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Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Energy, Environment, Environment, Environmental Compliance, Natural Resources Management, Originally posted on the GBI Portal, Pollution Prevention

Join the World’s First Social Energy Marketplace Today!

At a recently ended Web 2.0 Summit held in San Francisco California, a Berlin-based startup called Changers announced the release of a portable solar charging system that aims to reduce global warming by shifting society to the use of a currency backed by the sun. The Changers Solar System gives the user a way to harness the sun’s energy, liberates the user from the grid, recharges all kinds of devices, helps the user to socialize his/her energy production, and enables him/her to compete with others to earn Changers Credits that can be spent in the Changers Marketplace.

The Changers Starter Kit which is open for a pre-order beginning now as you read this piece, includes the revolutionary Changers Kalhuohfummi solar battery and the Changers Maroshi solar module and costs $149. The Changers Kalhuohfummi is a simple, one-button device that communicates with Changers.com. Inside is advanced intelligence that accurately measures how much energy it captures and stores in the built-in battery, ready to charge any smartphone or tablet. The Changers Kalhuohfummi solar battery is powered by the Changers Maroshi flexible solar module, which generates up to four Watts per hour — enough to charge the Kalhuohfummi battery in four hours. The Changers Maroshi solar panel, which is produced in Colorado, USA, can be attached to any window or sunny surface.

The Director of Communications, Hans Raffauf explains how the technology works:

http://youtu.be/Ee9WW2J8FdE

The system helps you to:

Capture the Sun: Produce your own energy. The Changers personal solar charging kit enables any of us to produce and consume renewable energy. Now, anyone can start producing energy and know exactly how much CO2 they’ve saved. Find a sunny spot, plug it in, and start harnessing the natural energy of the sun. Pretty soon, you’ll be much more aware of where you get the best sunlight and how to optimize your energy production and consumption.
Charge your Device: Change your thinking. Plug in your Apple iPhone/iPad/iPod, Android, Kindle (or any of 1,000 other devices) and charge it using the energy you captured. The Changers Kalhuohfummi will recharge your device as fast as a regular charger and radically change the way you think about energy. Now, you’re a Changer – an autonomous producer and consumer of your own renewable energy.
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To know more and become social with green energy use go to Changers

November 8, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

ICTworks Profile of Esoko: Bringing the Market to Africa’s Fingertips

It was a normal day by Accra standards. I walked out of the house ready to make my way to the center of town for an interview with a homegrown tech company; Esoko. I hailed a taxi and started haggling with the driver, once we had settled on a price, we were off on the traffic-ridden roads into central Accra. An average of 3-15 street vendors would emerge at the larger intersections and red traffic lights trying to sell us anything from fruits, jewelry, books, to shoes (don’t ask me how/who would try on shoes while driving!).

Thanks to our zealous vendors, the market played out right outside the taxi windows accompanied by the sounds coming from the taxi radio speakers: Ghanaian Hiplife music and commentary on everything and anything on life in Accra. In those moments, I was immersed in the familiarity and novelty of the experience, completely unaware how my perspective on the market, media and communications in Ghana was about to change in the next few hours.

Below I detail what I learned from Sarah Bartlett (Communications Director) and Andrea Biardi (Technical Manager) who graciously sat with me and described the ins and outs of Esoko (Electronic Market, Soko = Market in Swahili), it’s role in Information and Communication Technology for Development and why it could be changing markets in Africa in unprecedented ways.

How did Esoko begin?

A decade ago Mark Davies, a Welsh-South African, fresh from the dot com boom made plans to travel across West Africa on his motorcycle. During this trip he interacted with both rural and urban communities and he kept thinking how life would be different for the people he was meeting if they had basic technology and infrastructure like stable power, printing services and internet; basically, services that people in the west took for granted. What kind of opportunities and innovation would arise from that consistent access to technology? Thus BusyInternet was born; initially an Internet Café, Internet Service Provider and a business incubator run in partnership with the World Bank.

BusyInternet provides basic technology services to the public and has grown into a successful technology hub located in Accra amongst the hustle and bustle of the Kwame Nkrumah circle. As it grew into the largest technology center in West Africa, Mark immersed himself in a new challenge. With mobile phones spreading rapidly and with so much data that needed to be collected and shared, especially in rural areas dominated by agriculture, it seemed the missing link was a technical platform that could facilitate.

