The report published recently entitled “Sustainable Access to Energy & Water through M2M Connectivity“ is the result of this research and aims to shed light on the opportunities created by M2M solutions to reach and empower underserved populations in the developing world.

The same way SMS messages have become one of the building blocks of modern communications in emerging markets, simple GSM M2M connectivity could create seamless networks of connected infrastructures and devices beyond wealthy urban circles. In underserved urban and rural locations (2.47 billion people were living with less than USD2 per day in 2008), M2M connectivity has the potential to bring more resilience to decentralized systems often plagued by poor maintenance and will allow to collect critical information about the population who use them. It is also about creating two way communications platforms, where end users are connected to their service providers through the systems they are using, at a personal or community level; it is about building stronger relationships between institutions and households often living without access to sustainable energy, clean water and/or financial institutions.

Some key facts from the report:

• From urban to rural areas, mobile networks have become the predominant infrastructure in emerging markets, allowing more people to be covered by mobile networks than have access to energy and water. GSM infrastructure is increasingly reaching far corners of the world, mobile handsets are increasingly getting into the hands of low income population (even though there remains room for growth [1]) and M2M modules can be more easily integrated in a wide range of equipment.
• If service delivery remains critical to commercial success and sustainability, technology can surely support business models and empower customers. In the M-KOPA example, the convergence of GSM M2M connectivity for remote monitoring of Solar Home Systems and mobile payments through the M-PESA platform is allowing low income population to afford clean energy solutions under a Pay As You Go model.
• Mobile technology has a social impact, especially when it is the only available infrastructure. Considering water access in Africa, where there are important problems of maintenance and sustainability of water pumps, the inclusion of M2M connectivity in simple water pump structures would increase real time information about water access and quality at the local and national level.
• Beyond pilots and nascent commercial deployments, some challenges remain for entrepreneurs providing M2M-based services to better reach the full population lacking access to energy and water. As an important element to achieve scale in resource constrained economies, a section of the report is focusing on the opportunity to design a new GSM M2M module: a simpler module design integrating lighter functionality and achieving lower cost would stimulate the integration of M2M in a wider range of products.

Opportunities and challenges lie ahead, as the success and the scale of such M2M based services at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) will require active participation from chipset suppliers, entrepreneurs, mobile operators, regulators. M-KOPA, currently providing Pay As You Go solutions for energy access in Kenya, presents at the end of this report, their in-depth testimony about the challenges they envision in increasing the impact and scale of M2M services for the BoP.

In this coming year, the GSMA will continue its efforts to raise awareness around the potential and challenges of M2M solutions for underserved populations, connect main stakeholders to catalyse market growth and support innovation from micro-entrepreneurs in this space.

In late 2012, Mercy Corps’ Agri-Fin Mobile Program commissioned consultants to carry out baseline surveys in order to analyse the potential of ‘bundling’ information services and financial products that can be delivered via mobile phones to assist smallholder farmers increase their incomes in Indonesia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The findings from the surveys are intended to support mobile network operators, farmer organisations, financial institutions and others that play active roles in agriculture and mobile money ecosystems to develop sustainable business models.

Overall, the survey findings indicate significant potential for mobile related services in the three countries. For example, more than 80 percent of all surveyed households in Indonesia and Zimbabwe have access to a mobile phone – the only requirement for using mobile phone services. The number was slightly lower in Uganda (65 percent) due to low education levels among farmers and limited network coverage in most rural areas.

Limited uptake of mobile money, as well as limited use of services beyond remittances, appears to be related to an incomplete understanding of the products available.

In relation to the provision of information services to farmers, the research noted that the traditional sources of information – face-to-face and radio are still important sources of contact for most farmers in the three countries. Although there are farmers currently receiving agricultural information through their mobile phones the percentage is a paltry two percent in both Zimbabwe and Uganda. Interviewed farmers however, expressed interest in receiving information through mobile phones.

Regardless of the m-money status of a household, the research noted that remittances are primarily used for routine financial support among relatives living in different households. Evidence from those using mobile money revealed a steady, but gradual, increase in the mobile money subscriber base with 46 percent in Indonesia, 55 percent in Uganda and 64 percent in Zimbabwe of remittances being sent/received mobile money. However, the uptake of services beyond money transfers is somewhat slow, and an average 30 percent of registered users reported knowing about other mobile money applications other than money transfers, sms, and voice services.

