Konbit: Using Mobile Tech (and Your Voice) for Local Jobs in Haiti data sheet 2316 Views
Konbit is a service that aims to help communities rebuild themselves after a crisis by indexing the skill sets of local residents, allowing NGOs to find and employ them. Konbit development started after the earthquake in Haiti, and in response to complaints that NGOs were typically bringing in their own labor, rather than hiring locally. The service allows Haitians to describe their everyday skills and talents, in their own voice and language, over a mobile phone.
This audio content is then transcribed and translated into job skill categories that can be searched by NGOs and employers in the area. In this way, Konbit combines mobile and Internet technology with something more accessible to the Haitian community: their own voice.
Does ICT Benefit the Poor? Evidence from South Africa data sheet 3474 Views
Author:
Stefan Klonner, Patrick Nolen
Publication Date:
May 2008
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Abstract:
The authors study the economic effects of the roll-out of mobile phone network coverage in rural South Africa, addressing identification issues which arise from the fact that network roll-out cannot be viewed as an exogenous process to local economic development.
The authors combine spatially coded data from South Africa's leading network provider with annual labor force surveys, and use terrain properties to construct an instrumental variable that allows us to identify the causal effect of network coverage on economic outcomes under plausible assumptions.
The study finds substantial effects of cell phone network roll-out on labor market outcomes with remarkable gender-specific differences. Employment increases by 15 percentage points when a locality receives network coverage. A gender-differentiated analysis shows that most of this effect is due to increased employment by women. Household income increases in a pro-poor way when cellular infrastructure is provided.
Souktel, an SMS service based in the Middle East and East Africa, is all about connections. The service, launched in 2006, uses SMS to connect users to everything from jobs and internships to humanitarian aid and youth leadership programs.
The name comes from "souk," the Arabic word for "marketplace," and "tel," or "telephone. Although at least 80 percent of people in Palestine have access to mobile phones, most people have Internet access only in cafés or public places, said Jacob Korenblum, co-founder of Souktel. "Getting information about medical care, jobs, and food bank services can be difficult," he said. And even at Internet cafes, Korenblum said that many people, especially women, lack access to these services. "We wanted to develop a very simple service," he said. "That's how Souktel started."
