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Enabling Mobile Transformation in Africa

Published by Oleg Petrov November 13th, 2008 in Mobile Applications and m-Government. 3 Comments

Mobile services are quickly emerging as the new frontier in transforming government, health, banking and many other sectors due to fast growing penetration of mobile phones even in the poorest and most remote areas of the globe. In theory, many services can be now made available on a 24×7x365 basis at any place in the world covered by mobile networks, which today means almost everywhere. This emerging trend in improving service delivery and organizational efficiency and effectiveness can be called mobile-enabled development (m-development) or mobile transformation.

Transforming service delivery with mobile technologies is of great interest to many African countries and there are early success stories like m-Pesa in Kenya and Wizzit in South Africa.

According to the ITU, since the turn of the century, the growth of mobile cellular subscribers has been impressive, with year-on-year growth averaging 24 per cent between 2000 and 2008. While in 2000, mobile penetration stood at only 12 per cent, it surpassed the 50 per cent mark by early 2008. It is estimated to reach about 61 per cent by the end of 2008 or 4 billion subscribers worldwide. In Africa the number of mobile subscribers has also increased dramatically over the last few years. In 2007 alone, the African continent added over 60 million new mobile subscribers and mobile penetration in the region is now close to 30 percent. This is the largest distribution and service delivery platform available for development community at present. The question is, how do we take full advantage of it? How can the mobile phone transform the development agenda in Africa?

Some other questions are:

  • What are the most successful examples of mobile applications?  Is there evidence of transformational development impact?
  • What is the role of governments in terms of enabling this agenda?
  • What is the role of the private sector?

What is the role of the development institutions

Please share your thoughts

You can watch the live and recorded webcast  on November 18, 2008: http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment/live

9:00 am - 12:00 pm ET at

Website: http://go.worldbank.org/5043YV2400

How much does it really cost to introduce and sustain computers in schools?

Published by Oleg Petrov November 7th, 2008 in ICT in Education. 7 Comments

We just had a lively presentation and discussion of the findings of a recent whitepaper from Vital Wave Consulting, “Affordable Computing for Schools in Developing Countries: A Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Model for Education Officials”, and the accompanying case study of ICT in education initiatives in India.

Learn more and watch recorded webcast. Share your thoughts here!

Low-cost ICT devices in Education: Hope, Hype and Heuristics

Published by Oleg Petrov November 3rd, 2008 in Sectoral Applications. 1 Comment

We just had a lively discussion with Larry Cuban, Kentaro Toyama, Jan Chipchase and Leigh Linden, four distinguished expert practitioners from widely divergent backgrounds and areas of expertise who helped us explore historical perspectives on technology use in education, especially in the leading example of the United States, new and innovative directions in technology geared to address pressing needs in developing countries, how ethnographic research with multinationals is transforming the way technology products and services are being developed for use in low income communities around the world, and what the data can tell us about the impact of technology use in education.

We explored what is happening today in developing countries with regard to low cost laptops, the explosion of mobile phones and “web 2.0 technologies” with a focus on the historical perspective, and what this might (and might not!) mean for the future of education.

Watch a live webcast and share your opinion.

LIVE WEBCAST:http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment/live

The Impact of Open Source Software on Transforming Government

Published by Oleg Petrov October 17th, 2008 in IT Industry Development, Sectoral Applications and eGovernment. 0 Comments

Government Open Source Conference (GOSCON), Oregon State University and the World Bank’s e-Development Thematic Group have partnered to deliver a live webcast of a joint videoconferenced Global Dialogue workshop on the role of open source software in government transformation. Participants joined via videoconference in the following cities: Portland, Washington DC, Moscow Colombo, Dakar, Accra, Kigali and Brasilia on October 20, 2008

The workshop explored both the business case and real-world applications for open technology to deliver the next generation of government services.

The following questions were addressed among others

1. What should be the public policy on open source in government, especially in developing countries, if any

2. What could be the institutional mechanisms for supporting open source implementation in government?

3. What are the best examples of open source applications that are worth sharing and replicating everywhere?

4. How to develop local skills for open source implementations?

5. What are the existing and potential mechanisms for sharing open source applications internationally?

6. What has been impact so far in using open source applications for transforming government? Where are the greatest opportunities and potential impact in the future?

Please share a comment on any of these questions!

Please share your opinion!

All materials will be available at: http://go.worldbank.org/IGN15CANG0 and http://goscon.org/summit

http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment/live

Questions for the panelists? Email us at: edevelopment@worldbank.org

Disaster Risk Management in the Information Age

Published by Oleg Petrov September 26th, 2008 in Sectoral Applications and Uncategorized. 16 Comments

Between 1980 and 2006, natural disasters killed more than 2 million people worldwide and reported damages totaled 1.2 trillion USD. For example, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake caused about $5 billion damages. There were 5,210 disasters worldwide between 1991 and 2005. The consequences of natural and man-made disasters and the vulnerabilities to which populations are exposed can be mitigated if they are targeted proactively. Though one must always remember that it is not always possible to completely eliminate a risk, extensive experience and practice in the past few decades have demonstrated that the damage caused by any disaster can be addressed effectively only through careful planning, mitigation, and prompt action.

