Posts Tagged ‘Uganda’
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Health Clinic Registration Desk
How do AppLab programs get started? How do you really understand the best way to address the problems that people in poor rural communities face? The approach we have consistently taken for AppLab projects is to conduct a broad “needs assessment” survey at the very outset of the project. We work with experts in ethnographic research who spend hours and hours interviewing people in the field. The end result is qualitative data which helps to guide and inform our project work. (more…)
Tags: "needs assessment", AppLab, Culture, Ghana, Grameen Foundation, Health, ICT4D, ICTI, Innovation, mHealth, MoTeCH, Pregnancy, research, SMS, survey, Technology, Uganda
Posted in MoTeCH | No Comments »
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Calling into Question Box
During the test of concept phase of our Community Knowledge Worker initiative, AppLab Question Box (AQB) was one of the services that the CKWs provided to rural communities. Grameen Foundation worked with Appfrica Labs, and US based NGO, Open Mind, to pilot this service. AQB is a live, local language hotline service that brings the Internet and expert advice to the homes and market stalls of individuals who may never see a computer, visit an agricultural specialist, or read in English. Between April and September, villagers in Uganda’s Mbale and Bushyeni districts had access to the service to ask agricultural, education, recent events and other questions. (more…)
Tags: Agriculture, Appfrica Labs, Bushyeni, CKW, Communication, Community Knowledge Worker, Grameen Foundation, ICT4D, ICTI, Innovation, Mbale, Mobile, NARO, Open Mind, Question Box, Technology, Uganda
Posted in Community Knowledge Worker | 2 Comments »
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
Last week in Uganda I was fortunate to attend a meeting in Busano subcounty, Mbale district, with some of the Community Knowledge Workers (CKWs) – local farmer leaders empowered with mobile applications to improve the livelihoods of their communities by distributing and collecting relevant information about agriculture – and their clients, the smallholder farmers we all seek to benefit. There was a lively discussion of the pros and cons of a variety of information services we have been testing nearby. One farmer, Elias Mabala, then stood up and spoke about how his income improved more than 100% last harvest by virtue of having greater access to market information through the CKW assigned to serve the information needs arising in his village. Stories like that explain why we come to work each day. (more…)
Tags: Agriculture, CKW, Communication, Community Knowledge Worker, Farming, Gates Foundation, ICT4D, ICTI, Innovation, Mbale, Mobile, Technology, Uganda
Posted in Community Knowledge Worker | No Comments »
Grameen Foundation´s ICT Innovation Program – Approach and Philosophy
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
We officially launched our Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Program two years ago, when we began our Application Laboratory (AppLab) efforts in Uganda. This initiative, in collaboration with the mobile operator MTN and Google, built on the successful Grameen Foundation/MTN Village Phone Program. With over 10,000 Village Phone Operators, this served as a unique testing ground for developing applications and information services tailored to the needs of the poor. Over nearly two years we explored the potential of more than 50 services, actively tested a subset of these, and in the end of June launched a suite of five services nationwide (additional details at www.applab.org). (more…)
Tags: AppLab, Communication, Ghana, Grameen Foundation, ICT4D, ICTI, Indonesia, Innovation, Mobile, Technology, Uganda
Posted in ICTI | No Comments »
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