Archive for category: Technology

Information and stories about technology news.

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ShareTheMeal: A One-Button, World Hunger, Aid Application

world hunger aid app
Chronic hunger is still an issue that plagues many countries and communities around the world. Many solutions proposed to solve world hunger have been ongoing for decades, yet the problem persists. In the technology-focused 21st century, these attempts at solutions have become increasingly digital. One such digital solution is a world hunger aid application from the United Nations’ World Food Programme.

The World Food Programme

The World Food Programme is the U.N.’s top organization in charge of managing and solving world hunger crises. It is focused on emergency food aid as well as helping communities maintain high nutrition standards. The WFP’s efforts are responsible for the allocation and distribution of billions of rations, worldwide to food-insecure communities each year.

Most of these food aid efforts happen on the ground, in the affected areas. However, a new initiative from the WFP can involve far more people in the crusade against world hunger. The solution is the world hunger aid application, “ShareTheMeal.”

ShareTheMeal: How Does it Work?

Launched in 2015, ShareTheMeal is a one-of-a-kind world hunger aid application. Its sole purpose is to allow users worldwide, to donate meals to adults and children around the world via their smartphones or tablets. To participate, users simply tap a button to send an $0.80 donation to the WFP, which covers the cost of one meal.

ShareTheMeal also allows users to assist with its mission in several other ways. Within the user interface, the hunger aid application splits donation tiers into higher amounts, such as “Feed a Child for a Week” or “Feed a Child for a Year,” which correspond to a donation value, to fund that goal. The application also has a feature called “The Table,” where a monthly donation matches the user with the family they are supporting. This allows users to receive updates on how their donations helped a specific family.

In addition to its general donation tiers, ShareTheMeal has real-time, cause-specific donation sections. These include assisting with the famine crisis in Yemen and supporting Syrian refugees in Iraq. The application’s “Teams” option also allows users to form teams with friends, coworkers or family members to meet a donation goal.

ShareTheMeal’s Impact

To date, ShareTheMeal has donated more than 78 million meals to people in need via its 2+ million users on iOS alone. It has received thousands of five-star reviews for its efforts and was named the Google Play Store’s Best Social Impact app. ShareTheMeal has also been featured by several major global news outlets, from CNN, Forbes and Al Jazeera to Spiegel Online.

The application has directly contributed to the WFP’s efforts to continue providing aid to communities affected by global hunger. ShareTheMeal combines peoples’ desire to support a cause with the technology that permeates their everyday lives — in a masterfully simple idea that offers tangible results. In doing so, the application brings the world of charity to a new generation of contributors via its smartphone presence.

Outlook — Positive

As hunger persists around the globe, ShareTheMeal continues to grow and evolve today. The world hunger aid application announced that during the next five years, it aims to donate 800 million meals to the world’s poor. ShareTheMeal’s goal is massive, but with its millions of users, exceptional usability and the emotional connections it creates between users and those they assist (with their donations) — this clever piece of technology seems to be on track to succeed in its quest to end global starvation.

– Domenic Scalora
Photo: Flickr

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Digital Health Apps in Africa Aim to Revolutionize Medical Care

Digital Health Apps in AfricaDigital Health Apps are becoming an increasingly popular part of the “mHealth” or “mobile health” industry around the world. The widespread use of digital health apps in Africa is linked to a rapid increase in cell phone access over the past 20 years. For example, only 8% of Ghanaians owned a cell phone in 2002. By 2015, that number grew tenfold to 83%. In 2017, Sub-Saharan Africa had 778 cellular and 300 mobile internet subscriptions per 1000 people.

A Pew Research Center survey of 7,052 people across Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda found that an average of two-thirds of respondents own cell phones. Across Africa, people use smartphones less widely than regular mobile phones. For example, 34% of respondents in South Africa own smartphones. Regardless, rising cell phone access offers the potential to improve access to health care for many across the continent.

Healthcare in Africa

Less than 50% of people across Africa can access modern health facilities, and 80% rely on public health facilities. However, public health facilities often experience chronic drug shortages, causing many patients to die from otherwise curable diseases. In 2015 alone, approximately 1.6 million people in Africa died of tuberculosis, malaria or HIV-related illnesses. Proper medication or vaccines can prevent, treat or even cure these diseases.

Many African countries spend less than 10% of their gross domestic product on healthcare. The lack of funding for health care limits the accessibility to adequate health care. There is also a lack of skilled medical personnel throughout the continent, as many trained doctors are drawn to the European and American job markets.

mHealth Benefits and Innovations

Technology is now transforming healthcare in Africa by helping improve healthcare access and quality in remote areas. These digital platforms also simplify the process for doctors and policymakers to access data. In turn, doctors and policymakers can use that data to make better-informed individual and system-wide healthcare decisions.