In this context ICTs can potentially play a pivotal role in disaster risk assessment, prevention, mitigation and management. World Bank is organizing a training workshop on this topic which will provide a strategic overview of the role of ICT in disaster risk management in all its phases (risk assessment, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery), including emerging trends and technologies, good practices and lessons learned.

Share a comment on the following questions:

How to make ICT a transformational enabler of better disaster risk management? What are the critical success factors for effective application of ICT in this area? What is the role of open source, mobile and other Web 2.0 tools?

Empowering People with Disabilities for the Information Age

Published by Oleg Petrov September 19th, 2008 in eDevelopment. 2 Comments

e-Development Thematic Group together with Disability and Development unit (HDNSP), WBI K4D and Africa GDLN organized two highly successful GDLN workshops for African countries on  September 10 and 15 on ICT and Disability: Empowering People with Disabilities for the Information Age: A Case Study of an e-Disabled Project in Tunisia (a component of Tunisia ICT Sector Development project). We had over 130 participants in person and more on the webcast, including 45 in DC.  The event was in the format of Global-Local Dialogue and included local discussions in each country followed by a global sharing of views and country perspectives on the following issues:

  1. The current status of using ICT to empower disabled persons in your country: what has been done so far, what are the challenges and key issues? Is there an official policy in this regard?
  2.  What are the 3 priority actions that are needed to dramatically improve the situation in your country?
  3. What kind of support do you require to take this agenda forward?

IMPORTANT! If you attended the event or watched the webcast, please share your opinion on this blog!

Here’s the video recording of the session: Real media link, Windows media link
Website of Sep 10 event (in English) with all workshop materials
Website of Sep 15 event (for Francophone Africa)
Photos of Washington DC audience

Aid effectiveness practitioners explore the role of e-government

Published by Oleg Petrov September 16th, 2008 in Sectoral Applications and eGovernment. 4 Comments

Increasing the impact of development aid is the core objective of the Paris Declaration, a document endorsed by more than 100 developing and donor countries and multilateral agencies in 2005. The 2008 “Evaluation of the implementation of the Paris Declaration” calls for faster progress from rhetoric to action by both partner governments and donors. In this context, this videoconferenced workshop organized jointly by GTZ on behalf of BMZ and World Bank’s e-Development Thematic Group brought together aid effectiveness professionals in Berlin, Paris and Washington DC to explore the connection between e-Government and aid effectiveness. The workshop addressed two questions using inputs of practitioners from partner country governments and development organisations:

  • How can e-Government contribute to aid effectiveness?
  • How does the concern for aid effectiveness inform the way we invest in e-government?

Can you contribute an answer to any of these questions? If you attended the event or watched the webcast, please share your opinion on this blog.

For more information or to watch recorded webcast visit event’s website http://go.worldbank.org/U5NIWX0FZ0. If you have a question or to join our mailing list, please write to edevelopment@worldbank.org

Brazil as a New Power in Global IT: The Role of BRASSCOM

Published by admin May 28th, 2008 in eDevelopment. 1 Comment

Antonio Carlos Rego Gil is the President of Brazil’s BRASSCOM (the Brazilian association of software and IT services companies) and has represented the Brazilian IT and IT enabled services (ITES) industry with great distinction. Under his leadership BRASSCOM became one of the most active and effective industry organizations in Brazil. BRASSCOM faces many challenges to increase international awareness of Brazil’s IT/ITES industry and to improve the business environment for IT companies to flourish, but offers many lessons of experience for countries aspiring to develop their IT/ITES industry. During this seminar at the World Bank/IFC Mr. Gil shared his perspectives on the role of industry associations in helping developing countries go about promoting their ICT industry.  Visit event page to learn more: http://go.worldbank.org/B7H9RWC1R0

Welcome to the eDevelopment Thematic Group Blog

Published by admin April 17th, 2008 in eDevelopment. 1 Comment

The e-Development Thematic Group’s (e-TG) mission is to promote the efficient use of ICT in development and World Bank operations by facilitating knowledge sharing on good practices in e-development, and an ongoing dialogue amongst a large and diverse global community of practitioners. We created this Blog to facilitate sharing of knowledge and perspectives on the role of technology as enabler of development impact. We will be posting information about our recent and upcoming events. You can watch video recordings of these events and download presentations and other materials on the event pages. We encourage all guests to comment on our events on this Blog, suggest relevant knowledge resources and share your views on issues raised during our events.