Mobile for Development Blog

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New Publications signal a turning point for the use of mobile and ICT in humanitarian crises and the protection of human rights

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The past month has witnessed the publication of a number of ground-breaking papers related to the use of mobile technology in natural disasters, complex emergencies and human rights. We review what this might mean.

Understanding Gender and Mobile Matters: The First London Technology Salon

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Takeaways from the first london technology salon on women and mobile

I’ve got customers, so how do I keep them? A quick introduction to Customer Retention Management for Agricultural Value Added Services

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Last month, we had a workshop with one of our mFarmer grantees to understand their Agricultural Value Added Service (Agri VAS) customer retention management (CRM) process and implementation plan. Here I have captured some of our thoughts regarding effective CRM for Agri VAS.

A new primer on sustaining mHealth interventions: m-Enabled Inclusive Business Models: Applications for Health

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This is a guest post written by Pamela Riley, the Senior mHealth Advisor of SHOPS project. While mobile technology has attracted widespread recognition of the enormous opportunity for its application to development challenges, few mobile-enabled solutions are commercially ...

How MTN Uganda communicates to its network of 15,000 agents

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MTN Uganda directly manages over 15,000 active mobile money agent outlets, a daunting task for a single mobile money team. In this guest post, Shaibu Haruna, MTN Uganda’s GM of Sales and Distribution, shares their approach to agent engagement and communication.

Snippets from the Energy + Mobile for Development Seminar

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GSMA M4D’s brand new Mobile Enabled Community Services (MECS) programme did its first steps at MWC. The MECS seminar – at 9am on the first MWC day – kicked off the programme and despite the early hour, the room was full, with over 150 attendees representing every ...

GSMA mWomen awards Tigo Tanzania with its first Innovation Fund Grant

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Announcement of Connected Women awarding innovation fund grants to Tigo Tanzania

MMU Spotlight on “direct deposits:” An expensive nuisance for mobile money operators

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Direct deposits have become an expensive nuisance for mobile wallet operators by eating into revenue, weakening customer engagement, and stunting registration efforts. One operator estimates up to 40% of P2P transfers take place through direct deposits

mHealth services in South Africa: We need your input!

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As of January 2013, GSMA mHealth is tracking 326 mHealth services in Africa (up from 135 in December 2011). Sixty-three of these are listed in the South African market, the greatest number of mHealth services in an African country that we’ve tracked. . Initiatives are ...

Industry collaboration and coordination – some quick wins

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The GSMA 2012 Mobile Money Adoption Survey showed that there are over 40 countries with more than 2 live mobile money deployments. When meeting with different operators in the same market, we tend to hear a similar set of challenges.

The incredible growth of EcoCash Zimbabwe: A chat with Econet Services CEO Darlington Mandivenga

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Econet Wireless’s mobile money offering, EcoCash, is new to the mobile money scene but already making a splash. In its first 14 months of operation, EcoCash has raced to over 2 million users earning it a place amongst the world’s 14 mobile money sprinters.

mHealth 2.0: To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before

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The following is a guest post by Marc Mitchell, Founder and President of D-tree International. It is time for us to get past the proof of concept stage for mHealth. The concept has been proven. We now have evidence that mobile phones in the hands of a health worker can lead ...

Why aren’t Pakistan’s mobile money customers opening accounts?

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This is a guest post from Dan Radcliffe, Financial Services for the Poor program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Peter Goldstein, InterMedia.

Souktel’s Mobile Irrigation & Market Price Services: Built on Strong Partnerships between Mobile Networks, Ministries, and Local Farmers

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This is a guest blog from Leila Dal Santo and Jacob Korenblum, Souktel

Interview with Raphael Mutiso, our Design Challenge Emerging Talent winner

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Interview with Design Challenge winner Raphael Mutiso

Should you be cutting your inactive agents?

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The results from our 2012 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey highlight the rapid expansion of mobile money agent networks, from 366,000 in December 2011 to 520,000 in June 2012. There are just as many mobile money outlets than Western Union points of sale globally. However, ...

Scale and Sustainability: Is it just about Numbers?

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This is a guest post written by Sean Blaschke, the Child Survival Systems Strengthening Specialist for UNICEF. It is nearly impossible to discuss mHealth without the topic of “scale” coming up. Although achieving scale is not required or even appropriate for some use cases, ...

Hello GSMA Mobile Money Sprinters! Telesom Zaad, Telenor Easypaisa, UBL Omni, Orange Money announced as fast growing mobile money services

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The findings from the 2012 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey counted 30 million active mobile customers. While these numbers indicate increasing industry maturity, mobile money remains a two-tier landscape. There are just 14 fast- growing services or GSMA Mobile Money ...

Is mobile money becoming a commonplace rather than a differentiator?

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Two weeks ago, we published the results from MMU 2012 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey. The fact that the industry continues to grow fast is very positive, and growth in number of deployments results in increased competition.

‘Transforming health care is a journey’: Lessons Learnt in mHealth space

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Two weeks ago I wrote about MWC13 and today I would like to share with you some additional highlights from some of the mHealth events from Congress. It was Oscar Gómez, the Director of eHealth Product Marketing in Telefónica Digital, that said the quote in this blog’s ...