The idea of using mobile phones as that platform was obvious, as in Ghana the penetration rate for mobiles was upwards of 85% in city centers and averaging at 60% across the country. And it has continued to grow since: the International Telecommunication Union reported at the end of 2010 cellular penetration reached 75.4% across Ghana.

So in 2005, Mark and a few software developers started a new R&D company focused on local solutions to local problems using new technologies. Mobile phones played a key role. They created a plan to facilitate agricultural e-commerce under an endeavor they called ‘TradeNet’. Their first product became an application that enabled the dissemination and collection of price information for market commodities like grains and vegetables using simple SMS.

This information was accessible to anyone through the Internet but what made the tools from Esoko powerful and innovative was that you did not need a computer or the Internet to interact with the wealth of pricing information housed on the web server. With the simplest mobile phone, using basic SMS text you can access a world of pricing information. With the click of your mobile’s keypad or through auto-alerts customized for your needs the information would appear on your phone on a periodic feed. You therefore have access to the most up-to-date price information for the commodities of your choice be it coffee, cassava or wheat, at the tip of your fingers.

Mistowa and TradeNet: Before Esoko

In 2006 a partnership was formed between TradeNet and Mistowa, a regional program funded by USAID that aimed to remove trade obstacles in West African markets. Through this partnership, TradeNet emerged to provide an electronic agribusiness information exchange platform that enabled peer-to-peer trading. The initiative was able to offer access to real-time market information including commodity prices, offers to buy and sell between farmers, merchants and traders as well as business contacts on more than 300 products, from over 500 markets throughout West Africa.

TradeNet’s work with Mistowa brought to light the kinds of applications that would fulfill the needs of the agribusiness sector. And with 60% of Africans earn their living from working in agriculture, a sector so underserved in terms of technology solutions, it made sense for TradeNet to continue in that area. TradeNet started hiring more software developers, and the applications started getting more interesting.

By this time, there was a growing global trend in using mobiles/ICT to exchange information in a new way, shorten supply chains and get people better money for their crops. It had become resource-consuming to obtain information through the classical methods – collecting forms, using landlines, travelling to locations etc. Many projects and businesses were trying to create electronic systems to solve supply chain problems but were not technology experts or developers themselves.

Around this time, TradeNet re-branded itself as ‘Esoko’ or Electronic Markets (Soko is the Swahilli word for market) and became one of the pioneers in this growing field of African mobile innovation joining the likes of Ushahidi, Frontline SMS and SlimTrader, companies that are creating innovative mobile solutions specifically for the African customer. Esoko focuses on tools for market and agricultural information and is expanding its efforts into other realms whereas other companies in the sector focus on m-money, m-banking, crowd-sourcing disaster/phenomena data and so on. In a continent with such growing demand for mobile technology, it is exciting to see the variety and growing number of such technology companies creating solutions for the specific needs of the African customer.

Development Work, Local Interests and Sustainability

Several development projects have used the platform and Esoko hopes they will continue to do so in the future; it’s a perfect fit for projects that have a central mandate to integrate information and communication technologies into their projects. Esoko can serve as an ‘out of the box’ market information platform while providing training and support. This means that while Esoko is not part of the core structure that is built for any specific project, organizations can bring in Esoko as an outside expert for the tools they need rather than re-inventing the technology wheel each time.

Many donor-funded development projects have similar challenges surrounding sustainability. Typically, when a project closes down, Esoko looks for a new partner in a new location. In many cases, these new partners have a different value chain or mandate and may be working with different end-users e.g. traders versus farmers.

In other scenarios somebody has to take over and continue to provide the services the community has grown accustomed to instead of a complete dismantling and scrapping of many months and years of work. In a new model, the project starts with government or donor funding and then transitions into a business; a franchise that can grow into a sustainable company. The first franchise launched in Ghana in January, 2011, will be a good model to pilot this potential solution toward sustainability.

Local businesses in Ghana are now using Esoko; utilizing some of their apps and services the same way that larger projects do. This kind of local interest also gives credence to the franchise model as there is demand in local markets for the products. Esoko has set up a shortcode across all the mobile operator services in Ghana on the phone line ‘1900’.; shortcodes in other countries have also been set up. Franchises in Nigeria and Mozambique have secured funding and are well on their way to launching. The USAID funded Market Linkage Initiative in Malawi is also working to develop a franchise as a part of its efforts.

In other countries, government entities like the Ministry of Agriculture in North Sudan and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in Nigeria have tried to integrate the Esoko platform into their own methods. This will undoubtedly contribute to a sustainable presence of these services as they continue to evolve and integrate into how communities do business.