According to a report by the World Health Organization, digital health apps also have the ability to decrease the financial and physical burden associated with transportation to healthcare facilities, “overcome communication delays” through reliable and real-time data and “increase health workers’ adherence to clinical guidelines.” The four digital health apps below are among the many innovations helping to make healthcare more attainable throughout Africa.

  1. Hello Doctor: The South African app Hello Doctor enables people to talk to qualified doctors via their mobile phones. Doctors are available 24 hours a day and respond to call requests within one hour. The app aims to serve an easy point of access for patients and provide health education based on doctors’ advice.
  2. FD-Detector: This app detects fake medications by coding and determining their authenticity. Nigeria has long faced drug counterfeit issues. In June 2018, Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration destroyed an estimated $10 million worth of counterfeit drugs. Part of the problem is that less than 2% of medications prescribed in Africa are actually produced in the continent, which both limits access to local drugs and forces patients to pay the increased prices of imported drugs. FD-Detector uses a medication’s bar code to authenticate it and verify its expiration date. The app was created by five teenage girls from Nigeria, whose innovation won the 2018 Tehnovation Challenge—an international competition in which girls from around the world learn how to become technology leaders and entrepreneurs.
  3. mTrac: mTrac is a mobile health app that allows health workers in Uganda to submit weekly health surveillance data via SMS. As data is collected, an “SMS alert is sent to every member of the district health management team for immediate response when any preset threshold is reached”. For example, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. “20 cases of typhoid or a single case of viral hemorrhagic fever” would trigger an alert to local health officials. By the end of 2020, mTrac hopes to expand its current database of 62,000 registered health workers to 300,000 registered users.
  4. Market Garden: The Institute for Social Transformation, a Ugandan nonprofit, developed this app designed to connect its primarily female vendors with local Ugandan grocers and consumers looking for fresh products. This direct link reduces crowds, allowing vendors to sell produce in adherence to COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. As a result, vendors can continue to safely earn an income during the lockdown. The Market Garden app allows vendors to receive direct mobile payments. This feature reduces the risk of virus transmission through cash exchanges.

Challenges for mHealth

The cost of cell phones and unreliable cell phone service serve as barriers to digital health in Africa. For these reasons, mHealth is biased toward wealthier groups. In Uganda, for instance, 93% of individuals with secondary education or higher own a mobile phone. Compare this number to the 61% of individuals with lower levels of education and the accessibility gap becomes clear. Gender also plays a role: six of the seven countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center, men are more likely to own a mobile phone than women.

For mHealth to continue expanding and thriving throughout the continent, the Brookings Institution states, “Governments will need to play an active role…through regulation, legal frameworks, and technical training in the health sector.” When access to technology becomes widely available, digital health apps in Africa have the power to make healthcare widely accessible.

– Zoe Engels

Photo: Wikimedia

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Fighting Poverty with Cobots in Developing Countries

cobots in developing countriesAutomation has often been discussed as the enemy of progress, taking jobs and resources away from low-skilled workers. However, recent reports suggest that cobots offer a compromise for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly in the developing world. Though the effects of widespread use remain to be seen, the use of cobots in developing countries has already had positive effects, according to leading Danish robotics company Universal Robotics (UR).

What Are Cobots?

The first cobot (collaborative robot) was invented in 1996 by J. Edward Colgate and Michael Peshkin, both professors at Northwestern University. At the time, the invention was called a “programmable constraint machine.” Since then, human beings in companies across the world have been working alongside cobots, using the machines’ superior strength and accuracy to enhance processes from surgery to crop harvesting. Cobots differ from robots mainly in that they are not dangerous; they are much smaller and lighter and can work in close proximity to people. They are also not pre-programmed, and they can be trained to complete a process repetitively and even refine their abilities, improving as they go.

Cobots represent a growing industry worldwide, having generated $580.8 million in 2018. This growing industry, UR says, is expected to be worth over $9 billion by 2024. The industry is also relevant in developing nations such as Malaysia, where experts expect the use of cobots to increase.

Challenges to Manufacturing in Developing Nations

Emergent economies often struggle to match already-developed areas of the world in terms of productivity. Human labor alone cannot exceed the work done by human-cobot teams because of the advantages in strength and accuracy that cobots offer. Many poorer nations are not prepared to front the ever-increasing cost of feedstock, while also using devalued currencies to invest in technological solutions. On the other hand, they cannot afford to keep doing things the same way, says UR. Cobots offer crucial innovation that doesn’t empty the coffers.

