Mobile for Development Resources

IoT for Development: Use cases delivering impact

This report outlines the opportunities IoT solutions present for achieving development outcomes in LMICs.

Partnering With the Public Sector: A toolkit for start-ups in the utilities sectors

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For start-ups and SMEs, partnering with the public sector can be challenging. This new toolkit can help illustrate a pathway through the obstacles to innovative and successful public-private partnerships.

Water Utility Digitalisation in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Experiences from the Kenyan water sector

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This report aims to address this evidence gap by examining the digitalisation journeys of four Kenyan water utilities. Through detailed case studies and interviews with key players in the water sector, we identify important lessons and opportunities.

The Value of Pay-as-you-go Solar for Mobile Operators: Insights from customer journeys in Benin and Cote d’Ivoire

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While our previous research clearly demonstrated the benefits quantitatively, it did not shed light on how and why people changed their behaviour. In partnership with MTN in Benin and Orange in Côte d’Ivoire, we conducted a follow-up qualitative study.

Innovative Data for Urban Planning: The Opportunities and Challenges of Public-Private Data Partnerships

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This report identifies challenges and enablers for data-sharing public-private partnerships (PPPs) that relate to the partnership engagement model, data and technology, regulation and ethics frameworks and evaluation and sustainability.

Supporting Innovation in Digital Urban Services

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This report first describes the opportunity to leverage a powerful digital ecosystem for improving lives, and the role that the GSMA plays to catalyse these solutions through our GSMA Innovation Fund. It then discusses ...

Scaling Digital Solutions in the Water Sector – Lessons from CityTaps and Wonderkid

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In Sub-Saharan Africa, just under 25 per cent of urban households have access to piped water. Inequalities in service provision mean that many people in low-income areas rely on informal service providers, and often pay more ...

Building Inclusive and Sustainable Cities through Digital Solutions

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This session featured a range of different kinds of actors to discuss the opportunities and barriers for implementing digital solutions at scale. The session highlighted examples of how digital solutions are seeking to make energy, water, waste ...

Digital Utility Solutions for the Urban Poor

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Africa and Asia are urbanising at an unprecedentedly rapid rate accounting for 90 per cent of the world’s urban population growth. The impact of this will be greatest on the urban poor, as the municipal services that are already under pressure are ....

The Future of Pay-as-you-go Partnerships

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The mobile industry and pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar companies are natural allies. Recent GSMA research demonstrates that mobile operators gain significant commercial value through these partnerships while enabling them to become a central part of their ...

The transformational role of mobile for the water sector

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The Mobile for Development Utilities programme has been supporting innovation to improve utility services across Asia and Africa for the last seven years. We’d like to share with you some of the work, impact and achievements that our ...

The transformational role of mobile for the energy sector

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Are the mobile industry and pay-as-you-go solar companies obvious allies?

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The PAYG solar model has spread rapidly across developing countries as a means of delivering energy services. Our study has demonstrated that PAYG helps mobile operators achieve more value from subscribers that might have previously ...

Celebrating the success and evolution of digital utility services

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The Mobile for Development Utilities programme has been supporting innovation to improve utility services across Asia and Africa for the last seven years. We’d like to share with you the impact that the start-ups of the Mobile for ...

Électricité de Madagascar – Enabling Access to Electricity through Mobile-enabled Rural Mini-Grids

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In May 2018, the Mobile for Development (M4D) Utilities Programme awarded EDM a grant to test the commercial viability of providing electricity to off-grid villages in northern Madagascar. EDM constructed solar-hybrid mini-grids in ...

The Value of Pay-as-you-go Solar for Mobile Operators

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This study aims to measure the underlying value that exists in these partnerships for mobile operators by analysing PAYG clients data from five different countries (Uganda, Rwanda, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, and Zambia) over a 12 month period.

The GSMA Instant Payment Notification (IPN) Hub: Impact and insights from inception to industry transition

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We are pleased to announce the publication of the GSMA Instant Payment Notification (IPN) Hub case study where we explore its impact and our insights since it was piloted in Rwanda in December 2016 until its ongoing transition to the industry.

State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2019

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This year’s report examines what one billion registered accounts signify for the mobile money industry, mobile money users and the future of the mobile money ecosystem; moving us a step closer to a digital future for all.

Digitising billing and meter reading for water utilities – Wonderkid

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In May 2015, the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities Innovation Fund awarded a grant to Wonderkid to help it develop a suite of mobile tools for four water utilities in Kenya. The grant supported a complaint management and tracking ...

