Grameen Foundation has received Shs7 billion from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support agricultural technology, healthcare, and also improve access of information services by rural farmers in Uganda and Ghana.

The grant aims at breaking communication barriers among farmers. That way, it will encourage efforts to shift from subsistence to commercial farming.

A team of experts from Grameen Foundation’s technology centre will partner with researchers from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health to carry out constant surveys in agriculture and health.

“Mobile devices are fast becoming the channel for sharing a wide range of information and knowledge across the developing world, but the focus has been more on high-end devices,” said Alex Counts, President and CEO of Grameen Foundation. “We hope our initiatives in Ghana and Uganda will show how basic mobile phones can be tools for providing services that benefit the rural poor and other disadvantaged communities.”

Community workers will use mobile phones to disseminate critical agricultural information to farmers, link them to markets and other key resources and collect information about the communities’ needs.”  Farmers however say that their biggest problem is the transport network, which makes it difficult for them to move their produce to markets.  The health sector is bound to applaud the initiative.

“One application will allow nurses, who currently spend roughly 30% of their time entering patient information into paper-based reports, to collect and transmit data more efficiently using their mobile phones,” said the statement. “This will allow them to spend more time providing primary care services to patients, and will also give the Ghana Health Service more timely and accurate information that will help improve the quality and efficiency of the healthcare system.”

Grameen Foundation is a Washington, D.C-based global non-profit organisation that combines microfinance, technology, and innovation to empower the world’s poorest people to escape poverty. Its global microfinance network and technology initiatives reach an estimated 45 million people in 28 countries across Asia, Africa and the Americas.

More about Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation:  http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx