MobileActive.org

This paper explores the reach and use of m-money among the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) in the Philippines using survey data from LIRNEasia’s 2008 Mobile 2.0 surveys. It looks at m-money’s potential and actual use for remittance among internal and external migrant workers and their families. The results are triangulated with focus group data and literature on mobile and electronic money, and framed using Van Dijk’s (2006) Stages of Access to digital technologies.

Although usage of m-money among the BoP remains low, the ICT infrastructure for this is in place. Compared to other Asian countries where the survey was also conducted, Filipinos are more familiar and have higher trust in mobile electronic transactions. Managing their resistance to change from current offline remitting practices remains a challenge.

Population growth, economic development and ineffective development policies place the Philippine environment and its natural resources and biodiversity under serious risk. Increased levels of air and water pollution in urban areas, deforestation, soil erosion, coral reef degradation as well as increasing pollution of coastal mangrove swamps important for breeding fish, are some of the threats mentioned by the Philippines Environment Monitor 2004. The situation is made worse by ineffective environmental laws and policies, rapid urbanization, expansion of resource-based markets and the growing apathy of its populace to environmental safeguarding. Environmental degradation is a common global problem, but strategies to halt it must be contextually specific if they are to be effective.

This paper explores how the telecommunications sector, and in particular mobile telephony, offers tools that may be used successfully for environmental action in the Philippines. Our research has indicated the ubiquity of mobile phones in the Philippines; they are convenient, relatively inexpensive, easy to acquire, and can send and receive text messages. For these reasons, using the SMS technology is an ideal and accessible way for the public to take action as well as increase their awareness of environmental issues.

The authors explore the impact of access to information on poor farmers' consumption. The analysis combines spatially coded data on mobile phone coverage with household panel data on farmers from some of the poorest areas of the Philippines.

Both the ordinary least squares and instrumental variable estimates indicate that purchasing a mobile phone has a large, positive impact on the household-level growth rate of per capita consumption. Estimates range from 11 to 17 percent, depending on the sample and the specification chosen.

The authors perform a range of reliability tests, the results of which all suggest that the instruments are valid. They also present evidence consistent with the argument that easier access to information allows farmers to strike better price deals within their existing trading relationships and to make better choices in terms of where they choose to sell their goods.