Digital Solutions for the Urban Poor

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Two-thirds of the world’s population will live in cities by 2050, with most urban growth concentrated in Africa and Asia. This poses challenges to basic service provision but mobile-enabled innovations may provide solutions.

Mobile for Development brochure 2020

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GSMA Mobile for Development has recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. Ten years in which we have grown from a simple but powerful idea to a global team of 130 and a portfolio of projects that have now impacted ...

Working towards SDG 6 through water ATMs in Bangladesh – Drinkwell

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In October 2017, the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities Innovation Fund awarded a grant to Drinkwell, in partnership with Dhaka Water Supply & Sewerage Authority (DWASA) and mobile operator Robi Axiata, to operate water ATMs in ...

Using mobile money to bring clean water to rural Ghana – Safe Water Network

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In September 2015, Safe Water Network received a grant from the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities Innovation Fund to develop an app to digitise its manual water station data reporting systems for 37 water stations. In May 2018, ...

Improving electricity grid services through smart metering – Jazz

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In May 2018, Jazz received a grant from the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities Innovation Fund to develop and implement mobile-enabled theft prevention and a system loss reduction solution for a mainstream grid distributor. Jazz, ...

Providing pit emptying services through a GIS-enabled app – KCCA

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In 2017, KCCA was awarded a grant from the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities Innovation Fund to improve access to safe and reliable faecal sludge collection, transportation and disposal services for the residents in the informal ...

Mobile for Development Utilities Perspective – Our quarterly insights – Issue 1

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We're pleased to announce the publication of our first issue of the quarterly Mobile for Development Utilities Perspective, which will bring together and highlight insights from the work we've done with grantees of the Mobile for ...

Supporting waterless flush sanitation through mobile technology – Loowatt

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In 2015, Loowatt was awarded a grant from the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities programme to develop a suite of mobile services to track its waste collection processes, collect payments with mobile money and communicate better with ...

Delivering water to urban homes through smart metering and mobile payments – CityTaps

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In 2017, the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities programme awarded CityTaps a grant to scale their prepaid water service platform to enable the urban poor to access affordable and safe running water at home. Their prepaid smart meter ...

Intelligent Utilities for All

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In this year’s Mobile for Development (M4D) Utilities Annual Report, we are proud to present sector trends through a complete review of the portfolio of organisations the programme has supported through its Innovation Fund. We are ...

Mobile for Development Utilities Annual Report

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Friday 22 Jul 2016 | Digital Utilities |

Achieving SDGs 6 and 7: The promise and impact of mobile technology Over the last five years, the Mobile for Development Utilities programme has been supporting partnerships between the mobile industry and utility service ...

Access to water and sanitation in emerging markets – the impact of mobile technology

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In emerging markets, there is a significant gap in access to water and sanitation services. Mobile technology, with its almost ubiquitous presence and coverage is uniquely placed to help address this problem. We spoke to past and ...

The IPN Hub: Exploring its utility beyond pay-as-you-go solar

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The Instant Payment Notification (IPN) Hub is an industry utility created by the GSMA to enable ...

Key trends in mobile-enabled water services: What’s working and what’s next

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The business models in mobile-enabled water services are fast evolving towards a promising future. Through mobile payments and machine to machine (M2M) connectivity, water service providers and utilities are beginning to optimise costs ...

Changing lives through mobile-enabled, solar-powered irrigation in Kenya – SunCulture

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In 2015, the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities programme awarded SunCulture a grant to design and scale solar-powered irrigation systems that make it cheaper and easier for farmers in Kenya to grow high-value fresh fruits and ...

The work of our partners in enabling access to energy

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Mobile technology is a key component for providing those in emerging markets with access to energy. At Mobile World Congress 2018, we asked some of our Mobile for Development Utilities Innovation Fund grantees and other leading ...

d.light and RE-VOLT: Pay-as-you-go solar service driving mobile money adoption in Haiti

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In December 2015, the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities programme awarded an 18-month grant to d.light, in partnership with RE-VOLT and Digicel, to scale up a lease-to-own energy model in Haiti through the distribution of ...

Africa Water Enterprises: Using IoT to monitor and introduce pre-payment for remote water stands in The Gambia

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In 2015, Africa Water Enterprises (AWE) was awarded a grant from the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities programme to install 100 eWATERtaps in The Gambia. The eWATER system managed water distribution and bill collection to improve ...

2017 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money

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2017 saw a number of new trends in mobile money – from the accelerated growth of bank-to-mobile interoperability, to the emergence of South Asia as the fastest growing region, and a raft of innovations designed to reach the most ...

