Using SMS to Strengthen Community Communications in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Betty Musau of The United Methodist Church talks about how cellphone technology is strengthening communications and transforming communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she is a UMC conference communicator.

“Instead of waiting for Sunday or Wednesday for an announcement in Church, now we use SMS to tell people” about urgent news using FrontlineSMS, Betty says.

What happens as a result of increased community communications via SMS? “People are changing their behavior,” such as by boiling water during a cholera outbreak, or using bednets to prevent malaria.

“Cellphones are the only means of communication that are effective because people don’t have access to the internet,” Betty says.

What’s her vision for the future? “If every woman can have access to a cellphone, it will save lives and transform the community.”

Learn more about how The United Methodist Church is using technology to improve lives, livelihoods and spiritual wellbeing at http://www.umcom.org, and follow the discussion on Twitter using #ICT4DBP.

Five Steps toward Designing Context Appropriate ICT4D Projects: An Interview with Kristin Peterson, CEO of Inveneo

Kristin Peterson is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Inveneo, a nonprofit social enterprise that delivers sustainable computing and broadband in the developing world. With the goal of transforming lives through better education, healthcare, economic opportunities and emergency relief, Inveneo and its partners have delivered projects in over 25 countries and impacted the lives of over 3 million people in some of the poorest and most challenging regions in the developing world. Kristin was named Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2013, and honored in 2011 with the ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award for her work connecting rural areas.

Q: What factors do development practitioners need to keep in mind when designing ICT products and projects?

A:  In the design phase, there are a number of key principles that need attention aside from the technology. It’s not just about the use case but, also the users of the technology. You have to understand the needs of the organization you’re working with, but also those of the community and the individuals you want to serve.

Here are five things to keep in mind in designing an ICT4D project:

#1: Needs Assessment

The first step is to start with a needs assessment. Engage with the project participants who will use the technology, and with the community that will be served. Learn their issues and their needs so that you can design a technology solution that fits.

For example, if you’re a local church in the States looking to start up an ICT4D program abroad, start by working with your peers in that location to understand what the profile and needs of that community are. Is this community agricultural or urban? If you’re working with a peer church in rural Nigeria where 90% of the community members are farmers, then you’ll probably want to build a program that addresses how to get out better information for farmers.

Once you understand the needs of the community, then you can start thinking about which assets the team can bring. Ultimately this is about getting the technology to serve the community, and enabling the community to gain improved access to information.

#2: Understand User Capacity

Second, you need to understand the capacity of the community to absorb that technology. This will enable you to consider capacity building is needed to build technology adoption.

For example, if you’re going to build a community center where you want to use shared computing or tablet access as a means of providing information to that community, you need to ask: What is the level of familiarity with using these technologies? With using the Internet? You need to consider user ability and agility in deciding which technologies to use, and how to build user capacity.

If you’re building ICT solutions for a school environment, consider how the teachers and the administrators will become familiar with the technology. How might they integrate the technology into day-to-day lesson planning and education/classroom delivery to make the desired impact? How do you build that adoption process, the training, capacity building, and integration, into the technology program you are designing?

It’s also important to look at the community’s needs independent of what tech can do.

#3: Appropriate Technology

Once you’ve done those things, then you’re ready for the third step: identifying appropriate technologies to create a solution set. From a technology standpoint you need to look at a number of items.

First, what is the appropriate physical or hardware technology to use in a setting? In many developing county settings the technology needs to be robust. It has to be survivable in challenging environments with dust, heat, and humidity.

Second, it needs to be low power because many rural areas and even some urban areas in developing countries have issues with power. Power can range from unreliable, where there is grid access but power may be intermittent, to unavailable where there is no traditional power at all.

To consider how your technology will be powered requires an understanding of the physical environment that the technology will be implemented in. You need to know what will be supportable and survivable over the long term, which requires an understanding of what power exists, how stable that power is, and what will be needed to operate that system on a regular basis.

Finally, you need to design around the mission of the project or organization. If you’re designing technology for a school that needs to be open 8 hours a day for students, and then four hours at night and four hours over the weekend, then you have to design a power system that will enable regular powering and consistency of use to meet that demand.

#4: Affordability

Affordability is key to successful ICT product and program design in development projects. Power can be a very expensive component in implementing technology, so use of low power computer screens, servers, and tablets (which already are lower power solutions) is important.