Sustainability through Best Practices and Failure

Over time, Esoko’s driving principle has evolved into actively seeking feedback from users and stakeholders to drive improvements and new product development. This ‘innovation driven’ approach allows the company and its products to stay relevant as it continues to bring real value to its customers. This ultimately leads to better sustainability and profitability.

This approach introduces a different accountability schema than is common in the development sector because as a business, Esoko is accountable to its bottom line – profit. This is very different from being accountable to the interests and discretion of donors who regulate the access and flow of steady funds. For this reason, Esoko would want to tell its stories of failure along with success so it can understand its own pitfalls and evolve more rapidly to meet customer demand.

User feedback from one partner to better the platform for their specific needs oftentimes ends up benefiting multiple partners. This is true for some of Esoko’s main offerings (the stock tracking application was initially designed and created for Esoko’s Sudanese partners) as well as small enhancements to the platform, like adding tagging and comment boxes to the price upload page. These comment boxes ended up transforming the tool into a sophisticated aspect of the price information product; introducing comments about quantitative price data took the product from a simple system to access price data to something that was stand-out from anything that was available in the market and can inform the user about markets in a multi-dimensional way. The product was simple enough to use, but also very powerful for its ability to provide qualitative price data such as explanations about price hikes and other price-related occurrences. Enhancements like this are continuous and Esoko’s partners are the driving force behind them.

Presence across the Continent: Esoko in Africa

The network is available across Africa with public data being available to all users. When Esoko representatives are out in communities doing training and in meetings, most users express their excitement about the technology; their reactions show the technology to be something they have long been waiting for and that feedback only adds to the excitement in Esoko’s main office. Once the technology is deployed, Esoko works closely to help local partners customize to the specific needs and cultural idiosyncrasies of that community.

Monitoring and Evaluation for Mobile Tech in Development

In November 2010 a survey of 62 farmers in Northern Ghana who have been receiving price alerts for one year confirmed that they have benefited from the service, with an average improvement of 40% on reported deals and revenue. 68% said they would be willing to pay around $1.30 a month, with another 29% suggesting they would consider it, and only 3% saying they would not. The users of the products have been able to make more informed decisions about negotiating better prices, selling farther away, selling as a collective and sending products to Accra on a mass scale. These findings and others about mobile usage have been building momentum for mobile tech and its role in development helping Esoko realize the importance and power of M&E data in telling the story of mobile tech in Africa to the world.

To go beyond anecdotal reports, Esoko has invited researchers to design third party evaluations for these SMS tools. The surveys would obtain quantitative data for M&E that could be very useful in showing how the tools are changing people’s lives as well as the supply chain. CIRAD, a French organization, did 600 surveys; 300 people who have been using Esoko tools for two years and 300 that have not but live in a similar community and similar conditions. Those results will be out at the end of 2011. In July of 2011 NYU’s CTED in Abu Dhabi began a study to evaluate the effectiveness of SMS-based market, taking three years to evaluate the impact of using Esoko tools on farm-gate prices and livelihoods (household assets and children in school), farmer marketing behavior (search behavior, bargaining power and market contracts) as well as the trust of other market players, especially traders. They will also gather data to find out how information spillovers and technology adoption occur among rural farmers in Africa.

Mobile Tech is a field replete with opportunities for research. There are many questions that would help understand the technology landscape, its impact and inform approaches when designing new mobile technology interventions in African markets. What is the correlation between mobile technology and development? How does the introduction of mobile technology affect communities and market systems? These questions are of interest to the larger global community as well as to local communities. Two research evaluations already done in India and Niger show that the introduction of mobile technology (voice-only) increased revenues to actors along the supply chain. These findings are cited countless times and have driven innovation as well as policies. New research about data-focused technology can lead to findings and similar implications.

Made in Africa by Africans

Esoko’s employees are mainly Ghanaian and West African, with 3 African diaspora employees and 4 US/European expats. Visiting employees typically come for 6 months to bring in knowledge about the latest technology. Currently there is a group of 60 young professionals at Esoko by building and supporting the technology. The truly exciting thing about the work Esoko is doing is that it is coming from Africa, and that it is complex technology. Esoko today has a solid user interface, a strong API to communicate with all the different mobile providers to get data from the field processed and then sent out via SMS to end users, and a complete setup of staff and developers comparable to a tech company anywhere in the world.