From “Dull, Dirty, Dangerous and Dear” to Dynamic Careers

Popular culture often presents robots as adversaries; movies and books narrate universal fears of robots taking over human life and livelihood. But many of the jobs lost to automation, such as jobs in mining and sewage, fall into categories that are sometimes referred to using the four D’s: dirty, dangerous, dull (demeaning) and dear (expensive).”

Cobots can help reduce workplace injuries involving heavy and repetitive lifting, for example. And since cobots specifically require a human partner in order to be effective, using cobots does not necessarily result in the loss of a job. In fact, it could mean just the opposite: training people to operate cobots frees them from mundane tasks, making them more qualified, a phenomenon known as “upskilling.” This results in a more knowledgeable workforce whose lives are enriched by more fulfilling careers. In this way, cobots in developing countries can be part of the solution, not the problem.

Darrell Adams, the director of UR in Southeast Asia and Oceania, said of cobots: “Tomorrow’s workplaces will be run by highly skilled workers assisted by intelligent devices. Cobots help to automate and streamline repetitive and potentially unsafe processes, thus ensuring a safe work environment while increasing productivity and efficiency.”

The Successes of Cobots in Developing Countries

Cobots in developing countries have already had a degree of success. For example, in India, one automobile parts manufacturer, Craft and Technik Industries (CATI), saw the urgent need for more precision in its operations. A workforce deficit meant that manual work often resulted in errors and waste. However, after the addition of a UR cobot used to perform quality control, the company stopped experiencing these errors. At the same time, production jumped by 15-20%.

UR believes that cobots could offer up to a 30% boost in manufacturing output of SMEs in developing countries such as Malaysia. According to UR, as of 2020, most Malaysian companies automate less than half of their operations. This could be because industrial robots are simply too expensive for SMEs to afford.

Smaller, more practical cobots in developing countries make better financial and logistical sense because they are easy to put to immediate use, without causing invasive stoppages in production for installation. “With the assistance of cobots, local manufacturers can achieve higher levels of efficiency and rapid productivity gains,” said Adams.

According to UR, companies that have opted to automate their processes using cobots can slash production errors while boosting productivity by as much as 300%. For SMEs in the developing world, though, the most compelling evidence is in return on investment (ROI). Companies who have recently signed on to cobot technology can achieve ROI in about a year.

Automation and Policymaking

It is clear that developing nations will have to confront how to “upskill” workers in a way that accounts for socioeconomic differences and the gaps in access those differences can cause. In some countries such as Thailand, policymakers have already convened to form organizations dedicated to developing automation industries while equipping workers with the skills needed to keep up with those advances. But some economists are skeptical that this would be the norm in most countries, and propose a government-provided basic income for those who have lost employment. Whatever the case, with robots already here to stay, it seems clear that cobots in developing countries offer the happy medium that these countries need to compete in an increasingly automated world.

– Andrea Kruger
Photo: Flickr

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UN Agencies Launch Tech Access Partnership

Tech Access PartnershipScience, technology and innovation are critical factors that contribute to socio-economic development. They are the engines of economic mobility in advanced countries and allow these regions to respond to dynamic challenges, with greater ease. However, a global, digital divide exists between developed and developing countries. This divide is caused by differences in access to technology and the infrastructure that supports it. Moreover, the digital divide has far-reaching implications beyond just a particular society’s relationship with communication technology and internet coverage. A lack of digital access also hinders access to medical technology, industrial and operational technology and production capability. Below is more information about an exciting initiative called the Tech Access Partnership which aims to address the core of the issue.

A Need Emerges

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) and advanced medical devices increased, sharply. Yet, countries with limited production capability were unable to distribute the necessary resources, due to limited technical knowledge, shortage of manufacturing facilities and insufficient compliance with state regulations. These local deficiencies highlighted the urgent need to fill the gap in the production capabilities of underdeveloped regions. Through addressing these local deficiencies, these regions would enable themselves to respond effectively to the crisis and meet their citizens’ needs.

Thinking Long-Term

The Tech Access Partnership (TAP) is the United Nations Technology Bank’s latest collaboration involving the U.N. Development Program, U.N. Conference on Trade and Development and the World Health Organization. The program launched in May of 2020 to increase the production of essential, life-saving medical technology through technical expertise and market integration. By providing training and resources to developing countries, TAP hopes to create sustainable operations as opposed to temporary solutions, to bolster long-term production.