You need to remember that you are designing across the lifecycle of the technology’s use, and think about the affordability both in the short term and the cost of ownership overall.

Once you understand the physical and power situation, then you have to look at affordability both short-term and long-term. You need to be able to design a highly sustainable technology solution from a power, physical, and usability standpoint. Your solution needs to be adaptable in the situations it is designed for.

#5: Support and Integration Plan

Even once you’ve got appropriate and affordable technology factored into your project design, there’s still more to do. Remember that technology frequently is just 10% of the solution. Next you’ll need to look at building a solution that meets the needs of the organization you are serving.

You need to ask: How will the technology be implemented, and how can local capacity be built around using the technology and integrating it into that setting? What training can be providing to build familiarity and confidence with the new technology? How can you build local capacity to integrate the technologies into everyday activities?

Once the technology is implemented, no matter how sustainable it is, you need to have a technology management and support plan that supports users in that environment. You’ll need to identify local support that can come in to fix things and provide regular maintenance on an ongoing basis.

One last thing around the technology: When implementing technology systems, you need to think about how to minimize maintenance and support issues. For example, when you’re implementing a computer lab or a tablet program, how do you ensure that those computers and tablets that will be used by novices cannot be erased or ruined by viruses? It’s really important to look at how that can be done in a way that enables optimum use of the technology but also keeps the system easy to use. Tools like Deep Freeze on a desktop or tablet can help ensure that it can be returned to its original format.

Once you’ve taken these steps, then you can determine whether technology can help you take your program to a new place.

Q: You’ve worked with UMCom on several projects now, including building two computer community centers in Haiti, a grants program, a workshop and site assessments. What is the significance of an entity like The United Methodist Church taking a strategic approach to the use of ICT as part of its work on development related initiatives?

We’re really excited about our work with UMCom around the world and the impact that it is making on peoples lives – and we’re just beginning!

Through its mission efforts, UMCom’s reach and resources are vast. Moreover, UMCom is taking a strategic and practical approach to community development. When combined with technology, this can truly make impact on a global scale.

By designing an approach to local community development that works with local churches and Methodist aligned schools as community development hubs, and by using the right sustainable technologies, UMCom can strengthen community coordination and improve access to information.

In many countries, Methodist universities can be engaged to design and deliver locally relevant programs for these centers.  And by recruiting and training volunteers to support these centers in strategic ways, UMCom can serve as a catalyst for the effective use of ICT to meet local community needs.

Now imagine if this is done not once, but a thousand times using the same approach, the same technologies and only differing the designs based on communities needs. By doing this, UMCom can enable United Methodist churches, schools, and volunteers in mission to become more powerful agents of change throughout the world.

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For a detailed guide about the use of ICT in low-resource environment, see the Inveneo primer on that subject available here.

The Role of Mobile in Development: An Interview with Priya Jaisinghani, Mobile Solutions Director at USAID

Priya Jaisinghani serves as Senior Advisor to the Administrator and the Director of Mobile Solutions for the U.S. Agency for International Development. She has previously served as Program Officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation launching a $1 billion Global Development Program, and as Development Officer in the South Asia Program of the UN Foundation. Priya received a BA in Commerce from the University of Virginia and received an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University’s SAIS.

Q:  What is your role at USAID, and what does your office do?

A: I’m the director of mobile solutions for USAID, we’re part of an independent office that reports directly to [USAID Administrator] Raj [Shah]. People are working on technology issues across the agency: in health, in agriculture, and in education, to name a few. My team is helping to coordinate ICT activities across these areas, and pushing the agency on issues that are crosscutting, such as financial inclusion, mobile data solutions, and mobile access.

Q:  Can you tell us more about one of these crosscutting areas, like mobile data solutions?

A:  Everyone is talking about big data, but in this case we’re looking at small, project-based data. USAID has a programs budget of over $20 billion per year, which is largely focused in humanitarian assistance, agriculture and health. We have an opportunity to use technology, including mobile technology, to collect real-time or near real-time data on the progress and performance of these programs. And [we’re using technology] to hear directly from the communities we serve about whether and how programs are fulfilling their needs and wants.

In Afghanistan, for example, we’re using mobile [phones] to survey teachers about how they’re currently getting paid, and if they’d prefer to be paid in a different way. So far we have about 600 people surveyed, and the results are showing that there’s a strong preference to be paid by mobile or by card instead of being paid in cash, which is how most teachers in Afghanistan are paid today. Having this kind of information gives us the impetus to work with our partners, [including the government,] to pay civil servants through electronic means.

