regional overview pro-poor mobile applications: improved ... · pdf filepro-poor mobile...

Regional OverviewPro-poor mobile applications: improved health

and banking services

Mr. Jorge Martinez NavarreteIT Officer

Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division (IDD)

ESCAP

Expert Group Meeting on Emerging ICT Developments and Opportunities for Enhancing Cooperation for Regional Connectivity

ICT growth in the Asia-Pacific region• Mobile cellular telephony growth still surging

Source: ESCAP, using data from the ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Database 2010


ICT usage in the Asia-Pacific region• Fixed telephone lines are decreasing• Mobile broadband subscriptions have

surpassed fixed broadband subscriptions but remain low as compared to developed countries

• Least developed countries (LDC) and landlocked developing countries (LLDC) in ESCAP showed nearly 60 per cent average annual growth on mobile subscriptions.


ICT usage in the Asia-Pacific region

• Mobile phones are predominant particularly in LDCs, (99 % of all telephone lines in Cambodia and Afghanistan are mobile, 97 % in Bangladesh, 92 % in Bhutan, etc.)

• More than 60 mobile subscriptions per 100 persons in Asia-Pacific.

• Mobile Internet is a reality: In Bangladesh cellbazaar.com a mobile e-commerce website is among the top 40 most visited sites.


Mobile applications, an opportunity for inclusive development

Mobile applications are surging in areas including:• Poverty reduction, for example:

• mobile payments• mobile banking and international remittances• branchless banking

• Health-care, mobile applications for health-care or m-health, for example:• public health awareness, • mobile health workers management and support, • mobile reference materials and calculator tools, • remote patient monitoring and advisory, • data collection.

• Public service delivery


Poverty reduction: Access to formal financial services in Asia and the Pacific (percentage of households)

Poor households are excluded from formal financial services such as savings, credit, insurance and formal remittances.

Source: ESCAP Financing and Inclusive and Green Future, page 48.


Poverty reduction: Remittances

• International and domestic remittances have been found to be important for poverty reduction. At the household level, remittances are a critical lifeline for the poor.

• USD 317 billion in remittances were sent to developing countries by 192 million migrants worldwide. Indians living abroad sent US$ 49 billion (the world’s biggest recipient of remittances), China received US$ 48 billion, Tajikistan remittances represented 50 percent of its GDP in 2008*

* World Bank (2010) “Remittance Prices Worldwide”


Mobile banking and mobile payments

• m-banking: to store money and transfer money to third parties nationally and internationally (remittances)

• using voice, text messages or other software on a mobile phone.

• to access accounts anytime wirelessly from places without bank branches.

• can be linked to a traditional bank account or only to a mobile phone

Source: Adapted CGAP: Banking on Mobile: Why, How, for Whom?


Poverty reduction: Mobile banking reaching the poor

• Opportunity: Approximately 1 billion mobile subscribers live in emerging markets but do not have access to banking services*

• Progress made: Globally, close to 45 million people without traditional bank accounts have started using their mobile phones to send, receive and store money*

• In Asia-Pacific: Large deployments of m-banking solutions, e.g. SMART Money and G-CASH in the Philippines, True Money in Thailand. Other examples: WING in Cambodia, M-Paisa in Fiji, Easypaisa in Pakistan, EKO/SBI, ICICI, and Nokia/Obopay in India, Grameen/Obopay in Bangladesh, and more.

• 120 telecom operators are said to be deploying mobile payments by 2011 in 70 markets globally*

* McKinsey & Company, “Capturing the promise of mobile banking in emerging markets”.


Health in the Asia-Pacific region• MDG 4 :Reduction of the mortality rate of children under five years

old by two thirds• MDG 5 :Reduction of the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters• MDG 6 :Halting and reversing of the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and

other major diseases

Tuberculosis in Asia PacificMaternal DeathsDeaths of Children

under 5

Gap: Rural vs. UrbanChild under-five mortality rates are typically far higher in rural than urban

areas, often by over 50 per cent


Mobile applications for health-care or m-health

Mobile telephones can be used to enhance health-care delivery for example:• Complementing skills of health workers and providing

basic training• Providing remote health advice and patient monitoring• Making inventory management of drugs and medical

supplies more efficient• Improving collection and analysis of data from the field

for improved decision-making• Enhancing health public awareness campaigns


m-health applications examplesComplementing skills of health workers and providing basic training

Providing remote health advice and patient monitoring

104 Advice, India•400 seat call‐centre for 80 million people of Andhra Pradesh, India, • Medical counselling in Telugu, Hindi and English, by counsellors, paramedics, and doctors on: HIV/AIDS, depression, chronic diseases, etc. •50,000 calls daily.

Sources: mdhil.com, umm.edu, healthagen.com, emri.in, text4baby.org


m-health applications examplesMaking inventory management of drugs and medical supplies more efficient

Improving collection and analysis of data from the field for improved decision-making

Mpedigree.comdatadyne.org


Recommendations:Human capacity-building• Train staff at all levels of Government on the use of ICT for development. At

the policymaker level, they may consider looking into the programmes offered by the Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technology for Development (APCICT).

• Include ICT in school curricula as early as possible, and offer continuous education training programmes for people who are not enrolled in the education system.

Content and application development• Set incentives to encourage the development of local-language reference

and training materials, as well as applications for mobile phones.

• Promote data and interoperability standards to generate competition among providers of mobile applications and content.


Recommendations:Infrastructure development• Prepare cross-sectoral strategies and business cases for investing in ICT

infrastructure, in order to create synergies and build consensus among different ministries.

• Ensure that investments on ICT infrastructure do not cause that resources are diverted from other basic social assistance programmes.

• Consider Public-Private Partnerships to support the expansion of the ICT sector. (mobile operators to extend ICT infrastructure to underserved areas, and to develop and deliver m-health and m-banking).

• Consider implementing policies that reduce trade barriers on ICT equipment or give consumers and businesses tax incentives to purchase ICT equipment, as well as universal service obligation funds.


RecommendationsSecurity and privacy• Implementation of end-to-end security measures by telecommunication

operators and service providers. (data encryption mechanisms, network redundancy, etc.)

• Implement mechanisms to restrict private material dissemination and ensure that individuals know their rights to keeping personal data private.

• Consider requiring Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) registration, to associate mobile phone numbers with individuals to reduce fraud and other criminal activity.

• Collaborate with all stakeholders to ensure that essential telecommunication services are resilient and will available during emergencies.

• Ensure that the public and privately owned telecommunications infrastructure has developed disaster preparedness and business continuity plans.


Thank you

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