Over the last 10 years people have increasingly been finding new and innovative ways to use mobile phone technology to reach and support people in need. Now with over 5 billion mobile phone subscriptions we have a unique and unprecedented opportunity to positively impact people’s lives through the device in their hand.

In a brief overview we looked at the plethora of organisations, both small and large, that are now engaged in M4D (Mobiles for development) activities. From those that are solely donor funded, through those trying to establish a sustainable commercial business model, to global players that see long-term financial benefits of engaging with people at the base of the pyramid (BOP).

Below is a short video clip from the seminar covering the introduction and a brief overview of the M4D landscape.

During the seminar we focused on three key areas; openness and transparency, mobiles and empowerment, and Mobile money. Since the beginning of this year these have probably been the most hotly debated subjects on the international development and ICT4D blogs and discussion forums.

There is no doubt that, given the recent global economic crisis, there is an urgent need for improved openness and transparency in development programmes. During the seminar we discussed how important it is to link donor funding to activities, and most importantly to outcomes. We were able to show attendees how mobile phones are being used to capture real-time data on field activities using location stamped photographs and mobile forms. This data can then be mapped with funding and outcome data to present ‘live’ dashboards that can be accessed online by programme managers and donors, enabling them to make informed decisions.

A recognised definition of empowerment is ‘Empowerment is defined as a person’s capacity to make effective choices: that is, the capacity to transform choices into desired actions and outcomes.’ We discussed how technology can be used both to provide education and information and, even more importantly, through mobile coaching and mentoring, how people can be supported as they explore new actions and outcomes. As a case study for this we were able to highlight the amazing success of the JamiiX and Mxit collaboration in South Africa which has facilitated over 5 million conversations, supporting people through a wide range of issues such as drug abuse, rape, and HIV counselling.

Click below to view a short clip from the seminar on mobiles and empowerment.

Finally we looked at how Mobile Money is transforming the way people think in Kenya and other developing nations. We explored the key enablers for successful countrywide deployments of mobile money solutions. These include;

1)      a migrant population with a need to transfer money from urban to rural areas
2)      limited access to financial services or low banking penetration
3)      a high penetration of mobile phone usage (most importantly, mobile operators need to be trusted brands)
4)      poor infrastructure and security (therefore high risk to carry significant amounts of cash)

Additionally, for the continued growth of Mobile Money and to ensure the maximum benefit is delivered to people in need, governments need to ensure there is interoperability between mobile operators.

We also had time during the afternoon to engage with the DFID policy advisers and researchers to discuss future trends for mobiles in least developed countries (LDC’s) and to look at a framework for successful M4D programme implementations. I will be sharing the output of these two areas in next week’s blog – so watch this space.

Nimbus is an independent consultancy advising on the design and deployment of mobile and web technologies that enhance international development programmes. If you are challenged to make your programmes more effective or you wish to enable them to reach more people, call us now on 0330 330 9813 or e-mail me at peter@nimbus.mobi

I have just arrived back from a very tiring but positive 10-day trip which took me to Zambia, Malawi and Kenya. Whilst most of the places that I visited where very rural, mobile phone coverage was almost ubiquitous. In the few areas where this was not the case, the locals knew exactly at which rock, tree or landmark to stand, in order to obtain an adequate signal! I felt a touch of déjà vu when told of a particular rock in the Luangwa District of Zambia where people queued to make a call – much the same as I did as a child at our local phone box in England.

The majority of people I spoke to either owned a mobile phone or had the opportunity to borrow one from a family member or friend. Everyone I met saw the mobile phone as providing a positive impact on their lives to communicate and keep in touch with loved ones and business contacts. However, coming from a connected country blessed with fixed and wireless communications, it is not until you are in a remote village that you can actually appreciate the opportunity cost of not using  a mobile phone.  Sending a message to a family member even in a nearby town would necessitate a 2 hour walk along dusty, undulating and rutted paths to a bus stop; the cost of a bus fare in a usually overcrowded minibus; a similar walk at the other end of the bus stop and the risk that the person is not even at home! A process lasting perhaps a day or more has now been truncated by the simple mobile phone to keying in 10 digits and pressing a call button!