Q:  Could you talk a bit about the intersection of technology, including mobile, in the monitoring & evaluation of development programs?

A:  The opportunity is huge. Technology can make monitoring and evaluation work faster, cheaper, and of higher quality because of the reduction of human error involved in transforming data collected manually into an electronic system. USAID has been very methodical about how we approach this issue. You don’t want to create a situation like the one we saw in Uganda where everyone is out there doing mobile data collection – but doing so using systems that don’t connect, and in the absence of policies about what data to collect, how to do so securely, and on what kind of platform this data should reside. So while there is huge promise around the potential of ICT for transforming M&E work, it’s also important for large organizations with offices around the world like the United Methodist Church to think about the design and policies around the M&E system first.

Q:  Speaking of policies, could you talk a bit about USAID’s policy on the use of ICT for development?

We’re in the process of updating USAID’s ICT4D guidance now to help us focus our investments in ICT4D and achieve greater impact through them. We’re seeing that there’s not a lot of clarity about how best to procure ICT4D solutions. There’s also a lack of awareness in the development community about existing solutions. A lot of partners are building their own solutions, which leads to reinvention rather than existing solutions really scaling.

The USAID guidance will, for example, encourage reusability by suggesting partners to either choose from the existing landscape of software solutions or provide justification if they feel they need to build a new tool. This guidance will also probably include language around sustainability, such as by asking partners to identify, at the outset, who will pay for the project after an initial USAID grant, and how this project will be maintained and upgraded over time. We all, collectively, need to be much more thoughtful about the longevity of these solutions, including their reusability, sustainability and scalability.

Q:  What do funders like USAID look for in the ICT4D projects they fund?

A: In a very decentralized organization like USAID, we’ve got deep content experts who aren’t themselves focused on the ICT4D element of their investments. The vast majority of USAID staff is thinking first and foremost about the impact their investment is having on the poor. So it’s incumbent on partners to demonstrate how investments in ICT can lead to faster, cheaper and better program impact. And when you have a tough budget environment as we do today, ICT tends to be the easy thing to lop off unless prospective grantees show how ICT-based investments can have a real, direct impact.

Q:  In your opinion, what is the significance of the United Methodist Church developing an ICT strategy to guide its development work?

A: I think we’re entering a new world of development. There’s increasing emphasis on local sustainability and building up capacity among non-traditional partners. And we’re beginning to see a shift from funding flowing to the big organizations, to funding flowing more directly to the communities themselves. So we’re looking at world where traditional development funding methods could be totally reorganized.

Larger traditional organizations focused on humanitarian relief and assistance need to prove that they are as or more effective than just giving money directly or to local partners. If you don’t have the systems in place to track and prove impact, and to get funds flowing directly to these communities, then you risk being left in the wake. I don’t mean to be alarmist, but I do think big development organizations can’t stay still.

In part due to the way information can now be collected through advances in ICT, increasingly there will be a litmus test in the development space. Donors will ask: Should I really give money to a large organization, or should I just give it directly to a local partner? So it will be incumbent on large development groups to be laser focused on impact, best practices, ability to track in real time what their performance. ICT can enable and empower these efforts.

10 Tips for Successful ICT4D Interventions: An Interview with ICT4D Pioneer Ken Banks

Ken Banks, founder of kiwanja.net and FrontlineSMS, devotes himself to the application of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change in the developing world. He has worked at the intersection of technology, anthropology, conservation and development for the past twenty years and, during that time, has lived and worked across the African continent. He is a Pop!Tech Fellow, a Tech Awards Laureate, an Ashoka Fellow and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. His latest project, Means of Exchange, is looking at how everyday technologies can be used to democratize opportunities for economic self-sufficiency, rebuild local community and promote a return to local resource use.

 Q:  You’ve been working in this field for some time – is it surprising to you that there is no “best practice” guide for ICT4D, or is this to be expected in a field that is being transformed so rapidly by changes in technology?

A:  A lot of people have opinions on what works in ICT4D and what doesn’t. Just because a particular tool or lesson might apply in one place doesn’t mean it will work everywhere. This oversimplifies the issue of replication, scale and getting things to work in what are often very different environments. The idea of “best practices” almost assumes that there are commonalities that you can apply globally. This may be true in some cases, but it won’t be true in all.

