ICT4D | TechChange | The Institute for Technology and Social Change

After a study-abroad semester in Spain and a summer at TechChange in Washington D.C., Emily Fruchterman is heading back to William & Mary to finish the final year of her undergraduate career. Before heading to Williamsburg to finish her Biology degree, she looks back on her summer internship at TechChange as an educational technologist.

1. How did you hear about TechChange?

At the start of 2014, summer internships were the last thing on my mind. I was off to spend the semester in Seville, Spain, and any thought relating to life-after-study-abroad was a painful reminder that my time in paradise wouldn’t last forever.

When my final exams forced me to face reality, I wasn’t quite sure where to start my search (the ocean between me and potential employers seemed pretty daunting). A friend referred me to internships.com, where I found out about TechChange.

2. Why did you choose TechChange to spend the summer between your junior and senior years?

TechChange piqued my interest with its goal of using the power of technology to advance social change. The broad range of courses that demonstrate the utility of technology to a very international audience showed me that this was more than a cursory commitment. Contributing to an organization with such goals seemed like a worthwhile way to spend the summer.

On a personal level, TechChange seemed like a great complement to many of my previous experiences at nonprofits and NGOs doing research while giving me new exposure to a startup culture. TechChange’s upcoming projects also aligned well with my interest in public health, plus the networking opportunities afforded by spending a summer in DC seemed too good to pass up.

3. What are your interests?

While I’m generally interested in the field of development, my passions really lie with public health. I’d really like to work for organizations (like TechChange) that have projects relating to the various aspects of health and healthcare – although my dream is to work for an organization that coordinates healthcare responses and works to improve health outcomes on an international basis. I’m also an avid coffee drinker, science fiction fan, and aspiring flamenco dancer (my time in Spain might have influenced this last one).

Emily goes over how to create an online course with the TechGirls on TechGirls Job Shadow Day

4. How did you use your TechChange internship to explore your interests?

Fortunately for me, TechChange had several different public health related courses this summer. I was able to engage with a course on Malaria, for use in Nigeria and Uganda, as well as take on a large part of a facilitated course on HIV for clinical and non-clinical care providers. Both of these have been extremely valuable experiences, as I’ve not only learned a great deal about both illnesses, but also looked at how to structure health-related interventions and training programs.

5. What did you do at TechChange this summer? What was your role at TechChange?

The instructional design team was finishing up a self-paced course on Malaria when I arrived in June. I was not only able to help with edits and testing, but built a few interactive elements. I got more experience building out lessons, writing storyboards, and coming up with engaging lessons while working on other instructional design projects.

I got my first taste of the facilitated platform as a teaching assistant (TA) for a course on Social Media for Social Change, during which I familiarized myself with WordPress and the structure/pacing of a four-week course. This came in super handy, as a couple weeks later I started to manage content development and build out the four modules for the course on HIV treatment. I also helped write several blog posts relating to projects, participated in meetings with clients, and taught the TechGirls from Tunisia and the Palestinian Territories how to create online courses.

6. What did you learn during your time at TechChange?

The first big thing I learned was how to use Articulate Storyline. This eLearning program might look like a fancier version of PowerPoint, but it has it’s tricks and idiosyncrasies. It was very cool to learn how to create interactions, design variables, and troubleshoot glitches to develop quality modules. This was super useful, as it helped me think about learning in a much more user-centered way.

I also learned to be much more comfortable in front of the camera – while I still had my fair share of outtakes, it became a lot easier to speak to a blinking red light instead of an audience. I learned how to manage time during interviews, ask the right kinds of questions, and (most importantly) what to do with my face when I wasn’t the one talking.

My tech skills also improved – my co workers tried to show me some coding basics (parts of which I picked up on better than others), I increased my audio editing abilities, became super familiar with WordPress, created several graphics, and set-up and took down AV equipment.

I also improved my communication skills by working closely with various members of the team on different projects and writing emails/participating in phone calls with clients.

Emily in the recording studio at TechChange before recording a live session for a course

7. Did your TechChange experience end up going as you expected?

In some ways – based on my impressions of TechChange from their website and my interview, I’d expected to find a group of young and tech savvy individuals interested in promoting social change.

