Category: Grameen Foundation AppLab
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Cloudy, clear and a chance of thunderstorms
Read moreChris Smith and Gillian Evans are a husband and wife team volunteering in Uganda with Grameen Foundation through Bankers without Borders. Chris is Strategy Manager, responsible for strategy, business planning and GF’s relationship with MTN. Gillian is an Education Specialist responsible for developing and applying training best practices in the field and helping build the training center of excellence in Uganda. Chris and Gillian live in Kampala with their two children and will complete a one year volunteer term on July 31, 2012. You can read about their...
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Many Minds, Shared Vision
Read moreToday, Grameen Foundation’s AppLab website gets a new look and takes on a new approach . The programs are the same – you’ll still see discussions about our Community Knowledge Workers using smartphones to provide vital information to farmers, about mobile technology helping pregnant mothers learn about nutrition and prenatal care, and about services that help poor entrepreneurs earn income by selling airtime through their phones. However, in addition to this new look, we also want to introduce a new approach we’re taking to tackling poverty – open...
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Mobile Data at the BOP
Read moreLuke Kyohere is Senior Technology Manager, at Grameen Foundation
There was a time when all that handsets could do was make calls and send SMS.
Then mobile data arrived, the first versions of which simulated an analog modem/landline setup. These gave way to GPRS, 2G and finally 3G. In Uganda today, mobile data is available almost everywhere that GSM connectivity is.
This fast proliferation of 2G and 3G has been influenced, in part, by recent MNO competition and price wars, as well as last year’s drastic drop in internet prices upon go-live of the Seacom and...
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How can mobile phones be used to reduce poverty?
Read moreHeather Thorne is Director ICT Innovation, at the Grameen Foundation Technology Center. This is the second in a series of three blog posts on the M4D space.
Grameen Foundation approaches all of its work from a “Theory of Change” perspective, using this as a starting point to ensure activities and outputs are logically linked to the desired outcomes of each program. AppLab’s Theory of Change is based on research showing that gaps in access to information and services (e.g., health, financial services, agriculture, markets, job opportunities, etc.) contribute...
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How can we overcome gaps in Mobile for Development (M4D) projects?
Read moreHeather Thorne is Director ICT Innovation, at the Grameen Foundation Technology Center. This is the first in a series of three blog posts on the M4D space.
The growth in the use of mobile phones in developing countries presents a powerful channel directly to the poor and poorest, and introduces a productive asset that can be used by rural entrepreneurs to generate income, and reach those who don’t yet have access on their own.
“Mobile for Development”, or M4D, has become one of the central areas of investment and focus in the technology and development...
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AppLab’s Initial Social-Impact Measurement Efforts Pay Off
Read moreEric Cantor is Director, Grameen Foundation Uganda.
Grameen Foundation takes outcome measurement seriously. We want to make sure that our programs and services are effective, and that we can demonstrate their benefits before implementing programs or practices on a wider scale or urging others to replicate them.
With this in mind, we recently completed one of the first randomized control trials designed to assess the impact of a mobile phone-driven health service aimed at improving the lives of the poor. The service we sought to measure was Health Tips,...
