This 2012 edition of the World Bank's information and communications for development report analyzes the growth and evolution of mobile telephony, and the rise of data-based services delivered to handheld devices, including apps.
... See More + The report explores the consequences for development of the emerging app economy. It summarizes current thinking and seeks to inform the debate on the use of mobile phones for development. This report looks at key ecosystem-based applications in agriculture, health, financial services, employment, and government, with chapters devoted to each. With some 6 billion mobile subscriptions in use worldwide, around three-quarters of the world's inhabitants now have access to a mobile phone. Mobiles are arguably the most ubiquitous modern technology: in some developing countries, more people have access to a mobile phone than to a bank account, electricity, or even clean water. Mobile communications now offer major opportunities to advance human development from providing basic access to education or health information to making cash payments to stimulating citizen involvement in democratic processes. The developing world is more mobile than the developed world. In the developed world, mobile communications have added value to legacy communication systems and have supplemented and expanded existing information flows. However, the developing world is following a different, mobile first development trajectory. Many mobile innovations such as multi-SIM card phones, low-value recharges, and mobile payments have originated in poorer countries and are spreading from there. New mobile applications that are designed locally and rooted in the realities of the developing world will be much better suited to addressing development challenges than applications transplanted from elsewhere. In particular, locally developed applications can address developing-country concerns such as digital literacy and affordability.
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Mobile health (mHealth) the use of mobile technology applications for healthcare is a young and dynamic field that could improve the well-being of people around the world.
... See More + Mobile applications can lower costs and improve the quality of healthcare as well as shift behavior to strengthen prevention, all of which can improve health outcomes over the long term. As an intersection of health, technology, and finance, mHealth is also a complex industry where it can be difficult to develop sustainable business models. This report assesses the current state of mHealth in the developing world, including extensive case studies of three countries Haiti, India, and Kenya with very different health sectors, financing options, and technological bases. It examines interventions serving entirely new functions in the health system, less costly substitutes for existing interventions, and interactive functions that multiply the power of existing interventions. In addition, the report identifies emerging trends, risks, and opportunities in the industry's immediate future. This report is intended to be a tool for donors and governments to understand the growing mHealth industry and anticipate the policy issues that will affect its development. The use of mobile technology creates more than 5 billion points of contact between consumers, healthcare workers, health system administrators, and firms in supply chains for health commodities. Finally, access to care can benefit from health financing applications based on mobile devices, which can reduce the overall cost of care, including health system costs associated with treating and managing chronic conditions such as HIV/AIDS, often in conjunction with other mobile applications.
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A number of countries recently experienced protest organized by citizens that were in pursuit of accountability and openness from government. It was witnessed that social media played a highly important role in those events; among others, continuously providing updated information, establishing human networks, forming opinions, mobilizing people, and taking concerted action.
... See More + Of course, social media is not the sole reason that made the events happen. However, it can be at least said that the general public were encouraged to move into the actions for their enhanced well-being. From a broader perspective, those occurrences also showcase that information and communications technologies (ICT's) can help enhance social development among people. This short note seeks to develop analysis on the role of social media in social development, in the wake of the increasing diffusion of mobile phone internet access.
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