Q:  What about your experience in creating and growing FrontlineSMS – what factors have you found to be important in building a successful ICT4D project?

A:  There are a handful of important factors – I can list off my top 10, in no particular order.

• Build for what people already have in their hands. It’s critical to understand the hardware and device landscape, particularly which technologies your users have access to and ownership of. Many projects still have this problem – looking at smart phones or other top-of-the-range technologies that don’t work for the people they’re trying to help.
• If your product needs an installation guide, that’s a barrier. When ICT4D tools are developed, there are often things that need to be plugged in, connected or configured. Any installation process needs to make sense to people – especially people who need convincing that they can do it themselves. If people can get a tool to work on their own, they often feel incredibly empowered.

• Projects have to be sustainable, but by charging users you often put barriers up to adoption. The target users of your ICTD tool may not be able to pay, or have a mechanism to pay. Good business models in the field are few and far between. Joel Selanikio’s ‘freemium’ model with Magpi may be one of the best. It certainly seems to work.
• If you need to fly in and out to carry out installation, you’re going to struggle to get to scale. For ICT4D projects to scale, you need replication on the ground by users to other users. If users can share, learn, and replicate among themselves, there’s a chance you’ll get a viral effect. Some projects try to generate a degree of financial sustainability by creating a need for users to draw on paid services – but for many this becomes a barrier.
• If you build your ICT4D tool to work without the Internet, then it will work anywhere.  Always start off with assumption that there’s no Internet. Too many projects that fail start off with the opposite assumption. Not only that, just because a user has a smart phone doesn’t mean that they are online. They may swap out their SIM card so frequently that their phone isn’t configured to access the Internet, or they may not be able to afford data services, or they may not live in an area with reliable data coverage.
• Community is absolutely critical. This is often the hardest thing to create because you can’t force people to engage. In ICT4D, community is the Holy Grail. You want to create an environment where users can connect and provide technical support to one another – one where you don’t get in the way. One thing I always used to ask myself with the FrontlineSMS community was, if I stopped providing support to it tomorrow, would users take up the reins themselves?
• We need to think of appropriate technology as a discipline. The ICT4D field would undoubtedly benefit if there was a stronger appreciation for the ethos of the appropriate technology movement. We need to keep E. F.  Shumacher in mind when building tools to ensure that they are designed to work with the local environment, culture, and people in mind.  So much of what we see doesn’t work, and yet people continue to do it.
• Collaboration is key.  There isn’t enough collaboration in the development space as a whole. Everyone wants their own project with their own name and sense of objectives. Some people also see ICT4D as competitive, pitching tools against one another when, in reality, no one ICT4D tool is inherently better than another. It all depends on the context in which the tool is being used, and that can vary a lot.
• Think beyond technology. Good technology has a certain spirit and meaning, and can connect with people on a non-technical, higher level. How you feel when you buy an Apple product, for example. There’s something special about it, it feels part of you. FrontlineSMS has done an amazing job of not only helping people do their work better, but feel better about themselves. It empowers and encourages. Tools need to engage, entertain and connect with the user on multiple levels.
• Don’t lose sight of the bigger picture. People often get carried away with the technology, so much so that it can be easy to forget why you started doing what you were doing in the first place.  Ask yourself every day why you’re doing what you’re doing, and whether it gets you any closer to that wider goal. Looking to simply build a cool app isn’t likely why you got started. Keeping the big picture in mind, and the challenges you’re looking to help people overcome, reminds you to stay focused.

Q:   The United Methodist Communications agency first reached out to you in 2008 and now has a number of active projects using FrontlineSMS. What are your thoughts on the importance of ICT4D to the work of the United Methodist Church?

A:  Anybody anywhere trying to improve peoples’ lives naturally wants to figure out how to best maximize their impact, and how to get the biggest bang for their buck. It’s refreshing to see a church looking so openly at how technology can improve their work. The [United Methodist] church is going out with the single objective of improving the lives of their community.  This is something they’ve dedicated their lives to. To them it’s not just a job, but something that needs to be done, and that’s their purpose in life. For me, that’s exactly the right way [for ICT4D] to be done. Start with the problem. People like technology because it can do good things for them, just like a spade or a ruler can. At the end of the day, you can’t eat a mobile phone.