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Rapid assessment of cell phones for development
Sally-Jean Shackleton, Women's Net
May 2007

http://www.sangonet.org.za/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7875&Itemid=314

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Introduction

Background to the project

This assessment, commissioned by United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in South Africa and implemented by Women'sNet, aims to provide baseline data that will inform a strategy to launch a new generation of cell phone technologies to address underdevelopment and in particular HIV/AIDS as a development issue.

Lack of adherence to treatment and side effects resulting from anti-retro viral (ARV) therapy is a major obstacle to prolonging and enhancing the quality of lives of those infected by HIV. Cell phones are proving to be an important tool in overcoming this obstacle by providing a means by which patients can be alerted and reminded - at the appropriate time - to take their medication.

Text messages are also proving effective in getting information and messages on sexual health, HIV prevention and related issues to young people in a direct and discrete way. Text messaging is easy, cheap and popular, and people can have access to information which is anonymous and discrete - particularly in rural areas where stigma is still an obstacle to disclosure and openness.

In South Africa cell phones are easily accessible - approximately 40% of South Africans in rural and urban areas own phones - and relatively inexpensive with cellular networks covering approximately 90% of the country. It is therefore eminently suitable as a tool for delivering critical information or for transporting requests for information from members of civil society.

The long term objective of this activity is to support government and civil society programs to leverage partnerships with companies developing cell phone technologies and other related service providers to develop a comprehensive strategy and plan for monitoring treatment adherence, providing information on sexual health including help lines and services and prevention messages by the use of cell phone technology. The potential for harnessing the benefits of cell phone technology in other areas of concern such as gender based violence and violence and abuse against women and children is enormous. Potential, however, is mediated by factors that ensure the success of such initiatives - such as available infrastructure, contextual issues, resources, capacities and location of the project - both physical location and location within a larger project.

The information provided will be used by UNICEF as a baseline to inform and kick start further discussions and strategy development with key stakeholders for the potential scaling up of cell phone technology usage in projects with a development agenda.

The Rapid Assessment

Conduct an audit and give an assessment of the use of cell phones technology, focusing on HIV care treatment and prevention.

- The project size and scalability
- The cost and sustainability
- The impact and results in relation to project objectives
- The appropriateness of cell phones to the project objectives, including audience,
- The data content, language and affordability

About Women'sNet

Women'sNet South Africa is a vibrant and innovative networking support programme designed to enable South African women to use the Internet and other relevant ICTs to find the people, issues, resources and tools needed for women's social activism and empowerment. The organisation has extensive experience and a keen interest in cell (or mobile) technologies for development. It has been an actor in the ICT for Development (ICT4D) sector since its establishment in 1997, and has a focus on gender and women - a sector of South African population most affected by HIV/AIDS). The organisation has particular experience in gendered aspects of the use of technology as well as expertise in content generation and assessment.

The possibilities that initiatives that use cell phone technologies pose for addressing inequality in access to information, and challenge of HIV/AIDS as it affects women and girls, is a focus of Women'sNet. We hope that this assessment will form the basis for undertakings that will help bridge the 'information' gap that currently exists, and which will strengthen existing initiatives and provide opportunities for more interventions in prevention care and treatment of HIV/AIDS and associated social problems.

Methodology

This rapid assessment surveyed existing initiatives to deploy cell phone technologies for development and social goals, started in December 2006 and was completed in April 2007. Our focus was also on projects that used cell phones to address HIV/AIDS. Geographically, our focus was on South Africa, and Africa. While UNICEF's focus is on children, we included initiatives for all ages.

A questionnaire was administered, however, initiatives proved to be too diverse for this methodology. Women'sNet undertook online research, and then conducted email and telephonic interviews with organisation's identified by desktop research, and key informants.

Assessment of the initiatives focuses on project scale and cost, sustainability, impact, language, content and affordability. We considered initiatives within the real in gender and other inequalities.

Limitations

The project focused on the formal use of cell phone technologies- there is no doubt that cell phones are used to organize, share information and knowledge in the informal sense. The rate at which the cell phone industry has grown, and the extent to which even poor and rural people go to own one indicates that they are essential tools for daily life and survival.

We focused out data collection first on desktop research, and thereafter referrals from other actors in the field - as such we might have missed smaller, more informal use of cell phone technologies (such as small organisations using bulk messaging, or using Mxit)

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