Impact: Business for Profit & Social Value – Disrupting the Market

According to Esoko, it is a company for profit and for social good because the two come hand in hand. The company has the intention of enabling better transparency, heightening efficiency across value chains and spreading information as well as helping organizations, businesses and individuals get to their bottom lines faster.

As far as innovative technology, the products are designed not to totally reinvent the market, but to make markets more efficient through the presence of the right tools. These tools and solutions are enablers that let people access information more quickly, easily and cheaply by putting the power for decision back in the hands of the customer. This will likely affect the way people do things, however, it is difficult to say how exactly it will change the market.

For businesses, this means tools so they can do business better; source goods locally, tighten supply chains, and make real time decisions based on quickly sourced field information. For individual farmers who have begun using Esoko, the tools have started skewing the market in ways that are easy to recognize because there is a high level of isolation typically experienced by rural producers. If a farmer has pricing information for regions more than two markets away she might forgo selling her products through several middle-men traders that would buy from her and sell at a different market. With the information at hand she could make a cost-benefit analysis to decide if it is best for her to sell her commodities far away herself or to trade with the middle-men. This decision might eliminate her need to work with middle-men who could take her product and sell it for a larger margin of profit or exploit her for their benefit. Armed with the correct pricing information, she can also negotiate a better price with the middleman. This would likely disrupt the market in unprecedented ways because none of the tools are designed to manipulate the market in any specific way. The tools are simply enabling access to information that would put the power for decision back in the hands of the customer.

Cultural Considerations

Each country may have specific user interaction needs, which translate into Esoko helping both projects and businesses deploy properly in their markets. For example Ghana has market queens for each commodity where merchants work under the main queen. Enumerators, who collect price data from markets on a regular basis for the franchise, go into each large market and approach the queens. The queens then have to be ‘courted’ and shown how they can also benefit from allowing Esoko in the market; the goal being that the queen would give approval and Esoko can become operational in that market. The enumerators continue to visit the queen and the markets enabling Esoko to culturally integrate with the market.

In one instance that illuminates the cultural elements and the benefit of ‘design for the customer’ approach, Kumasi’s market queen was putting high taxes for importing onion from Burkina Faso leading to the creation of a renegade onion trade happening on the streets to forgo the market. While the queens have the power to slightly fix the price in Ghanaian markets, Esoko is able to use features like comments on pricing data to describe the dynamics that play into the fluctuation of prices. This qualitative data helps makes sense of the quantitative price data as well as the cultural and socio-economic context of events in the market.

Esoko is a new inventive breed of African technology company. As the demand for cellular technology continues to grow rapidly, the relevance and impact of mobile innovators will also grow for the African market. With a projection of 170% growth for mobile phone usage (85% growth in smart phone use and 150% in non-smart phones) across Africa in the coming 5 years, technology innovators have the opportunity to impact the market in unprecedented ways that increase transparency, simplify supply chains and maximize benefit to the users. It is becoming increasingly hard to imagine that this kind of technology would not have a significant impact on Africa’s development.

October 5, 2011/by actualize

Connectivity, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Notes from ITU’s ‘Measuring the Information Society 2011′

A couple of weeks ago, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), regarded as the source for Internet statistics, released a report on Internet usage habits in 152 countries around the world. The title: “Measuring the Information Society 2011.” Of interest to many is the ICT Development Index which ranks nations by number of subscriptions, type of subscription, broadband availability, cost of access, and level of education. This ranking only goes so far, however, and the value of comparing African ICT benchmarks with global stats is marginal.

In addition to the tables of global rankings, however, are pages of analysis and notes. Recent data hails mostly from 2010 with 2008 used as a reference. Below are some of the nuggets we found useful for painting a picture of how African nations are progressing in terms of Internet adoption:

The ITU revised the definition of wireless-broadband subscriptions in 2010 and group it into three indicators: satellite broadband, terrestrial fixed wireless-broadband, and terrestrial mobile wireless. Terrestrial mobile wireless subscriptions include (a) standard mobile subscriptions with use of data communications at broadband speeds (i.e. mobile-cellular subscriptions with advertised data speeds of 256 kbit/s or greater and which have been used to set up an Internet data connection) and (b) dedicated mobile data subscriptions at broadband speeds. (9)
Approximately 63% of the ICT Development Index is based on 6 factors: International Internet bandwidth per Internet user, Percentage of households with a computer, percentage of households with Internet access, Percentage of individuals using the Internet, fixed-broadband Internet subscriptions per inhabitant, and active mobile-broadband subscriptions per inhabitant. (10)
Kenya has seen a 28% change in IDI value since 2008, making it one of the fastest growing Internet markets. The reason: large cellular subscription growth and an increase in Internet bandwidth capacity (especially from 2009-2010). As of December 2010, Kenya had 10.2 million Internet users, or 26% of the population. (17)
Morocco has witnessed nearly a 300% increase in international bandwidth since 2008. Internet penetration rates are up nearly 50% in thanks to the adoption of mobile broadband, which has gone from 2.3% to 10% penetration over the past two years. Fixed broadband growth is flat, however, in part due to Maroc Telecom’s monopoly. (18)
Comoros saw bandwidth increase 1000% after connecting to a submarine cable in 2010. Madagascar now has over 10x the International capacity it did in 2008. (30)
Mobile broadband subscriptions have doubled globally between 2008-2010. At least 150 nations have 3G mobile broadband networks as of 2010. Algeria, Comoros, Djibouti, Togo, and Zimbabwe did not have 3G as of 2010. (35,42)
The number of fixed broadband subscriptions decreased in Kenya from 2009 to 2010. Kenya’s Internet penetration rate, as reported by CCK, was 9% in 2008. (37)
All African nations apart from Angola, Gabon, Mauritius, Nigeria, Seychelles, and South Africa have less than 5% of households connected to the Internet. Only Cape Verde, Mauritius, Seychelles, and South Africa have a broadband penetration rate greater than 1%. (41)
Djibouti and Mauritania saw little progress in terms of international connectivity. Djibouti is one of the few nations with under 20% mobile penetration. (43)
Broadband Internet costs 112% of gross national income in developing countries as opposed to 1.5% in developed countries. The monthly cost for Internet in Guinea, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Ethiopia is >10x the average monthly income. (71)
Broadband prices dropped by 96% in Burkina Faso, 51% in Malawi, 61% in Ethiopia, 92% in Nigeria, 47% in Swaziland, 90% in Uganda, 81% in Mozambique, 77% in Kenya, but only 8% in Guinea. The African (non-Arab state) average is 55%. (74,76)
Kenya’s international bandwidth has grown from 829 Mbit/s in 2008 to 202,000 Mbit/s in 2010. (76)
Broadband definition now is 4 Mbps download, 1 Mbps upload. (86)
36% of Ghana’s population is covered by 3G. (87)
Terrestrial backbone networks’ length grew from 466,000km to 646,000km from July 2009 to Q1 2011. 4.4% of the population lived within 25km of a submarine cable landing point. 31% lived within the same distance of a backbone access point. Senegal has a high percentage, and Gabon soon will too. (100)
7% of African nations collect household data on Internet usage habits. (108)
Internet usage is strongly correlated with income. In Botswana (2008), 2% of people in the bottom 75% of income levels accessed the Internet. 19% of people in the upper 25% income bracket accessed the Internet. (113)
In Namibia, 81% of Internet users use a social network. 17% of mobile owners access social networks via mobile application. 23% of mobile owners used their phones to access the Internet. However, only 13% of the population actually uses the Internet. Most using it for the first time still do so on a computer or laptop. (125)
No broadband (fixed or mobile) as of 2010 in: Chad, Comoros, DRC, Guinea, Niger. 1-in-1000 broadband users in Burkina Faso, Swaziland, Togo, Zambia. (154-5)

Also, be sure to read TechZim’s summary of the ITU report’s findings on Zimbabwe. Ghana Business Review wrote an insightful article on how Ghana’s global ICT ranking has changed (actually dropped) since 2008.

Note: Unfortunately, much of the African household survey data is from 2007/2008 when Research ICT Africa conducted extensive research. So, although most of the trends are probably still true, the exact numbers used in the later sections of the report have undoubtedly changed greatly.

September 29, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Humanitarian Assistance, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Pakistan Floods – Use of Information and Communication Technology

One of the things that I spent a great deal of my time during the first half of this year is being launched today. With great support from Intel and Microsoft we at NetHope are launching a 60 page case study report on the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the Pakistan floods last year.

In this report we look at how the humanitarian community responded, how ICT played a role in the response and how information management was utilized during the response.

Back in 2006, Paul Currion wrote a report on the use of ICT in the 2005 Pakistan earthquake. In our report we look back at his findings and identify ways in which things have progressed in these five years. Interestingly enough in many cases not much has changed.

One of the key things that has changed in these five years is easier access to connectivity. Whereas in 2005 most organizations relied upon V-SATs as the only available connection, the humanitarian organizations today relied much more upon broadband and mobile connections.

