AudiencScapes

Evidence is increasing that information and communication technologies can be applied to help people adapt to the impacts of climate change. The world’s most vulnerable populations are also feeling the greatest effects of global warming. Newton Sibanda reports on how ICTs may help mitigate the damage in Zambia and beyond.By Newton SibandaCANCUN, Mexico --  While the climate change summit here wrapped up with an agreement on funding adaptation to climate change, a recent UN report argues that people on the ground can use technology now to help cope with the effects of climate change. For much of the world, this technology is used mainly to chat or play games, but it can be vitally important for the world’s most vulnerable populations, those hardest hit by the impacts of climate change.

A pilot project in Nairobi focuses on increasing awareness about family planning options. Using their mobile phone, Kenyans can now get information about contraception and other reproductive issues.By Dinfin MulupiA new public education service in Kenya aims to increase knowledge about family planning. All one needs to access the service is a mobile phone. Launched in May 2010, the service, dubbed m4RH (Mobile for Reproductive Health), is taking advantage of the growing use of mobile phones and text messaging in Kenya to deliver automated information about reproduction. The pilot project was rolled out in Nairobi by the international nongovernmental organization Family Health International (FHI), which is testing the project in collaboration with nine health clinics.

By Sushmita Malaviya (India)India’s densely populated state of Uttar Pradesh is enlisting technology in an effort to boost its vaccination coverage as part of a polio eradication and immunization program. Currently, 32 percent of Uttar Pradesh’s population is vaccinated. The World Health Organization has set a global goal for every district within a country to achieve an 80 percent rate of vaccination coverage.In early July, the Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Western Uttar Pradesh launched a new project that uses mobile phones to notify parents of every newborn child about their child’s immunization requirements.

by Hannah Bowen, Africa Project Manager InterMediaLUSAKA, Zambia -- Traveling in East Africa this month, I’m hearing nonstop coverage of upcoming elections -- in Rwanda in August, Tanzania in October, Uganda next year, plus a referendum on the Kenyan constitution (not to mention a referendum on Southern Sudanese independence and the polls recently concluded in Burundi and Ethiopia). One of the recurring themes in all of this coverage concerns whether and how mobile phones will make the processes more transparent.

By Dinfin Mulupi(Waitaluk, Kenya)--Jane Natoo, a shop owner in this village in Rift Valley Province, used to have to carry thousands of shillings in cash when she went to town to buy stock for her shop. It was an inconvenient and highly risky way to do business. Jane isn't toting big wads of cash anymore. She signed up for the recently launched M-Kesho service, a savings account spinoff of the hugely successful M-Pesa mobile money service operated by Safaricom Ltd. “M-Kesho guarantees me security, since I bank the money at an M-Pesa agent, then travel to town and withdraw [cash] from the bank and do my shopping,” she said.  “It saves me both time and money spent traveling to town to access a bank.

By Bai-Bai Sesay22 April 2010(Freetown, Sierra Leone)--Sierra Leone’s first mobile network was established in 1994 by U.K.-based Mobitel Sierra Leone Limited, which offered a radio-based telephony network and a mobile paging system throughout the country. But only recently did mobile phone use truly take off-and to such an extent that the days of landlines in Sierra Leone now appear to be waning. One impetus for recent growth in mobile phone use was the return of thousands of refugees to the country following the long civil war. While abroad, many had been exposed to more advanced mobile handsets and networks; back in Sierra Leone, they were eager to have similar technologies at their disposal.

By Joseph Were 2 April 2010Kampala, Uganda - Mobile phones, introduced in Uganda about 15 years ago, are becoming a key driver of development solutions in a range of areas-from health care to personal financial management to emergency service access. Such applications are poised to expand briskly as Uganda's telecommunications infrastructure gets a boost from new fiber-optic cables connecting eastern Africa to the global internet grid. These are bringing faster and more reliable web and data connections for mobile as well as landline internet users, opening up a range of potential new uses for development-some of which are being offered by mobile operators directly.