I hadn’t expected how much support they’d give me for pursuing my own ideas from the get-go. I think it was my second or third day here that I suggested an interaction be added to a part of a self-paced course to a member of the instructional design team. The response I received – “great, want to build it?” – really surprised me. I’d barely started learning the program, was still figuring out where I fit in, and yet was already being offered the chance to work on the product. This “great, want to build it?” philosophy was present throughout my internship here – I had a lot of flexibility and opportunity to build off of assigned tasks.

8. Would you come back to work at TechChange one day? Why?

Yes, and without a second thought. TechChange has to be one of the best work environments I’ve ever encountered; it’s fun and collaborative, the work is engaging, and the company is small enough that everyone can play a variety of roles. You might be hired as an educational technologist, but you’ll have the chance to do a little bit of graphics editing, write blog posts, sit in on business development meetings, teach a course, and have your voice featured in animations.

More importantly, this work has real value. The courses developed by TechChange are used by different organizations around the world to train staff members and health providers, as resources to newly-formed NGOs, and to put the spotlight on the role technology can play in the developing world. TechChange collaborates with organizations that work for real, sustainable change, and TechChange alumni go on to do incredible work. Being a part of this team has been a wonderful experience.

9. What advice would you give to future TechChange interns?

Take initiative! This is an awesome opportunity to grow your skill set – make use of that. If something needs to be done, volunteer to do it. Even if it’s not something you’ve done before, the team will support you and make sure you learn how to do it well. The TechChange team is also super supportive – if there’s something you want to learn about (even if it’s not directly related to your job), they’re more than happy to help.

After a summer at TechChange, it’s time for Sean Bae to start his first year at the University of Maryland-College Park this fall where he is considering a major in Electrical Engineering. Before heading to College Park, he reflects on his time at TechChange as a Software Engineer – Analytics Intern where he worked on D3 data visualization projects to make online learning interactive.

1. How did you hear about TechChange?

During the last fall, my dear friend Michael Holachek (a.k.a. “Code Ninja”), currently a rising sophomore at MIT, kindly shared his TechChange internship experience with me. While I was browsing through the TechChange website, I came across the job description of “Software Engineer – Analytics”, which is when I became first interested in working for TechChange.

2. Why did you choose TechChange to spend your summer before beginning college?

After taking an online Machine Learning course from Caltech, I became really interested in not only how to use computational algorithms to find correlations in data, but also how to interactively visualize them in aesthetically pleasing ways that can provide hidden insights for the front-end users.

TechChange’s job opening for the “Software Engineer – Analytics” quickly grabbed my attention because of the idea of being able to work in the cutting-edge web development environment, while learning principles of real-life software engineering practice. The fact that I will be contributing to the company that aims to promote social change, and educate the global community was also a big plus.

3. What are your interests?

I love physics and mathematics. In college, I plan on studying Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the two subjects that I believe will let me apply my passion in physics and math into solving real-life problems.

During my free time, I play piano, do Cross Country running and play Ultimate Frisbee. Also, I have a longstanding interest in modern European history, and I enjoy having discussions and debates with my friends on various thought-provoking topics such as political philosophy, epistemology, ethical dilemmas, and religion.

4. How did you use your TechChange internship to explore your interests?

TechChange offered me a lot of flexibility in terms of what projects I worked on. While my main projects were developing front-end interactive D3.js (Data-Driven-Documents) visualizations, I also had opportunities to learn about SaltStack server provisioning automation, and work on small back-end Ubuntu server projects.

Surprisingly, computer science wasn’t the only relevant subject in my work! I found my physics knowledge useful when I was working with D3 Force Directed Graphs, which used electric charge model and pseudo-gravity to compute the location of vertices of the graph until they reached the “electrostatic equilibrium”. My knowledge in discrete math and linear algebra also became invaluable when I was developing a social-learning matching algorithm to solve a combinatorial optimization problem that turned out to be similar to the Minimum weight spanning tree problem.

The TechChange team battle each other in a heated game of “Settlers of Catan.”

Apart from work, we had occasional TechChange Board Game days, World Cup cheering days, soccer/Frisbee team-bonding sessions and nearby park strolls that made my time at TechChange much more enjoyable and social.

