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A Symbol of mHealth in Malawi: Her Name is Promise

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Promise Meet Promise Bula. She is 19 months old and is photographed here with her mother Falida Chigwenembe, who is 18. Promise was born and is growing up in the Balaka district of Malawi, 3 hours by car from the capital Lilongwe. Mother and daughter travelled from their ...

Can mobile unlock transparent value chains?

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The complexity of supply chains can be immense and it is often cited that large brands often do not even know who is in their supply chain as it can involve multiple layers of production and trading before the end product reaches the shelves. We see the potential for mobile ...

Highlighting key lessons for M4D players – USAID Mobile Solutions Forum in Bangkok

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The past decade has not only seen the emergence of Mobile for Development (M4D), but also the launch of thousands of mobile-enabled initiatives which have both succeeded and failed in their aspirations to deepen programming and reach new audiences. Uniting M4D partners from ...

New Bi-Annual Report Highlights Green Power Market Analysis & Trends

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Today, GPM is releasing the ninth Green Power for Mobile Bi-annual Report. This report looks at the Programme’s progress throughout the year, and highlights some of the market and trend analysis that was completed. Jointly with our partner, the International Finance ...

GSMA mWomen Grantee Etisalat launches Weena, an integrated mobile offer tailored to local women, through its Moov subsidiaries in Benin and Togo

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We recently announced that Etisalat Group had been awarded a GSMA mWomen Innovation Fund Grant, and we are delighted to share the news that the offer is now live in both Benin and Togo! Etisalat, with its Moov affiliates, drew on all the lessons learnt from existing mWomen ...

Nominees for Best Mobile Product or Service for Women in Emerging Markets Announced

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Every year the top players of the mobile ecosystem gather at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, to shape the future of the mobile industry and to unveil the winners of the Global Mobile Awards, which are some of the most highly recognised awards in the global ...

Reinventing the Wheel: “Pass Through” Deposit Insurance coverage for Mobile Money in Kenya

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Kenya’s regulatory environment permits non-banks such as Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) to provide basic money transfer and payments services, much to the revulsion of banking purists. The question of whether mobile money schemes qualify for deposit insurance is often met ...

Community Health Care Practitioners: Extending Skills and Knowledge through Gamification

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Community-based health workers are the first line of medical support to many persons in Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in rural enclaves and regions suffering from the effects of war or sectarian violence. In many instances, a CHW is the only medical practitioner asset ...

Join Mobile for Development at Mobile World Congress 2014

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It’s that time of the year again – only 27 days to go until Mobile World Congress! This year, Mobile for Development and our programmes are holding a variety of seminars and smaller events during the week, so if you’re coming to Barcelona next month, be sure to check them ...

Mobile Literacy: A Significant Barrier to Rural Value Added Service Usage

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There is always a concern of usage trends and related behaviour of mobile channels among the target audiences. We can easily predict that most farmers from rural Africa and South Asia are not users or at least not regular users of some mobile channels. What’s holding back ...

The GSMA Service Maturity Tool: Defined Stakeholders and Value Propositions

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The GSMA hosted a workshop on the Service Maturity Tool (SMT) at the mHealth Summit in Washington, DC in December as a follow-up to the workshop held at the M4D Summit in Cape Town in November 2013. The aim of the workshop was to get further validation on the SMT from the ...

The use of Barcodes in Mobile Payments: Scanning the Possibilities

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Barcodes have been around for decades.  Popular across a wide range of sectors, they facilitate use-cases ranging from automated check-out at retailers, to patient identification in healthcare, to tracking of parcels. Smartphones are enabling an even greater range of ...

mHealth in Malawi: Challenges and Opportunities

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I first had the opportunity to visit Malawi six months ago as part of a group providing specific technical assistance to mHealth service providers involved in maternal and child health. I have since been back a second time – this time as part of a formal GSMA initiative to ...

SMS Code of Conduct Profiled on BBC Click

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The BBC World Service radio programme Click aired a segment on the concept of the 'SMS Code of Conduct' and how mobile technology is being used in humanitarian crises. Kyla Reid, head of the Disaster Response programme took part to explain why the SMS code of conduct is so ...

GSMA mWomen Working Group Experiences the Value of Mobile Financial Services in the Philippines

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This is a guest blog written by Aya Silva, the Asia Regional Senior Program Officer for Grameen Foundation. When the GSMA mWomen Working Group met in Manila in November, attendees got the opportunity to learn new, actionable ideas for increasing women’s access and use of ...

Upcoming GPM Regional Working Group focused on Nigeria and Ghana

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GPM is holding its second Nigeria  and Ghana-specific Regional Working Group in Lagos, Nigeria on the 29th & 30th of January 2014. Green Networks – Current state in Nigeria and Ghana Nigeria has reached an electrification rate of 55.2% of the total population with urban ...

GSMA mWomen awards two Innovation Fund grants in India to Accion International and SEWA

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Written with contributions from Salima Fazal Karim. The GSMA mWomen Programme is delighted to announce that Accion International and the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) are the latest recipients of its Innovation Fund grants and the first grantees outside of ...

Mobile Money Regulation in Latin America: Leveling the Playing Field in Brazil & Peru

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The basic proposition for mobile money to succeed is to create an open and level playing field that allows both banks and non-bank mobile money providers, including mobile network operators (MNOs), into the arena.

GSMA Disaster Response in the Philippines

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Kyla Reid, head of the Disaster Response programme attended the UN OCHA Global Humanitarian Policy Forum (GPF) to talk about the work our team did in response to Typhoon Haiyan in the Innovation Session.

Commercial Models to the Forefront: Key trends at mHealth Summit 2013

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Last week several members of the GSMA mHealth team attended the mHealth Summit in Washington, DC. This is one of the largest events held on this topic with all the industry’s movers and shakers coming together at National Harbour Washington, on the shores of the grand ...