Title: Report of the Uganda Internet Governance Forum 2011 : Harnessing Internet Development in Uganda
Pages: 6 pp.
Publisher: Collaboration on International ICT Policy in East and Southern Africa (CIPESA)
Date (published): 27/09/2011
Date (accessed): 14/12/2011
Type of information: report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (doc)
Abstract:
"This report presents the proceedings and key issues that emerged from the Uganda Internet Governance Forum (UIGF) held on August 10, 2011 at Hive Colab Nakawa, Kampala. The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), in conjunction with Hive Colab and the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), organised the Forum under the theme “Harnessing Internet Development.”
…
Issues Arising From the Online Discussions
* Following on from last year, there was a renewed call for investment in local content development and creating awareness of local content development.
* Broadband internet access in Uganda remains broadly undefined. It is unclear whether the nation reached the 256 Kbit/s mark. According to the Uganda Broadband Infrastructure Strategy 2009, National position paper, broadband in Uganda was estimated to be doubling from 256 Kbps in 2009, 512 kbps in 2010 and 1,024 kbps in 2011.
* Call for multi-stakeholder partnerships in the implementation of the recently effected cyber laws. There is a need for all parties to work with authorities to have these laws fully operational. Indeed, there are insufficient human, financial and technological resources to enforce these laws. The enforcement authorities should invest in a digital forensics lab and actively engage academia in cyber security research. Furthermore, the citizenry should be sensitized about the existence of these laws and their implications.
* Mobile phone security remained paramount in the discussions. Whereas some telecommunications providers have embarked on registering mobile phone subscribers with little clarity on the process, it was raised that Sim card registration should be integrated with a functional national ID system. Uganda does not have national IDs.
* There is lack of synergy in databases amongst different government ministries as it is not clear how the different personal data collected by different ministries is used.

Way forward
* The profile of the national IGF needs to be raised beyond just enthusiasts. It was suggested that a Uganda IGF website, newsletter and an IGF handbook detailing key issues and progress, should be developed. Given that IG issues are at the heart of NITA-U and MoICT, these institutions should contribute to the funding pool for national support IGF processes.
* All national Internet Governance recommendations should be implemented at the regional level.
* Remote participation in national, regional and the global IGF forums should be enabled. People who are unable to attend would benefit greatly from facilities such as live streaming and java chat windows."

Title: Mobiles for Quality Improvement Pilot in Uganda
Authors: Pamela Riley and James BonTempo
Pages: 65 pp.
Source: Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector Project
Publisher: Abt Associates Inc.
Date (published): 01/12/2011
Date (accessed): 03/12/2011
Type of information: report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"This report reviews the Mobiles for Quality Improvement (m4QI) project that SHOPS piloted in Uganda. In an effort to address performance gaps in adherence to clinical protocols, SHOPS worked with a local software company to develop a software platform for sending health care providers text messages to either test their knowledge or remind them of particular protocols. The report finds that text messages provide a novel and cost-efficient way to raise awareness, promote behavior change, address common myths, identify performance gaps, incentivize new practices, refresh skills, and increase cohesion among peers. Report includes explanation of pilot design and evaluation of results."

Title: Pedagogical Integration of ICT: Successes and Challenges from 100+ African Schools - 3rd edition
Authors: Thierry Karsenti, Simon Collin and Toby Harper-Merrett
Pages: 349 pp.
ISBN: 978-2-923808-16-1
Publisher: IDRC
Date (published): 18/11/2011
Date (accessed): 19/11/2011
Type of information: research book
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
"The PanAfrican Research Agenda aimed to better understand how the pedagogical integration of ICT can improve the quality of teaching and learning in Africa.
In the first project phase, national research teams gathered data on the educational use of ICT in 13 countries: Ghana, Gambia, Senegal, Central African Republic, Uganda, Mozambique, Mali, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Congo, Cameroon, and South Africa, and Zambia. Data were collected according to a mixed-method approach, using quantitative data (e.g., questionnaires) and qualitative data (e.g., interviews, observations) on how ICT were integrated into education. In all, 120 schools, 800 school administrators, 8 940 teachers, and 242 873 students participated in the project.

Phase 1 of the PanAf project primarily involved collecting 20,000 pieces of data following a rigorous indicator procedure that was determined based on the literature as well several meetings between the researchers from the participating countries. All the gathered data are available on the Observatory for the pedagogical integration of ICT at www.observatoiretic.org (briefly presented in section VI).

Analyses of the raw data are also provided at the Observatory, and are available not only to PanAf researchers, but to all researchers in Africa and around the world. The clear advantage of these data, beyond being freely accessible at all times, is that they allow a deeper understanding of Africa's ICT policies and a greater awareness of the impacts of ICT on learners and educators. Note that these data frequently highlight gender issues and uncover inequalities throughout education systems. Last but not least, phase 1 of the PanAf project has fostered the development of research skills in the project teams."

