Mobile technology in action...

The Economist's article makes the case for mobile phones being a foundation for advancing economic development in developing countries. However, it was interesting to read an article on the BBC about it actually being put into practice.

The article is about Iqbal Quadir who founded a company in Bangladesh called Grameen Phone, a company which provides cellular phones via a sustainable financing mechanism in rural villages where no telecommunications services have previously existed thereby giving poor entrepreneurs access to a phone to operate a business. The program has been a huge success, with more than 3.5 million subscribers across the country.

The impact in many places had been dramatic, especially for the women in the village:

"Known as Grameen phone ladies, these women provide villagers with a vital link to services such as hospitals and to relatives both at home and abroad, in a country with the lowest number of phones in South Asia...A woman with a mobile becomes important in a village. This changes the power distribution."

However, it is interesting to note in the article that he does not argue that the people now need Internet access to avoid living in a digital divide. As he points out, there are other things rather more important before getting Internet access:

"If you bring electricity to villages, you can bring jobs. Electricity is half the problem," he said.

As Damien pointed on my blog, there must be synergy between the technologies we think will aid the developing world. This BBC article reminds us that local knowledge not worldly wisdom is key to ensuring that we ensure our efforts assist in generating that synergy, and not push unwelcome or distracting solutions on countries who know all too well the challenges that they face.