The Tech Access Partnership

The Tech Access Partnership has three main functions. First, it provides emerging manufacturers with design specifications, product information and technical knowledge to increase production capabilities. Second, the partnership also offers guidance regarding market information and production regulations. Furthermore, the scope of the project continues with providing technical support to tackle issues that arise during manufacturing processes, itself. Third, the organization acts in a partnership development capacity  by forging partnerships with private sector companies and global organizations alike. This aim is to provide expertise, optimize production and accelerate distribution.

Technology Access in a COVID-19 Era

In the past, inequalities in the field of technology have had an impact on educational attainment and opportunities for youth. Today, they pose an increased challenge — technology is a crucial component of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Without access to life-saving medical technology and protective equipment, developing countries are unequipped for responding to the devastating impacts of the virus. By providing these countries with the resources and expertise to produce these items themselves, TAP promotes self-sufficiency that can speed up the path to recovery. TAP’s mission of creating equity in the field of medical technology is crucial to the pandemic response. By expanding the skills and capacity of local manufacturers, the initiative will accelerate technical innovation in the long term. This, in turn, may open the doors to improved public health and steady economic growth, in the long-term.

– Sylvie Antal
Photo: Flickr

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3 Digital Tools Helping Low-Income Pakistanis

Low-income pakistanis
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a major healthcare crisis in Pakistan and reversed years of efforts to eliminate poverty. The pandemic has also disproportionately affected low-income Pakistanis. The poverty rate in Pakistan declined from 64% to 24% in 2015 — after 20 years of progress. However, with the arrival of COVID-19, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that the poverty rate will increase to 40%, reversing years of progress.

Who is Most Vulnerable?

The IMF also expects Pakistan’s GDP growth slow by 3% as a result of the pandemic. Agriculture accounts for 20% of Pakistan’s GDP and 43% of its labor force. The continuation of lockdowns with no end in sight is negatively affecting transportation, labor and the consumer market — which in turn, affects the millions of people working in the agriculture industry.

Children and youth amounting to 17 million are missing important vaccinations for diseases such as polio. Moreover, the pandemic has increased the number of people that suffer from food insecurity by several million, bringing up the total to 43 million. Those most at risk are the people that already exist below the poverty line including women, children, senior citizens, the disabled and minorities.

As more and more of these people fall below the poverty line, Pakistan is coming up with different digital solutions that can cater to the millions of people experiencing multidimensional poverty. Here are three digital solutions helping low-income Pakistanis.

3 Digital Tools Helping Low-income Pakistanis

  1.  The Ehsaas Program is a Pakistani government-launched scheme in 2019, to fight the nation’s prevailing poverty levels. With the coronavirus and lockdowns stifling the income of millions of daily wagers — the program quickly implemented a new project known as the Ehsaas Emergency Cash Program. Under this program, low-income Pakistanis can gain access to financial assistance through text messaging. As of right now, the program is helping 12 million families throughout the country — providing stipends of 12,000 PKR each, which families are using to buy food rations.
  2. The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) is a federal scheme launched in 2008. Its purpose was to provide unconditional cash support to help alleviate struggling families living in poverty, in Pakistan. It remains the largest support program in Pakistan — distributing approximately 90 billion PKR to 5 million low-income Pakistanis. The program uses tools such as its BISP debit cards to make cash transfers convenient. The program notably helps women and low-income Pakistanis from minority groups gain access to financial assistance.
  3. The Kamyab Jawan Program is the first of its kind in Pakistan. Launched by Prime Minister Imran Khan and his government, it is a program to provide assistance and resources to youth, on a national level. This platform provides opportunities to the country’s youth, ages 15–29. Some of the schemes that are under the Kamyab Jawan Program include youth empowerment programs, loans for youth entrepreneurs and startups, youth legislations as well as youth councils. Through this program, Pakistani youth are finally experiencing integration into civil institutions and capturing opportunities designed to lift them out of poverty.

A Need for Non-Digital Solutions

Collectively, these digital solutions, as well as other solutions implemented by NGOs and separate companies, help many low-income Pakistanis gain access to the necessary resources and assistance they require. This assistance enables low-income Pakistanis to help themselves, specifically during this time of need. However, Pakistan cannot solely rely on digital solutions to combat their poverty crisis. Many of its population do not have access to the necessary digital devices to access these solutions. People who lack internet access, as well as computers and smartphones, are at an obvious disadvantage when it comes to accessing these digital resources. Therefore, Pakistan must also look toward digital-alternative solutions for people who are not able to access these digital ones.

