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Join us for MIT’s “Mobilizing Entrepreneurship” Launch and Networking Event

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One November 29th, the Mobile and Development Intelligence team is hosting a networking reception and launch of the latest edition of MIT’s quarterly Innovations journal. This edition of the journal, ‘Mobilizing Entrepreneurship,’ is focused entirely on how mobile technology ...

Mitigating the risk of fraud through customer communication

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As the mobile money industry continues to grow, the topic of risk management will become increasingly important. Our recent publication, “Managing the risk of fraud in mobile money,” discussed one approach to risk management that operators can use.

mHealth Webinar: Highlights and recording

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While progress in maternal and child survival has been made, this has not been enough to achieve the Millennium Development Goals 4 & 5. Even though maternal mortality has declined dramatically, the situation is still worrying specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa, where an ...

Webinar: How to maximise the impact of mHealth services for maternal and child health

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Energy Conservation is an Investment: A look at Indonesia

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Energy conservation refers to efforts made to reduce energy consumption. Energy conservation can be achieved through increased energy efficiency, in conjunction with decreased energy consumption and/or a reduced consumption from conventional energy sources. Taking Indonesia ...

Culture & Context: What should designers consider about the cultures in which their women users live?

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Discussion around what to consider when designing mobile products for women in varying cultures and contexts

In Tanzania, an aggregator connects mobile money deployments

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Mobile money has taken off in Tanzania over the last few years and about a quarter of the population are now using mobile money services. It is a competitive market where all four major mobile operators have launched their own mobile money service.

Safaricom M-PESA’s H1 FY13 Results: A portrait of a maturing mobile money service

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Despite the emerging success of a number of mobile money deployments outside of Kenya, Safaricom’s M-PESA remains a bellwether for the industry. Safaricom’s half year 2012 - 2013 financial results released yesterday provide a window into the evolution of the mobile money service.

Keeping users at the heart of the design for mobile Value Added Services

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This is the first post in a multi-part series on user testing for mobile Value Added Services.

Microinsurance to reward mobile money wallet activity: Examples from Pakistan and Tanzania

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Both for commercial reasons and also to achieve greater financial inclusion, mobile money providers would like to see subscribers maintain balances in their mobile wallets.

iAfya: Health Information through mobile phones – today in Kenya, tomorrow across Africa

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This is a guest post, written by Dr. John Muthee, Head of Business Development, Avallain Africa “If we can improve access to health information to the masses, then we are on our way to improving health interventions and ultimately, reducing health related costs.” ...

Barriers to women’s smartphone use: Written vs Technical literacy – What’s the difference?

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Discussion around technical literacy as a barrier to women's smarthpne use, and what the concept of literacy signifies

2013 Global Mobile Awards open for entries

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Announcement that the global mobile awards 2013 are open for submissions

Submit Your Mobile Product or Service at GSMA’s Global Mobile Awards 2013

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The GSMA’s 18th Global Mobile Awards deadline is just around the corner—the online entry is open only until November 30th at 17:00 GMT. There are four awards in the Social & Economic Development Category, relevant to those creating products and services for underserved ...

Mobile Agriculture site launched on Mobile and Development Intelligence Portal

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We’re delighted to announce that mAgri metrics, products and services are now live on the Mobile and Development Intelligence (MDI) portal.

Upcoming mHealth Webinar: How to maximise the impact of mHealth services for maternal and child health

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While progress in maternal and child survival has been made, this has not been enough to achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. According to a recent report, maternal mortality has declined dramatically, with maternal deaths dropping from 543,000 to 287,000 (between ...

A Look at Azuri’s Mobi Solar Mobile Phone Charging Unit in Kenya

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The is a guest post by Simon Collings, Chief Operations Officer at GVEP International. In the remote communities around Ganze, near the Kenyan coast, charging a mobile phone is a major challenge.  The nearest source of electricity may be 15-20 km away, about a three hour ...

Addressing telecom site security and accessibility challenges

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Telecom site security and site accessibility remains a major hurdle for successfully managing and maintaining telecom sites and equipment with a 99.98% benchmark uptime. Security is one of the biggest challenges in managing a network of sites for a telecom operator. “Close ...

iheedCrowd: Animated health content for mHealth platforms

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This post is written by Kunal D Patel, Medical Director at The iheed Institute. iheedCrowd, an online animation platform where digital designers have the opportunity to create the next generation of health education content, has been launched by iheed. For the first time ...

Disaster Risk Reduction: Establishing coordinated and reliable communications

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October 13th marked the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, a day focused on improving resilience at a national and community level, to mitigate the impact that natural disasters have. We explain why extablishing coordinated and reliable communications is critical ...