The affordances of mobile phone communications are driving seismic changes in spending patterns and redefining social and business patterns in Africa. It was common amongst the people I asked to be spending 40% of their income on talk time (airtime or top-up) with some people spending up to 70%! Health care professionals would often skip lunch and other meals in order to spend their money on airtime. Government, medical and business institutions commonly did not given their employees any airtime allowance, yet relied on the generosity and good will of diligent employees to use their own airtime to discharge the activities of their work.

Most people in Malawi and Zambia that I met were on handsets that only supported voice and SMS communications. Whilst the mobile providers are rolling out data services including 3G support there are four main issues on widespread adoption:

1. The cost of handsets that support data services are relatively expensive compared to the basic handsets that are being highlighted through an array of special offers.
2. The mobile operators do not make it easy to connect your phone to the internet. Of the seven SIM cards I bought on my short trip, I had to request from each provider that internet services were enabled on the SIM card – this was not offered in any outlet. Also, the settings needed to be manually set up on my phone, which in one case caused me to have to renew practically every setting on my Nexus One handset.
3. The cost of data is not understood by users. This is especially important for people on low income as the ability to accommodate unexpected expenditure is very low. Despite the incredibly low cost of sending a mobile instant message compared with the cost of sending an SMS (about 1,000 times more expensive), people are more comfortable sending an SMS as they absolutely know the cost.
4. The digital literacy levels in LDCs are good for calls and SMS but low for mobile internet.

Of equal concern was the cost of 3G data services. During my time in Malawi, I met Lazarus who has a 3G dongle which was supplied through his work. This dongle costs 15,000 kwacha per month which is about £60 and affords him 250 MB of data. This is in stark contrast with the 3G dongle that I have here in the UK, which cost me £15 month and affords me 2GB of data. Lazarus informed me that the average person in the Northern district of Malawi would earn between 20,000 and 30,000 kwacha a month. This would mean somebody with an average income will be spending 50% to 75% of their monthly income to have a 3G dongle. Putting this into a UK context, where an unskilled labourer earns on average £20,000 and a skilled labourer earns £40,000 this would put the cost of a 3G dongle between £830 and £1,167 a month. Whilst I realise that many people in Malawi won’t be using 3G dongles to access data services, it does highlight the extraordinarily high cost of access.

Access to information is vital to people living in rural Africa. By accessing crop and market information they can be sure to get the best price for their produce, whilst accessing health service online could be a life saver if you live 50 km from the nearest clinic. People have a right to information that could transform their lives and access via a mobile phone is the only way to reach millions of people effectively.

So why does internet connectivity cost so much in Africa? Surely it is time for governments to increase competition amongst network operators by regulating the price of airtime and internet connectivity if necessary! With people spending up to 70% of their income on airtime top-ups, I came away with an overwhelming feeling that the mobile operators are walking the same path of exploitation furrowed by other imperialists of ages past.

It is the last few weeks of the dry season here, and access to water is a challenge to most. The shallow wells are dry and it is only the deep boreholes that have water available. Every time we passed one, there were big queues of people waiting to fill their containers. From the anecdotal evidence I gathered it was clear that this queuing was pretty much a 24/7 experience for the area. There are just not sufficient boreholes for all.

It is always the poorest who are most affected by such times of pressure and this was certainly the case for the child headed families that we met. We were taken to visit three families by the Ugandan team at Edith’s Home (http://www.edithshome.com ) as they had received reports of such families needing intervention. In the course of just three visits it became abundantly clear that the needs of such families are each very different.

One family was in crisis, needing immediate aid to address the obvious hunger, malnutrition and medical care. It was a difficult home to visit and surprising to find a family headed by a 15 year old and caring for such young children without any support from neighbours and the wider community. This is more normal in Africa, and perhaps that lack, is itself telling of the wider pressures on the community. We left John Omagor, from Edith’s Home with food to distribute and he planned to speak with the community to find further support for the family.

The other families were both very different, neither in crisis but both trapped in poverty with few resources that they could utilise for income generation and a list of family needs that they could not meet. The challenge we took away from the encounters was to find ways for the families to have means of income generation; it is the only sustainable way to help such families over the long term.

