Mobile technology enabling poverty reduction

Wednesday, 11 November 2009 | posted by SimonM
General, Poverty relief

I’ve got a favourite statistic in the 1.4 Billion Reasons presentation that we run at the Global Poverty Project.

It’s that 30% of Africans have used a cell phone. 

I first heard this when talking to the crew at Comic Relief in the UK about six months ago, who were telling me about their very cool site, See Africa Differently.  

A mobile means more than texting and talking to friends. It’s a lifeline to the world, one that people in the most remote reaches the world can use to their advantage. From finding out weather and when to plant crops, to checking market prices and where to head for the best deals, to calling a loved one who is working on the other side of the country or the planet, mobiles are revolutionizing how communication can happen. As the Economist reported last week:

In a field just outside the village of Bumwambu in eastern Uganda, surrounded by banana trees and cassava, with chickens running between the mud-brick houses, Frederick Makawa is thinking about tomatoes. It is late June and the rainy season is coming to an end. Tomatoes are a valuable cash crop during the coming dry season and Mr Makawa wants to plant his seedlings as soon as possible. But Uganda’s traditional growing seasons are shifting, so he is worried about droughts or flash floods that could destroy his crop. Michael Gizamba, a local village-phone operator, offers to help using Farmer’s Friend, an agricultural-information service. He sends a text message to ask for a seasonal weather forecast for the region. Before long a reply arrives to say that normal, moderate rainfall is expected during July. Mr Makawa decides to plant his tomatoes.

And, when we speed up communication and reduce its cost, people can make better decisions – allowing them to save time and redirect resources to more important things, like sending kids to school. 

Delivering a presentation a few weeks ago Google in Sydney, we learnt that they’d teamed up with Grameen and Ugandan mobile network MTN to release a tool that uses SMS to deliver wanted information for the cost of standard message.

My favourite amogst these is ClinicFinder, which sends you the location of the nearest health clinic, along with its number and the services it offers. It’s only just been launched, so it’s too early to tell what the pick-up will be – but a great example of technology enabling poverty reduction. 

With three billion of the world’s four billion mobile users in the developing world, we’re sure to see many more innovations using technology that could be useful for the world’s poor.