For too long, we have conducted development without good information about our “customers” – the people whose lives we want to improve through our money and effort. We believe this is because developing countries often lack good statistical information on which policy-makers, donors, and private companies can base sound decisions. To date, our knowledge has mostly been limited to expensive door-to-door surveying techniques or difficult phone interviews. The proliferation of mobile phones in developing countries opens the exciting possibility of surveys reaching far fewer people for far less money and providing income for the beneficiaries themselves.

In this system, text messages would be sent to mobile phone users with one or two question surveys, perhaps about health care, education, or even consumer preferences. To provide an incentive to reply, mobile phone credits or mobile banking payments will be issued in exchange for complete surveys. Backend analysis will be used to improve credibility of the results, a task which will be made easier by the large number of people reachable using this system.

Those data can then be used by local, regional or national governments to improve service delivery, by donors and multilaterals for analysis and reporting and even by private companies interested in serving the bottom of the pyramid.

The data platform itself could also have the added benefit of spurring on the spread of cell phones and mobile banking to underserved populations. Instead of being a service they have to pay for, they can be paid to have access to these technologies and financial products.

We have conducted over one year of research to advance this concept and have determined that many of the tools already exist but have never been aligned in quite the right way. We are looking for seed capital and partners to help us launch this exciting venture.

Dana Worth and John Stephenson, the project directors, have extensive experience in both the private and public sectors. We both started our careers at private sector strategy consulting firms and now work at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a firm that applies business approaches to the challenges of development. Through our involvement with healthcare and humanitarian response works, we have been struck by how little data district, province, national and international decision-makers have at their disposal, and consequently, how many critical decisions were made based on old numbers of just plain gut-feeling.

Voxiva has been developing innovative mobile information solutions to help clients around the world address their most critical information challenges in Health and Public sectors.

 Because many of the users of the Voxiva solutions have not easy access to the Internet, they are accessible using multiple technologies (Web, PC Client, Mobile Phone Client, SMS, IVR) giving them a much broader reach than Internet-only solutions.

These solutions are built on the Voxiva platform and they support: Real-time, multi-channel data collection, Data management & analysis and Communication & information sharing.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CURRENT PROJECT

Strengthens the capacity of emergency and disaster management through the use of an innovative integral platform of information and communication that will facilitate the greater participation of the citizens  and the social organizations in the prevention and attention of disasters in the local or national level . 

THE PROBLEM

Before the worsening of the problems caused by the natural disasters and the ones generated by the action of the human being,  greater availability of direct and opportune information on dangers and vulnerabilities is required. This information must be produced nearby to the places at the risk of occurrence of a disaster.  In these usually rural areas in developing countries, the Internet access is still  scarce or nil and the flow of existing information is not automated, exceeding the available times for the need of answer and attention of the populations directly affected by the disasters. 

THE SOLUTION

The Voxiva platform will let the citizens and social organizations to send reports using any devices of information and communication as the pay phones, fixed phones, mobile phones, SMS  or computers connected to Internet  available in points close to the place at the risk of occurrence of a disaster.

These reports should include information to prevent risks (as climatic changes or increasing of water volume in the rivers), and information for Disaster management that help to the damages evaluation and analysis of needs.

The system saves the data, produce dashboards and summary reports in real-time to make decisions and send alerts to the authorities in charge.

BENEFITS

• Availability of greater and better information in a short time, to make more effective decisions and coordination through a simple tool. 

• Possibility to compile information and feed back,

• Significant Reduction in the times of answer before the occurrence of Emergencies and Disasters because local Command Centers  with access to data summarized in dashboards.

What:
This project will build a modular flood early warning application, which will push SMS messages to people downstream of a flood event in real time. Using inputs from stream gauges (if available), satellite remote sensing of river discharge and flooding, and the local topography and hydrology, we propose to create a GIS-based application that will interpret these inputs and automatically blanket an area with a high probability of flooding with early warning SMS messages. This application could give poor rural villages in large parts of the world up to 24 hours of advance notice that a flood event is coming, and will be flexible enough to work with basic inputs and be independent of cell phone providers. As a pilot project, we intend on working with our colleagues at ekgaon technologies (http://www.ekgaon.com/) in the Terai region straddling the Nepal-India border focusing on the Rohini and Bagmati river basins.

Why:
One sixth of the global population lives in the potential path of a 100-year flood, many in developing countries with increasing mobile phone penetration. Many developing nations have seen cell phone usage quadruple in the last decade, and large numbers of poor rural villagers have access to a cell phone through a reseller nearby. A flood early warning SMS application could reach most people in the path of a flood with access to a mobile phone, and give them time to get their possessions, their livestock, and their families out of the way of catastrophic flood. This application could be applied globally, and with simple inputs, it could be used anywhere where SMS messages can be received.

