Mobile Opportunities 2.0: mFisheries in the Caribbean
- To reinforce the capacities to develop mobile services and applications for poor Caribbean communities
- To provide related empirical data and analysis to inform Caribbean policy and regulation
- To promote multi-stakeholder knowledge exchange and dialogue about the potential contribution of ICTs for economic development and poverty alleviation in the Caribbean.
Fisher folk
Mobile Fisheries, “mFisheries”, presents a channel for the integration of technology-excluded small scale fisherfolk into the global information society through the use of mobile applications, services and content that directly impact their lives and livelihoods.
The use of these context-appropriate tools has the parallel effect of empowering such largely low-income earners through access to, and participation in, the mobile information society.
The mFisheries suite of mobile solutions, with its linked SMS and Web channels for market expansion and access, has been implemented as a tool of today's small-scale fisherman's trade, no less important to his livelihood than nets, engines and boats.
The smart phone technology, also applied to safety at sea and training support, is being used as a door through which fisherfolks can gain access to a world that has developed far faster than the small-scale fishing community in Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.
The empowerment facilitated by mFisheries is multi-facetted and includes social, economic and political dimensions. At the same time, mFisheries provides a demonstrative framework for the use of contemporary technologies and innovation to impact citizens at the bottom of the economic and social pyramids.
This initiative enabled the University of the West Indies’ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, assisted by a number of key partners, to conduct important studies among fisher folk in Trinidad and Tobago. This work developed and applied capacity in pro-poor mobile application needs assessment, design, development, deployment and evaluation.
- Use of mobile applications
- Access to information
- Promote multi-stakeholder knowledge exchange and dialogue
- Changes in behaviour, capacity and attitude within the target group under study:
- 3 out of 4 regularly use "Weather Bug" for planning trips to sea, while 70% regularly use "Tide App" for the same purpose.
- Half use GPS for marking and recovering the locations of fishing gear and catch site.
- Significantly, 84% indicate that they believe that mFisheries tools responding to operational matters, including "Weather Bug," "GPS" and "Tide App," can save them a minimum of a quarter of the time it takes to conduct fishing activities.
- Of this group, almost 60% feel that at least half of the time it takes to fish could be saved by using these apps.
- 78% did not know prior to mFisheries that smart phones could be used for navigation and their work-related information management needs. Having been exposed to mFisheries, 9 out of 10 are now confident that smart phones with the right mix of apps could be used to improve their fisheries-related work.
- 78% rely more on market prices than before mFisheries when they buy or sell fish, with almost all using "Prices" to get an idea of fish market pricing before buying or selling fish (90.6%), and for setting their own wholesale and retail prices (96.9%).
- New knowledge and awareness amongst policy makers and other stakeholders:
- The project leader was invited to participate in the digital divide specialized working group for the development of the National ICT Plan for Trinidad and Tobago. ICTs have been placed at the centre of national social and economic transformation.
- The Ministry of Tobago Development has integrated mFisheries SOS and Tracking applications, with context-appropriate mobile phones, into its planned programme of support for fisher folk whose at-sea range is within cell coverage.
- The Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard has included the mFisheries SOS alert and at-sea tracking as regular components of their operations, with a structured response programme that is initiated on receipt of SMS, email and phone alerts from mFisheries safety applications.
- Capacity Building:
- The mFisheries project is the consolidated research partnership established between the University of the West Indies (UWI), the Caribbean Fisheries Training and Development Institute (CFTDI) and the Distance Learning Secretariat of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Tertiary Education (DLS-MSTTE) as it enabled the UWI to contextualize its mobile communications research and teaching according to local and regional realities and to provide a focal point for such activities to respond to related needs.
- It contributed to the mission of CFTDI to promote, enhance and sustain careers in fisheries by exploring opportunities for mobile-facilitated training as well as a suite of career specific information and communication services of direct relevance to Fisher Folk.
- Furthermore, it enabled the DLS-MSTTE to facilitate learning access and human development via open and distance learning in the fishing sector and to develop relevant results-based policy guidelines and frameworks for the implementation of its work nationally.
- Replication: mFisheries is being customized for the Cook Islands. This work has started with the at-sea safety and training applications and represents anecdotal validation of the replicability of the mFisheries suite of applications outside of a Caribbean context, supported by very many expressions of strong unsolicited endorsement.
- The production of new handsets: The eagerness on the part of sampled low income fisher folk to use the facilities offered through mobile data with GPS functionality in support of their livelihoods, and the potential benefits of such use, makes a compelling case for the production of affordable, ruggedized mobile handsets with data and GPS capability. Such handsets may usefully feature basic processing capability, with emphasis placed on usability and ruggedness.
- The mFisheries project won the 2012 FRIDA award http://programafrida.net/awards_winners
- From among the more than 60 projects that were submitted, the FRIDA 2012 Award is recognizing the five initiatives that in recent years have contributed the most to the development of the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean, identifying good practices that can be duplicated and contribute to showcase positive experiences to the region's decision makers.