5. What did you do at TechChange this summer? What was your role at TechChange?

During my time at TechChange, I developed front-end interactive D3.js visualizations for the TechChange online course platform. Some of the major projects include the TechChange social matching algorithm, social matching recommendation visualization, and course-wide point leaderboard system. While my work was mostly focused around the front-end JavaScript design, TechChange’s cohesive tech team structure let me peek into and learn insights from other tech team members’ back-end projects as well.

6. What did you learn during your time at TechChange?

Technical skills weren’t the only valuable assets that I learned during my time at TechChange, but as an overview, I learned:

How to create interactive data visualizations with D3.js
Efficient Git distributed version control (DVCS) team workflow for constant deployment
Advanced JavaScript debugging with the Google Chrome browser DevTools
How to automate virtual development environment creation using Vagrant
WordPress web plugin development with PHP and MySQL
Industry-standard JavaScript Design patterns
Regex (Regular Expression)
Django server structure
Full stack web app development combining Node.js, Express framework, MongoDB and Jade HTML Pre-processor
How to maintain a healthy diet (which was unexpected!)

Sean codes D3 data visualization for encouraging interaction and engagement on the TechChange learning platform

7. Did your TechChange experience end up going as you expected?

I was expecting my internship experience to be mostly associated with computer programming. However, people at TechChange seem to follow the “work hard, play hard” philosophy. After working hard, we had times to socialize, play soccer and games together, which made my experience much more interesting. I was also surprised by how friendly and opened people were and how flexible the working environment was at TechChange.

8. Would you come back to work at TechChange one day? Why?

I would love to! TechChange’s tight-knit community and energetic teams have magical power that draws people. Supportive and caring, yet productive, efficient, and techie team members make TechChange a fantastic environment to work on projects that create real impact in the real world.

9. What advice would you give to future TechChange interns?

Search for opportunities: TechChange has many different teams that you can pursue many different projects in international relations, course facilitation, media/video productions, UI/UX design and computer programming. If you find someone else working on a project that you want to take challenge on, then just simply ask.
Explore nearby restaurants: located right across the U Street metro station, TechChange HQ is located in the midst of many spectacular restaurants; there are many places to explore around in U street for lunch, from an authentic Ethiopian restaurant to gourmet falafel place and famous Ben’s Chili Bowl. Take the full advantage of the plethora of exotic choices and try exploring many ethnic food groups!

My current focus on tourism development led me to explore how some of the tech tools discussed in the Mobiles for International Development class can be applied in the tourism industry. In particular, a large part of the tourism assessment and development process involves both evaluating the visitor experience in a destination and examining the attitudes of local residents towards tourism development.

Surveys are the most common tools for carrying out these evaluations, but most of the time they result in stacks of papers that need to be keyed into a computer, introducing errors and wasting valuable time. In the M4D class, we saw a physical example of this where a pickup truck was loaded with stacks of questionnaires.

Today, mobiles and tablets are overcoming the challenges faced by paper-based surveys and evaluations as they bring efficiency, a variety of user-friendly survey platforms, and real-time feedback.

1. Quick and easy access to better processed surveys
Compared with paper questionnaires, a more efficient data collection method would be to use the Formhub tool that we learned about during the course. The additional cost of purchasing a few basic tablets and rugged cases could be offset by savings in labor costs for data entry and the added value of the data being processed in a more timely and accurate manner.

2. Variety of user-friendly survey platforms
The advantage of a tablet over a smartphone is that the tablet more closely resembles a paper format questionnaire, making it easy to hand over to visitors or residents to complete. Formhub can also be used offline; completed questionnaires can be uploaded once a connection is reestablished, making it particularly useful in remote tourism destinations lacking wifi or cell service.

Since visitor surveys are usually carried out in places where large numbers of tourists congregate (city plazas, transportation system waiting areas, etc.), the survey-takers often hand out paper forms to many people simultaneously, presenting a potential disadvantage for Formhub if only a few tablets are available. A potential solution could be a QR code to scan that takes tourists to a web site on their own personal smartphones to complete the questionnaire. This method could be used in conjunction with the tablets (i.e. tablets could be used for those visitors without smart phones). There would have to be measures in place to ensure that the same person doesn’t submit multiple questionnaires, but I think that could be designed relatively simply.

