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How mobile audiences are evolving. Insightful animated infographic from Visual.ly.

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Fieldcraft's Liz Scarff takes #ShareNiger to a village in desolate rural  Niger to tell two highly contrasting stories  of women at the sharp end of the food crisis.

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The effect of the 2010 food crisis still lingers in rural Niger and many farmers and pastoralists have lost their livelihoods  due to crop failure and environmental degradation.

Faced with the third drought in seven years, its easy to see why the ‘get rich quick’ lure of Niger’s artisan gold mining industry attracts the regions most poor and desperate people.

With no other way to earn money and feed themselves whole families are drawn into mining. Parents, with no access to childcare, have little choice but to involve their children in the work.

It’s estimated that 30-50 % of the work force are under 18. This puts numbers of child miners for Niger and neighboring Burkino Faso at just under five hundred thousand.

The work is hard, monotonous and often dangerous. Children can be found squeezing into the cavities of the mine, pounding the rocks to sand and then processing with toxic chemicals that can include  acids, arsenic, and lead. The waste water can contaminate rivers and soil which then enters the food chain.

But most alarmingly mercury is used to extract the gold particles during the panning process. The  raw mercury can penetrate through the skin but is generally absorbed as  vapor through the lungs. This can lead to many serious physical and neurological disorders.

The women and girls mostly carry out processing roles and when a pregnant or breastfeeding mother is exposed to mercury in this way the toxins are inevitably passed to the child. Research shows that contaminated breast milk from gold mining mothers can have  up to 496 times the safe level.

World Vision has built a health clinic in the area, trains healthcare staff and provides medicines for the people of Komabangou the mining town visited by the  #ShareNiger team today.

Follow #ShareNiger @lizScarff @geekisnewchic

Photo by : Mike Goldwater

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For the last few days, in the heat and dust of Niger’s desolate lunascape, Fieldcraft's Liz Scarff has been implementing a groundbreaking humanitarian media campaign,  #ShareNiger.

Launched by Liz and World Vision CEO Justin Byworth at last Saturdays Cybher blogging conference in London, #ShareNiger aims to bring the world's attention to the imminent humanitarian emergency in the Sahel region.

Liz has been in Niger for the last week collecting stories and laying the groundwork for the campaign. Sian To, Cybher founder and blogger is set to arrive in Niger next Monday, where with Liz she’ll be visiting World Vision programs in the drought ravaged country.

World Vision believes the empowerment of women is a big part of a solution to the crisis and is core to its many programs in Niger. From child malnutrition, water access, food security and resource resilience, to tackling the endemic child bride problem, countering exploitation of women and children is always key .

Sharing this belief in the importance empowering women, Sian and Liz will share their experiences from the field with a vast social media community.

The aim is simple: to leverage public opinion and action and demand that the UK government releases funds to prevent the crisis deteriorating further.

To find out more, watch the Fieldcraft video of Cybher and help support the campaign by following #ShareNiger on twitter.

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We've quickly put together this summary edit for International Women's Day. It explains why combining radio and ICTs is so important and how rural women struggle with mobile phone access.

As part of Fieldcraft’s Project Tanzania we spent the afternoon with Bart Sullivan, ICT and radio specialist with Farm Radio International, in Arusha Tanzania.

Farm Radio International is a Canadian charity working with over 400 radio broadcasters in 38 African countries to fight poverty and food insecurity. Find out more about Farm Radio International http://www.farmradio.org

Follow Fieldcraft on twitter: @Field_craft

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As part of Fieldcraft's Project Tanzania we spent the afternoon with Bart Sullivan, ICT and radio specialist with Farm Radio International, in Arusha Tanzania. Farm Radio International is a Canadian charity working with over 400 radio broadcasters in 38 African countries to fight poverty and food insecurity. The short film features some highlights from our chat. Find out more about Farm Radio International http://www.farmradio.org

Follow Fieldcraft on twitter: @Field_craft

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Spent yesterday filming with effervescent social entrepreneur Mark Farahani in Kilosa, Tanzania. He set up East Africa's first independent ISP. He now runs numerous ICT businesses and is piloting a number of innovative projects.

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Tanzanian Village Pub

A busy sports bar screening premier league football matches is the last thing you would expect to find in Mamoyo – a remote village in the heart of rural Tanzania.

But Tanzanians love football and the only thing they love more than regular football is premier league football.

The village pub (or sports bar) is owned and run by Rehema Somboja and business is booming. For big matches she can expect to pack out the pub with up to 60 people.

