Peace and Social Entrepreneurship through Mobile Phones in Afghanistan

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Peace and Social Entrepreneurship through Mobile Phones in Afghanistan

Ashoka Yobo Member
July 9th, 2010

Nick Martin is the Founder of TechChange and Executive Director of the US Association for the University for Peace (UPEACE/US). Read all of Nick’s blog posts.

On June 24th my new organization TechChange co-hosted an event with the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) entitled: Can You Help Me Now? Mobile Phones and Peacebuilding In Afghanistan. The event featured panelists who were country experts on Afghanistan, members from the Afghan telecommunications company Roshan, policy makers from the US department of State, Department of Defense and USAID, and a number of technology for development innovators.

According to the representative from Roshan, just over half of all Afghan homes had mobile phones as of 2009—44 percent in rural areas—and one percent of Afghans are now using text messaging to get news at least once per week. Some 1.2 billion dollars is being poured into Afghanistan’s Telecommunications industry, which sees over 12 million mobile users—a dramatic increase from 150,000 users in 2007.

This was the first time so many distinguished key players had been assembled to explore this issue and it was really fascinating to see the interplay among individuals from these different sectors. For another post about the event by one of my colleagues at TechChange on our blog, click here.

TechChange will be working with USIP to produce a detailed follow up special report on the many themes and action items that emerged. But there were two working examples that I thought were particularly relevant to the intersection of peace and social entrepreneurship:

1. Community-level social entrepreneurship for cell tower security: the representative from Roshan shared a story about how the cell phone company originally thought that the best way to protect cell towers in zones of conflict was to increase numbers of armed security guards. This model proved to be expensive and ineffective so they shifted from a security model to a community engagement model. Roshan decided to let the community members take control of security. In exchange, Roshan shared the excess power generated by their solar-powered towers with surrounding homes and businesses and developed a revenue sharing model with the community so that if their towers were operational they saw a percentage of the profit. This proved to be hugely successful for both the company and the community. I think this kind of model for corporate-community financial and security interdependence is an exciting one with lots of potential to help bring peace through social entrepreneurship. The key though is that companies must have confidence to support these strategies.

2. Afghanistan mobile banking pilot projects: Mobile banking is a critical practice that can make a huge difference in restoring stability to Afghanistan. This mobile technology allows users to withdraw money, pay bills, buy groceries through e-currency, etc. Pilot projects have not only eliminated significant corruption but also reduced intermediary time and resources needed to transfer money, handle payroll and provide security. After listening to her speak I couldn’t help but think of many ways providing financial inclusion to the very poor has huge potential for citizen driven social entrepreneurship to take hold.

My next few posts will highlight different emerging and ongoing technical efforts that grow from social entrepreneurship beginnings to effectively build peace. So stay tuned!

This story originally appeared at the Ashoka Peace Blog