It is our hope that this report provides a great insight into the state of ICT and information management within the humanitarian system and that it generates discussions on how to further improve.

I want to use this opportunity to thank all those who contributed to the report, either by responding to our survey or be willing to participate in our interviews. Last but not least I want to thank everyone who helped review my often rough text and special thanks to our media queen Paige for making the report look so nice.

The report can be downloaded here

September 13, 2011/by actualize

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

Mobiles: Sustaining & Coordinating Aid Distribution

Photo Credit: UN

Amartya Sen famously once observed that famines rarely occur in democratic or even relatively free societies, rather from inequalities built into the societal mechanisms of food distribution. The current famine declared by the U.N. in Southern Somalia, exemplifies his case and point.

New mobile technologies and ICTs in aid projects, however, can be used to streamline the coordination between aid organizations on the ground, populations desperate for aid delivery, and those funding the projects abroad—and make them more sustainable.

As Charles Kenny points out, the modern expansion of international markets and improved international assistance have drastically reduced the probability of famines solely resulting from weak governance.

Alternatively, the government—or those in charge—must deliberately choose to deprive their people of food and, “…actively exercise the power to take food from producers who need it or deny food assistance to victims,” Kenny writes in Foreign Policy.

The political atmosphere within the two regions of Southern Somalia is a huge factor towards the most recent accumulation of mass malnutrition and starvation.

Lacking a sovereign state, citizens must rely on the governance provided by the decentralized al Shabab—who blames food aid for creating dependency—which does little to ensure access to food, preventing malnutrition, or improving livelihoods of the population.

In February 2010, the militant group ousted the World Food Program (WFP), followed by their expulsion of three other aid agencies, where they were accused of spreading Christian propaganda.

Photo Credit: BBC

Al Shabab removed the food aid earlier this month, declaring that agencies without hidden agendas were free to operate in their areas. Later, they announced that expelled agencies, namely WFP, remained banned.

Despite these efforts of dissuasion, WFP airlifted 10 tons of food to Southern Somalia last Wednesday. Mobile technologies can used to track this aid to ensure that it is kept out of the hands of al-Shabaab and into the hands of the malnourished.

Ensuring that they honor their word and delivering aid are two battles to overcome, encouraging harmony for further aid distribution is another.

If al-Shabab upholds their promise to allow food aid in the upcoming months, there should be coordination to make these programs and projects happen efficiently and sustainably—between Southern Somalia’s civil society, the government, and aid agencies who hold the resources.

Aid agencies should capitalize on ICTs to enhance the collaborative effort between organizations and individuals with eyes on the ground, and those pulling the funding strings up in Washington.

Edward Carr who works in famine response for USAID on the ground in the Horn of Africa, says,

…we are going to have to use our considerable science and technology capacity to really explore the potential of mobile communications as a source of rapidly-updated, geolocatable information about conditions on the ground to which people are responding with their livelihoods strategies

Although this new way of collecting information for benefit incidence analysis is useful for tracking who each dollar benefits, it is only resourceful in the long-term if put into a local social context.

Who is the most impacted, but most importantly, why- is what truly matters in the long run.

August 9, 2011/by actualize

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

Citizen Journalist? Consult the Mobile Media Toolkit

The recent rebellions in the Middle East and North Africa have shown to the world the power of recording and disseminating revolutionary events often denied by oppressive regimes; and the proliferation of mobile phones has proved to be a necessary piece of media weaponry for these citizen journalists.

How then, can mobiles be used to maximize the efficiency of their citizen journalists?

The Mobile Media Toolkit created by MobileActive, clarifies problems that may arise while using mobiles in media and assists citizen journalists in their endeavors to deliver their own perspectives of events to the rest of the world.

The Toolkit—available in English, Spanish and Arabic—provides how-to guides, wireless tools, and case studies on how mobile phones are being used for reporting, news broadcasting, and citizen media.

Citizen journalists often report out of necessity so mobile phones are a rapid, covert, and cheap communications channel to suits their needs. In hostile regions where journalism is censored or banned altogether, citizen reporters must be prepared for reacting to quickly changing situations and security measures.

