The Practical Radical
Mobile Phones Improve Health Services in Africa
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Having worked with youth to establish One Stop Youth Centres in Kampala, Uganda, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Nairobi, Kenya, and Kigali, Rwanda, I have seen the power of mobile phones both to convene people as well as disseminate important information. What I find really exciting is to see how quickly and to what success mobile phones are being adopted in the health field, especially around the prevention of HIV/AIDS, an issue so important to youth in this region.
Here are four posts from the last 24 hours on mobile phones and health from the Urban Health blog of USAID:
- Mobile learning for HIV/AIDS healthcare in peri-urban clinics
- Mobile phone-based interventions India
- Mobile direct observation treatment for tuberculosis patients
- Uganda – Challenges in Using Mobile Phones for Data Collection
Steps into Mapping the Unmapped – via Mapping: No Big Deal
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No big deal?? Yeah right! This is an excellent and detailed step-by-step process on how to do mapping in remote areas, and for a great purpose as well (the successful referendum held in Kenya. Check out my blog post Transparency + Accountability = Democracy, Kenya Style to see how mapping was used there).
Here are the steps in quick preview (go to the main article to see the details):
1. Season planning.
2. Try to acquire existing maps or make people create them from memory.
3. Get contacts in the area prior to your arrival.
4. Meet community leaders.
5. Find a guide who knows the area and the people.
6. Go to a local bar and have a beer. ** key to any successful mapping process! – DR
7. Go for it. Map!
8. Write a working diary.
9. Present the results to the community.
10. Finish your work.
11. Stay in touch.
Keep up the good work and keep us posted!
Doug
Mapping hardly accessible, rural areas, is always a challenge. Each area differs so you have to tackle it in its own special way. Yet some basic steps are always the same. I have written some of them down. In July, Mildred and I went mapping on Mount Elgon as contractors for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) on behalf of Map Kibera.
They needed information regarding polling stations in the area for their work on election monitoring. The information included geographic location, accessibility – both physical accessibility and the availability of cell phone service, information related to infrastructure of these stations, and speed of travel to each individual station.
Tags: @openstreetmap, Africa, Cartography, Geography, Global Positioning System, kenya, kibera, map, map kibera, Mobile phone, Mount Elgon, research, Science and Technology, Social Sciences, Technology, Youth
Digital Access for All: Broadband for the People … really
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When there is an increase in broadband speed in the North America, we can download more episodes of our favorite TV show (mine is 30 rock); when broadband speed increases in Africa, millions more people get online through mobile technologies.
Whole “development” leaps are being taken on the African continent – mind numbing and corrupt bureaucracy is in one click being overcome with government services going online; banking is being revolutionized with mobile “MPESA” banking; “urban wilderness”, the unplanned settlements or slums, or being mapped for the first time. And I can go on – read my article on Bridging the Digital Divide.
Just saw this great article and video done by Declan McCormack on the impact of mobile phones and the internet in east Africa that i thought nails it in regards to what is going on. Enjoy.
Tags: Africa, business, Dar-es-Salaam, Developing country, digital, Digital divide, kenya, mobile, Mobile phone, tanzania, techology, World Economic Forum, Youth, youth digital mobile techologies africa tanzania kenya
Doug Ragan
practicalradical
The Practical Radical 