Mobile tech projects helping the developing world
12:14, 4 January 2009
.. Posted in techculture and tech to help.. Link
As I noted in a in a blog in November, USAID launched the 2008 USAID Development 2.0 Challenge, a contest where individuals and organizations working with mobile technologies to create positive change (in areas such as health, banking, education, agricultural trade, or other pressing development issues) were invited to share their projects via NetSquared. 15 finalists have been chosen by the NetSquared community; a panel of judges, selected by USAID, will now select three winners.
Here are MY favorite projects from all that were submitted (only one of which was a finalist). I liked these six projects in particular because I believe they help people immediately once launched, they can be easily replicated, what they offer is very much needed, and local people and local institutions can run these projects themselves. You are invited to continue to comment on any project on the web site:
- Water Technology Assistant - cellphones supporting access to clean water This is a cell phone application designed to support drinking water and sanitation projects in the field. Much of the technical content is from existing online resources reformatted and rewritten for small screens.
- Using SMS technology to improve knowledge, attitude and behavior regarding HIV/AIDS in Uganda. This isn't a one-way project: participants will also reply to multiple choice questions related to HIV/AIDS subjects, retaining their anonymity. If someone submits an incorrect answer, a rectifying SMS will follow with the correct answer in combination with an explanation. To stimulate the participants, the quiz will be linked with a reward system (incentive).
- M-deposit will allow people in Bangladesh to access banking services via cell phone: check an account balance, make a withdrawal, etc. The consumer doesn’t have to visit banks which are normally located in distance for getting the service and the bank doesn’t have to make any human resource available to directly serve the low-value depositors.
- LUTW Mobile Solid State Lighting Medical and Dental LampThe goal of this project is to develop and distribute a mobile, robust and ultra-bright lighting system for use in medical and dental treatments both in the developing world and during disaster relief efforts around the world.
- ECAMIC project using ICTs innovatively to promote market access for farmers Farmers anywhere need up-to-date market information to be able to make good decisions in selling their farm produce. This project uses both low and relatively high-tech approaches to disseminate of market information to cooperatives of farmers in Salaga, Chamba and Kpandai, along the northeast farming belt in Ghana. There is also the benefit of building new social network and capital as farmers and community members establish links with relations near and far.
- Agrotext in Kenya Studies have shown that Kenyan farmers think that they lack information on the technical details of farming. This project provides farmers with cheap access to a database of agricultural knowledge. The only thing they have to do is send a text, after which they will get an sms back with the answer.
