Fill the Gap finds ‘hope’ in mobile phones

Organised as a joint collaboration between IICD, HIVOS, Oneworld and deBalie, the afternoon of debate, trade fair and presentations brought together some important perspectives on the idea that the exponential take of the mobile phone in a number of developing countries is cause for hope in the fight to achieve economic independence and truly democratic participation.

Spilling out onto the regular coffee drinking regulars in the deBalie café, the event included among it’s presenters, blogging expert Ethan Zuckerman and the number-loving Senior Researcher at the Link Centre in Johannesburg, Christoph Stork. Participants and speakers included Firoze Manji, Director of Fahamu; Shafiu Shaibu, Programme Officer at the Social Enterprise Development Foundation of West Africa and Lotte Pelckmans, researcher at the African Studies Centre in Leiden.

The first half of the event, entitled ‘Mobile revolution for better livelihoods’, began with a presentation from Christoph Stork, whose research concerns the economic impact of ICTs. Working for the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, Mr. Stork’s research has found a significant link between mobile phone usage and business turnover. Openly affirming his agreement that correlations do not prove cause, Stork said the complexity of the study – including profit margins, labour productivity and re-investment in business – has left him in ‘no doubt – ICTs help small businesses’.  There followed a Q&A with Shafiu Shaibu, flown in from Ghana to talk about his experiences with mobile phones in relation to the crop farmers involved with the IICD-supported ECAMIC project in Ghana.

The second half of the afternoon was dominated by the debates about activism in society and looked into the ‘Mobile revolution for social change’, beginning with a slick presentation from Ethan Zuckerman about mobile activism and the innovations that people are making to join in and be heard. This was followed by an impassioned discussion with Firoze Manji and later Christoph Stork and Lotte Pelckmans, moving away from the “hope or hype” dichotomy, and looking deeper into how the introduction of new technologies can in a lot of cases exacerbate inequalities and social divisions. A view expressed earlier in the day by Pelckmans, when discussing her research into the social use of mobile phones in Africa.

The overall conclusion was that mobile phones are indeed a cause for hope. Not so much in the technology itself, but more in the examples given of how people are using them to suit a diverse set of personal needs. Further, that it isn’t so much the technology that is cause for hope, but the people that are using it and the unique ways they are choosing to incorporate it into their lives.

Commenting on the day, organisers responded that they were “very happy with the interest in this debate. Adding, “it shows that there is a growing interest in and awareness of the use of innovative technology for development. Technology like mobile phones might have been developed and designed for the needs of people and industries in the North, but it can also be a useful tool for people in developing countries. It is integral to any effective development initiative that discussions and investigations are carried out to establish how we can best adapt technology to suit specific needs and especially how new technologies can help to reduce poverty.”

Shafiu Shaibu of the Ghanaian Social Enterprise Development Foundation of West Africa (SEND Foundation) – the organisation behind the IICD-supported ECAMIC project - also responded to whether mobile telephony is ‘hope’ or ‘hype’. He attended Fill the to hear about the innovative ways in which mobile telephony is being used in developing countries all over the world, with a view to carry this message back to farmers in the Eastern Corridor. Commenting on the trip, he said: “The Fill-the-Gap 5 conference, in my opinion, was a great success and it lived up to my positive expectations.”

“I was interested in hearing the different opinions about the subject of the Mobile phone and whether it was considered a hope or a hype. The presentation by Ethan Zuckerman (http://ethanzuckerman.com/ and http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/) talked about how activists utilize their new found source of power, the mobile phone, to organize citizens to oppose dictatorship worldwide. It is remarkable to understand how mobile phones were systematically being used to mobilize dispersed groups of people. By combining presentations on how farmers in Ghana use mobile phones in marketing their produce and how rural people in other parts of Africa make money transfers through the mobile phones, it was clear that, the ‘mobile revolution’ brings a lot of hope to the third world.

“I was equally impressed by the arguments posed by Firoze Manju that there are many other more appropriate means of alleviating poverty better than the use of mobile phones; that the mobile phone is just a hype. However, much as I agree that poverty can be approached from various different angles, I think the use of mobile phones is a rare, new technology, that has the capacity to impact on more people in more remote areas than most of the other approaches.

“I should also say that, any approach to fighting poverty that focuses on service delivery, or ignores empowering the people, is likely to be short-lived. Right now, I would say that the mobile revolution provides one of the greatest hopes yet for the remotest rural poor who would otherwise not be reached.”

Watch more?
Watch On De Balie website you can view the Internet broadcast of Fill the Gap 5 - The mobile revolution: hope or hype?, 11 January 2008 (De Balie MediaPlayer).
Watch the interview with Shafiu Shaibu on the Africa News website.