Advancing Development with Mobile Phone Locational Data : Improving the Effectiveness of Assistance

Haddad, Ryan ; Kelly, Timothy ; Leinonen, Teemu ; Saarinen, Vesa

World Bank Group, Washington, DC

关键词: USERS;    BUS ROUTES;    PHONE;    TECHNOLOGY;    BUS;   

RP-ID  :  96230

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Mobile phones, and especiallysmartphones, are opening new ways to assess and improveassistance and the delivery of basic services in thedeveloping world. Each year, developing countries see anannual gain of about 500 million new smartphones, virtuallyall of which generate not only call data records but also,with their GPS and Wi-Fi capabilities, a rich set of moreprecise data on location and movement. The rapid diffusionof the phones and the locational data they generate arehelping fuel the science of delivery, the evidence-based,experimental approach to project assessment and improvement.The technology is finding an expanding variety of uses.Recent examples involving transport and logistics include:transit route mapping in Abidjan; supply chain managementfor community health workers in Malawi; transport planningin Cote d’Ivoire; and malaria tracking in Kenya. A notableand more impromptu use arose after a tsunami hit Japan inMarch 2011. Health care authorities used call data records(CDRs) generated by mobile phones to track the evacuationfrom the vicinity of the damaged Fukushima nuclear powerplant. They then meshed the CDRs with health records tooptimize the delivery of needed emergency health treatment.