The Innovative Use of Mobile Applications in East Africa data sheet 3649 Views
Author:
Johan, Hellstrom; Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
Publication Date:
Jan 2010
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Abstract:
The Swedish International Development and Cooperation Agency (Sida) recently published a report that gives an overview of the current state of mobile phone applications for social and economic developments in East Africa. Drawing on successful adoption of mobile applications in the Philippines, this Sida report seeks to answer “what hinders the take off of m-applications for development in East Africa and what role donors play in the process.” While mobile phones is the one of the most widely accessible gateways for information in East Africa, with mobile penetration covering over 40% of the population, sustainable, scalable mobile services for social and economic development are limited. The report is supported by secondary data, statistics, and field work carried out in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania, along with numerous interviews, meetings and discussions with key stakeholders in East Africa. Major trends in mobile usage, barriers for increased use of m-applications, as well as opportunities for scaling are discussed.
BabaJob: Bringing Jobs to People at the Bottom of the Pyramid data sheet 4575 Views
Finding a job is hard but in India, BabaJob is making the process a bit easier for job seekers at the bottom of the pyramid.
Started in Bangalore in March of 2007, BabaJob is a matching resource for blue-collar workers looking for jobs. Sean Blagsvedt, co-founder of BabaJob, explains that the inspiration came from Anirudh Krishna’s research paper “Escaping Poverty and Becoming Poor: Who Gains, Who Loses, and Why?” Blagsvedt learned that most people moved out of poverty through job diversification. However, he noticed that most job-finding resources in India were designed for people seeking white collar jobs. Blue-collar workers and those at the bottom of the economic pyramid had to rely on word of mouth or luck in order to find the jobs that could help them move out of poverty. He decided to create a resource that would allow workers in India to find jobs in their fields and born was Babajob.
Praekelt Foundation: Young Africa Live, SocialTXT, and TXTalert data sheet 8142 Views
The Praekelt Foundation was founded in 2007 as the nonprofit/NGO offshoot of Praekelt Consulting. The NGO now runs three programs that work to better the lives of people living in poverty in South Africa. Each of those programs (Young Africa Live, SocialTXT, and TXTalert) use mobiles to achieve that goal.
CellBazaar, often called the "Mobile Craigslist of Bangladesh", has provided a martketplace to buy and sell goods and service to Bangladeshis for three and a half years now. We reported on the organization previously in April 2008. Since then, the service has grown and has now user base of just under 4 million. Cell Bazaar processes 1000 posts/day, and founder Kamal Qadir was chosen by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2009.
I caught up with Kamal recently and talked to him about two things that I had wondered about CellBazaar that had not been emphasized in the coverage they have received.
Innovative Use of Cell Phone Technology for HIV/AIDS Behaviour Change Communications: Three Pilot Projects data sheet 5053 Views
Author:
Katherine de Tolly, Helen Alexander
Publication Date:
Mar 2009
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Abstract:
The opportunities in South Africa for using mobile technologies to support initiatives in the HIV/AIDS sector are enormous. A huge number of people have cellphone access, and there are a range of innovative ways in which cellphones can be used to support treatment, disseminate information, provide anonymous counselling, gather data and link patients to services.
Cell-Life is an NGO based in Cape Town, South Africa, that seeks to improve the lives of people infected and affected by HIV through the appropriate use of technology.
This paper describes three pilot interventions that use cellphones for behaviour change communication; i.e. that are experimenting with different cellphone technologies to disseminate information, undertaken as part of Cell-Life’s Cellphones4HIV project: ARV adherence SMSs, USSD content delivery and content delivery via MXit. Challenges around measuring impact in behaviour change communications are briefly discussed, and some of Cell-Life’s upcoming initiatives are outlined.
As Kaplan points out in his 2006 literature review of the subject, “There is almost no literature on using mobile telephones as a healthcare intervention for HIV, TB, malaria, and chronic conditions in developing countries”. Although the initiatives discussed in this paper are very much in their infancy, we hope that by sharing our ideas and approaches with others in the field we will generate discussion around some of the practicalities of mHealth.
Currently NGOs have to rely on sometimes-expensive private-sector suppliers of mobile services such as bulk SMS, USSD, etc. Mobilisr allows organisations to manage their own multi-channel mobile communications.
Mobilisr is an open source mobile messaging platform. It is a Web-based system that allows you to manage communications via mobile phone using a range of mobile technologies: broadcast SMS, interactive keyword SMS, SMS subscribe and unsubscribe, static USSD, and interactive USSD. Future releases will include interactive voice recording (IVR), location-based services, WAP and voicemail push (where a recorded voicemail is sent to people's phones).
Examples of how these can be used include: bulk SMSs sent to patients at an ARV clinic reminding them to take their medication; and interactive USSD used to gather patient feedback on service quality.
Mobilisr allows for tracking of 'campaigns', so you can monitor how many messages have been sent and to whom, which facilitates easier reporting.
MXit is a mobile social networking service hugely popular with young South Africans who flock to it by the millions. Marlon Parker is a social entrepreneur and lecturer at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology where he’s doing his PhD who saw his drug-addicted brother go to jail. Put Marlon's personal experience together with the conversations happening on MXit every day, and you have DAS, Drug Advice Support.
In an article in South Africa's Business Times recently, Parker describes DAS:
Drug users can “chat” with the services’ counsellors when they feel the urge to use, says Parker. It is the first step in a rehabilitation programme run with nongovernmental organisation Impact Direct. The service, which is called Drug Advice Support, has since expanded to include advice on careers, rape and child abuse and an advisory service for those infected with HIV/Aids.
"Please Call Me" messages are a popular cultural form of mobile communication in South African society. These USSD messages are used to advertise everything from car insurance to domestic airlines to the local corner store. Today, thanks to a recent project by SocialTxt, these free messages are used for the first time ever for social marketing: to encourage South Africans to get tested for HIV and obtain AIDS information.
