A global consortium of research, donor and technology companies is developing a system for use on mobile phones that will help fight hunger and malnutrition in Asia and Africa
The project, which is funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), aims to improve the nutritional status of more than three million people, DFID stated.
The mNutrition initiative is supported by CABI, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), the health care provider BJM and British aid organisation, Oxfam.
The CABI led consortium will work with GSMA Mobile for Development Foundation to provide content for the mNutrition initiative, it said.
According to DFID, the initiative will target 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where the project will roll out later this year.
The consortium was established earlier this year to harness the power of mobile phones and help millions of poor women and their families to access sound nutritional information and advice, it said.
It will work with each country and partners such as content providers, extension service providers, governments, mobile operators, NGOs and private sector companies to help deliver nutrition related information via mobile phones, it added.
It will help integrate agricultural extension services and community health services combining mobile services with face-to-face advice.
"With proliferation of mobile phones in Africa and Asia, we can now reach even more people in even the most remote locations with essential agricultural and health advice,” said Fraser Morton, programme manager at CAB, a not-for-profit international organization that improves people’s lives worldwide by providing information and applying scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and the environment.
Mwangi Mumero