Title: Saving On The Mobile: Developing Innovative Financial Services to Suit Poor Users
Source: AppLab blog (Grameen Foundation)
Date (published): 11/08/2011
Date (accessed): 12/08/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Grameen Foundation’s Sean Krepp and Dr. Olga Morawczynski recently published this paper on Saving on the Mobile in the World Economic Forum’s Mobile Financial Services Development Report 2011.

Savings on mobile money
A recent survey of over 2,000 Kenyan households found that 89% of respondents used M-PESA, a Kenyan mobile money (MM) application, “to save” (Suri and Jack, 2010). Dr. Morawczynski confirmed this finding after spending over 18 months studying the financial habits of resource poor M-PESA users in two locations: an urban slum called Kibera and village in Western Kenya called Bukura (Morawczynski, 2010). The study found that M-PESA was integrated into the financial portfolios and acted as a complement, rather than a substitute, to other mechanisms. This paper expands on these findings by disaggregating the term “savings” and focusing on behavior.

Four scenarios have been developed to explain how and why resource poor individuals use MM as a savings mechanism. These scenarios describe the frequency of transactions and the costs associated with each form of savings. A case study accompanies each scenario to explain the circumstances leading to the savings behavior.

Two MM applications are central to this analysis— M-PESA in Kenya and MobileMoney in Uganda. Product ideas are derived from analysis of practices. To “go beyond payments” and be relevant to poor users, mobile applications must be designed to fit into existing practices rather than trying to change or displace them."

Title: Orange, Google launch sms service in Africa
Source: IT News Affrica
Date (published): 28/07/2011
Date (accessed): 28/07/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Telecommunications provider Orange and global search giant, Google have signed a partnership that aims to facilitate access to Google’s services across Africa, by leveraging Orange’s networks.

This will enable Orange’s mobile customers to stay in touch with their Google services and Google users to extend their network by using SMS-based services.
The Orange and Google partnership will leverage Orange’s SMS platform to bring Google’s services to African customers.
...

Through the development of SMS-based services that operate on all mobile networks (including GSM), Orange and Google will extend the reach of a wide range of internet services that were previously limited to smartphone and broadband users (through 3G, CDMA or WiMax networks) to all Orange mobile customers.
The “Gmail SMS Chat” service, which will eventually be launched across Orange’s footprint in Africa and the Middle East is already available in Senegal, Uganda and Kenya. It will be launched in four additional countries – Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea Conakry and Niger – in the coming months, and will be launched as a trial in Egypt (Mobinil). Orange and Google are now looking to extend this partnership to include other services."

Title: Android Phones Help Poor Farmers in Uganda
Author: Nancy Gohring
Source: PC World
Publisher: IDG
Date (published): 21/07/2011
Date (accessed): 22/07/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Mobile-phone companies and aid agencies have talked for years about deploying feature phones, coupled with basic text information services about the weather and crop pricing, to empower poor people in undeveloped parts of the world. Now, the Grameen Foundation is taking that idea to the opposite, high-tech extreme.

About 400 so-called "community knowledge workers" in Uganda are using Android phones loaded with an open-source data-collection application that feeds data into Salesforce. The phones are powered by batteries that can be recharged in a variety of ways, including solar and bicycle.

Developed by the Seattle-based Grameen Foundation Technology Center, the project offers select farmers loans to buy an Android phone loaded with information about when and how to plant crops, care for farm animals and find markets for products.

Those farmers, whom Grameen calls community knowledge workers, then serve as experts in their villages. Other people turn to them with questions about crops or farm animals, and the knowledge workers find answers in information loaded on the phones. The knowledge workers also gather information about the farmers they talk to."

Title: How Broadband will get to Somalia
Author: Jeffrey Swindle
Source: IT News Africa
Date (published): 16/07/2011
Date (accessed): 18/07/2011
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Last week, I interviewed Mohamed Ahmed Jama, CEO of Dalkom Somalia and board member of Frontier Optical Networks Ltd (FON) in Kenya. Jama described four potential Broadband cables that could be a part of a terrestrial backbone throughout East Africa, including in Somalia. A fifth was announced yesterday in Somaliland.
Though all three of these proposed links are just that—proposals—they are indicative of the rapid growth of Broadband connectivity in the region. Most East African governments are actively engaged in rolling out backbone terrestrial networks, while four years ago the World Bank called East African connectivity the world’s only “missing link.”
South Sudan is working with the CTO to develop an ICT strategic plan; Burundi recently received funding from the World Bank; and Uganda has also invested as well. And private companies are facilitating the expansion of Broadband cables as well as they are working with the national governments to lay the cables and to fund the projects.
The East African Backhaul System was recently announced as a combined $400 million partnership between Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo governments and a variety of private telecoms. The unique partnerships between the public and private sector make the ICT space in East Africa distinct from other regions."

