Mobile Phones, Livelihoods and the Poor in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Review and Prospect

Abstract

This review paper focuses on the potential of widespread access to mobile phones for improving the lives of poor people: the opportunities that mobile phones have already provided, or may soon present, for enhancing their material well‐being. Following a broad review of the diffusion of mobile phones across Africa, discussion is restricted principally to one key issue, livelihoods, due to space constraints. Attention is paid to the linkages between virtual and physical mobility throughout the paper and the final section reflects specifically on possible interactions between expanded virtual mobility and sustainable transportation in the continent, an issue of considerable significance for future development potential in our increasingly carbon‐constrained world.

Mobile Phones and Mental Well-Being: Initial Evidence Suggesting the Importance of Staying Connected to Family in Rural, Remote Communities in Uganda

“…This suggests that households without family nearby might rely on the phone as a way of staying connected to distant family members and may use it to make requests for help, as we also found that those with phones made significantly more requests for assistance from others than those without phones. These findings are supported by other work, hypothesizing that the maintenance of distant family networks through phone contact is a very important purpose of mobile phones, particularly in poor, remote settings [38], where many families are ‘stretched’ across rural and urban in an effort to diversify economic activities. Results of a study on gendered geographies of cell phone usage and significance in rural Kenya revealed that women who had family far away from where they lived used cell phones as a cheap and fast means of staying connected with their family which ensured peace of mind [39].…”

4. Willingness to pay for market information received by mobile phone among smallholder pineapple farmers in Benin

“…With respect to these issues, much has been written on the role of information and communication technologies in Africa with a special focus on factors that affect the spread of mobile coverage and the impact of mobile phone use on pro-poor labour market access, employment creation and health care (Aker, 2008;Bosch, 2009;Brouwer and Brito, 2012;Buys et al, 2009;Lawson-Body et al, 2011;Maranto and Phang, 2010;Porter, 2012;Porter et al, 2012). However, most of these studies did not investigate the perceptions of the subscribers and the premiums they are willing to pay for a sustainable use of the mobile phone as a device to access market information in rural and peri-urban areas.…”

Taking Profit from the Growing Use of Mobile Phone in Benin: A Contingent Valuation Approach for Market and Quality Information Access

“…Much has also been written on the role of ICTs in Africa, with a special focus on factors that affect the spread of mobile coverage and the impact of the mobile phone use on pro-poor labor market access, employment creation and health-care (Aker, 2008;Bosch, 2009;Brouwer & Brito, 2012;Buys, Dasgupta, Thomas, & Wheeler, 2009;Lawson-Body, Willoughby, Keengwe, & Mukankusi, 2011;Maranto & Phang, 2010;Porter, 2012;Porter et al, 2012). Donner (2008) and Aker and Mbiti (2010) argued that economic research on smallholders' adoption and use of mobile phones in less-developed countries has been limited, while in Uganda, Muto and Yamano (2009) found an increased sales of banana in remote communities after the expansion of mobile phone coverage.…”