Mobile Database: An ICT4D Archive

Between 2003 and 2010, kiwanja.net tracked hundreds of early experiments in mobile technology for international development – many before ICT4D was a familiar term – and years before most NGOs had given mobile phones a second thought. The Mobile Database is the record of that moment: 741 projects, articles and reports gathered from the field, spanning health, agriculture, governance, conservation, human rights and more, across more than 90 countries.

Crucially, records were stored as PDFs in the knowledge that websites and pages would disappear over time. So, unlike other historical resources, the database remains complete. Some of the tools listed here are still household names in the sector. Most were quietly influential and then forgotten. A handful never got past the pilot stage. Together they tell the story of how a whole field of practice got started, one text message, one pilot project and one stubborn idea at a time.

The Archive at a Glance

• 741 entries drawn from project reports, articles and case studies collected between 2003 and 2010
• 90 countries represented with the heaviest concentration in Africa (293 entries) and Asia-Pacific (162)
• Entry types: 456 articles, 190 reports, 95 standalone projects
• Leading themes including economic development (234), governance and political participation (121), health (126), human rights (49), conservation (42), agriculture (43) and education (34)
• Most represented countries: South Africa (58), India (54), Kenya (36), Uganda (21), the USA and UK (20 each) and Nigeria and Ghana (15 each)

Highlights from the Archive

A handful of entries that capture the range and the ambition of what the Mobile Database holds – some famous, some obscure, but many of them worth a look:

• Ushahidi. The crowdsourced crisis-mapping platform born out of the 2007–2008 Kenyan post-election violence, later used around the world from Haiti to Libya.
• FrontlineSMS. Free, offline text-messaging software designed to run from a laptop and a basic GSM phone, giving grassroots organisations SMS capability without the internet.
• Cell-Life. A South African mHealth service using mobile phones to support HIV/AIDS patients on antiretroviral treatment, tracked here across three separate database entries as the project evolved.
• Grameen Village Phone. The microfinance-and-mobile model that let women borrowers in Bangladesh become their village’s shared phone operator.
• SIMpill. A pill bottle that texted a central server every time it was opened, one of the earliest mobile medication-adherence tools.
• mPedigree. A Ghana-based service letting patients text a code to verify whether their medicine was genuine or counterfeit.
• DrumNet. A Kenyan initiative connecting smallholder farmers to markets, financing and information.
• Kenya Agricultural Commodity Exchange (KACE). A market-information service linking agricultural buyers and sellers on price and supply.

Key Benefits & Use Cases

• Academic & historical value. For students, historians and international development researchers, the database is an indispensable repository. It aggregates academic articles, field reports and anecdotal data from an era when solid impact metrics for mobile health (mHealth) and mobile banking were difficult to find
• Centralised project tracking. It serves as a ‘one-stop shop’ that compiles hundreds of early tech-for-good case studies. These include legendary grassroots innovations such as crowdsourced crisis platform Ushahidi, the microfinance-driven Grameen Village Phone, and our own offline text-messaging software, FrontlineSMS
• Cross-sector insights. The database makes it easy to study the foundational architecture of mobile solutions across diverse fields like healthcare (e.g. SIMpill for medication adherence), agriculture (e.g. DrumNet connecting farmers to markets) and product verification (e.g. mPedigree fighting counterfeit medicine)

Explore by Theme

The archive naturally sorts into a handful of recurring subject areas:

• Health. From HIV/AIDS treatment support (Cell-Life) to medication adherence (SIMpill) and counterfeit-drug detection (mPedigree)
• Agriculture and markets. Market-information and farmer-to-buyer platforms such as DrumNet, KACE and B2Bpricenow.com
• Governance, rights and crisis response. Election monitoring, human-rights reporting and crisis mapping, including Ushahidi
• Livelihoods and microfinance. Mobile-enabled income and access models such as the Grameen Village Phone programme
• Conservation. Early mobile tools supporting wildlife and environmental monitoring
• Communication infrastructure. SMS gateways and messaging platforms, including FrontlineSMS, that underpinned many of the projects mentioned here

A NOTE ON ORIGINAL DATA SOURCES

The Mobile Database is a historical archive, not a current directory, so many of the organisations, tools and links here are 15 to 20 years old, and some no longer exist in their original form. As a result, please be aware that many of the ‘original source’ links may no longer work.

Browse the Archive

All 741 catalogued entries can be found below. You can search by keyword, or click a column heading to sort. Each title links to the full entry.