Zimbabwe: Mapping with mobiles

Mobile telephony has long been praised for its ability to connect people to friends and families in even the poorest parts of the world. What is less appreciated is that mobile communication technology can also be utilised to create links between populations and authorities that are supposed to assist them.

This is particularly true in the field of humanitarian information. SMS services have become a very efficient tool to warn people of health threats such as epidemics or water pollution, but smartphones can also be utilised to stream information in the opposite direction when they are used as tools for snap surveys. In both emergency settings and well-planned national surveys, questionnaires on smartphones can replace traditional paper forms and transmit answers directly from the field to a centrally placed server for immediate analysis. This report documents the experience of such a survey that was piloted in Zimbabwe by a local NGO, the Humanitarian Information Facilitation Centre (HIFC).