2016 ICT4D Conference

When her child is sick, how will a woman with low literacy in rural Africa get reliable health information? Traditional mass media such as radio messages, billboards, and posters have proven to be effective at reaching large numbers of people, but these channels do not allow the target audiences to have input on what information they receive, or where and when they receive it. Other mobile and social media interventions use the same "push" technique, sending out predetermined messages that are frequently misdirected and only moderately successful at engaging individuals with lower literacy levels.

As the first new SBCC channel since the invention of the television, mobile phones have the ability to provide populations with a "pull" channel, empowering them to access information that is 1) retrievable on demand to meet their immediate need, 2) accessible by lower literates through detailed voice recordings, 3) reachable using simple mobile phones, 4) affordable, and
5) linked to actionable next steps, such as referrals.

In 2010, HNI created the 3-2-1 Service, a mobile phone information service to prepare resource- poor individuals to take action to improve their well-being. In Madagascar, 4 million unique users have made 50 million information searches on the 3-2-1 Service. The Service was expanded to Malawi in 2014, with 800,000 users making more than 4 million inquiries in the first 12 months.

HNI is now launching the 3-2-1 Service with telecom partners in Burkina Faso, Cambodia, the DRC, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Niger, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. It is an effective, sustainable and cost-efficient intervention, as telecoms have a commercial incentive to provide the Service for free without donor dependency.