The research also noted that rural users travel longer distances (average of 45 kilometers) and spend more money on transportation to reach mobile money agents. Once they get to an agent location farmers in Zimbabwe (where there is liquidity crunch) for example noted that they are more likely to face problems related to agents’ absenteeism, agents experiencing a shortage of cash.

Subsequently Agri-Fin mobile researches will continue to monitor mobile services growth and measure how effectively barriers to new or greater adoption have been overcome.

For more detailed research results please visit: http://bit.ly/agri-finmobile

Wednesday 27 February:

• 14:00 – 15:30: Health: Achieving Scale through Partnerships
• 16:00 – 17:30: Health: Innovating for Global Health

Thursday 28 February – Room C1.1

• 11:00 – 12:15: Solving a global problem – mHealth for non-communicable diseases
• 12:30 – 13:30: mHealth making a positive difference to end users
• 13:45 – 14:45: The Mobile World Capital m-Health Competence Center Kick-off
• 15.00 – 16.00: Government Activity in mHealth and Opportunities for Mobile

For more information have a look at the Congress agenda here.

GSMA Ministerial Programme
We are happy to confirm that mHealth will form an important part of thematic Ministerial Programme workshops covering Current Status of the Global mHealth Proposition and Policy ask on mHealth. Ministerial Programme will also hold Africa Regional Summit where our mHealth Director Dr Craig Friderichs will be moderating one of the panels.

GSMA Pavilion
Stop by the GSMA Pavilion in the heart of Congress Square to learn about GSMA’s many programmes and initiatives. Among other things you will be able to demo the Connected Living Tracker – a customised tool which collates mobile products and services around the globe, including the mHealth Tracker.

For more information about Mobile for Development events, take a look at the agenda.

Why is user experience design so important?

With the explosion of devices and applications, brands have to compete for attention of their customers and also retain this attention in the ever evolving competitive landscape. Furthermore, expectations from customers are on the rise; products can no longer focus merely on utility but also need to be pleasurable to use. This is where user experience design can play a critical role in maintaining customer relationships, by helping companies create meaningful and engaging experiences for customers by designing for their needs and aspirations.

What characterizes a successful design?

A successful design is one that not only focuses on enhancing momentary experiences during user interaction, but also enables the company to retain the attention of its customers and secure brand loyalty over time.

How can UX design improve women’s lives?

Research has shown that many women, especially from lower socio-economic households, are largely dependent on male members of the household to help them use technologies such as mobile phones. These male members tend to be relatively more digitally-literate and thus are able to help overcome the phone’s interface complexities. Typically the person offering such help is the woman’s husband who controls how the mobile phone finally gets used. User experience design can play an important role in such contexts, by enabling more independent usage and empowerment amongst women.

What is the role of research in UX design?

User experience design is almost always user-centered in nature. So research is important to not only understand and identify user needs, but also evaluate whether or not potential users are able to meaningfully use the design offerings.

What are some examples of innovative UX design in emerging markets?

One recent example that comes to mind is the QCard project from Microsoft Research India: a low-cost system for audience polling in resource-constrained classrooms that utilizes computer vision and printed cards as a replacement for expensive electronic “clickers”. This is a new approach to classroom “polling:”  asking for student feedback on how well they understand a question or answer a problem in a classroom context. QCard uses webcams, symbol-coded sheets of paper and software to recognize and aggregate student responses in real-time.

Why should the mobile industry invest in women as customers?

Currently, there is a glaring mobile gender gap; statistics show that in low- and middle-income countries, women are 21 per cent less likely than men to own a mobile phone. The rate is highest in Asia, at 37 per cent. This is a huge untapped market that the mobile industry should be investigating. Furthermore, for organizations with a global development focus, mobile phones can serve as platforms for providing various development services for women in domains such as microfinance, healthcare, livelihoods, etc.

Why is the Design Challenge a worthwhile initiative?

First of all I think Design Challenge is worthwhile because it is mobilizing designers, developers and innovators to get interested in mobile user experience design for global development. I also think Design Challenge is a great forum for showcasing innovative designs from across the world that might have the potential to bridge the mobile gender gap. I really like that for those who might not have the resources, the initiative will provide the opportunity to meet with potential investors for commercialization of their winning entries.

The terrain has changed so much in just a decade. Currently on average, Africa has about 70% mobile penetration rate. This obviously makes mobile telephony an indispensable component of agricultural development in Africa. Considering that agriculture remains the backbone of the majority of African economies, mobile technology is set to play a major role in agricultural and socio-economic development in the continent.

