Mobile phones are no longer a luxury item and have become a ubiquitous and essential part of our lives. Similarly, social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs have radically changed the way we interact and communicate. The many sessions under this theme highlight:

• innovative use of mobile telephony in agriculture
• how Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have helped improve the bargaining power of smallholder farmers and provided a more direct link to markets
• the power and potential of social media in connecting people and creating local, national and global networks
• how social media tools can create conducive learning and sharing environments across geographical and language boundaries

In sub-Saharan Africa as well as in many other regions, more than 80% of post offices are located outside the most populated cities, where 82.5% of the population lives, providing unique outreach to unbanked citizens, migrants, and rural enterprises. Learn how through the use of postal networks, an FFR-UPU project cut money transfer costs by 50% and transfer time from two weeks to two days in 350 rural localities of West Africa. The experience is being upscaled in Central and South Asia which notably host some of the most populous countries in the world. The discussion aims at discussing this and other innovative/alternative channels for money transfer and financial access.

Pedro De Vasconcelos
IFAD