UN's Millennium Villages Program Provides Cell Phones to Poverty Stricken Areas
The UN's Millennium Villages outreach program will distribute mobile phones to 79 villages across 10 African countries, according to the BBC. A study conducted in 2005 revealed that an increase of 10 cell phones per 100 people would improve the national gross domestic product of a nation by 0.6 percent.
While people skeptical of the idea may point out that the cause and effect relationship between increased mobile phone usage and the increased gross domestic product of a country is not there, the United Nations launched this poverty fighting scheme as part of its UN Millennium Villages Program. The Millennium Villages Program was started by the United Nations in 2004 to help find ways to raise the standard of living in the areas of the world most affected by poverty.
Since the cell phone service companies would not be likely to go into the areas where many of the 79 villages in the ten countries are located, the UN will subsidize the program to help entice the providers to enable the villages to use the mobile phones. In a move similar to the Tennessee Valley Authority that brought electricity and landlines to rural areas of the United States early in the twentieth century, many of the UN efforts to combat poverty center around giving poor villagers and remote areas easier access to modern technologies.
By providing mobile phones to the poor villages, the United Nations hopes to relieve poverty by spurring the wheels of commerce and bringing new business opportunities to these areas. The cell phone company Erriccson has provided the infrastructure necessary to run the towers for free, but local providers will be able to run the service and make a profit off of it. The desire to fight poverty and improve the living conditions for these people is admirable and by capitalizing on the entreprenurial spirit it will help the people of these villages improve conditions on their own.
Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6986804.stm
Published by S. Landis
Born early in one February morning in 1977, the world has since graced me with its presence View profile
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