Do mobile phone surveys work in poor countries?

The days of pushing priorities, pet projects, or expat consultants on countries are coming to a close. Connected and increasingly empowered individuals are demanding a greater say in setting priorities, designing and implementing programs, and assessing whether projects have achieved their desired results. For those agencies that recognize this trend, the question is how to meaningfully and cost effectively engage citizens in real time. This is where the explosion of mobile phone technology comes in.

By illustration, nearly 300,000 Ugandans get a brief survey on their mobile phone every week. The questions typically ask about people’s access to public services or options for expanding economic opportunities, such as buying agricultural land. There are now countless tools like UReport all across the developing world that gather input from thousands of people in a matter of hours.