KopaGas: Mobile-enabled Pay-as-you-Cook service in Tanzania

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In 2015, the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities programme awarded an Innovation Fund grant to KopaGas, to design a low-cost smart meter for Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) canisters. Through a PAYG model, customers were able to purchase ...

Instant Payment Notification (IPN) Hub: Accelerating the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) Utilities sector through mobile money

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Globally, 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity. The pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar industry uses an innovative model to provide customers access to electricity in remote areas while allowing them to pay for it incrementally using ...

Going greenfield with utility pay-as-you-go models: Enabling access to water, sanitation and energy in and beyond East Africa

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Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) services have been hugely successful in supporting clean energy solutions, with PAYG solar sales exceeding 1.6 million by mid-2017. The growth of PAYG solar, concentrated in East Africa, has driven entrepreneurs to ...

Loowatt: Using mobile tools to support the provision of urban sanitation services in Madagascar

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In 2015 Loowatt was awarded an M4D Utilities grant, in partnership with Airtel Madagascar, to use mobile technology to support the service and maintenance of 100 waterless household toilets. Customers used mobile money ...

Sanergy: Exploring the use of mobile-enabled sensors to optimise sanitation waste collection in Kenya

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In 2015 Sanergy was awarded an Mobile for Development (M4D) Utilities grant with SweetSense to install GSM and RFID enabled infrared sensors to record Fresh Life Toilet activity and estimate fill levels. Waste collectors and Fresh-Life ...

Wonderkid: Digitising water utilities in Kenya

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In 2015, Wonderkid was awarded a Mobile for Development (M4D) Utilities grant to develop and deploy a number of mobile tools for water utilities to improve the quality of their customer care and billing services. Wonderkid worked with ...

Gham Power: Finding a replicable model for mobile-enabled micro-grids with NCell in Nepal

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In May 2015, the GSMA Mobile for Development (M4D) Utilities programme awarded Gham Power a grant to expand the capacity of two micro-grids in Nepal, improving energy access for two rural villages and providing energy to two NCell ...

Access to energy through mobile is changing lives

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The mobile industry is playing a crucial role in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7: Universal energy access by 2030. New models to deliver energy to underserved consumers are emerging out of a convergence between mobile ...

Easypaisa: A mobile operator-led solar PAYG model for Pakistan

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In January 2014, Easypaisa was awarded a Seed grant to trial the sale of 125 solar home systems in Pakistan. Easypaisa worked with two vendors for this project, Roshan Energy and Brighterlite Pakistan to test two different PAYG ...

Mobile Money Payment Toolkit for Utility Service Providers

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The use of mobile money payment solutions is becoming widespread in utility services, however the integration with mobile money platforms remains a challenge for utility service providers. The Mobile Money Payment Toolkit for ...

The IoT development journey for utility enterprises in emerging markets

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Written in partnership with Eseye Ltd and with the kind review of PortMoni, this report aims to provide a high-level assessment of the stages which innovative enterprises go through when creating new connected utility systems and ...

The potential of mobile for rural energy access in Mali

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For this study, the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities programme, with the support of the UK government, collaborated with Orange Mali to identify the opportunity for mobile operators (MNOs) to partner with decentralised energy ...

Lessons from the use of mobile in utility pay-as-you-go models

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The latest Insight Report from M4D Utilities explores the fast growing use of mobile to create Pay As You Go (PAYG) models in the Utilities sector. Emerging from the convergence of innovations around the Internet of Things, cloud ...

Lumos: Pay-as-you-go solar in Nigeria with MTN

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In December 2013, Lumos was awarded a Seed grant to trial the development of a mobile-enabled energy service with MTN Nigeria. MTN Mobile Electricity, an MTN and Lumos co-branded service, offers off-grid customers in Nigeria access to ...

The role of mobile for improved water services in urban Pakistan

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This study is the last in a series of four reports and focuses on the potential for mobile-enabled water management solutions to improve utilities’ water services for piped connections in Pakistan’s urban areas. The findings ...

Mobile for Development Utilities: The transformational role of mobile for the utilities sector

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In this video, we explain what the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities (M4D Utilities) programme does and some key actors in the energy, water and sanitation access sectors, including M-KOPA, Devergy, Wonderkid, Manobi, Sanergy, ...

Unlocking access to utility services: The transformational value of mobile

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The Mobile for Development Utilities Annual Report highlights the transformational role of mobile in improving the delivery of essential services to the underserved, and the increasing viability of the business models currently being ...

Development Workshop Angola: Missed Calls for Monitoring Community Water Services

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Development Workshop Angola and their technology partner SeeSaw received a Seed grant from the M4D Utilities Innovation Fund in January 2014 to test two mobile tools to drive maintenance and accountability for improved water services ...