3. Real-time feedback
Another way to make surveys valuable to both tourists and destination planners and developers, would be to couple geolocation with an SMS service. Tourists could opt in to the program upon arrival at a destination, and upon entering certain geofences they would automatically receive an informational text describing the attraction with links to more information if they’re interested. For instance, upon approaching a monument a visitor could receive historical information about the attraction, or upon entering a local market the user could receive a link to a detailed map showing where certain stalls are located. This system could be coupled with an SMS survey system like TextIt. This way, the destination could get real-time feedback from tourists about certain aspects of an attraction as the visitor is experiencing it (i.e. rating scale questions about customer service, facilities, etc.). This would help to eliminate the problem of recall bias that often exists when tourists are asked to recall certain aspects of their trip days (or weeks) after it’s over.

There’s obviously a ton of potential for mobile tech in the context of tourism, from the inspiration and planning stages, to booking and experiencing, to sharing the tourism experience with others. I’m super excited to see what kind of apps and novel technologies will be launched in the next few years to further enhance and add layers of value to the tourism experience.

About Jason Kreiselman

When he’s not backpacking through far-off corners of the planet, Jason Kreiselman works as a digital marketing specialist with Brand USA in Washington DC helping to promote international visitation to the U.S. He also works with the International Institute of Tourism Studies conducting tourism research for public and private sector clients. Jason spent four years in Ecuador as an ICT Advisor to the Peace Corps where he worked to promote small businesses and secure grants for organizations focusing on environmental conservation and sustainable development.

Jason holds a Master of Tourism Administration degree with a concentration in Sustainable Destination Management from The George Washington University. You can find him on LinkedIn here.

Interested in learning more about this topic of digital options for surveys and evaluation? Register now for our Technology for Monitoring & Evaluation online course, which runs 26 January – 20 February 2015.

When we last featured TC309: mHealth alumna, Lauren Bailey, on the TechChange blog, we shared her mHealth final project on the potential of WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) in using mobiles for public health. Since then, Lauren has landed a position at International Medical Corps as a Monitoring and Evaluation Assistant, where she works with colleagues who are also TechChange mHealth alumni.

This week, we visited Lauren at the International Medical Corps office in Washington, DC where she shared her latest updates on her mHealth career.

What did you find useful from your TechChange course, mHealth: Mobiles for Public Health?
The TechChange mHealth online course gave me a solid background in the use of mobile phones for public health. I became familiar with different organizations and companies that develop or use mHealth programs, and I feel comfortable talking knowledgeably about mHealth with others.

What impact has TC309 and TechChange had on you and your career?

1. Connecting to future employers
I applied for a position at International Medical Corps (IMC) that had an mHealth component in the job description. During the interview process, I connected with my now supervisor and colleague who were both in the middle of taking the same TechChange mHealth course I had taken 6 months earlier. They were both impressed with what they had been learning in the course, and I feel that the TechChange connection was one of the reasons I was offered a temporary position at the organization. I have been an active member of the organization’s mHealth interest group.

During my first week at IMC, my supervisor forwarded me the most recent WASHplus newsletter as a resource for a project I was working on. To my surprise, my TechChange project was featured in the newsletter! She was very impressed that the course had led to this feature in the newsletter.

2. Connecting to like-minded professionals passionate about WASH
I am thankful to have met many motivated and interesting TechChange colleagues and alumni. I reached out to a fellow TechChange alumnus with whom I had connected during the course. He and I share a love for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). Talking with him gave me great insight on his work in WASH and gave me ideas for future work in the sector.

3. Crowdsourcing knowledge for primary research
Recently, I have used the TechChange Alumni group on LinkedIn to crowdsource information on the use of mHealth for behavior change. The network is full of accomplished and gracious people with diverse backgrounds willing to help others learn. My final course project, which coincided with a master level global environmental health course, served as a stepping stone to the qualitative research I am currently conducting on the use of mHealth for behavior change communication.

What advice would you give to students taking TC309 or any TC course?
1. Pay extra attention to Alain Labrique, one of the top speakers in the course. He gives an excellent introduction to the mHealth landscape. His lecture and research is part of the motivation behind some of my interests in the different uses of mHealth.

2. Be diligent and set aside time every day to log into the course — even if you can only spend 20 minutes. Try to attend live events and make sure to ask questions that enhance the discussion.

3. Make connections. Be sure to reach out to classmates and find out more about their backgrounds and career paths. It’s great to have connections from all across the globe!

