"mNutrition is a global initiative supported by FCDO, managed by GSMA, and implemented by in-country MNOs and third party providers to use mobile technology, that sought to improve the health and nutritional status of children and adults in the developing world. The potential to utilise mobile techn
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ology to change attitudes, knowledge, behaviours, and practices around health and agriculture for improved nutritional status has been recognised for some time, but to date there have been no rigorous evaluations of m-services at scale. A consortium of researchers from Gamos, IDS, and IFPRI were contracted to conduct a rigorous mixed-methods evaluation to estimate the impact of mNutrition on children and adults, and to understand how the context and the components of the mNutrition intervention shape its impact. In Tanzania, the service, Wazazi Nipendeni, focused on the provision of nutrition and health information and services to vulnerable pregnant women and caregivers of children under the age of five on their mobile phones, with the goal of improving nutrition outcomes and behaviours for mothers and young children." (https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk)
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"A five-year, media capacity-building programme in Sudan gives some valuable pointers about how to keep a media-development programme alive—and the positive results that can be achieved through perseverance and a collaborative effort by stakeholders. The results included the introduction of a new
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reporting style that highlighted issues of public interest, not previously understood, and journalists who were given the confidence to minimise self-censorship." (Abstract)
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"There are increasing numbers of mobile-based projects, and donors such as the World Bank infoDev and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation continue to invest in mobiles for development (M4D). A scan of projects in the 14 focus countries for this study indicated that the most common sectors for inve
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stment are health, socio-economic development, and agriculture. There is evidence that governments are interested in using mobiles as service providers, yet there remain few actual manifestations of such intent in developing countries. Most examples are found in Asia, where concepts have been proven, and more mature mobile markets are seeking new revenue streams. Up to this point, mobile operators have tended to support M4D through concessions such as free or subsidized shortcodes and SMS tariffs, which have been negotiated as part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes. A feature of CSR initiatives in health, education, and child protection, for example, is that they rarely exploit technical resources held by companies. CSR departments tend to be poorly integrated with the core business, and have small budgets and limited decision-making power. Some operators would like to develop services that have a developmental impact, but also a return on investment – M4D that is revenue generating and scalable. As one interviewed thought leader in the M4D space indicated, operators are happy to work towards achieving development goals but only by “doing business as usual”." (Executive summary, page 2)
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"This report aims to give an overview of what DAC members currently know about how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use in developing economies can stimulate economic growth and poverty reduction. It draws attention to the cross-cutting applications of ICTs, to their role as tools, not
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goals, and links their use to development co-operation. The report presents three key discussions. Chapter 2 considers the contribution of ICTs to pro-poor growth. Chapter 3 discusses the contribution of ICTs to the Millennium Development Goals, drawing attention to the processes that lead to the goals. Chapter 4 looks specifically at poverty-reduction good practice and relates what is currently known to the role of ICTs. It is hoped that this text will clarify the debate on the role of ICTs, and give a framework for extending the discussion so that ICTs may find their rightful place in development co-operation." (Abstract)
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