Title: eMOCHA: Android Data Collection for mHealth
Author: Anne-Ryan Heatwole
Source: MobileActive.org
Date (published): 21/03/2011
Date (accessed): 22/03/2011
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"Using mobiles for data collection is increasingly common, particularly in the area of mobile health and with a focus on community health workers. eMOCHA is a program using a smartphone Android application for storing and transmitting data easily.

Developed by the Johns Hopkins Center for Clinical Global Health Education, eMOCHA (which stands for “Electronic Mobile Open-source Comprehensive Health Application”) uses video, audio, touchscreen quizzes, GPS and SMS to collect and analyze large amounts of data. Larry William Chang, director of field evaluations for eMOCHA, explains in an interview with MobileActive.org that the inspiration for developing the tool came out of researchers’ experiences in the field and their desire to build solutions to gaps in health care data collection systems.
...
eMOCHA is an open-source Android application, and runs on all current versions of Android phones...One of the most important features that eMOCHA offers is increased security – the servers and data sent from the phones are encrypted, and data stored on the phones is password protected and stored in the phones’ internal databases. The interactive nature of eMOCHA means that community health workers and researchers can use it not only as a means of data collection, but also for educational purposes.

Another key feature of eMOCHA is its integration with SMS. Chang explains that although the usual method of using eMOCHA in the field is for a community health worker to use the provided smartphone as a demonstration tool, the team realized they also needed to be able to communicate with larger, non-smartphone owning populations. The eMOCHA team added the ability for the application to receive SMSs from patients and to send out SMSs in order to directly target large numbers of users. "

Title: Futures of Technology in Africa
Author:Jasper Grosskurth
Pages: 83 pp.
ISBN:978-90-809613-7-1
Publisher:STT, The Hague, the Netherlands
Date (published):22/10/2010
Date (accessed):05/11/2010
Type of information:research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
„Technology holds many promises as a driver of positive changes, as a tool to address the problems and as an enabler to fulfil the potential. Economic development requires modern technology and technology plays an important role in most strate- gies for alleviating hunger and poverty. Technology can reduce transaction costs, save lives, facilitate education, strengthen entrepreneurship, provide access to markets and help to deliver basic ser- vices, ranging from water and sanitation to public administration. However, the same technology can also be destructive and a cause of problems. Some technological developments can be facilitated or managed, others happen and require an adequate response.
It is this manifold interrelation of technology with its environment that makes exploring the future of technology so interesting and valuable. There is a need to explore how technology in Africa will or might evolve; to discuss the drivers and the obsta- cles, the issues technology might resolve and the problems it might cause; to identify how technology changes society and how African societies might change global technology. These are big and com- plex questions and the STT foresight project, which ends with this publication, is a contribution to this discussion that is still in its infancy with respect to Africa.”
via http://twitter.com/#!/marcozennaro

Title: Mobile Phones Connect Ugandan Farmers to Agricultural Information
Author : Phillip Kurata
Source: America.gov
Publisher: Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State
Date (published): 20/09/2010
Date (accessed): 26/09/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
"“My goat is sick. Its neck is swollen. It can’t eat,” an old woman in a remote village in Uganda said. She spoke to a man passing by with a mobile phone.

“Let me see if I can help,” said Laban Rutagumirwa.

He sent off a text message that read “goat bloat.” The message went to an agriculture information service devised by the Grameen Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A response came back shortly with instructions to mix a half kilo of rock salt with a liter of water and have the goat drink it. Two weeks later, Rutagumirwa was passing through the village and came across the old woman. She happily reported that her goat had recovered.

The woman was lucky that the passerby was Rutagumirwa. He is one of about 140 employees of the Community Knowledge Worker program that is bringing “relevant, actionable information” to poor, remote farmers in Uganda, according to David Edelstein, the Grameen Foundation’s technology center director.

The program started in 2009 in Uganda’s Bushenyi and Mbale districts. Trusted local residents, such as farmers, agriculture extension workers, shopkeepers and school teachers, were trained to disseminate and gather information about agriculture using mobile phones. The workers help the Ugandan farmers treat not only sick goats, but also blighted bananas, coffee berry bacterial infections, discolored tomatoes and other plant and livestock problems. In addition, the mobile phone-equipped workers have put farmers in touch with markets and weather forecasts"