My experience in development work across Africa spans a couple of years and across several countries. Prior to joining GSMA, I worked for Fairtrade as the Executive Director for Africa covering some 29 countries and supporting market access for over 700,000 smallholders across the continent. While my time at Fairtrade Africa focused on market access and favourable trading terms for the poor, it nevertheless emphasized the significant role that timely and accurate information plays in the overall scheme of development and livelihoods improvement. Many farmers lack access to timely, reliable and relevant information at affordable cost. This is further worsened by the often limited and sometimes inefficient national extension systems in most developing countries. Ultimately, all this continues to contribute to low productivity, low market prices and poor household incomes for thousands of farm families globally. Mobile agricultural programmes will offer the opportunity to leverage the increasing mobile technology penetration in the developing world to improve agricultural productivity, food security and contribute towards livelihoods improvement for those at the bottom of the pyramid.

I am looking forward to an exciting time in GSMA and in employing mobile technology to support agricultural development and livelihoods improvement in developing countries. Will you join us in making a change?

Small start-ups have already enabled mobile money to become a payments mean for online transactions and purchases in Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Another good example is Kopo Kopo in Kenya, who are the service providers for retailers that we’ve talked about before.  Kopo Kopo is a small operation that aims to leverage the growth of mobile money to trigger mobile retail payments, and the number of start-ups is growing.

At the Mobile Money working group last year in Milan, we had the privilege to invite Paolo Baltao,  Omar Moeen Malik and Shaibu Haruna on stage to discuss their views on the role of external players in mobile money, how these can be leveraged to grow your business and what the barriers they have experienced so far in this pursuit.

In order to take advantage of innovation around them, operators need:

1. A deployment with a  strong foundation; active customers and efficient agent network needs to be in place in order to become attractive for innovation and external players
2. A strategy to overcome technical barriers; lack of standardised ways to integrate external players with the platforms, as well as the technical maturity of your partners, delays and increases the cost of connecting. Having useful APIs and being in control of these integrations (not your vendor) can be ways to mitigate the cost and delay.
3. A willingness to invest resources; many operators have strategic fears of losing control when increasing the presence of external parties on the platform. Therefore it is important to have dedicated staff to monitor, oversee and engage the ecosystem to increase traffic and ensure that the relationships are sustainable and improved if necessary.
4. A clear business case; as more companies with more business models are expected to show interest in connecting to your platform, the technical costs and integration time will hopefully go down with time to make the business case for integrating with them more attractive. Having flexible billing options increases the types of businesses that want to connect to your platform. Insurance subscription companies, retail payments companies or financial institutions are all likely to have different business models and charging/billing needs.

Having more products that are stable and brings value to your customers increases the relevance and strategic importance of your platform. In the closing remarks, Shaibu Haruna summarizes the discussion and concludes that if you want to be successful, deployments should be open – and perhaps more importantly – be ready to invest.

To hear these messages from our expert panellists, watch the highlights from the conversation below.

This impact pathway highlights focus areas across a sample of literature, and suggests that collectively these indicators represent a set of actions to which development outcomes are being achieved. Collecting and organising information in this way shows which indicators are being used, which areas are receiving attention within the selected research, and the theory of change for impact. Conversely, it also serves as a gap analysis by showing which areas have less attention in the literature and may need further investigation.

In particular, Impact Pathways illustrate a ‘theory of change’, demonstrating how access to mobile services for development can bring about short, medium, and long term change that improves lives.

Populating Impact Pathway

• Develop Draft Pathway: The MDI team and PWC designed a blueprint pathway and identified key indicators related to international development outcomes.
• Define literature: The GSMA mHealth team identified key literature to use to catalogue quantitative and qualitative development results to be populated in the impact pathway.
• Review literature: A team of researchers from PwC undertook a review of the literature provided to extract and tag all relevant data points and categorise according to the agreed development outcome indicators.
• Summarise results: The results communicate concentrations of outcome results as well as gaps.

Impact pathway for mHealth and Monitoring

Disease and the lack of adequate preventative care have a significant effect on emerging markets and their populations.

Evidence shows that strict adherence to a medication regime is essential for effective treatment of a variety of health conditions, from HIV/AIDS to diabetes. In addition, monitoring patients at home for chronic conditions dramatically improves survival rates.

However, many patients in emerging markets do not have access to local healthcare services.

The impact pathway for mHealth and Monitoring focuses specifically on mHealth remote monitoring applications, including services to improve treatment compliance and appointment attendance, remote monitoring of vital signs, and provision of medical advice via call centres/health hotlines.

