How Mobile Technology Can Help Fight Hunger in East Africa

The answer to the problem of hunger in East Africa can be the proper harnessing of mobile technology for the purpose of preventing disasters and helping people recover from disasters.

Some parts of East Africa are usually affected by droughts and floods time and again which result to hunger.

Preventing Disasters

Disasters can be prevented if people get the right information at the right time. It is purely an issue of timing.

• Mobile phones facilitate the timely dispensation of information. Luckily, many people in East Africa have access to mobile phones.

•   People need to be informed about weather forecasts so that they can know if a dry spell is in the near future and subsequently make the necessary arrangements.  

•  If humanitarian organizations properly embrace technology and team up with East African telecoms, it will be easy to dispense much needed information in a timely manner.

Preventing Hunger by Facilitating Better Access to Food

One of the ways to make a person to have better access to food is by making him to have money. 

Money is the answer to many problems in the world.

Once someone has the necessary cash in the pocket, he can move from a hunger stricken region to a more endowed area because he has cash.

Most of the people, who live in areas that are constantly affected by dry spells, usually have a lot of animals during the good seasons which end up being destroyed during the dry spell. If such individuals get information from their mobile phones about an upcoming dry spell, they make arrangements to sell their animals.

Because of mobile phone technology, it will be possible for a person in a rural area to know the amount of cash he can get by selling an animal, therefore he will not be conned by a middleman and he will end up with a lot of money in the pocket that can make him to be in a position to facilitate future food security for himself and his family.

Information East Africans Living In Arid Areas Need So That They Can Fight Hunger

• The different types  of drought resistant crops
• Where to sell produce for a profit

•  How to prepare for a dry spell

• When a dry spell will come

All that information can be obtained easily if someone has a mobile phone that is connected to the internet and there is a stable mobile phone network in the region in question.

How Mobile Phone Technology Can Help People Recover From Disasters

Some disasters are simple unpreventable therefore there is need for measures that will facilitate disaster recovery.

Mobile Phone Donations

Because East Africa has a proper mobile money transfer infrastructure, it is easy to solicit donations via mobile phones. A lot of money was raised via mobile phones donations by Kenyans to help fellow Kenyans who were affected by 2012 drought as part of the Kenyans for Kenya Initiative.