About Lauren Bailey
Lauren Bailey is in the midst of completing her Master of Public Health degree in Global Environmental Health at George Washington University where she is conducting qualitative research on the use of mHealth for behavior change in the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector. Lauren’s passion for global health began five years ago when she defended her undergraduate thesis that used malaria as a case study for how health impacts poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa. She acquired an interest for mobile health upon entering her graduate program where she learned more about the different uses of mobile phones for health purposes. Lauren originally hails from Massachusetts and is an avid baseball fan.

Are you also interested in mobile phones for public health? Join us for our upcoming Mobiles for International Development and mHealth online courses here.

Photo credit: TextIt

I am not tech savvy. I do not keep up with the newest phones or gadgets and I have no idea how to build a website. However, I have been texting for many years and I know that if I can master the SMS system and stay connected through messaging, anyone can. Which is why I was so impressed by TextIt, a messaging platform that is simple yet can achieve so much- from surveying dispersed populations to disseminating life-saving information that may not have otherwise reached its target destinations.

When learning about the tool and using it in the Mobiles for International Development class, I was thinking about access, a main concern of mine within international development. Not only did I find TextIt accessible to me as the creator of a campaign in terms of the ease of building an SMS flow (again, if I can do it, most people can), but also in the array of possibilities of its relevance. Whether it is access to clean water, healthcare, education, or safe roads, TextIt provides a platform for people on the ground, even those in the most remote areas, to communicate their experiences and needs through the tips of their fingers.

In my own field of interest, namely providing access to education to marginalized populations in developing countries and humanitarian settings, I believe TextIt could be an asset. I can see it being used for purposes of teacher training, of understanding if a regional school system is being inclusive of the community’s children with disabilities, or even in a post-disaster situation, letting communities know about impromptu schools being set up by organizations and finding how many children are not in school. The possibilities are countless.

TextIt has the potential to expand more widely in several areas. Currently, it only operates on Android phones and I would hope that the developers are working to make it accessible to other mobile companies so as to increase access. In addition, survey taking may not be familiar to some cultures and seeing the large-scale success of TextIt could take a lot of time. Though the SMS system may be quick, cost efficient and reach many people, it does eliminate the human aspect of international development and the nuances of person to person conversations are lost through the mobile devices (for example, you can survey a group of villagers about the infrastructure in the area, but unless the person developing a campaign physically goes to see the area, much of the reality is lost). Moreover, a survey that is not well-planned or well-worded or inaccurate information is being sent out could cause mistrust of the system and the senders and people will stop using it.

Overall, I think using TextIt as an international development tool encourages more creativity, pushing professionals to think beyond traditional methods of interaction with their beneficiaries. Personally, I see myself finding a way to incorporate TextIt in my future projects and hopefully with that, I will become just a bit more tech savvy.

About Yael Shapira

Yael Shapira works as Assistant Director of International Relations, Graduate School of Education and Human Development at George Washington University and recently completed TC105: Mobiles for International Development. Yael received an M.A. in International Education from GW in 2012, with an academic focus on providing access to education to marginalized populations in conflict and post-conflict settings, specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa. She has lived and worked in Ethiopia, India, Israel, Niger and Switzerland, where she planned and implemented educational projects for refugees, street children, children with disabilities and other populations. Yael received her Bachelor’s in International Relations from Boston University in 2009. She was born and raised in Jerusalem, Israel.

Interested in learning more about TextIt and other mobile platforms in the context of global development? Join us for an online course on Mobiles for International Development.

In a recent LinkedIn post, World Bank President Jim Kim discussed the global impact of smartphones in even the most remote areas of the world today. President Kim called cheap smartphones the “poor’s new window to the world of the rich.” Not only are smartphones increasingly providing people in the developing world a medium to view possibilities in other countries, they also provide the means for online access to media, services, and goods offered abroad.

Industry-wide, the prices of smartphones are lowering. Current mobile leaders looking to expand into new markets including emerging markets are offering products at a lower price points to be affordable to new customers. Expanding internet access initiatives by a variety of players will drive down the costs of data plans for smartphones. The entrance of more players in the mobile phone provider space is pressuring mobile phone companies to compete by offering smartphones at low prices, allowing smartphones to be more accessible in the developing world.