– Abbas Raza
Photo: Flickr

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How Ice Stupas Prevent Water Shortages in Ladakh

ice stupasIn the mountain desert of Ladakh, a region located in Northern India, water has long been a valued and scarce resource. Ladakh is located in the Himalayas with a base elevation of roughly 8,000 feet and peaks reaching over 25,000 feet. Ladakhis rely almost entirely on glacial and permafrost melt for water. However, in recent years, due to rapidly receding glaciers, water shortages in Ladakh have become more severe. In years to come, experts expect this problem to worsen. Despite this issue, Ladakhis continue to innovate and adapt to the harsh and changing climate. Ice stupas are one example of this innovation.

Melting Glaciers Causing Spring Water Shortages

Water shortages in Ladakh are worst in the springtime, when farmers, who make up roughly 80% of the Ladakhi population, need to sow their fields. During the spring, glacial streams have not begun to flow yet since most glaciers are located higher in the mountains where temperatures are lower. As glaciers continue to recede, streams start flowing later and the water shortages of spring become longer and more damaging. The later farmers have to wait to start sowing their fields, the lower their yields and profits become.

Ladakhis have highly organized water management systems that have been developed over thousands of years. They primarily rely on mud canals and dams to distribute and store water as well as strict water usage rules to ensure water is used efficiently. These systems have been successful in Ladakh for generations but have proven to be insufficient in handling the changing climate.

Storing Winter Water in Ice Reservoirs

Observing the intensifying water shortages in Ladakh, Chewang Norphel, a local civil engineer, set out to design a method of storing water during the winter so that it could be used in the spring. There are many stories of Ladakhis creating man-made ice structures to store water, but many were inefficient, and there were no scientific methods to the practice. Norphel created his first artificial glacier in 1986 by creating a series of embankments along a stream that slow the water and create shallow pools just a few inches deep to ensure the water freezes. Built in October, these ice reservoirs collect and store water that would otherwise be wasted throughout the winter months. In the spring, they begin to melt, providing water for farmers that need it for irrigation.

Since creating his first artificial glacier in 1986, Norphel has created 16 more artificial glaciers. Sonam Wangchuk, inspired by Norphel’s artificial glaciers, put together a team in the fall of 2013 to create an improved ice reservoir. Wangchuk and his team developed a prototype for the ice stupa, a large cone of ice that can store more water and melts slower than Norphel’s design. When the small-scale prototype provided water well into May, Wangchuk knew they had discovered an important solution.

Ice stupas, named after the Buddhist structures that are built to house sacred relics, can be complex projects to build but work based on simple concepts. Water runs through an underground pipe from higher elevation down to the site of the ice stupa where, due to natural water pressure, it rises up through a vertical pipe without any pump. The water sprays out of a sprinkler at the top of the pipe and freezes as it falls onto a conical shape of branches. The conical shape gives the ice stupas a large advantage over Norphel’s artificial glaciers, as direct sunlight hits less surface area, meaning that the stupas melt slower and provide water for longer. Throughout the winter, this water freezes into huge cones of ice that can reach 30 to 50 meters high.

Each of these ice stupas can store millions of liters of water, enough to support farmers through the crucial spring months until the summer when glacial streams start flowing. Many of the ice stupa projects to date have been designed to support poplar and willow tree fields, which are two of the most profitable crops to grow in the area and require large amounts of water.

A More Comprehensive Solution

As the glaciers continue to recede, the need for ice stupas and other innovative water management solutions will only keep increasing. Darren Clark, a member of the ice stupa project from 2014 to 2019, says the ice stupas have benefited communities and are important symbols that alert Ladakhis of the changing climate and increased water shortages. Many Ladakhis were skeptical of the ice stupa projects initially, but, as spring water shortages in Ladakh continue to worsen, ice stupas are becoming more essential each year.

Clark sees ice stupas as just part of the solution for the future of water management in Ladakh. He would like to see improved water infrastructure and plumbing systems that can collect more meltwater throughout the year and distribute it more efficiently. One system could create ice stupas in the winter months and act as regular water distribution throughout the spring, summer and fall. Clark views such a system as an essential adaptation for Ladakhis in future years as snowpacks continue to diminish and glaciers recede.

Issues of water shortages in high mountain deserts are a growing problem in mountain communities everywhere. Clark has helped design and build similar ice stupa systems in Peru and Switzerland and is currently in the process of writing a book on how improved water management systems could benefit high mountain desert communities around the world. With millions of people living in mountain deserts relying primarily on glacial melt for water, improved water management systems — including ice stupas — will be an essential part of combating climate change in years to come.

