Mobile Phones and Development: The Future in New Hands?

Issue #69 of id21 insights examines the difference mobile phone ownership by the economically poor can make in terms of economic development. It gathers a collection of articles on various aspects of mobile phone applications. It offers evidence of the incremental benefits of mobile phone access in an article in which author Ananya Raihan describes use of mobile phones to deliver information to Bangladeshi villagers, often to those from particularly excluded groups or locations. An article by Jonathan Donner summarises one area of promise of benefits termed transformational: 'm-banking', which is allowing wider access to banking and other financial services. The issue cites production benefits that come not from using but from selling mobiles and related services. One example is the creation of new livelihoods for women running each Grameen Village PayPhone in Bangladesh.

Daniel Miller reports on the various impacts of mobile phone use on different groups in Jamaica, demonstrating inequalities and differentiated uses between the employed and the unemployed. Abi Jagun's article shows that mobile ownership has benefited producers in Nigeria's informal textile sector, increasing their trade at the expense of those who lack access to mobile telephony. Kutoma Wakunuma traces the interplay of mobiles with husband-wife relations, describing how phones have become a new means for expression of an old story: the oppression of women by men.

The issue also discusses policy and includes an article by Tim Kelly who discusses some of the policy lessons that should be learned including the following: "Liberal policies and private business will work for the majority of mobile service delivery. But they must be combined with government intervention and regulation to ensure the poorest people are not excluded."