Later in the trip we connected with a Ugandan group who had been using Toughstuff (http://www.toughstuffonline.com ) solar panels and charging equipment to start small business. Over the six months they have been using the equipment they have found out that the rental business model, using solar panels for charging peoples equipment is the most likely to be successful.

The two aspects came together and gave us the opportunity to create mobile phone charging businesses for the child headed families. People are already used to paying for mobile phone charging and those with generators in the areas without electricity provide this service. A solar charging business has lower running costs and offers wider environmental benefits.

Each family was provided with four panels and kits to enable mobile phone charging services. They will be able to charge 500/- for each charge, taking up to 2 hours on a solar panel (depending on the state of the battery). As a method of income generation it has the possibility of generating around 6000/- per day, considerably more than can be earnt by manual labour (which is only around 2000/- per day in the locality). If the business works as expected, then the income generated will be able to support repayments for the equipment and enable the business to be rolled out to other similar families in different locations.

The experiment has been started and we are eagerly waiting for feedback from the field. Will the families be able to create a business that generates enough income? How will they cope with competition? What problems will they face with theft of equipment? What have we not considered? What other simple income generating business can we promote for such families?

I hope to report on this is due course………

Paul

The British government have announced massive cuts to address the UK spending deficit at the same time as launching the Big Society. Whilst it may appear that the Third sector has gained favour with David Cameron and is his answer to all society’s ills, as we take a look beneath the shiny veneer all is not well. “A third of charities nationally that receive state cash say they will have to reduce the level of services they provide, while over a quarter expect to make staff redundant” says a survey by the Charity Finance Directors Group, consultants PWC and the Institute of Fundraising found.

There is no doubt that the Sector is being reshaped but, what it will look like in a couple of years? No one is quite sure. Internationally, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is “seeking to connect the private and civic sectors with America’s foreign policy work by bringing new resources and partners to the table.” In this resource depleted sector, it is unavoidable that business disciplines must be embraced by development organisations and that they cannot be less accountable than corporations. Situations such as the misappropriation of $4 million of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, that was meant to fight disease in Mali, is just not acceptable. Mrs Clinton said in summary that “USAID must be more nimble, more effective, and more accountable”.

This sentiment is echoed by DFID in the UK where two of the key objectives of the recently completed spending review were “Value for money” and “Transparency, accountability and evaluation”.  When the Coalition Government came to power in 2010, they made a commitment to keep the UK aid promises to the world’s poorest people by providing 0.7% of our Gross National Income as aid from 2013. But they will change the way aid is given. Last week’s statement announcing the review results stated “We will scrutinise every pound spent to make sure it goes to the people it is designed to help”.

Surely this is great news and long overdue but, how will Aid organisations ensure they can provide the level of openness and transparency in their reporting to enable this pledge to be delivered?

Let’s take an example of what happens now and what might need to change to meet the new standards. A sum of money may be given to fund mosquito nets for families in a particular community, with the end objective being that children are healthier and thus school attendance improves. Currently the Donor (DFID or any another grant funding body) could reasonably expect to receive a report at the end on the year detailing how the money was spent and with some assurances that the objectives are being met.

In the new world this will no longer be enough as the Donor will rightly demand and expect much more detail in shorter reporting cycles to ensure they are devliering against their stated aims of scrutability.

Below is an example of how the process might look moving forward by utilising the ubiquitous low end mobile phone.

Firstly, evidence will need to be provided that the agreed field activities have been completed. This can be easily done with mobile applications such as POImapper (http://www.pajatman.com/poimapper) which was developed in conjunction with international development agency Plan. Such applications allow field workers to take photos, using a standard mobile phone, of the mosquito nets being delivered and then also a couple of months later to evidence that those families are using the nets they received. The photos can be stamped with the date, time and even location at which they were taken. Visits can then be made towards the end of the year to local schools to collect outcome data on attendance rates using mobile based forms.  Both the photos and forms can be easily uploaded to a web portal where all the programme information can be collated into dynamic reports that Donors can access online to track progress and achievements.

