scholarly journals Mobile Phone Ecosystems and the Informal Sector in Developing Countries - Cases from Jamaica

Author(s):  
Stephen C. Johnson ◽  
Dhanaraj Thakur
Author(s):  
Laura Stark

This chapter surveys and analyzes recent literature on mobile communication to examine its relationship to gender and development, more specifically how women in developing countries use and are impacted by mobile phones. Focusing on issues of power, agency, and social status, the chapter reviews how mobile telephony has been found to be implicated in patriarchal bargaining in different societies, how privacy and control are enabled through it, what benefits have been shown to accrue to women using mobile phones, and what barriers, limitations, and disadvantages of mobile use exist for women and why. The conclusion urges more gender-disaggregated analysis of mobile phone impact and use and offers policy and design recommendations based on the overview and discussion.


2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (4I-II) ◽  
pp. 825-840
Author(s):  
Hidayat Ullah Khan ◽  
Takashi Kurosaki

The approach of community-based development (CBD) is expected to improve targeting and reduce programme costs of poverty reduction policies, besides other positive contributions [Mansuri and Rao (2004)]. 1 Furthermore, the use of local knowledge is expected to bear greater relevance in a situation where credible monetary data for potential use in targeting activities are not available. According to Alatas, et al. (2012), in developing countries—where the majority of potential target group is employed in the informal sector—the availability of verifiable income records is always an issue. Therefore, it is difficult to identify target groups by employing conventional targeting techniques such as means tests. For these reasons, identification through the CBD approach is expected to improve targeting.


2018 ◽  
pp. 1706-1735

We have argued in Chapters 1-3 that the construction industry in developing countries is dominated by the strong presence of SMEs and “jobbers”. The informal sector workers constitute the essential provider of human resources construction industry. So far, the weaknesses of the construction industry in developing countries have been identified. As a result, various decision models were proposed for largely improving labor cost management and scheduling (time) with the aim of improving productivity. In a single volume like this, it is unrealistic to cover all aspects to improve performance. This chapter will now provide ideas on how quality of projects can also be improved so as to maintain a balance between cost, time and quality. Furthermore, the management of onsite workshops that can lead to construction productivity will be examined.


Author(s):  
Gohar Feroz Khan ◽  
Junghoon Moon

Electronic government, or e-Government, is the practice of providing public services to citizens, businesses, and other government agencies where government services can be accessed through the Internet, mobile phone, fax, mail, telephone, and personal visits (MGAHA, 2005). Developing countries, utilizing the late comer advantage, are mimicking trends of paperless governments with the expectations to reap the same benefits enjoyed by developed countries. However, e-Government initiatives have not always been successful in developing countries. According to the study conducted by Heeks (2003), the rate of e-Government success in developing countries was only 15 percent. The authors believe that such failures are mainly due to certain unique social, economic, technological, and environmental challenges faced by e-Government in developing countries. For example, some major issues include digital divide, political instability, and skills-related issues. However, the research dealing with these problems is limited. Therefore, in this chapter, the authors discuss these challenges.


Author(s):  
Mubarak S. Almutairi

In developing countries like the Saudi Arabia, due to high mobile phone penetration rates, any electronic government initiatives that don’t take mobile technology into account will eventually fail. While the number of landline phones and internet subscribers are growing steadily over the past few years, the number of mobile phone users and its penetration rates are skyrocketing. In the near future and with the many mobile phone features, mobile phones will remain the main media of communication and a main source for providing information to citizens and customers.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Sheikh Taher Abu

Japan has experienced two developmental stages in the mobile telephony innovation since 1979 when the first mobile phone was commercially launched. The stages can be identified as traditional mobile phone with only voice function and mobile phone with IP (Internet Protocol). This paper discusses how mobile phone with IP function offers diversified services, influences people’s daily lives by changing their ways of communication, and interaction by adopting mobile broadband. The paper examines key economic, technology and policy factors based on monthly datasets from 2000-2007 in the provision of both second (2G) and third generation (3G) mobile phones adoption. Particularly, the study uses a linear regression model and presents extended and reduced models using the Pearson correlation method. The results of the empirical study examine how innovations in services contribute to the mobile broadband deployment in Japan. Main findings of this study suggest policy and strategy implications for developing countries which are adopting IP functionality in mobile phones. The paper also presents brief recommendations for India’s 3G mobile phone adoptions in terms of opportunities, challenges, and policies which drive on growth.


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