A recent event in New York marked the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, an important framework for achieving gender equality around the world.

During the event, which was organized by UNICEF, Donnady Coquilla Lao, a youth advocate from the Phiippines, argued that the gains in gender equity had not lived up to expectations, and that it’s important to increase the awareness of gender equality among kids. When she was asked to name one thing that she thought would make a big difference when it comes to gender equality, she suggested an international Day of the Girl – so that “all girls would realize how important they are”.

In the video above, UNICEF asks women and girls around the world the question: “what is it like to be a woman or girl today?”

Read more here.

Source: UNICEF.

Written by Fanny Johansson

MKFC Stockholm College and Kemi-Tornio University of Applied Sciences call for everyone interested in developing new mobile solutions to join in online collaboration to innovate and develop new approaches and solution to the use of mobile technology in MLearning, MHealth and MBanking.

The Nordic countries as knowledge nations have the responsibility to enhance democracy and human rights. Today this is made possible with the extended use of information technology and especially citizens using social media. This creates the main pillars for a sustainable society, promoting growth, welfare and peace. New social media extends the capacity of lonely humans to communicate.

Social media is extended to the global communities all around the world with rapidly growing rate of mobile phones. Mobile phones provide people in remote locations and in developing countries the possibility to gain access to greatest equalizing tool ever invented: the Internet. Through online communities we can explore, share, create awareness and participate to realize our dreams and common causes. The social media can make communication and the flow of information transparent and include all kind of actors working for the same causes.

Read more at our mobile for development sites
http://mymobilemylife.org Website/
http://mmmlife.ning.com Community/

Read the report on how to use mobile learning and other services in developing countries

Post a comment or e-mail alamdar(at)mkfc.se if you are interested in develop new mobile solutions.

This is a documentary of the environment of Baringo district in Kenya made by Maria Kreshel a ChangeMaker student at MKFC.

See more documentaries at Marias Youtube Channel.

Within an hour of the massive earthquake in Chile, relief efforts were coordinated from as far away as Kenya – 12,000 km from the location of the quake. How is that possible? The answer is a crisis group called Ushahidi and its effective online mapping tool, reports BBC.

Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, was originally developed during the post-election violence in Kenya in 2008, to effectively map incidents of voilence based on reports submitted via the internet and mobile phones. The online mapping tool is designed to collect reports from citizines using both e-mail, SMS and Twitter. All that is needed for the relief efforts to work is basically a computer and a fast internet connection.

Now, the same system is being used in Chile, and the basic idea is that emergency services will be able to use the reports that citizens send in so that relief efforts can be more effectively targeted. The tool was also used in the Haiti disaster.

Read more here.

Source: BBC.

Written by Fanny Johansson

This presentation, based on the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) publication The State of Food and Agriculture 2009, deals with world food security and the global economic crisis. More people are hungry today than at any point since 1970, according to estimates from FAO, and around 1.02 billion people were undernourished in 2009.

Source: FAO.

Written by Fanny Johansson

MHealth Alliance (picture source) and Orange Healthcare team up to develop mobile health solutions for West Africa.

At the GSM Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Orange Healthcare announced last week that they will be joining the mHealth Alliance, a partnership which leverages rapid advances in mobile technology to improve public health, health care systems and patient care in the developing world. Orange Healthcare will begin working with the mHealth Alliance on projects focused in West Africa.

Read more on the MKFC Stockholm College ChangeMaker blog.

Kevin Kelly has been publisher of the Whole Earth Review, exec editor at WIRED, founder of visionary nonprofits, and writer on biology and business and “cool tools.” He’s admired for his new perspectives on technology and its relevance to history, biology and religion.

The European Environment Agency (EEA) and Microsoft have recently launched a website which collects climate data, by actively encouraging EU citizens to actively contribute their observations about the environment, reports BBC.

Water and air quality data from the member countries are displayed on an interactive map, and official data from the EEA as well as the information that users of the website have submitted is available. For example, users can rate the air quality of their area by choosing among different alternatives, such as “clean” or “irritating”. In the long run, the EEA’s executive director Jacqueline McGlade hopes that the website will move beyond air and water quality and become “a platform which will enable citizens to actually tell us what they’re going to do to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by changing something in their own life”.

Read more in this BBC article, or visit the Eye on Earth website.

Source: BBC.

Written by Fanny Johansson

“In this regard, EFA provides the basic foundation for building more just societies focusing on rights, empowerment and development, but it does not go far enough. This is where ESD reinforces EFA efforts by challenging dominant conceptions, structures and content of education, thereby helping to improve its relevance. It is interdisciplinary in nature and focuses on critical thinking and lifelong learning. Moreover ESD’s emphasis on values such as peace, equality, respect for human rights, gender, environment and cultural diversity are key contributions to improving educational quality”.

Read the whole report from UNESCO about the connections and benefits of integrating and discussing EFA and ESA at the same time on how to “Educating for a sustainable world”.

The first example is from Bangladesh, where a scheme called The Janal Service gives anyone with access to a mobile phone the opportunity to learn English. So, how does it work? You simply call a number and listen – essentially more convenient than carrying around heavy (and often expensive) books or dictionaries. And since mobile telecommunications is the fastest growing industry in Bangladesh, more and more people are using mobile phones.

The other two examples brought up in the article are a One Laptop Per Child-project in Brazil, and a new innovative classroom in Britain, complete with touch screens and all sorts of progressive technology for new learning opportunities.

The article, which also features some audio reports, can be found here.

Source: BBC.

Written by Fanny Johansson