The Mobile Revolution

In Ghana, it just takes a text message to buy life insurance. In Bangalore, India, urban sex workers receive automated voicemails informing them about critical health issues, microfinance loan deadlines, and vocational training opportunities. In Kenya, 55 percent of adults use mobile phones to make cash transfers—from electricity bills to school fees—using a technology called M-PESA.

Mobile phones are revolutionizing international development and social change. Already, governments, non-profits, businesses, and everyday citizens are leveraging vast mobile phone networks in many countries to promote social development in innovative ways. Perhaps most important, these mobile networks have the potential to reach marginalized populations, especially in rural areas, and to provide them with transformative new opportunities.