GuideStar International's Blog

5 billion.  That’s how many people the UN has calculated may use mobile phones by the end of 2010. The World Bank also estimates a world population of 6.5 billion (2008 estimates). This may lead one to temptingly suggest that about 5 in 6 people worldwide may be using mobile phones by the end of the year (n.b. this does not take into account individuals with more that one mobile phone subscription and the 2010 world population figure for instance – so statistical accuracy may be some way off). Notwithstanding, if the number is anywhere close to this it is not an insignificant figure at all! The mobile phone therefore has an important part to play in development by and for the people. Today, it is unequivocally important in any discussion of the use of ICT for development as in most parts of the world the internet is inaccessible, expensive and slow. You can have a look at the ITU’s Measuring the Information Society Report for 2009, which uses an ICT Development Index to examines ICT usage throughout the world.

Today the mobile phone is being used for activism, commerce and banking, small business development, education, mobile philanthropy and health and may eventually be used for voting on election days.  CSOs must therefore creatively use mobile phones and other ICTs to aid development operations. The recently published SMS Uprising: Mobile Activism in Africa lists some of the ways that this technology is being utilized by civil society on the continent. Frontline SMS is one initiative, (implemented by Kiwanja) that has already begun tapping the mobile phone’s potential through an SMS service that does not require access to the Internet (you only need to download the programme and have a mobile phone signal). It has been helping CSOs to interact with organisations and individuals throughout the world in their day to day operations.  However, though mobile phones, are extremely important let’s not fail to act on decreasing the Internet’s digital divide by forgetting that access to online information, which can improve quality of life is still of universal importance. If a recent poll by the BBC is anything to go by it is also a human right.