– William Dormer
Photo: Flickr

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Revolutionizing Health Sector Communication with mHero

health sector communication
Communication is key when it comes to developing a well-performing healthcare system. Ineffective communication within healthcare systems “increases the likelihood of negative patient outcomes,” overall costs for healthcare systems, and “patient utilization of inpatient and emergency care.” Meanwhile, sound health sector communication ensures the maintenance of overall health and helps prevent diseases and premature death. Thus, it is important to ensure that healthcare systems across the globe are well equipped and supported. Recent developments in mobile technologies have made it easier to do so and transformed health-sector communication in several countries.

mHERO

A recently developed mobile application, called mHERO, has become one of the latest mobile applications to demonstrate the powerful and wide-reaching role that technology plays in health-sector communication. Created in 2014 by IntraHelath International and UNICEF, mHERO is a mobile-based application used by healthcare workers and ministries of health in order to communicate and coordinate effectively and efficiently. The application was developed during the 2014 Liberian Ebola outbreak after recognizing the need for a way to communicate urgent messages to frontline healthcare workers, to collect data concerning outbreaks development, and to provide support and training.

Messages sent through the application are transmitted through basic text or SMS. The app is compatible with most cellular devices. By merging existing health information systems, such as Integrated Human Resources Information System (iHRIS) and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), with popular communication platforms, such as RapidPro, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, mHERO acts as a cost-efficient, accessible and sustainable resource for many healthcare systems.

Implementation in Liberia 2014

The 2014 West African Ebola outbreak overwhelmed the Liberian healthcare sector. The absence of effective communication channels blocked the supply of vital information from health officials to health workers. UNICEF and IntraHealth International created mHERO to address the communication challenge. The application was initially designed to suit the needs of the Liberian healthcare system, utilizing the technology that was already available in the country. It then became the responsibility of the ministry of health to effectively manage and maintain the application’s implementation and its continued use.

Liberia utilized mHERO to validate healthcare facility data, to update health workers and to track which facilities need additional resources. Today, health officials use mHero to coordinate the country’s response to COVID-19. mHERO has become an integral part of the Liberian healthcare system, maintaining a vital role in health-sector communication.

Development and Reach

Guinea, Mali and Sierra Leone followed Liberia’s lead with the mHero integration process. The implementation guidelines and intent of use in these countries have generally remained the same as Liberia’s. Mali, however, has implemented the application with a need to train and develop the skills of healthcare workers.

Uganda, as of 2020, has also incorporated mHERO into its healthcare system with the intent of reducing the spread of COVID-19. The application has allowed for easier COVID-19-related communication between ministries of health, health officials and healthcare workers.

Uganda employes a developed form of the application with an extension called FamilyConnect. The extension sends “targeted lifecycle messages via SMS to pregnant mothers, new mothers, heads of household and caregivers about what they need to do to keep babies and mothers safe in the critical first 1,000 days of life” as long as they have been registered with the Ministry of Health’s Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH). Mothers can register themselves or can choose to have registration done by a community health worker.

Future Plans

UNICEF and IntraHealth International want to expand access to mHERO. Counties in East and West Africa have indicated an interest in implementing the application. UNICEF and IntraHealth International intend to continue to support the ministries of health and healthcare systems in which mHERO has already been implemented. They also hope to find new ways to encourage ministries of health “to understand the interoperability of the technology, the processes for implementation and best practices to using mHero data.”

Overall, mHERO has substantially improved health-sector communication within several countries, proving the application’s potential for revolutionizing health-sector communication throughout the world. Developments can be made to expand the application’s capabilities and reach, as proven in Uganda. The application is a sustainable and cost-efficient resource for healthcare systems and helps reduce the chances of premature death along with the spread of diseases and misinformation. It provides crucial support to healthcare workers, especially during times of epidemics, increasing the overall quality of healthcare and life.

– Stacy Moses
Photo: Flickr

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AI and Satellites Improve Poverty Mapping Techniques

How many people live in poverty? The answer a search engine might give overlooks the complexity of the issue. A great deal of poverty data comes from the World Bank, which still relies on household surveys. These household surveys can be very inaccurate, and statistics like these are critical in the fight against poverty. Thankfully, many organizations are working on creating better poverty mapping techniques to help fight global poverty.

The Need for Poverty Mapping Techniques

Governments, private companies and NGOs must know who needs help, what works and how much they need in order to fight poverty. With more accurate data, aid programs can be rolled out more effectively, directly targeting populations who need it the most. Accurate data also determines the effectiveness of aid or other interventions, which helps agencies discover what works. It is important for the missions of many agencies to have accurate data on poverty, but methods for collecting this data are flawed.

One issue with current data collection is the amount of data available. The World Bank is a leader in the fight against global poverty, and it compiles many official statistics on poverty rates. Historically, the main way the World Bank typically measures poverty is through household surveys. However, these surveys do not reach as many people as they should. For lower-income countries, an annual investment of $1 billion would be required to expand these surveys to generate consistent, accurate data.

