Android and development 1

Development organizations and aid agencies have been struggling for a while now to use technology to improve their efficiency and thereby create an improved impact on the recipients. It is a well documented and researched aspect of development.

Fortunately with mobile phones and their rapid scale to ubiquity, the lengthy pursuit of the development world seems to have met fruition. Currently, no other technology holds as much promise for the development sector as mobiles.

With an aim to empower people in the underdeveloped world and to deliver maximum bang for the buck, increasing number of device makers, cellular operators and development agencies are now coming together to deploy feature / smart phones with text information services and applications on health care, weather, crop pricing, agriculture practices, population studies etc. What really is hastening this process is the availability of a multitude of device and platform options.

Android is one such platform (operating system) that is opening a lot of avenues for data collection and field research management specifically targeted to the development sector. It is a Linux-based operating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Google purchased it in 2005 and has since then led almost a movement towards creating a platform that’s free, open source and stable.

A few instances of successful implementations of technology especially Android in development sector:

1.   Grameen Foundation’s “Community Knowledge Workers” (CKW) in Uganda

400 CKWs in Uganda are using Android phones loaded with an open-source data-collection application that feeds data into salesforce. These phones are powered by batteries that can be recharged via electricity, solar and bicycle. GF offers 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 (CKWs) 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.

The workers have interacted with over 25,000 households so far. 75 percent of farmers say they find the information offered by the knowledge workers to be very useful, and 80 percent said they acted on information they received at least once. Information from CKWs have helped them in timing their planting activities based on weather information, asking for better prices from traders, going to markets where they can get better prices and providing better care for their livestock.

The CKWs must buy the phones and charging stations. They can pay them off monthly, a process that takes about two years. They get paid for their work and can earn up to $25 a month.

GF is hoping to make the project self-sustaining and has partnered with other agencies that see value in the network of CKWs. The World Bank, Heifer International and others are now paying GF for data that CKWs collect by conducting surveys with villagers.