Deutsche Welle has figured out how to disseminate the news in developing regions with low illiteracy rates and little access to electricity. The German media group launched a project that takes advantage of the high penetration of mobile phones in rural sub-Saharan Africa to delivers news via over-the-phone voice technology. All it takes to access the news programs is a simple mobile phone - no Internet access necessary. Users call a number to access an education channel that broadcasts 10-minute segments on a variety of subjects ranging from health to politics. The cost is less than an ordinary phone call.

Nieman Labs reports:

The show’s already available in languages like English, French, Hausa, and Swahili. In the past year, it was introduced in Tanzania and in Niger. The plan is to launch the program in four more nations — Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Liberia — “within the next weeks,” Naser Schruf, Deutsche Welle’s head of distribution for Africa and the Middle East, told me in an email.

The idea is to help give young people access to information that otherwise may not be available. One ongoing Learning By Ear series on women’s rights, for example, features episodes on topics like female circumcision, sexual harassment, child labor, leadership and “careers for girls.” “They are narrated by African native-speakers which makes it even easier for the audiences to identify,” Schruf said.

We have posted about intelligent ideas that use basic mobile phones to effect real change in developing areas — e.g., the case of the SMS service that reduced AIDS rates by reminding HIV-positive people to take their medication; and Freedom Fone, the open-source telephony platform that can be customized to deliver and share information within and between communities. It's quite fascinating to see that one needn't rely on hi tech to narrow information gaps in developing countries.