Cell Phones Bring Higher Incomes, Other Benefits to Lower-Income Workers

When former U.S. President Bill Clinton wanted to show this week how technology can help lower-income earners in the developing world – he didn’t look any further than cell phones.In a speech at Georgetown University, Clinton explained how fishermen use cell phones to find the best markets for their daily catch.

Such an example was provided by Philanthropy Action about the fishing sector in the northern part of Kerala state located in southern India.

In the past, fishermen would bring the catch to whatever market was closest. “The result was that some regional markets had abundant supplies of fish at rock-bottom prices, while others had more demand and higher prices,” the report said.

That began to change in 1997 when fishermen began acquiring cell phones. Once they had cell phones, they could check in with several markets to see which would offer them the highest prices. The fishermen got 8 percent more. That paid for the cell phone and cell phone service in two months.

In addition, the way the markets worked out more efficiently, average prices for fish paid by consumers dropped 4 percent.

There are similar benefits from cell phones seen in Africa. Farmers and veterinarians across Africa are increasingly using cell phones to issue alerts about possible disease outbreaks and to track animal vaccinations, MobilityTechzone reported. Also, prices of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides are found out by farmers in Africa using their cell phones. They can now get better deals. In addition, farmers get information via their phones about the weather and farming practices.

“A marriage between agriculture and mobile phone technology is putting critical information at a farmer's fingertips,” MobilityTechzone reported.

Improvements in healthcare are also found by using cell phones in lower-income remote regions.

“In low-income regions, mobile phone-based tools can improve the scope and efficiency of field health workers,” according to a recent report from the U.S. National Institute of Health. “They can also address challenges in monitoring and supervising a large number of geographically distributed health workers.”