

Cellphones for Women in Developing Nations Aid Ascent from Poverty - CapitalistCartr
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/business/dealbook/melinda-gates-cellphones-for-women-aid-ascent-from-poverty.html

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monksy
I'm not sure I completely follow on why women in a developing nation need a
cellphone. The article stated that there was a portion of individuals who did
not even possess a bank account. Mobile banking isn't going to do anything for
that. Are there legitimate needs for a cellphone in their life? The ones who
do not own one have survived until now without one.

Who is going to pay for the service for the device? How are they going to
handle situations where the phones will be flipped for a profit. How are they
going to handle situations where the phone becomes broken or lost?

Lastly, how in the world is a phone going to get them out of poverty? I can
understand if it was like a suit, where it gives a person a better position to
obtain a job. However, I would think that a library would be better suited to
get them out of the position where they're at.

~~~
deserted
_The article stated that there was a portion of individuals who did not even
possess a bank account. Mobile banking isn 't going to do anything for that._

Per this article, only 20% of people in Bangladesh have traditional bank
accounts. Yet 33 percent of Bangladeshi men have used mobile money. Mobile
money has replaced the bank account.

 _Are there legitimate needs for a cellphone in their life?_

Do you have legitimate needs for a cellphone in your life? For a wallet,
credit and debit cards?

Mobile money transfers are used in place of card processing, for loans and
gifts. SMS and mobile money transfers have replaced cash remittances or money
transfer services from cities to rural areas. You can't access these services
without a cell phone.

 _Lastly, how in the world is a phone going to get them out of poverty? I can
understand if it was like a suit, where it gives a person a better position to
obtain a job. However, I would think that a library would be better suited to
get them out of the position where they 're at._

A cellular phone will help someone learn a fair price for their crop, good, or
service, and allow them to contact buyers. This will do more for their income
than a suit. But access to cell phones and mobile money doesn't just benefit
people by increasing income. Giving women the ability to make purchases has
listed benefits in the article:

 _" Women spend money differently from men. They tend to invest more in the
health and well-being of their families — as much as 10 times more. They give
priority to spending on health care, nutritious food and education. A child
born in a household where the mother controls the family budget is 20 percent
more likely to survive — and much more likely to thrive."_

~~~
monksy
> Per this article, only 20% of people in Bangladesh have traditional bank
> accounts. Yet 33 percent of Bangladeshi men have used mobile money. Mobile
> money has replaced the bank account.

Unless I'm mistaken, that still doesn't sound like it would actually help the
people that they claim that need it. You can't put physical cash into the
mobile banking. [Well at least without using a transaction service, which
would tack on fees]

> Are there legitimate needs for a cellphone in their life? > Do you have
> legitimate needs for a cellphone in your life? > For a wallet, credit and
> debit cards?

We're talking about different cultures. They've survived and accomplished life
goals without a cellphone in their life. Could I go without a cellphone?
Absolutely. I could go to a landline. But thats not the point here.

> A cellular phone will help someone learn a fair price for their crop, good,
> or service, and allow them to contact buyers. This will do more for their
> income than a suit. But access to cellphones and mobile money doesn't just
> benefit people by increasing income. Giving women the ability to make
> purchases has listed benefits in the article:

You're making an assumption that they will use the phone in the best case. To
call someone over a fair price.... but you have to know those people in the
first place. To further drive this point home: If you were buying a car, who
would you call to compare prices? (Using internet services on your phone won't
count for this.. as that in this culture it would be a new concept to find
others in the market via a mobile)

> "Women spend money differently from men. They tend to invest more in the
> health and well-being of their families — as much as 10 times more. They
> give priority to spending on health care, nutritious food and education. A
> child born in a household where the mother controls the family budget is 20
> percent more likely to survive — and much more likely to thrive."

That sounds like a gender based stereotype.

~~~
deserted
_You can 't put physical cash into the mobile banking._

Yes you can. You can typically deposit without fees at airtime resellers and
cell network retail outlets. Faster and cheaper than traveling to a bank
branch.

Fees to cash out/send/receive money are as low as 0.22%.

 _Could I go without a cellphone? Absolutely. I could go to a landline. But
thats not the point here._

This article and my question were more about the phone's ability to replace a
credit/debit card and bank account, not a landline.

 _To call someone over a fair price.... but you have to know those people in
the first place... If you were buying a car, who would you call to compare
prices?_

You call your family members, previous buyers, or middlemen in cities to get a
rough sense of the market price. There are startups that offer crop price data
via SMS.

[http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/how-mobile-phones-are-
tra...](http://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/how-mobile-phones-are-transforming-
african-agriculture/8704/)

 _[Women invest more in the health and well-being of their families — as much
as 10 times more] ... That sounds like a gender based stereotype._

Clicking through on the links in the NYT article went to this article in
Science
([http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6202/1273.full.pdf](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/345/6202/1273.full.pdf))
which cites the following four sources for those statistics:

World Bank, World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011);
[http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/book/10.1596/](http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/book/10.1596/)
978-0-8213-8810-5.

D. Thomas, in Intrahousehold Resource Allocation in Developing Countries:
Models, Methods and Policy, L. Haddad, J. Hoddinott, H. Alderman, Eds. (Johns
Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore, MD, 1997), pp. 142–164.

R. L. Blumberg, Ed., Engendering Wealth and Well-Being: Empowerment for Global
Change (Latin America in Global Perspective) (Westview Press, Boulder, CO,
1995).

E. Duflo, “Women’s empowerment and economic development,” working paper 17702
(National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA, 2011); available at
www.nber.org/papers/w17702

~~~
hobarrera
> Yes you can. You can typically deposit without fees at airtime resellers and
> cell network retail outlets. Faster and cheaper than traveling to a bank
> branch.

That's quite true. Even in developer (but not first-world) countries like
Argentina, lots of stores and supermarkets allow you to push cash into your
mobile phone. There's probably about 3 such places less than two blocks from
home.

Personally, I just use online banking. But I feel that the newer generation
(eg: those under 22) don't.