Yes there are costs to setting up such a process and running costs to continue collecting the data, but, the truth is that those NGO’s that don’t adopt such schemes will soon find funds harder and harder to come by. Furthermore, keeping track of funds, activities and outcomes will ensure that “every pound gets to the people that need it most” and at the end of the day that means that your programme budget has been well utilised.

Nimbus is an Independent Mobile technology for Development consultancy.  We understand that each development programme has its own nuances and as such we work with NGO’s, development agencies and their stakeholders to understand both the needs and constraints of individual programmes. We then make recommendations on appropriate solutions and support the team on the ground to ensure successful implementations.

Call us now on 03303309813 to discuss how we can help you adapt to the new challenges.

Hence now Indonesians using MXit chat are able to access personal readiness information, including what to do in the case of different natural disasters like floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and cyclones; how to prepare an emergency kit and how to plan for possible evacuation. This information is teamed up with facts on safe hospitals in disaster zones. People are urged to sign up on MXit and through Facebook to help the campaign reach its 1 million supporter target – which also includes the likes of WHO Goodwill Ambassador and international superstar, Jet Li.

The initiative, launched on 24^th January, is aligned with WHO’s wider effort using new communications technology to strengthen disaster preparedness in the Region and build public awareness of the urgent need for safe hospitals in disasters.

This mobile and social media outreach is new to the NGO and International Development community. “We are leveraging new communication technology in order to ease the availability, accessibility, and effectiveness of health information and services,” says Dr Roderico Ofrin, regional adviser for WHO’s emergency and humanitarian action. “Through this campaign we will continue to explore innovative means of bringing critical information in times of emergencies,” he says.

Herman Heunis, CEO and founder of MXit says: “The nature of social media can have far reaching effects in helping communities and this is especially true for social communities on mobile phones because the devices are so accessible globally. This campaign is a true example of the meaningful use of mobile social media in preventing and alleviating suffering in areas that need it most, and we commend the WHO for initiating this important campaign.”

“Being able to access life saving information at your fingertips is an empowering initiative by WHO and we are excited to be part of this campaign displaying the power of social media” says Marlon Parker, CEO of JamiiX.

Nimbus represents JamiiX in the UK and worldwide. We are currently working with several other NGO’s to establish technology programs that will reach underserved communities and alleviate poverty. If you would like to know more about JamiiX, or explore how mobile technologies can enhance your existing development programs we would be delighted to speak with you. Call us now on 0330 330 9813.

In the airport I am asked to use brand new fingerprint scanners for passport control, a very high tech solution to capturing data on who is arriving in the country. There is the same old baggage reclaim system, which I am sure is designed to acclimatise passengers to African time. It works with plenty of manual intervention and from the pile of bags in the middle of the floor from previous flights, still has challenges to overcome.

On the road from the airport I experience again the smell and taste of Nairobi, the mixture of car fumes and dust is always a bit of a shock. More new building work is going up along the airport road, as the city continues to expand. Beneath a massive advertising hoarding for 3D TV sets, I see an ordinary Kenyan pulling a hand cart through the dusty roads. It amazes me that anyone wishes to sell such high end products into a country that has so many other needs, more pressing in my view. Only the few rich in this country will be able to afford such luxury. How long will it be before the ordinary Kenyan can afford the latest in electronic devices I wonder? I am sure it will not be in my lifetime, although the ordinary rural Kenyan may have access to mains electricity by then.

This uncomfortable mixture assails me throughout the trip, the imposition of what is commonplace in western countries into the life of Africa. There is so much more distance between the rich and those in extreme poverty, in those countries where they live closest together.

I long to see more African solutions to African problems. In the world of mobile phones, M-Pesa has been an outstanding success with other networks now offering “me-too solutions”. This technology has made a significant difference to the lives of the multitude of ordinary Kenyans. They now have access to a money transfer and banking system without the massive obstacles that the traditional banks had put in the way of the majority. It will be very interesting to watch what starts to emerge from the iHub and other technology centres where Africans are addressing the issues facing the ordinary people of the country.

A personal reflection on Paul’s recent visit to Kenya.

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