Mobiles for Social Change 

About the Class

This webinar will provide attendees with an overview of the "Mobiles for Development" (M4D) and "ICT4D" (ICTs for Development) field in order to demonstrate why mobiles are perceived to be a more effective development tool than other new ICTs. Best practices in M4D will be discussed with a focus on para-poor approaches, which involve designing interventions in consultation with poor communities and in accordance with the communities’ specific resources, capacities and demands. We will consider the important roles played by intermediary organizations and local capacity in M4D projects in addition to examining areas that need improvement. These areas include building local capacity to use mobiles for social change and assessing the impact of M4D projects.

The lecturer will draw on her own experience and research to provide a real world example of an M4D project: the Jokko Initiative, a project implemented by the American NGO Tostan (in partnership with UNICEF) which uses mobile phones as pedagogical and social mobilization tools in rural African villages. With the support of still images and video, this webinar will demonstrate how the positive impact of the Jokko Initiative can be attributed to Tostan's participatory approach and capacity-building function as a local and effective intermediary organization. All attendees who are interested in learning more about M4D will obtain access to online resources at the end of this webinar.

Language of instruction: English

Keywords: mobile applications, m4d, ict4d