Here are the top 5 cheap smartphones for under $50 USD as of July 2014:

1. Mozilla (as low as $25)
OS: Firefox
Now available in India for $33 (buy it on SnapDeal)
Will be available in: Latin America and Africa (buy it on Firefox)

Photo credit: Cellular News

Popularly known for their desktop browser, the Mozilla Foundation announced at the 2014 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona its collaboration with the Chinese chipmaker, Spreadtrum Communications to release the cheapest smartphone to date. Mozilla hopes to attract customers in Latin America, Africa, and India by using their own operating system, Firefox — rather than iOS or Android. This affordable Mozilla phone recently launched in India on August 25th for $33. It supports Hindi and Tamil, the two most widely spoken languages in India.

2. Used Apple iPhone 3GS as low as $40
OS: iOS
Available in: any country with a GSM carrier with a sim card (buy it on Amazon)

Photo credit: The Unlockr

While known for making the most coveted and expensive smartphones, Apple’s older iPhone models do come at an affordable price. You can buy Apple’s used unlocked iPhone 3GS on Amazon for as low as $40. Once unlocked, the iPhone may be used with any carrier with a new SIM card, allowing it to be used in other countries. Another alternative is going through mobile donation programs such as Hope Phones. Hope Phones is a program that accepts phone donations to supply to mHealth workers across the world. TechChange donated several used iPhones to Medic Mobile last year.

3. Karbonn Smart A50S $46 (Rs. 2,790)
OS: Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
Available in: India (buy it on Flipkart)

Photo credit: BGR

Already making affordable handsets in India, Karbonn Mobiles is entering the affordable smartphone race by introducing the cheapest Android smartphone in India. While Android enjoys 80% of the smartphone market in India, according to Android’s Senior Vice President Sundar Pichai, less than 10% of the Indian population has access to smartphones. With its relatively low cost, Karbonn will attract first time smartphone buyers in remote places.

4. Spice Smart Flo Edge Mi-349 $47 (Rs. 2,845)
OS: Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread
Available in: India (buy it on Flipkart)

Photo credit: GSMArena

Joining Karbonn in providing the Indian consumers with another affordable smartphone is Spice Smart with its Flo Edge Mi-349. Spice Smart provides yet another option to the Indian population on the already popular Android platform.

5. MTN Steppa $48 (499 Rand)
OS: Customized Android 2.3 Gingerbread
Available in: South Africa (at the following stores: MTN stores, PEP, Foschini, Edcon, Truworths, Ackermans, John Craig, Woolworths, Rhino, Dunns)

Photo credit: TechCentral

Known as the most affordable smartphone in South Africa, MTN Steppa can be purchased in select stores for 499 Rand ($48). MTN Steppa is based on Qualcomm Reference Design Programme that allows any brand to produce their own brand device at a lower cost. MTN Steppa is yet another player in mobile companies’ race to make the most affordable smartphone.

Runner Ups
Beyond the Apple iPhones and Samsung Galaxies that dominate the smartphone market in the U.S., there are other smartphone providers that didn’t make it on this list. Honorable mentions include:

Micromax Bolt A27 smartphone in India for $50.
Walton C1 and D1 start at $55 in Bangladesh.
Nokia is still in the mobile game with its $92 Nokia Asha 503.
Motorola’s Moto Smart costs $99.

Are there other budget smartphones we missed here? How much quality can consumers expect from these low-cost phones? Are you interested in this topic of cheap smartphones and their applications in the developing world? Enroll now in our Mobiles for International Development online course.

Join us tomorrow, July 29th in Washington, DC for the ICT4Drinks International EdTech Happy Hour!

TechChange, Creative Associates, and Kurante are thrilled that Meg Adams, International Ambassador at Udemy, is headed to DC so we’ve decided to convene the educational technology community (especially those focused on international education) for a happy hour while she’s in town.

All are welcome to attend. Free drinks and appetizers will be provided for those that come early. We’ll also be giving away some TechChange cubebots. TechChange will also host the after party across the street at our office at 13th and U.

International EdTech Happy Hour
Let’s talk edtech in Washington, DC!

5:30 PM – 8:30 PM ET
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Alero Restaurant
1301 U St NW, Washington, DC 20009

RSVP here. Hope to see you there!