“Watching a premier league game costs 500 Tanzanian shillings,” explains Rehema, a bubbly, genteel woman, “Even though the satellite TV package costs US$78 a month I can still make more than I did from selling chickens and vegetables from my garden.”

And what’s more it gives her a sustainable income throughout the year. “During the off-season when we cannot harvest it’s very hard for us to earn a living,” Rehema adds.

Rehema and her husband Bokari in their village pub.

Mamoyo is a small village with a mixture of houses made with bright red mud bricks and thatched roofs. There are just a handful of houses made with concrete. You can spot Rehemas house a mile away because it is the only one with two big satellite dishes.

Tarmac roads don’t exist here, its just dusty, pot-holed tracks in every direction. Reaching anywhere requires a slow bumpy, dusty journey.

Most people here are farmers – particularly the older generation. Many of the young boys are trying their luck in town hawking oranges or bananas for a few shillings each day.

Rehema got a micro-loan to kick-start her business from KIRSEC (Kilosa Rural Services and Electronic Communication Centre).

She got a satellite dish, a TV, made some seats and spread the word. The village pub is now a social hub in the community.

Of course there are challenges – access to a steady power source is one. With no money for a back-up generator the village is frequently plunged into darkness.

But the football matches are just for starters. Her next micro-loan will be for a computer and internet connection allowing her to start an internet cafe right in the heart of her village.

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Brilliant video showing minutes of talk time per one litre of cooking oil. The idea is to show the cost of talk time in relation to an everyday commodity.

In Tanzania your 'shopping' list would look like this:

For the price of one kilo of cooking oil you would get 24.92 phone minutes.

For the price of one kilo of sugar you would get 10.18 phone minutes.

For the price of one kilo of tea you would get 7.71 phone minutes.

Tanzania has the fourth cheapest mobile tariffs in Africa.

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First Mile project from @IFADNews-farmers use mobiles to get market price info.

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Watch: Inspirational Mark Farahani set up #Africa's 1st indpendent wireless service. #ICT

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Stunning ariel photographs from Africa by George Steinmetz

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Brilliant resource of data and info on #ICT in #Africa - http://www.oafrica.com @oafrica

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Interactive #Infographic from @BBCNews on broadband penetration in #Africa. #ICT

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Touch down in Tanzania

We've finally arrived in Tanzania.

Afer the snow and freezing conditions in the UK it was a welcome change to step off the plane into the Tanzanian sunshine.

We're here to research how open data, innovative ICTs and mobile and SMS collide and can be used for compelling storytelling and local and global advocacy.

Read all about what we are doing here on our Project Tanzania page. We're making last minute preparations before we head off on our journey which will take us from the capital of Dar es Salaam to rural Tanzania.

We'll be telling the story of who we meet along the way. So stay tuned to our Tumblr, and follow us on Twitter (@LizScarff and @dcfieldcraft)

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Project Tanzania

Where do storytelling, SMS and open source technology, social networks and advocacy collide?

Stories are how we learn about what is happening in our world. They inform how we think, learn and adapt. They’re how we justify our decisions or teach our children.

They’re how we share our indignation and persuade and inspire others to join our cause.

Technology, open data and social media have turned storytelling upside down - sideways - every which way but the way that we knew.

Social media gave the Arab Spring activists the tools to quickly organise, share information and bring about change. And access to data has driven global stories like Wikileaks.

But while Facebook and Twitter may have grabbed the headlines in the Middle East and Maghreb there is another digital revolution taking place in Africa.

Lack of a ‘fixed line’ telecoms infrastructure has dictated that the continent ‘leapfrog’ technology straight to mobile. And Africa has one of the world’s fastest growing mobile markets with subscribers expected to reach 750 million by the end of 2012.

 The country is fast becoming the envy of the world with its ability to innovate. Mobile phones bring access to health, social networks and entertainment.  One of the most visible innovations being Kenya’s mobile payment system M-Pesa.

But technology doesn’t tell stories or hold governments to account - people do.

So what would happen if you joined this new vanguard of storytellers, bloggers, hacktavists, citizen journalists (really anybody with a mobile phone or computer) with the new tools, with greater mobile penetration, innovative partnership, open data and open source tools, and mashed them up on the new frontier of storytelling – of hyperlocal advocacy?

That’s what we are in Tanzania to find out.

We’re on the ground meeting people and organisations that are working on ground-breaking projects. From people who are working to combine radio (which has the highest penetration) with open source programs like Freedom Fone to inspired individuals setting up rural ICT projects to organisations using SMS to hold local government to account.

We’ve also partnered with Tweetminster who are going to be running a report for us on the use and penetration of Twitter in Tanzania.