MobileActive’s online resource has information relevant for varying prototypes, from the basic Java phones to the latest smartphone. The tool kit has five main components consisting of:

Creating the Content—Knowing how to capture multimedia enables reporters to capture breaking news and information at a moment’s notice. This section discusses capturing content (like photos, video, audio, and location information) on phones, both smartphones and otherwise; editing that content; (briefly) sharing that content online.
Sharing Content from Mobile to Media—Explores content platforms that let mobile phone users (including trained journalists, untrained content producers, or even “readers”) easily upload content to various mediums. This section also looks at blogging, microblogging, and uploading multimedia.
Delivering Content Online from Media to Media—Covers how to make content (text, audio, video, and more) accessible to a mobile audience in various ways, including text message alerts, audio channels like phone calls and radio, mobile web, mobile apps, and location-based services.
Engaging the Audience—This section articulates how to engage audiences on their mobile phones to make it more participatory. Since social media has become an important conduit for engagement, understanding mobile social media, “listening” to the audiences are saying, and thinking about audiences as participants and content creators rather than passive recipients of content. The section focuses on helping media organizations see their mobile-using audiences as participants in the media process.
Making Sure Information is Secure

The Mobile Surveillance Primer helps identify and understand the risks involved with mobile communication in citizen journalist’s work. The Primer goes over basic mobile surveillance, and acknowledges what kind of information can be transmitted by or stored in your phone.
The Tips and Tools section discusses specific use cases
Mobile Active’s Security Risk Primer—to help activists, human rights defenders, and journalists assess the mobile communications risks that they are facing, and then use appropriate mitigation techniques to increase their ability to organize, report, and work more safely.

MobileActive’s new Mobile Media Toolkit covers all the bases in what citizen journalists should know about reporting with their mobile phones.

Hopefully this how-to initiative will encourage more citizen journalism efforts beyond the Middle East and North Africa to all repressive governments, enhancing efforts for citizens to hold their government’s more accountable and transparent.

August 3, 2011/by actualize

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

Texts and Balances: Nigeria’s 2011 Election

Photo: MobileActive

In Nigeria’s presidential election this April, election observers sent over 35,000 daily text messages to document validity or corruption of the election counting and results. The theory behind Project Swift Count 2011 was that having election observers at voting locations around the nation equipped with mobile phones could immediately report foul play. The theory worked—statistically significant samples by independent organizations verified the published election results from the Nigerian election bureau—indicating that corruption was minimal or nonexistent.

The National Democratic Institute worked with the government of Nigeria to hire 8000 election observers to monitor 4000 voting stations. A parallel vote count was collected and corruption monitored and reported. The observers documented peoples votes, whether they were pressured by anyone, and if all the candidates were listed. Then, the observers each sent a minimum of five text messages during the course of voting to verify the following events:

Photo: NDI

1. Voting accreditation booths opened on time

2. Closing of accreditation booths on time

3. Close of voting booths

4. Starting time of vote counting

5. Accurate reporting of final votes at verified time the next day

Subsequently, political corruption was stymied and the election results were accurate in terms of the sample NDI collected. President Jonathan Goodluck was elected in a fair and clean democratic election.

The project cost around nine million dollars in total, including an independent evaluation of the funds. A group of independent researchers, including Katrin Verclas of MobileActive, carried out the evaluation, and found that nearly all the money could be accounted as originally proposed. These clean results have motivated other countries to utilize this system as well. NDI is currently working with Zambia to monitor their next elections with a similar plan.

Given the high use of mobile phones and the live stream of communication possible via SMS, mobile phones present another solution to promoting democratic elections. And with the spread of mobile satellite service around Africa, this project is scalable in other nations.

August 3, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Embrace mMoney, cautiously

Photo: Institute for Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion

We all use money everyday. Cash, checks, credit, debit… mobile? Outside of the U.S. people are making payments on their mobile phones daily. What you wouldn’t guess is how ingenious they are at inventing new ways of using money. What do the innovative uses of money mean for banks, regulators, and nations? Does mobile money restructure the role of money in society altogether?

Bill Maurer, from University of California-Irvine’s Institute for Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion, spoke at a USAID sponsored Microlinks event yesterday, July 25, 2011. I attended the event and was intrigued by Maurer’s anthropological approach to mobile money, a subject dominated by economists. Maurer emphasized the cultural complexities of money in all its forms, and then spoke especially about mobile money.

To summarize, Maurer first explained that money is perceived differently in different cultures of the world. In Nigeria, family members engage in money spraying, tossing money at brides during the wedding dance. In East Asia, mothers send their children on long trips with money inside of small hand sown pockets, believing that the money will protect them, and that they can use it to get settled once they arrive.