Improving water service delivery through mobile data collection

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In 2015, 663 million people worldwide still lacked access to improved drinking water, in the form of piped or non-piped improved sources. Mobile-enabled data collection can improve the delivery of water services. The Mobile for ...

Feasibility Study – Assessing the opportunity for pay-as-you-go solar in Pakistan

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This study, carried out by GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities and Etisalat, explores the opportunity for mobile network operators to partner with service providers in the deployment of pay-as-you-go (PAYG) solar solutions, to ...

EcoEnergyFinance: Distribution of Solar Pay-as-you-go in Pakistan

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EcoEnergyFinance (EEF) received a Seed grant from the M4D Utilities Innovation Fund in January 2014 to validate the viability of EEF’s distribution models for PAYG solar lantern and solar home system (SHS) products in Pakistan. This ...

Kamworks: Introducing GSM-enabled PAYG Solar in Cambodia

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Kamworks received a Seed grant from the Mobile for Development Utilities Innovation Fund in November 2013 to introduce pay as you go (PAYG) solar home systems (SHS) in Cambodia. After several pivots, including changes to its product ...

African Solar Designs: Trialling the Community Power for Mobile Model in Kenya

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African Solar Designs (ASD) received a Seed grant from the Mobile for Development Utilities Innovation Fund in December 2013 to to trial a solar-diesel hybrid energy system for powering an off-grid telecom tower along with surrounding ...

Improving energy management in Brazil: Eletrobras partners with Telefonica Vivo

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This report introduces the benefits of partnerships between a Mobile Network Operator and a utility looking at the case of Telefonica Vivo and the Brazilian electricity utility Eletrobras to reduce the utility’s losses and improve ...

Portland State University: GSM-enabled sensors for monitoring handpumps to improve water services in Rwanda

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Portland State University (PSU) received a grant from the M4D Utilities Innovation Fund in December 2013 to trial SweetSense Inc. GSM-enabled sensors for monitoring handpump functionality in Rwanda. The handpumps were installed and ...

PEG Ghana: Licensing Solar-as-a-Service in a new market

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PEG Ghana received a grant from the M4D Utilities Innovation Fund in December 2013 to replicate two different Solar-as-a-Service business models and technologies from Tanzania to Ghana: solar home systems and micro-grids. PEG licensed ...

Assessing the opportunity for mobile-enabled solutions to improve water service delivery in Nigeria

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This study is the second of a series of four reports and focuses on the potential for ...

Emergence Bioenergy Inc. – Energy from biomass for telecom towers and communities in Bangladesh

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Emergence BioEnergy, Inc. (EBI) received a Seed grant from the M4D Utilities Innovation Fund in January 2014 to validate the operational and commercial feasibility of using a small-sized, low maintenance, biogas-fuelled Stirling engine ...

Assessing the opportunity for pay-as-you-go solar in Nigeria

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Mobile-Enabled Utility Services – Emerging Trends

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The Mobile for Development Utilities Innovation Fund was launched in June 2013 to test and scale the use of mobile to improve or increase access to energy, water and sanitation services. Together with a second Phase of funding in 2015, ...

Mobisol: Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) Solar for Entrepreneurs in Rwanda

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Mobisol received a grant from the M4D Utilities Innovation Fund in November 2013 to replicate its innovative mobile-enabled energy business in Rwanda with a focus on entrepreneurial systems for customers to generate income. Through a ...

Lessons learned from our grantees: NextDrop

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Case Study 2: NextDrop – Providing water timing solutions in Bangalore In 2013, we launched ...

NextDrop: Water Simplified

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NextDrop received a Seed grant from the M4D Utilities Innovation Fund in January 2014 to deploy its human-powered smart water grid in 40% of Bangalore. NextDrop not only met targets, but also won a contract from the water board to ...

Fenix International: Scaling Pay-as-you-go Solar in Uganda

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Fenix International received a grant from the M4D Utilities Innovation Fund in December 2013 to scale up its pay-as-you-go solar home system offering in Uganda, where the majority of people have no access to grid electricity. Fenix not ...

M4D Utilities Innovation Fund – Catalogue of Grantees

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Since 2013, M4D Utilities awarded GBP 5.6 million in grants to 34 organisations, as part of its Innovation Fund supported by the UK Government. This Catalogue of Grantees provides snapshots of each of these projects, presenting a range ...

Assessing the opportunity to improve energy access: Ncell in Nepal

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What is the opportunity for Ncell, the dominant mobile operator in Nepal, to leverage its assets and presence across the country to improve energy access? The GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities team, with the support of the UK ...