Photo credit: First Access

In the fight against poverty, microcredit has been hailed as one of the most successful tools invented to help enterprising men and women build wealth in the developing world. Access to small loans has certainly been a game changer for many low-income individuals. I have seen microcredit make a positive impact on real people through my work at TechnoServe, a non-profit committed to applying business solutions to alleviate poverty. In fact, many development organizations are dedicated to similar business-centric initiatives, helping entrepreneurs build successful businesses by connecting them with capital, networks, and skills training. This work is vital to reducing poverty, but these organizations do not have the capacity to help everyone in need. There are still 2.5 billion men and women around the world without basic financial services.

During a recent course I took with TechChange on Mobiles for International Development, I was very impressed by First Access, an SMS-based loan assessment tool. This technology has the potential to give the 2.5 billion adults without a formal bank account an instant credit history. With a credit history, these individuals would have the ability to take out a loan. First Access uses pre-paid mobile phone data to assess credit risk and deliver a loan recommendation via SMS to potential borrowers in just a few seconds. Instead of sending a financial representative to a potential borrower’s house to assess risk, the loan representative could simply send an SMS.

This technology is impressive because it uses already existing financial and demographic data registered with telecommunications companies to determine loan eligibility. It is a more objective, standardized system, unlike the current loan assessment technique in many developing nations, which can be based on the materials used to construct your house or the opinions of your neighbors. First Access benefits all parties, particularly financial institutions by saving them time and money cutting down on the cumbersome loan assessment process, as well as phone companies through increased data usage and customer loyalty.

By using the already aggregated data for the 6.3 billion active mobile subscriptions around the world, First Access is, in many ways, simply acting as a liaison between different parties. To make the technology successful, strong partnerships with financial institutions and telecommunications companies need to be established. The alignment of interests will be a huge obstacle in many markets. First Access has the most potential for success in Africa, as many African countries are already using mobile money programs, which should make borrowers less reluctant to adopt the technology. However, First Access could be dangerous in countries where political, religious, or ethnic tensions are prevalent, as the assessment process might be forced to deny some applicants and grant loans to others.

Financial institutions bear the biggest risk in using this new technology to assess credit eligibility. First Access is unclear about how the assessment process determines the loan award, simply stating it is based on demographic, geographic, financial, and social information. It seems borrowers could manipulate the process by artificially inflating their social networks or using someone else’s address. The potential for a mobile phone black-market is even more of risk. A strong mobile device fraud-assessment would need to be built into the financial assessment process. This could easily be negotiated with the telecommunications companies to help increase legitimate phone sales, as well as lowering the risk for financial institutions.

First Access could potentially connect over half of the world’s population to microcredit services through its convenient loan assessment process. It’s quick, easy to use, and it doesn’t require excessive outside intervention, or hands on training. For the first time, these billions of unbanked men and women would be given the opportunity to start a business with the click of a button. This technology is empowering people by giving financial institutions objective, standardized data. No longer will people be judged by the material of their roof, but the data stored by their phones.

Tessa Ruddy is a first-year graduate student at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. She is studying international development and conflict resolution and recently took TechChange’s Mobiles for International Development course. She is passionate about the impact of development work in pre and post conflict communities, particularly the use of SMS-based technology to connect people with financial services.

A group of girls in Zambia learn about Zambia U-Report (Photo credit: Mark Maseko – UNICEF 2013)

Information Communications Technology for Development (ICT4D) holds exciting promise, especially on the African continent where we have so many systemic problems that could benefit from different mindsets and new ways of looking for solutions. When I was making my first serious foray into the world of ICT4D in 2012, I first heard about TechChange courses from a friend. When I went to the website, I was very excited to see that they were offering courses that I had been trying to take and hadn’t been able to find anywhere, least of all in Zambia. My plan was to take one course in mHealth: Mobiles for Public Health but the course was so interactive and I learned so much from the course content, online sessions and other learners’ experiences that I ended up taking the following 3 courses in just about as many months!

The result: Zamba U-Report, a SMS-based youth counseling and engagement platform that allows young people to ask trained counselors questions, take part in polls and influence decision making at policy level.