Photo: Institute for Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion

The various uses of mobile money are equally diverse. For one, those who make mobile money transfers using SMS technology skip traditional banks altogether, as their telecommunication service providers act also as banks. Second, what about people who own multiple mobile phones or SIM cards in order to maintain different accounts? Some hide certain accounts from others; others separate the accounts for organization. Third, there are some cross-border money transfers. Often, if the service provider is the same, then the transfer may be made. Fourth, there is a possibility of mobile money remittances, as Ericsson launched two weeks ago? Still others trade their money from one currency to another to another, eventually “getting to the dollar,” and ensuring the value of their money. All of these actions change relationships between banks, individuals, government regulators, and telecommunication service providers.

Photo: Institute for Money, Technology, and Financial Inclusion

In a way, the elimination of banks from money transfers makes it appear that transfers should be a “public good,” freely and widely available. The policy implications for regulators, then, are immense. Who can take a cut of transaction costs? What rules should be in place about currency transfers? How are regulatory agencies from different nations going to communicate with each other? These questions, with a host of others, set the stage for mobile money’s impact on the global economy.

Though I was thoroughly engaged by Maurer’s presentation, I could not help but wonder what the policy implications were. When Maurer responded to one attendee request for a summary of the lessons learned about mobile money, he originally responded, “I have shied away from the lessons learned because I am open as to what they may be.” Thankfully, though, he followed up this response with three key regulatory innovations that he recommended for policymakers: proportionate due diligence, non-bank e-money issuance, and non-bank deposit taking.

USAID and other international organizations, then, should be careful in their rollout of mobile money projects. Though over 80% of the world has access to a mobile phone, the impacts of mobile money programs are far-reaching—they affect the financial, political, and social sectors, either for the better or the worse. If nothing else, the anthropological research by Maurer shows the complexities of mobile money. Before a list of best practices and lessons learned can be compiled, policymakers should tread carefully, but they should still step forward. As evidence and data is gathered through experiments, best practices can be ascertained. Once best practices are identified, then USAID and other aid organizations should scale mobile-based development projects.

July 27, 2011/by actualize

Business Enabling Environment, Economic Growth & Trade, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

What did Vodafone and the UN Learn from Working Together?

Photo: UN Foundation flickr

This morning leaders from the United Nations Foundation (UNF) and Vodafone Foundation gathered at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. to discuss their projects and key lessons learned after nine years of working together in partnership. The discussion focused on the broader implications for other public-private-partnerships (PPPs) hoping to contribute to global development.

Drawing on the “Mobilizing Development” report of the partnerships efforts, UNF CEO Kathy Calvin stressed that the partnership slowed down project implementation, at least initially, but made for greater efficiency and long-term impact. Discussions about how to orchestrate the partnership lasted two years, and it took another two years to decide on the actual projects that the partnership would complete, she stated.

Photo: UN Foundation flickr

William Kennedy, a senior official from the United Nations Office for Partnerships in New York, discussed the “cultural divide” between business and development. “I don’t think you can underestimate the effort it takes to bridge the cultural divide between a big company and a foundation.” One example is the business mindset to immediately scale projects as large as possible, as opposed to the development mentality of respecting local culture and adapting solutions for particular communities. He added that what makes this partnership different from other less successful development PPPs are the relationships between the leaders on each side. Also, they had consistent evaluations of the development projects, which was important in business culture. Leaders were willing to address the UNF’s needs and shortcomings, and to make extra efforts to complete the work.

Members of the audience voiced questions about the “shared value” and motivations for each organization to partner with the other. Vodafone had recently bought other telecommunications companies, becoming a global brand right before its partnership with the UN. Before partnering with the UN on this philanthropic initiative, Vodafone was able to attach its own brand to the UN’s global appeal. Other UNF leaders, however, voiced their concerns with this opinion, stating that Vodafone officials took particular care to separate business and philanthropic motivations, citing their willingness to allow service providers to run mHealth initiatives set up by the program as evidence of their philanthropic motivations in their efforts with the UNF.

As for the future of PPPs hoping to meet global development goals, Calvin expressed her opinion that the age of partnerships between one private company and one public organization is coming to an end. Instead, she said that what the UNF is learning is that alliances, made up of a variety of government, private, and non-governmental organizations, are the future of philanthropy. She pointed to the formation of the mHealth alliance, which stemmed from the original UNF-Vodafone partnership, but currently is able to increase scale and efficiency as an alliance with other organizations contributing to different aspects of the program.

July 20, 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

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