Can a cell phone change the world?
This might seem like an odd question from a Western perspective, but cell phones are offering the world's poor a lot more than slick design and cool ringtones.
While travelling recently in Asia and Africa, I was amazed by the number of mobile phones. From poor communities in Cambodia to Somali refugee camps, I discovered that cell phones are connecting the most vulnerable — and remote — people to the rest of the world.
Last year while I was volunteering in Kenya, I bought a cell phone in my first week. I found "pay phones" inconvenient, unreliable and frustrating to use and there didn't seem to be many of them. I purchased a basic cell phone from a little shop for 2000 Kenyan shillings, which is about $33. No plan was necessary as it's pay as you go and incoming calls and text messages are free.
In the developing world, a cell phone is a lifeline. "It's the first time for many people that they've been able to communicate," explains Nicholas P. Sullivan, the author of You Can Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World's Poor to the Global Economy. "So they've never had any phones at all. It's not like a choice between a fixed, land line and a cell phone."
A cell offers communication, productivity, business opportunities, banking, security, as well as some status. Think of everything you do via phone or e-mail — that is what a cell phone can provide. With text messaging and web access, cell phones also function as PCs giving the $100 laptop program a run for its money and size.
A cell phone "has far more impact in the developing world than it does in the developed world," explains Sullivan. "Adding any communications where there was none before is really changing people's lives, both socially by allowing them to communicate with their families, and economically by giving them income opportunities and productivity gains. It is totally transformative I think, and in ways we probably can't even envision yet."
Mobile technology and microloans are presenting a model to spark development in countries where the government hasn't been using resources to foster growth at the grassroots level. Imagine if this extended to citizen media or political activity, as well as the challenges presented by tech trash and the fight for tantalum (a key component in cell phones and computer chips).
Cell phone subscriptions in the developing world have grown rapidly since 2000, to 1.4 billion at the end of 2005. That number is nearly double the 800 million in advanced economies. "There are more phones sold in Africa everyday than in North America now," notes Sullivan.
But for those living on a dollar or two a day, isn't a cell phone a luxury item compared with clean water, food, and medicine? "People will often prioritize connectivity above nourishment," explains Lucas Robinson, Research Officer at CARE Canada, the group I was volunteering with in Kenya. Hearing from a loved one is a universal priority.
Recent studies have discovered that there is a connection between cell phone use in poor countries and economic growth. With market research in China, India and the Philippines, McKinsey & Co. found that raising wireless penetration by 10 per cent can lead to an increase in GDP of about 0.5 per cent, or around $12-billion (U.S.) for an economy the size of China. A separate London Business School study had similar findings.
Sullivan's You Can Hear Me Now takes a look at the role private sector can play in economic development. The book tells the story of GrameenPhone in Bangladesh, the creation of Grameen Bank (co-winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize).
GrameenPhone is the first and largest mobile-phone provider in Bangladesh. They have 10 million customers, including 250,000 "phone ladies" who provide village phone service to the poor, with support from Grameen Bank microcredit.
GrameenPhone recently won a Global Mobile Award for "Best Use of Mobile for Social & Economic Development". This was for their HealthLine Service, a 24/7 interactive teleconference that connects a caller with a licensed physician.
With the impact of traditional foreign aid being questioned, there is a big push to engage private investors in bottom up development.
At the end of my travels in East Africa, I gave my phone to a Peace Corps volunteer. She knew a woman who could use a phone to stay in touch with her husband who was in another city. This probably changed her world. I believe it's only a matter time before charity "sponsor a child" or "provide a goat" campaigns become "buy a cell phone."
Jennifer Hollett is a broadcaster and journalist best known for her time at MuchMusic as a VJ and Videographer. She is also the founder of YouthCARE, a youth engagement program at CARE Canada.
