News > Blog

How Mobile Phones Are Changing the

Developing World
July 27, 2015
Grace Dobush

Technology has the potential to lift people out of poverty. All signs point to the developing
world skipping past the eras of landlines and desktop computers and going straight to mobile.
That potential for two-way communication is changing the face of international development.
For the first time ever, were able to have a clear line to people who are in the middle of
nowhere to give them a sense of a future, information, opportunity and choice, says Chris
Fabian, co-lead of UNICEFs Innovation Lab.

Mobile carrier industry alliance GSMA estimates globally there are now 7.5 billion mobile
connections with 3.7 billion unique subscribers. But 10 percent of the Earths 7.2 billion people
lack access to basic voice and text services, and about a third lack access to 3G or 4G mobile
broadband internet. The majority of these uncovered populations live in the rural regions of Asia
and Sub-Saharan Africa, which together account for 3.4 billion of the 4.8 billion people not yet
connected to the internet.

Only 2 percent of African households have a landline, while nearly two-thirds of American
households still do. Recent Pew Research Center numbers show that cell phones are as common
in Nigeria and South Africa as they are in the United States, with about 90 percent of adults
owning mobile phones. Its worth noting that most of those cell phones in Africa are what wed
call basic or feature phones, capable of calling, texting and maybe basic Internet browsing. Pew
found an average of 17 percent of people in Sub-Saharan Africa still do not own a cell phone, but
more than half of those people have access to one sometimes.
As mobile phone networks spread to cover all rural areas, we have the chance to affect the lives
of people who need the help most, making big changes to how people handle money, work, learn
and participate in government.

Money and banking

Traditional banking is out of reach for many people in rural areas of developing countries, but
mobile is bringing people into the financial system in droves. Financial inclusion, starting with a
humble savings account, enables people to start businesses, invest in education and weather bad
times. The World Bank estimates that the number of unbanked people in the world dropped by
20 percent to 2 billion people from 2011 to 2014.

M-Pesa, first launched in 2007 in Kenya, lets users transfer money via text message, and similar
systems by other telcos have followed suit in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to Pew, 61 percent of Kenyans with cell phones reported making or receiving
payments on their cell phones in the past year, as did 42 percent of Ugandans and 39 percent of
Tanzanians. But less than one percent of the people in Nigeria, Sub-Saharan Africas biggest
economy, regularly use mobile banking. A major financial institution there is partnering with the
third-biggest telco to allow people to sign up for saving accounts via mobile phone, Quartz
reports.
Governance
When youre living in a remote part of the world, it can be difficult to make your voice heard.
UNICEFs UReport program polls its one million members via text message, gathering
information and opinions in real time in 15 countries. A few years ago, Uganda wondered why
no one was applying for an entrepreneurship grant it had set up. A UReport poll showed that the
requirement of a school diploma was a problem for many people who were interested. Uganda
struck the requirement and applications started flooding in. The polling can also be used to track
disease outbreaks and violence.

In Quezon City in the Philippines, the local government is adopting mobile money to handle
payroll, distribute welfare benefits and collect fees. Libya set up a first-of-its-kind mobile voter
registration system in 2014.

Agriculture
Most poor people in the world are subsistence farmers, growing only enough for themselves
and their community because getting a surplus to market is too expensive, says UNICEF
Innovation Lab co-lead Erica Kochi. USAID Pakistan teamed up with local government and a
local mobile carrier to create a mobile program that sends peach and potato farmers text or voice
messages about crop prices, market access and disease prevention. In Mozambique, USAID is
trying to encourage farmers to use mobile money to save during the harvests bounty so they can
afford fertilizer when the next season starts and maximize their profits. The Grameen
Foundations e-Warehouse project in Kenya helps small farmers properly store their crops while
waiting for prices to hit an optimal level and can also connect them to advances against their
crops. In Turkey, Vodafones Farmers Club combines free information with notifications and a
members-only marketplace.The program has grown to more than 900,000 active users.

Education
Mobile phones and tablets are bringing teachers to students in underserved regions like never
before, thanks to dropping hardware costs. Rumies low-power tablets, pre-loaded with entire
libraries, first got sent into action during the Ebola crisis, when schools in Liberia were shut
down for months. Teachers are learning, too: A program in Pakistan provided instructors with
videos on teaching methods that they could download at free hotspots.

UNICEFs EduTrac works much like UReport, but focuses on teachers. Ugandas Ministry of
Education and Sports is able to reach out to subscribed teachers to check on attendance, facilities
and supplies without driving hundreds of miles to visit each site. Mobile banking can help
education, too: A school in Bangladesh has allowed parents to make payments via mobile phone
whenever is convenient for them, in small amounts or pre-paying large amounts.
Health
The Grameen Foundations Mobile Midwife program sends women daily texts and weekly
voicemails with advice in their language during pregnancy and the first year of the childs life.
The basic version of the service is free, with add-ons available for a fee. In Nigeria it cost the
equivalent of 15 cents per week. UNICEFs 1000 Days program provides similar support for
mothers with a focus on nutrition through pregnancy and the first two years of a childs life and
may soon be implemented across Mexico.

In Mozambique, mobile is being used in the fight against HIV and AIDS. British nonprofit
Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) incorporated mobile messaging to remind patients enrolled in
anti-retroviral therapy about appointment dates and to take their medication. Mobile messaging
improved retention rates: 96 percent of users were still on track with their therapy after six
months and 85 percent after 12 months, compared to the national average of 72 percent.

UNICEFs mTrac looks at the health system itself: About 30,000 front-line health workers at
3,700 health centers in Uganda submit weekly reports electronically and are able to receive
surveys, alerts and other communications. Are supplies arriving on time? Are the levels
sufficient? Is the clinic storing medicines properly?

Challenges remain
As I write this story on Google Drive using my ultrathin laptop, my smartphone is charging,
silently uploading pictures to Dropbox, and my tablet is upstairs, where Ill use it later to read
until I fall asleep. But what if charging your phone cost 20 percent of your monthly income, as it
does for the most financially insecure families in Burundi?

Mobile still has hurdles to jump before it can reach all the lives of people most in need of the
technology: Namely, reliable, affordable energy and comprehensive network coverage. Until
these infrastructure issues are improved, dumb phones will continue to be the standard, and
well see function top form every time. (This brick of a phone is not pretty but doubles as a
power bank and has earned cult status in Ghana.) Mobile use could actually help improve the
power grid in the developing world: A recent study by the Santa Fe Institute theorizes that cell
phone use could help developing countries plan electrical infrastructure.

https://www.cta.tech/News/Blog/Articles/2015/July/How-Mobile-Phones-Are-Changing-the-
Developing-Worl.aspx