View the mHealth Interactive Impact Pathway

The GSMA mHealth team would like to encourage everybody to contribute to the Impact Pathway by sending research, reports, or other forms of evidence to mdi@gsma.com

The following sessions are open for all attendees on a first-come, first-served basis (unless specified otherwise) and fill up fast, so please add them to your diary and plan to arrive for the start of the sessions.

Download our agenda

Energy+Mobile for Development – 25 February, 09:30 to 11:30, Room CC1.1
GSMA Mobile Enabled Community Services

From urban to rural areas, mobile networks have become the predominant infrastructure in emerging markets and more people are now covered by mobile networks than have access to energy and water, with a total estimated addressable market of 575 M people. The GSMA, with the support of the UK Government, is delighted to announce the launch of our newest programme, Mobile Enabled Community Services (MECS). Drawing on the strong foundation of the Green Power for Mobile and Community Power from Mobile Programmes, MECS explores how the mobile industry can support access to both energy and water services in off-grid areas.

Join us as we hear from leading mobile operators, tower companies, energy services and technology companies on innovative partnerships that are delivering value to both the industry and rural communities and how this industry is expected to grow and scale. Confirmed speakers include Fenix International (in partnership with MTN Group and Vodafone), M-KOPA (in partnership with Safaricom/M-PESA) and OMC Power (in partnership with Bharti Infratel).

Learn more and add this event to your calendar. For more information, contact Mary Roach.

Taking Mobile Agriculture Innovation to Market – 25 February, 12:00 to 14:00, Room CC1.1
GSMA mAgri Programme

Over the next five years mobile subscriber growth will be driven by demand from approximately 1.8m currently “unconnected” people in developing countries, particularly those in rural areas. This represents a significant opportunity for the mobile industry to develop services for their rural customers, the vast majority of whom are involved in or dependent on agriculture, whilst positively impacting agricultural productivity in emerging markets where the agriculture sector is key to growth.

Join experts and thought leaders from the Mobile Agriculture industry for an interactive seminar, featuring a panel session where leading practitioners from the Agricultural Value Added Services (Agri VAS) industry will exchange lessons and best practices, as well as a spotlight on two innovative uses of mobile technology in emerging market agricultural sectors.

Add this event to your calendar. For more information, including details of the speakers and agenda, contact Victoria Clause.

Mobile: A Lifeline in Disasters – 25 February, 17:00 to 19:30, Room CC1.1
GSMA Disaster Response Programme

This session will bring together senior members of the mobile industry and experts from the humanitarian and technology sectors to discuss the growing recognition of mobile communications as a basic humanitarian need, and the role that the mobile industry should play in this rapidly evolving space.

Drawing from recent disasters in the Philippines, the United States, Latin America and the Horn of Africa, panellists will highlight challenges, opportunities and priorities for improved collaboration, service delivery and partnership. Confirmed speakers from the mobile industry, humanitarian and technology sectors include AT&T, Telefónica, Smart Communications Inc., Souktel, Vodafone Foundation, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and UN Global Pulse.

Add this event to your calendar. For more information, including details of the speakers and agenda, contact Kyla Reid.

Meeting Women’s Wants and Needs Through Mobile – 26 February, 12:00 to 15:00, Room CC1-1.5
GSMA mWomen Programme

Co-hosted by Visa, Inc. and Qtel Group, this event features opportunities for achieving commercial and social objectives by meeting women’s wants and needs for mobile. The keynote session, introduced by Cherie Blair, Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, focuses on opportunities for industry to serve the women’s market with mobile financial services, thereby helping to increase women’s financial inclusion in emerging markets. Visa and GSMA mWomen will release new research by Bankable Frontier Associates on women’s wants and needs for mobile financial services. We’ll also discuss the power of mobile user experience design for women and announce the winners of the GSMA mWomen Design Challenge, sponsored by Qtel Group in partnership with USAID and AusAID. Finally, we’ll share mobile industry partners’ experiences serving women to create commercial and social value.

A networking lunch, sponsored by Visa, will be offered to all attendees of the event, which is open to all Congress pass-holders. Add this event to your calendar.

Mobile Money for the Unbanked Seminar – 27th February, 16:30 to 19:00, Room CC1.1
GSMA Mobile Money for the Unbanked Programme

At this event, MMU will share the results of the 2012 Global Mobile Money Adoption Survey. This is the most comprehensive assessment of the state of the mobile money industry, and draws on data from over 70 mobile money deployments which target the unbanked. During this seminar, MMU will also invite some of the world’s fastest growing deployments to share insights and best practices on how to develop a successful mobile money business. There will also be a session from MMT on ‘Realising opportunity in international remittance business’.