Why:
NiJeL – Community Impact Through Mapping: NiJeL helps people around the globe tell their stories through maps and mobile technology. Leading this project, NiJeL will build the flood early warning SMS application for global application wherever satellite data and a mobile phone network are available.
ekgaon technologies – One Village One World: ekgaon strives to provide farmers, villagers and local tradespeople with access to the information and communication services and tools they need to be able to contribute their knowledge to the modern world. As a part of this project, ekgaon will help facilitate connections to local groups in our pilot project area, the Terai region of Nepal-India.

Lagos state in Nigeria has an estimated 15 million population with more than 2 million cars on the road daily. The state is reputed for terrible traffic congestion occassioned by proper traffic management system. Sometimes motorists, to and from work remain in avoidable traffic hold up for hours, this is inspite of the fact that the state has very good network of roads. Business is almost nearly paralysed on a daily basis due to traffic congestions. There is also no proper traffic management system in place to check this problem. My project is an innovation to roll out an Emergency traffic information system using traffic volunteers relying on simple tool of technology, telephone hansets to make calls and send texts to motorists on daily traffic situation  across the state. The volunteers working with the state motor licensing department and the road safety commission will mainatain a data base of  cars registered in the state and will  monitor and give inhabitants of  the  state information on traffic situation in the State. The traffic information system will  give information on the general traffic situation including accidents, safety precautions and emergency resources. The volunteers will provide information for citizens including ambulances, road safety rescue teams and area hospitals. The Emergency  Information Volunteers will tap location-based technologies and other mobile applications to track traffic and emergency medical response across an estimated 50 percent of the state.  The volunteers working in different part of the state will monitor and collect traffic information and traffic patterns and inform emergency rescue teams and other road users about road accidents and other traffic situation as well as where and how to route patients. The system  will offer a cost-effective way for emergency rescue teams, hospitals and communities to boost their disaster preparedness. In addition registered  mobile users and drivers will  have daily traffic information via text message to enable them  determine how to route their trips.  The information system will provide a broader view of the local situation.  The system will provide disaster management functionality information for all regional public safety organizations, including police and fire departments.   

Light Up The World (LUTW) has completed an initial prototype of a specialized LED based lighting system powered by renewable energy designed for use in medical and dental situations in the developing world. Medical and dental professionals in the developing world typically rely on fuel-based lighting systems when they are providing health care services at night. The light produced from these traditional systems is dim and diffuse, making it difficult for these professionals to provide quality care after sundown. We have designed and developed a specialized lighting system that is particularly useful for such situations when vision is critical to the success of a medical or dental procedure.

This project will act as:

• an alternative to fuel-based systems in health care situations in the third world;
• the solution for medical light in emergency aid locations in the case of an earthquake or other natural disasters where power is unavailable or unsafe;
• provide bright light;
• reduce the health risk posed by fuel-based lighting systems.

The availability of bright light from our lighting systems will enable medical and dental professionals to provide quality health care services after sundown. For example, the use of our systems in medical clinics will ensure that nighttime emergencies can occur in a bright, safe environment. Additionally, the availability of bright light from our systems will facilitate non-emergency medical care in the evenings, like community-based vaccination programs. Lastly, these lighting systems will be portable, which means that they can be moved during disaster situations ensuring that medical/dental care can be provided 24 hours a day when it is needed the most.

Statement of Need : Bangladesh is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world which continues to be vulnerable to cyclones, storm surges, droughts, tornadoes, earthquakes, epidemics and most commonly annual floods. The government has a qualified team and effective mechanism in place for collection and store ( in some case to monitor) of information on natural disasters and climate changes. However it does not have an effective early warning system to ensure timely dissemination of the early warning to vulnerable or disaster prone areas resulting in havoc and destruction. The hazards can be reduced significantly through deploying an appropriate warning system.

The Project : The project aims to improve the existing disaster management programs through deploying an effective early disaster warning system using mobile SMS gateway, Wireless  Application Protocol, Interactive Voice Response and Direct Dialing helpdesk

 Core Components: 1. Application ( SMS Gateway and WAP) 2. IVR and Direct Dialing System ( Help Desk) 3. Trained and efficient Management 

Technology: GPRS and CDMA compatible platform ,  Registration by SMS, email and web , Send and receive email2SMS option, Limited WAP enable options , Limited access IVR facility, Contents Resources Management ( CRM ) with caller record keeping system, Direct Dialing System Integration, Windows and Linux operating system compatibility

Deployment :  Through a formal campaign or lunch local people can be encouraged to register their mobile phones numbers in the central database. Invitation and collaboration request can be sent to the relevant  government agencies and mobile phone operators for mass promotion and information dessimination. Collected information through various sources will be dessiminated through mobile SMS gateway, IVR , WAP, helpdesk and other possible traditional systems.

This project's aim is to provide refugees the possibility of giving information of their position through easy web mechanisms, using webforms in html, chtml, xhtml-mp and wml. This will cover all the used markups for accessing the mobile web. Also, in order to help the ones without the chance of browsing the mobile Internet, a SMS system might be useful to be developed.

