Mobile for Development Blog

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COVID-19’s impact on mental health in humanitarian contexts

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Since July 2019, Naya Jeevan has been a part of our GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian (M4H) Innovation Fund portfolio. Round two of the Fund focused on supporting organisations to enable solutions to empower, assist or protect individuals and communities affected by complex ...

Three lessons from the Lumkani, Fire Detection and Insurance GSMA grant project

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The GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund aims to promote innovation in the use of mobile technology to address humanitarian challenges. The first round of the Fund focused on providing support to help to test or scale innovative ideas which support responses to ...

Building resilience through mobile-enabled solutions: Lessons for innovators

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Mobile networks and the connectivity they provide can be a lifeline for those affected by sudden-onset disasters and protracted humanitarian crises. Be it access to critical information, the ability to communicate with family and friends, or through the provision of ...

COVID-19 and digital humanitarian action: Virtual vs in-person training

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This blog post is the final in a series exploring COVID-19 and its impact on digital humanitarian action. More findings related to current trends, risks and the path forward can be found in our report. Since August 2019, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has been a ...

COVID-19 and digital humanitarian action: Mobile money enabled cash assistance and the role of the agent network

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This blog is part of a series exploring COVID-19 and its impact on digital humanitarian action. More findings related to current trends, risks and the path forward can be found in our report. In a world where minimising human contact where possible is at the forefront ...

Providing meaningful feedback to research participants with visual and hearing impairments

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In February and March 2020, the GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation (M4H) team worked with partners, including UNHCR, Safaricom and Butterfly Works, in Nairobi to better understand how both Kenyans and refugees with visual and hearing impairments use their mobile phones. ...

The shift to mobile technology for amplified government and humanitarian cash and voucher assistance amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya

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This blog is part of a series exploring COVID-19 and its impact on digital humanitarian action. More findings related to current trends, risks and the path forward can be found in our report. On 5th January 2020, the World Health Organization identified the first case of the ...

COVID-19 and digital humanitarian action: Trust and the uptake of information

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In a pandemic, almost nothing is as important as timely, trustworthy and actionable information. In responding to COVID-19, many humanitarian organisations realised the importance of these factors quickly and have used mobile channels to deliver vital information to the ...

COVID-19 and the future of digital humanitarian action: Advice from the experts

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Last week we were lucky to have three exceptional panellists bring to life some of the key lessons from our respective COVID-19 reports from ODI Humanitarian Policy Group and the GSMA focusing on the impact of the pandemic on the future of digital humanitarianism.

Five mobile technology trends in the humanitarian sector

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In the 2020 M4H Annual Report, we take stock of prevailing trends related to the role of mobile technology in the humanitarian sector and how they are shaping humanitarian action. Trend 1: The pandemic has accelerated the need for inclusive digital humanitarian assistance ...

COVID-19 and digital humanitarian action: Three early lessons

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This blog is part of a series exploring COVID-19 and its impact on digital humanitarian action. More findings related to current trends, risks and the path forward can be found in our report launched today. In humanitarian contexts, COVID-19 has had a particularly severe ...

Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation: Our impact in 2020

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We publish the GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation (M4H) programme’s annual report today, as we near the one year mark of COVID-19 gripping the globe. The pandemic has impacted lives heavily, and has increased those needing humanitarian assistance and protection by ...

Behind the Mobile Stories / Historias Móviles project

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In March 2020, the GSMA and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) asked Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Barranquilla, Colombia, to tell us about the importance of mobile connectivity in their lives. They shared their own stories using the medium of their choice, with control ...

User Journeys in Burundi: A conversation with Ground Truth Solutions

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In 2019, the GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation (M4H) team worked with Ground Truth Solutions in Burundi to understand users’ experience of receiving cash assistance through mobile money. The work used human-centred design (HCD) methodologies to empathise with users and ...

Humanitarian Adaptation: M4H Innovation Fund grantees’ responses to COVID-19

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In the past year, COVID-19 has impacted the daily lives of billions of people, while also exacerbating the inequalities faced by marginalised populations. Already isolated communities, such as those experiencing gender-based violence, have experienced higher levels of risk. ...

CoNUA: Robust data enabling development of appropriate and equitable mobile-enabled humanitarian interventions

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The second iteration of the CoNUA Toolkit, plus overview document and Toolkit guidance can be found at www.gsma.com/CoNUA. Since the first version was published, the Toolkit has been piloted, tested and deployed in a number of humanitarian settings by a number of different ...

The Voice ID Project: Verifying recipients of mobile money supported humanitarian cash transfers in Somaliland

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A common requirement in humanitarian cash and voucher assistance (CVA) is recipient verification at the household level. Verification serves two purposes. First, it ensures that the intended recipient of the cash is the right one, and second, it provides an audit trail for ...

Defining our strategic partnerships

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In 2019, I travelled to Uganda to visit refugee camps in the northern part of the country to get a first-hand experience understanding how mobile technology could help these displaced communities improve their lives. There I met Joseph (not his real name). Joseph is in his ...

Enhancing the user experience of mobile-money enabled cash recipients: Spotlight on Burundi

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Mobile money-enabled cash and voucher assistance (CVA) has the potential to offer transformational benefits to cash recipients, including digital and financial inclusion. With the rapid increase in digital delivery of CVA (in part due to COVID-19), and tightening of aid ...

Digital Literacy Training Guide: For mobile money agents and digital literacy change agents

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Uganda hosts the sixth largest refugee population in the world, with over 1.4 million refugees from South Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Eritrea, and Rwanda among other countries. The majority of refugee households are female-headed.  Because of the ...