Tag Archives: Evaluation

Development Projects, Evaluation, Service Design

Evaluating the Use of Mobile Phones for Access to Price Information in Ghana

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Here is an interview with Mohammed Mounouni of SAND, Ghana recoreded on 19 March 2009. He reflects on the monitoring and impact evaluation of the use of mobile market information services such as the services TradeNet and Esoko implemented via the MISTOWA project. Mr. Mounouni hopes new developments in the Esoko platform will make farmer’s feedback easier and suggests they should not pay credit time when they do so. Mr. Mounouni emphasises the importance of fieldwork with African farmers, investigating their use of market information.

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Having researched invormation behaviour, I agree particularly strongly with this point. With the current surge in the development of mobile Intenet services I think it is essential that forthcoming ICT4D projects are needs-based and take into account information use. Otherwise, the development community is in danger of proliferating technology for its own sake.

In another interview available through the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) blog the software developer David McCann of Busylab, Ghana introduces the new Esoko platform which builds on the efforts dedicated to the implementation of the TradeNet Web based platform. The Esoko technology includes an SMS gateway with a centralised computing power in combination with an extendable mobile application.

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Development Projects

IDPM’s Impact Assessment Compendium

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compendiumThis week the Development Informatics Group from the School of Development Policy and Management (IDPM) in the University of Manchester publicised and made available a  “Compendium on Impact Assessment of ICT-for-Development Projects”.

Parts of the Compendium appear highly relevant to the assessment of projects looking to implement the use of mobile technology within the context of marketplaces in developing countries. As far as I am aware many such efforts have followed the Project Goals methodology outlined in Section 2 of the Compendium, meaning that projects have followed a rather straightforward impact assessment involving the measurement of indicators consistent with the project goals.

Having been involved with theoretical Economics for a long time I find myself drawn to Cost-Benefit Analysis and Information Economics as evaluation methodologies for the impact assessment of projects oriented towards the development of technology-based marketplaces. Nonetheless, all of the eleven frameworks elaborated on in the Compendium have their relevance and application. I would be eager to hear your opinions on the matter. Which framework do you favour for the evaluation of  implementations of information technology in commodity markets in the developing country context?