Are Mobile Solutions for Combating Global Poverty Overhyped?

“There are now over 5 billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide, according to the International Telecommunications Union, with global mobile penetration at 87 percent. In the developing world, where landlines are especially scarce in rural areas, mobiles have been used for governance, banking, agriculture, education, health, commerce, reporting news, political participation, and reducing corruption.

But the ubiquity of the mobile phone - and its application to a diverse and growing set of development goals - doesn’t guarantee economic or social progress.

Are mobiles just another high-tech solution to what are essentially systemic and deeply rooted problems? Are mobile solutions for combating global poverty overhyped?”

(via @CNNWorld)

What do you think?

“In just one day, more than 200 million hours of women’s time is consumed for the most basic of human needs — collecting water for domestic use.” (infographic courtesy of water.org)
Pop-upView Separately

“In just one day, more than 200 million hours of women’s time is consumed for the most basic of human needs — collecting water for domestic use.”

(infographic courtesy of water.org)

We Need a Battery Miracle

All the batteries on Earth store just 10 mins of world electricity needs. This new battery may be key. 

(via @BillGates)

The Silicon Valley of Shit: Nairobi Is Ground Zero for Sanitation Innovation

“Yet while the government lacks funds, initiative, and directive for innovation in sanitation, a unique blend of social entrepreneurs have flocked to Nairobi, all seeking one noble goal: Profiting from peoples’ excrement.”

(via @good.is)

India [one example] currently produces 46 million tons of urban solid waste, an amount that we triple in the next 15 years, according to the World Bank.  Two thirds of this waste is left uncollected on streets, creating health and environmental hazards.  Methane, a green house gas twenty times more harmful than carbon dioxide, is being pumped into the atmosphere at a rate of billions of cubic meters per year. (via http://www.togetherasone.in/background.html)

Waste is a significant problem for developing countries…in many places, thousands of people literally live in the dumps - many of them children.

925 million people do not have enough to eat — more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union combined. More than 11 million children die each year from preventable health issues such as malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia.
Pop-upView Separately

925 million people do not have enough to eat — more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union combined.

More than 11 million children die each year from preventable health issues such as malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia.

Pop-upView Separately
3 billion people live on less than $2/day (half of the global population) 75% of the world’s poorest people — 1.4 billion women, children, and men — live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood.
Pop-upView Separately

3 billion people live on less than $2/day (half of the global population)

75% of the world’s poorest people — 1.4 billion women, children, and men — live in rural areas and depend on agriculture and related activities for their livelihood.

1/4 of the world’s population is without electricity and some 2.4 billion still rely on biomass for cooking and heating.
Pop-upView Separately

1/4 of the world’s population is without electricity and some 2.4 billion still rely on biomass for cooking and heating.

Mobile phone: Weapon against global poverty

“The advent of the mobile society may have brought convenience and a cultural sea change to the U.S. and Europe, but in the poorest regions of the world, affordable mobile phone access has caused a quantum leap in services — like calling for medical help, sending a quick letter to loved ones or starting a savings account — that Americans and Europeans have taken for granted for generations, analysts say.”