Archive
- Seasons greetings and happy new year from IMS
- 10 years of media support around the world
- Forging a path to democracy in Malawi
- Investigative reporters in Brazil win award for uncovering US$ 400 million fraud
- Corruption in the name of God - an investigative report
- Bhutan Media Development Assessment 2010
- New angles on media and the Arab Spring
- New and social media require new approaches in media support
- Partnership approach key to development aid impact
- Covering the Arab Spring: A conference on the media's role in the protests
- Biljana Tatomir appointed IMS Director of Programme Strategy and Policy
- Lars Bestle named IMS Director of Programme Implementation
- IMS and AMARC formalise working relationship
- No justice for journalists in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia
- Media and security forces continue cooperation in Guinea
- Surge in investigative journalism for post-Mubarak media
- IMS launches Media Frontiers
- Conflict sensitive journalism: Moving towards a holistic framework
- Conflict sensitive journalism revisited
- IFEX Statement on Egypt
- The soul of IMS captured in an image
- Ukraine Parliament must adopt crucial access to information law- Ukraine version
- Safety of journalists
- Freedom of Expression under Fire - Seminar
- Programme for "Freedom of Expression under Fire" seminar
- Seminar on the safety of journalists, 24 October
- Honduras: Impunity and attacks against the media and journalists continue
- Annual Report 2009
- IMS annual report 2009
- Guinean media set for more freedom ahead of June elections
- A meeting of investigative minds
- The Problem? A Chaos of good intentions
- Documentary filmmaking – a report from Alexandria
- Freedom of Expression in Honduras - Press Statement, Spanish version
- Report, International Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression Mission to Honduras, January 2010
- Honduras on a path to 'media war'
- Haiti Map 24 January 2009
- Vacancy: Deputy Director for Finance and Administration
- Vacancy: Programme Assistant for Media and Conflict Unit
- Earth Journalism Awards Ceremony, 14 December 2009
- IMS folder
- Service providers use cell phones to reach vast markets in rural Africa
- Presentation by Stine Lund, Wired Mothers, "Mobiles in Africa", 13 Nov.2009
- Presentation by Magnus Jerkfelt, Flexenclosure, "Mobiles in Africa", 13 Nov.2009
- Presentation by Thomas Krag, Refugees United, Denmark, "Mobiles in Africa", 13 Nov 2009
- Knud Erik Skouby, Professor, University of Aalborg, Denmark, "Mobiles in Africa", 13 Nov.2009
- Presentation John West, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, "Mobiles in Africa", 13 Nov.2009
- Programme - Conference on mobile phones in Africa-Nov09
- Mobile phones in Africa - Conference, 13 November
- Crisis feeding off polarized media in Honduras
Service providers use cell phones to reach vast markets in rural Africa
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Mobile phones offering multiple services have a bright future in Africa, as new mobile technologies bypass conventional ways of trading, lending money and other services. "Africa is taking the lead", said one of the speakers optimistically at a conference organised jointly by IMS and The Society for Third World Issues, a technological network under the Danish Association of Engineers
Banking services, monitoring growth of infant babies or checking price developments to find the best time to buy or sell - all done through a cell phone. These are some of the new opportunities offered to people in rural Africa, thanks to recent developments in the field of communication technology, borne by mobile networks.
The reason? Between 2003-8 mobile phone use in Africa grew by 500 percent - that is faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world, said Knud Erik Skouby, professor at the University of Aalborg, Denmark, said at the conference organised by the Society for Third World Issues of IDA and IMS jointly. As a consequence, companies are using mobile phones to get access to potential clients, that nevere before could get access through conventional service providers.
Africa needs mobile technology
Before, commodities of modern living were reserved to the urban areas of Africa - if at all, whereas people in rural areas had little access to any services at all. All this is changing.
Herman Kojo Chiery-Hesse, a software engineer by profession and today Chairman of Black Star Line in Ghana presented a tool to bring Africa into the global markets:
- Essentially, we have set up ShopAfrica53.com, an African eBay or Paypall system on the Internet, where we are signing up a bunch of African merchants predominantly from rural Africa, so that they can start trading with the world.
Hesse, who has been awarded several times for his entrepreneurship talked enthusiastically about his vision for online trading in Africa, saying that his enterprise builds on the idea that Africa's poverty stems from the fact that the ordinary African has really never had a chance to engage in a commercial fashion with the rest of the world:
Click on the video window to hear Hesse:
Hesse also pointed to the social and political implications of proliferating mobile network in Africa:
- Imagine a network of millions of Africans, who are the breadwinners. They all become accessible through text messages; they have opinions and issues they want to share. In turn, policy will have to become rational to get the votes of these people. Governments must justify the bills and acts and respond to criticism, he envisioned.
New technology should be treated like invasive species
Among the other presenters, Jussi Impiö from Nokia Research Centre in Kenya gave a thought-provoking presentation about the "Bright and Dark Vision of Mobiles for Development". Impiö pointed to the need for careful thinking when introducing new technologies in unknown territory. Comparing to the working methods of biologists, Impiö said that when assessing the possible impacts of introducing new species in a strange environment, a long list of questions are raised concerning the possible negative impact.
- When it comes to introducing new technology, we only ask: is it sustainable? He said jokingly.
For Jane Møller Larsen, programme coordinator in IMS and specialized in ICT, the conference was a reminder that techonological fixes do not do the trick alone. Many speakers talked about the legal challenges and 'politics' that need to be overcome for new technologies to reach the beneficiaries.
In relation to IMS' work in the field of ICTs, she welcomed the opportunity offered to IMS for co-hosting this conference as a means to interact with the technological fields and experts providing some of the media platforms that media around the world are currently testing as conveyers of news.
Other presentations:
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