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Democracy in Development: Cell Phones, the Internet, and Development in Africa

<p>A delegate checks a Blackberry handset at an exhibition stand during the West &#038; Central Africa Com conference in Nigeria&#8217;s capital Abuja on June 18, 2009 (Afolabi Sotunde/Courtesy Reuters).</p>
A delegate checks a Blackberry handset at an exhibition stand during the West & Central Africa Com conference in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on June 18, 2009 (Afolabi Sotunde/Courtesy Reuters).

By experts and staff

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  • Isobel Coleman
    Senior Fellow and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Initiative; Director of the Women and Foreign Policy Program

Last week on my blog, I wrote about the potential of internet-enabled cell phones to take existing mobile innovation in Africa even further. As I argue:

Increased internet connectivity could make mobile phones into better learning platforms for students; it could give doctors in rural areas more robust information with which to make diagnoses, give treatment, and track patients.

You can read the full post here.