovative solutions now being commercialized. A potential new set of technologies, Femtocells, hold significant promise in lowering the capital and operating costs for reaching into lower-income, lower-density rural communities. Several of these are solar powered solutions such they they can provide affordable coverage in areas where there is not access to a national power grid.

The GBI program has informally partnered with Femto Forum—a global Femtocell industry group and the Global VSAT Forum, a global satellite industry group, to further explore the technical and financial viability of these technologies. Discussions are underway to build off of their respective strengths towards delivering scalable, replicable, and sustainable solutions that reach even further into remote rural locations. And with this expanded connectivity, delivering access to a wide range of socioeconomic services.

Other lower-cost solution sets are being explored with regard to meeting this low-cost requirement. This exploration has included proof-of-concept trial configurations here in the U.S., as well as working with satellite and femtocell firms on broader scale international deployments.

The combination of USFs and the emerging lower-cost solutions more suitable for rural settings, hold the promise of ultimately eliminating the urban-rural “digital divide.” The GBI is working towards accelerating this where possible.

April 12, 2011/by actualize

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