The Role of Mobile in Improved Sanitation Access

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Today 2.4 Billion people still lack access to improved sanitation and more people have access to mobile phones than toilets. This report aims to outline how mobile channels can support sanitation service delivery while building new ...

Looking at the Role of Mobile in Improved Sanitation Access

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As reported in the latest Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) publication, 2.4 Billion people still lack access to improved ...

Making the most out of your data: A case study on NextDrop

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Earlier this year, the Mobile for Development Impact team delivered a study on NextDrop, an M4D Utilities grantee. The purpose of the DFID-funded study was to analyse NextDrop’s engagement with two key stakeholders – end-users and ...

Off-Grid Electric

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Off Grid Electric is the world’s first radically scalable solar leasing company aimed towards the world’s 1.6 billion unelectrified households. Off Grid Electric delivers innovative stand-alone solar systems to a range of last-mile ...

NextDrop

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Mobile for Smart Energy Solutions – Côte d’Ivoire Case Study

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This case study, led by the GSMA Mobile for Development Utilities programme in partnership with Orange, explores the opportunity for mobile technology and mobile operators to support smart solutions for improved energy access in Côte ...

Mobile for Smart Energy Solutions – Senegal Case Study

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Mobile for Smart Energy Solutions – Botswana Case Study

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Utilities Grantee Mobisol – An Overview

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Mobile for Development visited one of the Utilities Programme’s grantees, Mobisol, in Rwanda in 2014 to find out how they were getting along. There, we learn more about their successful system and its benefits to off-grid rural ...

Mobile for Smart Solutions: How Mobile can Improve Energy Access in Sub-Saharan Africa

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How can mobile improve energy access in Sub-Saharan Africa? This research report explores the opportunity for mobile operators to partner with energy service providers in the deployment of smart solutions to improve energy access in ...

Predicting the Future of Mobile-Enabled Community Services – MECS Annual Report

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Our 2013 Annual Report shares key insights and themes drawing upon a year of work, research and convening. This year’s report focusses on the wealth of information and insights about the growth of the sector that was derived through ...

The Synergies Between Mobile, Energy and Water Access: Africa

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This report presents in more detail current initiatives, business models and opportunities the mobile sector can play in Africa to better address development challenges around energy and water access.

The Synergies Between Mobile, Energy and Water Access: Asia

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This report presents in more detail current initiatives, business models and opportunities the mobile sector can play in Asia to better address development challenges around energy and water access.

Beyond Coverage: The opportunity for mobile operators to improve access to energy in Latin America

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This blog is co-written by Zachary Levey, Associate, Multilateral Investment Fund of the IDB Group.

The opportunity for mobile operators to improve access to energy in Latin America

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This report provides a case study of these opportunities, based on the network of Telefónica Movistar Nicaragua, a subsidiary of the Spanish-based global operator Telefónica. The report finds that there is a potential business case for ...

Sizing the Opportunity of Mobile to Support Energy and Water Access

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This document, which is the first in a series that will be published in the coming months, outlines the size of the addressable markets for mobile-enabled energy and water services by regions as well as the mobile channels that support ...

m-Kopa

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Mobile Enabled Community Services – Vendor Directory – November 2013

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This is the second of two vendor catalogues published by MECS in 2013. This catalogue looks at the energy and water access sector.

GPM Bi-annual Report – July 2013

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OMC Power

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Safaricom – Kenya – Feasibility Study

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With the power of the Safaricom brand and coverage, there is potential through its network, retail channels and mobile payment service (M-PESA) to enable better phone charging facilities and other energy services, so stimulating ...

TNM – Malawi – Feasibility Study

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The purpose of the feasibility study was to assess the viability of TNM’s network to provide modern energy services to off-grid communities in Malawi. GSMA’s Community Power from Mobile programme seeks to identify the opportunity and ...

Unlocking a New Market: Ultra-Low-Cost M2M Opportunities and Barriers to a New Mobile Frontier

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By Nick Hughes, M-KOPA. M-KOPA believes that M2M services for customers represent a new frontier. There are challenges but there are no impregnable barriers. Principal amongst the challenges is the need to simplify the core M2M ...

Sustainable Energy & Water Access through M2M Connectivity

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This paper aims to shed light on the opportunities created by M2M solutions to reach and empower underserved populations in the developing world. The emergence of new business models leveraging GSM connectivity for remote operation and ...

GPM Bi-annual Report – January 2013

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Harnessing The Full Potential of Mobile for Off-Grid Energy

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The first 12 months of the Community Power from Mobile Programme have highlighted both the opportunities and challenges in delivering access to energy through mobile. Through sharing knowledge gained from our work we hope to provide ...

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