Not only are these surveys too narrow, but they are also not frequent enough. Surveys typically happen every few years and even every decade in some countries with lower capacities. Between 2002 and 2012, no poverty data was collected from 29 countries.

The Problems with Current Poverty Mapping Techniques

The most common surveying method employed by the World Bank is the household survey. Unfortunately, household surveys have built-in inaccuracies and miss many people, usually some of the poorest. This method tries to measure poverty by sending surveys to households, but these surveys are ill-suited to measure an atypical home environment. Many people trying to avoid poverty live in open households, whose membership is usually in flux. These households operate to reduce poverty collectively in ways that a typical survey cannot easily measure. When data from these households is not interpreted differently from other household data, overall data on poverty can be skewed.

Satellites Mapping Poverty

This dearth of accurate data was the inspiration for a team of Stanford researchers. Marchall Burke, David Lobell and Stefano Ermon have spent the better half of the last decade creating better poverty mapping techniques. The solution they are working on now is satellite mapping.

The team has used artificial intelligence to map poverty using publicly available satellite imagery. The system examines poverty by analyzing the wealth of assets in a given area as seen from space. By indexing images of wealthy areas and poor areas, the program can identify levels of poverty in other areas. It uses a variety of factors like lighting at night, roofing, infrastructure, roads and other easily recognizable traits to do so. Utilizing deep learning, the program is able to correlate factors and create an idea of poverty in an area with fairly high accuracy. The model explains about 70% of asset wealth variation at the village level. This means the model can predict more accurately than other attempts at mapping poverty using higher resolution imagery and mobile phone mapping. The ability to distinguish poverty at a village level also means that the program can identify levels of poverty in places that surveys never go, with much less cost and time required.

Household surveys have become obsolete compared to more modern and effective methods. Better poverty mapping techniques like the Stanford researchers’ will enable organizations to fight poverty with a greater level of accuracy, which will make this decade of poverty-fighting more efficient than the last.

– Brett Muni
Photo: Flickr

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A Developing Industry: Technology in Ukraine

technology in Ukraine
Ukraine, despite its successful farming and metal industries, still suffers from elevated unemployment and static poverty levels. Due to foreign aggression and weak infrastructure, Ukraine has not been able to rebound from many of its economic downturns. Additionally, outdated models of production have caused the metallurgy sector to fall behind the global pace, and low productivity alongside restrictive laws limit Ukraine’s agricultural sector. As Ukraine looks to develop further, it has turned its focus to technology, creating a robust field that is rapidly expanding around the world. What was once a developing industry in Ukraine is transforming into a successful business model worldwide. As Ukraine continues to recover from the conflict and corruption plaguing its history, the continued expansion of technology into its economy will be the greatest investment for the country’s development. These five facts about technology in Ukraine are integral to understanding the country’s shifting economic state and transition out of poverty.

5 Facts About Technology in Ukraine

  1. Engineers and technicians were among the first to start businesses in Ukraine, which is a key factor in how the technology in Ukraine has grown to the industry it is today. One of the first companies that found international success was SoftServe, an outsourcing and out-staffing company. Two Ukrainian graduates founded the company in Lyiv and it now operates in the big data, cloud computing, DevOps, e-commerce, security and experience design technology sectors. SoftServe has grown into a company employing over 8,000 people in 35 offices worldwide.
  2. Ukraine’s tech engineers have already founded companies that have overtaken the global stage. Software companies saw unprecedented growth in the early 21st century, driven by increased demand and the introduction of an IT Creative Fund. One Ukrainian technology group founded during this period, Ciklum, provides client services including custom solutions development, quality engineering, data analytics and consulting. Now employing over 3,500 people, Ciklum has achieved recognition as a Fortune 500 company.
  3. Domestic economic developments have improved Ukraine’s ability to participate in the technology boom. The first development in the last decade is the drastically increased productivity of Ukrainian workers. Matching the efforts of surrounding developing economies such as Poland’s, Ukraine has been able to increase output per employee by about 22%. The second development comes in the rapid emergence of an information and communications technology sector, resulting in more than $3.5 billion in exports and accounting for more than a 10th of foreign investment in 2017.
  4. Individuals with Ukrainian heritage have become founders and leaders of some of the most powerful companies on the planet. The founder of the international messaging service WhatsApp, Jan Koum, is Ukrainian. Max Levchin, PayPal co-founder, and Alexander Galitsky, co-inventor of Wi-Fi, are of Ukrainian descent as well. Perhaps the most famous Ukrainian is the co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak. Ukrainians have played integral roles in the creation of many global businesses, and they participate in the development of economies worldwide.
  5. Kiev, the capital and most populated city in Ukraine, is home to one of the world’s most rapidly developing start-up hubs. Ukraine also boasts one of the world’s largest outsourcing hubs. Tens of thousands of workers are outsourced to Ukraine from companies like Oracle and Google, resulting in a thriving industry in the heart of Ukraine. Outsourcing technology firms like AMC Bridge, Ciklum, Miratech and Sigma Software are only some of the Ukrainian companies listed on the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals’ annual list of the world’s best outsourcing companies.