Note: This is an invite only event, so please RSVP to Oonagh Molloy at omolloy@gsma.com as soon as possible to reserve your place.

Each year, approximately 350,000 women around the world die unnecessarily as a result of preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Half of the 7.5 million deaths among children under five years of age occur during the first 28 days of life, also from largely preventable causes. These deaths occur primarily in the Global South – in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Cell phones could be saving their lives.

Mobile Technology Is Everywhere

In a world with 7 billion people, 6 billion of them are mobile phone subscribers. A new report “Leveraging Mobile Technologies to Promote Maternal and Newborn Health,” found that combining mobile technologies with existing health system resources would provide women and newborns with:

• Timely interventions that promote decisions to seek care and stimulate demand for available services– such as text messages that provide health education and increase awareness of health resources;
• Improved access to health services and facilities, for example through services that equip community-based health workers with mobile tools, extending health coverage into households and the community; and
• Health care that is delivered efficiently and expertly, through communication services that connect women to peer networks or local expert resources.

Mobile technologies are rapidly expanding throughout the world. The question is whether we can harness these technologies to impact the health and lives of women and children (“mHealth”), particularly in the Global South.

New mHealth tools are emerging, including:

• mCheck, which helps women in India identify health risks in the first week after delivery and seek treatment;
• Cellphones4HIV in South Africa, which aims to prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child through text messages with educational information and reminders for appointments, tests and treatment; and,
• Mi Bebe, which enables health workers to monitor women with high-risk pregnancies remotely to provide early warning of abnormalities and refer them to treatment in a timely way.

So, how do we make sure every mobile user can access these kinds of tools?

Bringing mHealth to the broader public

Currently, mHealth applications for maternal and child health are in the formative design and test stages of implementation. As a result, evidence of their effectiveness is only now emerging. It is critical that we develop and implement more rigorous evaluation of mHealth tools currently in place. If these are shown to positively impact maternal and child health outcomes, we also need to make sure we can bring these tools to those countries, cities, and towns that need them most.

We cannot look at mHealth technology in a technology vacuum, though. For us to take it to scale in the places worldwide where it is most needed, we will have to address many other related issues, such as social factors, strategic partnerships and business models. For example, by addressing social factors like literacy and inequities in women’s access to mobile phones, we can remove barriers that impede the reach of mHealth services. We can also adapt services to meet user needs—such as using voice messaging instead of text messaging where literacy is low. Helping to remove barriers to using the technology will ultimately lead to broader adaptation and better health outcomes.

Innovation will also need to be flexible and adaptable to the quickly evolving nature of technology, and build on existing information and communication technology capabilities. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

The Innovation Equity Problem

Not everyone has equal access to mHealth. Countries as diverse as Kenya and Peru lead in the level of innovative mHealth activity among the countries reviewed – as evidenced by the integration of mFinance with mHealth in Kenya or the role of Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in promoting local capacity development in Peru – while Liberia and Brazil lag behind. This cannot be explained on the basis of health, development, and technology indicators alone.

We need to identify critical existing resources – such as each country’s human resources, scientific and technological research infrastructure, regulatory frameworks, and business and investment environment – and assess how they may influence any country’s capacity to innovate. Many countries need support in developing the infrastructure that would improve their ability to develop and scale up mHealth interventions.

Mobile technology has the power to transform health systems and to save lives. The solutions are, quite literally, in our hands.

Photo: © 2012 Kim Blessing/JHU CCP, Courtesy of Photoshare

1. Green Power for Mobile
2. Innovation from the Indian Sub-Continent
3. Community Power from Mobile

The first section contains a market analysis of green power solutions for East Africa, an approach to managing site security and access control provided by Eaton Towers Uganda, an overview of the tower sharing business model in Indonesia, and a review of Globe Telecom Inc.’s Network Transformation Programme in the Philippines.

With a specific focus on India, the second section focuses on the progress of green telecoms in India and green technology in the telecoms sector.

Finally, the third section is dedicated to Community Power from Mobile, and discusses opportunities to improve community energy and water access, as well as mobile commerce. It also includes a look at solar power in Mozambique and features a case study on sustainable energy and water through machine-to-machine (M2M) technology.

Read the Bi-annual Report