A few weeks ago, Iulian Circo, who’s working at Population Services International (PSI) in Mozambique, asked if I’d look at some slides about an idea called ‘Movercado’. I checked it out and it seems pretty cool.
Movercado is described as “an interpersonal communication experiment” with the goal of supporting behavior change communication (BCC) in large countries with poor infrastructure.
The problem that Movercado would address?
‘Taking behavioral messages above the line (TV, Radio, Mass media) doesn’t really work beyond the all important effect of creating awareness. Organizations such as PSI know that very well and focus a lot on inter-personal communication. That means we need a critical mass of trained “agents” placed throughout the country that conduct standardized information, education and communication sessions in their communities. Obviously, supervising, training and deploying such an army of “agents” is difficult, slow and very costly. Additionally, efforts to ensure quality and keeping the training materials up to date adds to the costs. Finally, reaching the critical mass required to have an impact with this traditional model in a large country is very difficult.’
Enter Movercado, which aims to facilitate this process through a series of face-to-face training, SMS, calls, incentives, data collection and personalized messaging with agents and the target population.
There is a step-by-step detailed description on the Movercado blog, but since I don’t know the context well, it was confusing at first. So Iulian created a quick user scenario and had a friend draw up the visual below to help with understanding the process and flow of the application:
How would Movercado work?
‘Manuel lives in Beira, Sofala Province. He sells airtime and cigarettes nearby the port and is always looking for more business opportunities. He also goes to school at night. One day he sees an announcement in the papers about an inter-personal communication training offered by PSI, that will allow him to supplement his income. He registers for the training.
I think the idea has merit. My main concern is the still low mobile phone penetration rate and skill levels in Mozambique. The ITU reports only 31 mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants (likely lower in rural areas), an adult literacy rate of 55%, and the country has low network coverage. It is currently ranked 141st out of 152 in terms of ICT access, 135th in terms of use and 147th in terms of ICT skills by the ITU. So the idea would need to be supplemented by other approaches to reach the majority of the population (something Movercado aware of too, of course).
Iulian has written up some other potential risks to the idea, such as quality assurance control and the possibility that people would try to game the system.
I think it’s a really interesting model. What do others think?
Wait... What? 
Linda: again, thanks having a look at this idea and for the feedback (both here and in our email exchange).
Just wanted to take the opportunity to quickly address the issue of mobile coverage/ penetration in Mozambique, and how much of a limiter that is to us.
Obviously, from the very beginning we spent a lot of time brainstorming around this, looking at the data etc. Coverage is low, at times patchy and penetration is a concern.
However, the first counter-intuitive fact we noticed is the quality of penetration: according to this research: http://www.audiencescapes.org/country-profiles/mozambique-who-and-what-mobile-phone-market-mozambique-mcel-vodacom-SMS-tariff-profile, it turns out that the highest penetration (46.2%) is among “skilled manual laborers” – definitely a high priority population for us at PSI.
Then, the latest comprehensive data we have on mobile coverage is from 2009. Three years in mobile is a long time, and chances are the coverage and penetration will continue to grow.
But beyond the exponential growth in coverage and penetration, there are at least two other strong arguments that make us think we should proceed nonetheless:
1. one has to do with the possible role of cellphones in people’s daily routines. Just as elsewhere the cellphone has long left its humble initial role behind (who in the US or Europe uses their phone only to call up people for voice conversations?), i believe that even in rural Mozambique there may come a point when the cellphone will be perceived as more than a way to chat with people. Accessing information on markets, on availability of medicines (particularly if HIV positive but also when suffering from other, even non-communicable conditions), etc may be an added benefit – providers along with us in the aid world, may want to use that insight and facilitate people’s access to cellphones (at a lower cost than what we are currently spending to reach some of these people).
2. the second one has to do with segmentation. Simply put, we know where Movercado can be used and we make the most out of that fact to better target messages, while continuing traditional services elsewhere.
Given the importance of these concerns, I have tried to detail some of these arguments here: http://movercado.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/a-risky-exercise-in-futurology-how-important-are-mobile-coverage-penetration/
Thanks again for the feedback and am looking forward to hear other reactions, comments, suggestions etc.
iulian
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Sounds like a really interesting project. I’d like to read more about it as it continues. I agree with the risks outlined by Linda, Iulian and others and am happy to hear they are being considered seriously as outlined in Iulian’s post:
“Mostly, people are worried that there is not enough cellphone coverage in Mozambique to make this platform work, or they are worried that the unequal coverage will lead to an unequal (and unfair) distribution of our messages, mostly with leaving out the poorest of the poor, who presumably are the ones who live in areas without coverage or, if they leave in areas with coverage, cannot afford a cellphone.”
This is something we struggle with in our work as well (with mobile phone and internet coverage among marginalized communities) however like Iulian outlines, the growth trends are exponential and we are also optimistic about the future!
The risks and concerns outlined by Linda and Iulian are legit. From what I saw in rural Mozambique, cell phone use and user capacity has grown since 2009, especially among village business(wo)men. As recent as August 2011, it was common to see phone #s permanently posted on community market stores and stalls for potential customers to call to do business after-hours (everything from bakeries, used clothing, car parts, dvd burning, latrine diggers, carpenters, etc). Some of your “high priority populations” def included in there.
Unfortunately, with this growth has been major coverage issues (often times a complete collapse for extended periods) from service providers Mcel and Vodacom. If the 5mtn is only valid with one provider it could limit usability in areas where coverage isn’t as strong. I’m sure this has come up. We’ll see how the introduction of Moz’s 3rd mobile provider will mix things up in 2012.
Of course, I look forward to hearing about Movercado’s progress as well. Is its platform going to be solely based on community health issues or is that just the primary focus for the first roll out?
Sounds like micro-results-based-financing! Instead of at the level of a big government agency, at the level of every person in the chain who should be reached, directly. I wonder if a similar model could be applied to public servants within the framework of bilateral agreements or basket funding.