Rural Development

Mobile applications in general and mobile applications for agricultural and rural development (m-ARD apps) in particular hold significant potential for advancing development. Though there have been many studies on the mobile revolution, there is a lack of systematic trend analyses, in-depth case studies, and assessments of experiences with m-ARD apps in developing countries. Thus this report examines their development impact, ecosystems, and business models to provide an analytical framework for policymakers and development practitioners.

This paper is a positional paper that is set to take inventory of existing innovative ICT solutions in health service delivery (e-health) in rural community of developing countries and to open up researches into the acceptability and utilization of various ICT solutions in health services in developing countries. The assessment is based on the existing e-health model of Peter Dury and other subsequent works of other Authors who have researched into electronic health solutions in developing countries.

This publication, the first of South Asia Department’s South-South learning series, aims to showcase lessons, replicable practices, and other insights which development practitioners can learn from, and apply in, the context of their respective countries. Projects discussed here represent various sectors such as energy, urban development, transport, information and communications technology (ICT), irrigation, and disaster risk reduction.

From 2007 up until early 2011 Spider supported various gender-focused initiatives that sought to uplift women particularly in the rural regions of the global south. This report offers an analysis of the impact on the lives of the women that participated in the projects. The publication covers five different projects carried out in six different locations.

The Asian Development Bank has been part of searching for better development solutions and innovative approaches using ICT and experiencing the challenges of realities in implementation.This paper selectively takes stock of ADB initiatives across sectors, countries, and regions to share their experiences.

The objective of this study is to provide an overview of the current trend in m-Agri Apps development and to answer the question of how to improve information provisioning to smallholder farmers. It also aims to translate this knowledge into success factors, weaknesses, and opportunities for global cooperation and explore ways to share expertise on entrepreneurship in the domain of agro, food and ICT, and to identify possibilities to catalyse the development of mobile applications in smallholder agriculture.

To successfully use mobile phones to aid development efforts, understanding the impact of the social structure on mobile phone adoption, uses, perceived impacts, and reinvention of uses is invaluable. Interviews were conducted with 90 mobile phone-owning holders of small- to medium-sized farms—50 women and 40 men—actively involved in agricultural development-based farm groups in Kamuli District, Uganda. Respondents indicated use of the mobile phone for coordinating access to agricultural inputs, market information, to monitor ªnancial transactions, and to consult with agricultural experts.

This study was developed to assist development practitioners in assessment and selection of information and communication technology (ICT) applications for monitoring and evaluation in rural projects, specifically in agriculture and forestry, with an emphasis on mobile technology for data collection. Particularly in highly decentralized projects, data collection can be challenging, and the large number of options and specific project needs makes selecting technology a challenge.

Access to reliable, timely and relevant information can help significantly and in many ways to reduce farmers’ risk and uncertainty, empowering them to make good decisions. However, whether or not this access leads to impact often depends on issues related to markets, institutions, policies and resource availability.

Delivering mobile-enabled agricultural services (‘mAgri services’) to women in developing countries is a major market opportunity for the mobile industry that also offers substantial social benefits. The mAgri services market is nascent but growing—GSMA has tracked 106 active, global deployments by mobile network operators (MNOs) and third party providers. Women working in agriculture account for an estimated 556 million potential users globally, but are underserved as a unique customer segment.