Here are some of the lessons I have learned through my course work at TechChange and applying them to ICT4D in Zambia:

1. Validate the need for your solution
Before diving into an ICT4D solution, focus on the problem you’re addressing first and establish if there is a valid need for the solution. Too often, a tremendous amount of resources are wasted when people jump ahead to create a ICT4D solution first and then try to find a problem to wrap around it.

In building Zambia U-Report, we first identified the problem as high HIV infection rates among young people in Zambia.

2. Involve the end users
Make sure you’re not just building solutions from your desk at an office. The end user of the solution must be involved in the very initial design of the solution, and give feedback throughout the process of prototyping and quality assurance (QA). You would be surprised at how often the community you are trying to help may already know what needs to change to improve their lives.

After identifying Zambian youth affected by HIV, we then involved them in designing the U-Report SMS solution and coming up with the key strategic objectives. These young people regularly give feedback and are involved in any further planning or reviews of the programme. The first year of this program’s pilot in 2 provinces has seen 50,000 young people voluntarily sign up and engage the 24/7 trained counselors by asking them questions on HIV, STIs and other sexual reproductive health issues.

3. Invest in continuous learning to keep up with ICT4D issues
TechChange courses have enabled me to better articulate and sell the idea of using technology for development to my office and I was able to contribute to various projects including one I am very proud of, the Zambia U-Report (an SMS-based youth engagement and HIV counselling platform). I have since changed jobs from ICT Officer to Innovations/Technology for Development (T4D) Officer.

To get the most from these courses, students need to commit the time required to write the blogs, take part in class conversations, read recommended materials, and engage with the instructors and other participants. It is always interesting and there is always something new to be learned from the very diverse group of people you meet in any given TechChange course.

Of course, there are more lessons learned in implementing an ICT4D programme and I would like to engage other industry practitioners. Looking forward to taking the Technology for Monitoring and Evaluation course as it will tie in very well with my work with programs helping adolescents and young people!

Priscilla Chomba Kinywa is the Innovations and T4D Officer at UNICEF Zambia. She holds a BSc Business Computing, CCNA certification, a post-graduate Diploma in Business Administration and various certifications in using technology tools and skills for international development work including TC105: Mobiles for International Development, TC309: mHealth – Mobiles for Public Health, and TC103: Tech Tools and Skills for Emergency Management. Priscilla has more than 13 years’ experience in ICT, working with WFP for six years and UNICEF for seven. She has also supported the creation of different innovative solutions to challenges that face Zambian children, adolescents and women. Among these are Zambia U-report, a SMS-based youth counselling, engagement and participation platform that has over 58,000 young Zambians signed up; and Programme Mwana, an intervention that uses SMS to reduce the time it takes for HIV test results for infants to reach a mother in rural Zambia from the labs in Lusaka and Ndola. Also see Priscilla’s work highlighted earlier this year on UNICEF here.

TechChange Program Coordinator Matthew Heck explains technical aspects of Google Maps Engine to UN Summer Academy Director, Patrick van Weerelt (Photo: S5R3 / Simon Ruf).

In June 2014, TechChange Founder & CEO Nick Martin and Program Coordinator Matthew Heck conducted a training at the 2014 United Nations Summer Academy at the UN headquarters in New York City. 45 participants from across the UN system based in 25 different countries joined Nick, Matt, and TechChange Mobiles for International Development alumnus and guest expert, Arjen Swank of Text to Change in a hands-on workshop on “How to use innovation and technology for development”.

In the session, participants learned about and experimented with online tools for development including CommCare, Google Maps Engine, Magpi, Open Data Kit, and OpenStreetMap, Text to Change, TextIt, and more.

Here are some highlights from the workshop:

Nick Martin meets the participants of the 2014 UN Summer Academy and gives a quick introduction about TechChange and ICT4D.

TechChange TC105 alumnus Arjen Swank leads a workshop on TTC for the participants (Photo: S5R3 / Simon Ruf).

Check out Arjen’s latest blog post on the training and “Why basic mobile technology is still powerful” here and the UN’s summary of the event here.

In smaller break-out groups, Arjen Swank demos how Text to Change can be used via tablet (Photo: S5R3 / Simon Ruf).

UN Summer Academy participants experiment with OpenStreetMap (Photo: S5R3 / Simon Ruf).

If your organization is interested in training with TechChange online or in-person on technology for social change, please contact us at info [at] techchange [dot] org.