Despite these advancements in technology in Ukraine, in its fight against poverty, Ukraine still has a long road ahead. Progress has occurred through the development of technology, but many other industries lag behind due to continued attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. Though Ukraine does well with regard to foreign investment, there are many avenues to establish greater connectivity with the global market that remain unexplored, especially within the European Union. With continued government support and a strong start-up culture, Ukraine has the potential to become a country that provides prosperity to its population.

– Pratik Koppikar
Photo: Flickr

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6 Facts About Technology in Ghana During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Technology in Ghana
Ghana has been the hub for technology production in sub-Saharan Africa for decades. In terms of recent technology progression, Ghana stands out for its IT programs, sustainability training and more. Accra is one of the metropolitan cities in the country, known for its technological innovations. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Accra has been working tirelessly to safely and efficiently produce technology that provides aid to sub-Saharan Africa. Here are six facts about technology in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic.

6 Facts About Technology in Ghana

  1. The Ministry of Health established a partnership with Zipline, a U.S. company that delivers medical supplies using drones. Zipline is distributing supplies and test kits to 1,000 medical facilities across the country. The company loads the drones with tests and return packets to go back for testing. This has helped Ghana complete 68,000 tests during the lockdown and distribute more supplies as the virus has spread.
  2. Cognate System, a software company, is tracking cases of COVID-19 throughout Ghana. Cognate System uses a platform called Opine Health Assistant (OHA), a phone app that people use to report and record their symptoms. Once someone tests positive, they can use the platform to report their symptoms and determine when they are COVID-free. The application asks questions like where the user has traveled recently and whether they are in need of food, shelter or water. After the lockdown, OHA tracked and recorded approximately 3,000 cases.
  3. As the COVID-19 virus spread through Africa, hospitals began to fill up and medical personnel quickly realized they did not have adequate supplies to prevent further spread of the disease. Ultra Red Technologies (URT), a 3D printing company in Nairobi, got to work immediately to help. The company printed out plastic face shields to send to Ghananian medical staff to help them protect themselves while tending to patients. Mehul Shah, at the URT, wanted to do his part and find a way to help without needing to import products. His work represents the benefits that technology in Ghana has had on the country’s coronavirus response.
  4. Fablab, an innovation hub in Kenya, has been developing tracing applications. The applications track positive patients on public transport to determine who experienced exposure to the virus. If users are in a taxi, for example, they could scan the code onto the application to mark the vehicle as exposed. If everyone uses the application properly, it could trace the positive patient and notify others who may have had exposure to the virus.
  5. The Academic City College in Accra worked alongside the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, located in Kumasi, to build a ventilator that takes merely an hour to assemble and costs only $500 to $1,000. This effort resulted from students who noted that most oxygen bags required hand-pumping to keep patients breathing. The low-cost ventilators use a wooden box with pipes and electrical programming that push oxygen into the patient’s mask, eliminating the need for hand-pumping. Ventilators are quite difficult to distribute as they are expensive to build and maintain, even in wealthy nations. Lowering the cost and production of ventilators can save the lives of millions of COVID-19 patients.
  6. Ghana has been able to test 100,000 people through drone testing. This has likely contributed to the country’s relatively low death toll, which rests only at 486, or 18% of the 2,700 positive cases recorded. Each death has been due to previous underlying conditions that prevented patients from fighting off the novel coronavirus.

Technology in Ghana during the COVID-19 pandemic relies on the good use of resources and accounting for cost and efforts. During the pandemic, Ghana and its neighboring nations have stepped up to the plate to prevent further spread and manage cases so that citizens can get back to work soon. Since March 2020, Ghana has cut down on costs for ventilators while reducing importation needs and sustaining the current quality of production. The sooner the case numbers fall, the sooner citizens and students of Accra can get back to working on more technology to sustain and grow the region. Technology in Ghana has only progressed during the COVID-19 era, and is working toward helping the nation get rid of the virus.

– Kim Elsey
Photo: Flickr