Zero Mothers Die is featured in a Live Q&A discussion hosted by The Guardian on the topic of whether technology could accelerate progress towards the MDGs, alongside great mobile for development initiatives such as M-Pesa:
Projects such as Zero mothers die, have sought to improve maternal and child mortality rates, by using mobile phones to disseminate vital information to communities lacking in health infrastructure. In agriculture, providers such as IKSL have used a similar technology to share useful market and crop information with 1.3 million farmers across 18 states of India. In Kenya and Tanzania, M Pesa has successfully enabled millions of individuals left out of the conventional banking system, to deposit and withdraw money on a mobile phone.
The panel for the discussion included many seasoned development professionals:
PanelDanny Sriskandarajah, secretary general, Civicus, Johannesburg, South Africa. @civicusSG
Danny is head of Civicus a global alliance of civil society working on Data Shift, which aims to use technology to improve social accountability.
Delia Lloyd, senior policy manager, BBC Media Action, London, UK. @realdelia
Delia works at BBC Media Action, where they have been using a wide variety of technology in their projects.
Ida Jeng, director of global communication and strategy, Refugees United, Nairobi, Kenya. @idajeng
Ida works at Refugees United, a nonprofit organisation that aims to reconnect separated refugee families through mobile.
Andrew G Mandelbaum, director of programmes, SimSim-Participation Citoyenne, Rabat, Morocco. @SimSimPCM
Andrew works at SimSim, a civil society organisation that uses technology to help citizens participate in public decision-making.
Monica Cuba Iriarte, communicatons chief, Bolivia, Practical Action Bolivia, La Paz, Bolivia. @PracticalAction
As head of communications, Monica has a particular interest in technology, education and environmental conservation.
Arvin Bunker, senior food security advisor, Crown Agents USA, Kansas City, US. @crownagents
Previous to his current role, Arvin has worked on smart-card based technology for agriculture and rural sector finance.
Ranjit Devraj, regional coordinator for South Asia, SciDev.Net , New Delhi, India. @SciDevNet_SA
Ranjit is the South Asia regional coordinator and formerly Asia Pacific regional editor for the Inter Press Service news agency.
Raul Zambrano, senior policy advisor, UNDP, New York City, US. @raulza
Raúl is the senior policy adviser in the ICT for development and e-governance team at the UNDP in New York.
Samia Melhem, lead policy officer, World Bank Washington D.C. US. @WorldBank
Samia provides technical advise on egovernment and ICT for public sector management at a global scale at the World Bank Group.
Read the results of the discussion in the comments of the article here: http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2014/may/09/technology-mdgs-development-live-chat