But the core of this idea is to provide the relatives of those refugees ways of retrieving that position data in a easy way. This will mitigate their stress, because you suffer a lot when a relative is lost in the middle of a crisis. So because of this problem, this idea wants to provide efficient ways of at least knowing that they're alive and safe.

Also, I want to provide tools to coordinate and manage the donations given by the donors. That way, they will know that on a certain spot are needed certain type of things, so they might distribute goods according to the actual necessities.

Another interesting point of this idea is that this software will contribute to track and trace the path of the donations, so if it “vanish” at any point of the chain (or if there are delays in the delivery times), that place will be properly identified. The idea is that people knows that the donations are being traced, it will reduce robberies to precious material that refugees absolutely need.

And in order to do that track & trace in an efficient and easy way, mobiles will be employed. So beyond simple webforms that gave possibility to gather information, the possibilities of employing qr codes and datamatrix codes will be developed. In theory, this will be helpful, because only with a photo shot of a mobile, the data contained in those bidimensional codes will be inputed in a fast and easy way, which results in a more efficient time management. The only downsize of this idea is that only the most moder devices count with a camera, so this might be a problem if we do not provide other ways of inputing the information.

Why CoordinAid

  The complexity and urgency of humanitarian crises creates serious challenges in locating and delivering the appropriate supplies and materials to the intended beneficiaries in time and at the right price.  Delays, overpayments, corruption, and missed opportunities to work with local businesses are all examples of obstacles that hamper immediate relief efforts while short-changing the cause of longer-term development.  The use of information technology including web and mobile methods of providing real-time information and matching supply and demand can provide immediate benefits to the humanitarian relief community.

  CoordinAid aims to address these short term and long term challenges.  By leveraging existing web- and mobile-based technologies, CoordinAid will augment disparate efforts by humanitarian aid organizations in such a way that improves responsiveness, reduces costs, and increases the empowerment of local communities to enable longer term solutions that prevent future crises and reduce international dependencies. 

What is CoordinAid?

  CoordinAid is a web application that aggregates aid shipment requests from humanitarian relief organizations, creating bulk shipments which maximize transport capacities, lowering overall costs.  This automated software solution will enable the visualization of aggregated shipment contents in real-time, revealing supply shortages before they occur. 

  CoordinAid will enlist or partner with on-the-ground relief coordinating actors (UN, NGO’s, local government, individuals) who can interact with the system via mobile-based SMS text messaging.  These agents will be able to send specific information about material needs, as well as see what shipments are coming in order to coordinate effective distribution.  Organizations will track their shipments' progress from real-time agent updates via SMS, and will be immediately alerted about specific needs, drastically reducing shipment turnaround times. 

  CoordinAid's long term goal is to empower these local agents to proactively coordinate future aid efforts within local government, business and civil society ecosystems without furthering dependence on international aid.

When and Where?

  CoordinAid will initially target pilot testing in countries already receiving significant humanitarian assistance, such as Uganda, Chad, or Haiti.  This will allow proper testing of the concept.  Once the model is proven, CoordinAid can be expanded into targeted regions as appropriate.

Connecting Refugees harnesses online social networking and mobile technology tools to aid refugees in resettlement. Our goal is to connect and impact the world's most disenfranchised people to others outside their refugee community and those who serve them. Our project is global in scope as refugees are all over the world along with the people who serve them. Often refugees struggle with learning about their new country, adding undue stress to an already stressful situation. Our project connects these refugees with others who share stories, video, photos, and their experiences about settling in the new country and enables refugees to connect with one another. Through these connections we will help ease fears and anxieties about resettlement and foster global connections. Our project will also connect humanitarian aid workers with resettlement resources and others going similar work. Both refugees and aid workers will be able to upload their own content to our project Ning site (http://connectingrefugees.ning.com) making it a continuously updated resource that is open 24 hours a day/7 days a week, and available in one place. The Ning web site can be accessed through an Internet browser (i.e., Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera Mobile, etc.) and via a web site designed for mobile phones (http://connectingrefugees.ning.com/m). In addition to the online social network, our project will purchase Internet-ready mobile phones to distribute to refugee camp workers to spread access to the network and enhance connections.

The purpose of the application is detection of crying or loud noise (calling) of a person that is taken care of. When the cell phone receives an appropriate SMS, it is translated to the state called “Listening”. While in that state, if it detects a noise, the cell sends a SMS to the person that is keeping watch to come immediately. The options that are set are: message of activation/deactivation, threshold of noise, cell number of the person that is keeping watch and the text of SMS that he/she receives.

Technical description:

The application is based on Java technology and telephones that possess JavaVM that has access to the microphone and the system of sending/receiving SMS/MMS. The configuration is done with the XML file or directly from the application. The file can be downloaded from the PC or received by SMS/MMS. The configuration file can be sent to the desired number via SMS/MMS, if the cell possesses such functionality. The application presents a significant overhead to the normal functions of the cell and will probably be applicable only on Smart Phones. If the cell possesses JavaVM that deosn’t have access to the microphone or SMS/MMS, but are driven by Symbian, WinCE or Linux, native application will be used instead of the Java version.