Public Participation geographic information systems in developing countries: lessons from Uganda on the impacts of interactive screens PPGIS and community perceptions of space

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

The two opposing impacts of heritage making on local communities : residents’ perceptions: a Portuguese case

This article examines the impact associated with the making of heritage and tourism at a destination. Special attention is paid to the residents’ perceptions of the impact. The examination is focused on the rural village of Sortelha, in Portugal, where, in recent decades, a state-led programme was implemented in order to renovate the historic buildings and built fabric and to generate benefits for the local community. Based on ethnographic materials collected in 2003, 2009 and 2013, the study demonstrates that the making of heritage may give rise to two opposing impacts simultaneously – increased social cohesion and place pride, on the one hand, and envy and competition (and, hence, social atomisation), on the other hand – and that residents are entirely cognisant of the tension between the two. The study has the potential to contribute to both the theoretical and the applied literature on heritage making.

Introducing Mobile Money in Rural Mozambique: Evidence from a Field Experiment*

The limitations of access to finance in Africa, together with the recent boom in cell phone use in that continent, created high expectations regarding the introduction of mobile money in many African countries. The success story of M-PESA in Kenya raised the bar further. We designed and conducted a field experiment to assess the impact of randomized mobile money dissemination in rural Mozambique. For this purpose we benefit from the fact that mobile money was only recently launched in the country, allowing for the identification of a pure control group. This paper reports on the first results of this ongoing project after the first wave of dissemination efforts in rural locations, which included the recruitment and training of mobile money agents, community meetings and theaters, as well as individual rural campaigning. Administrative and behavioral data both show clear adherence to the services in the treatment group. Financial literacy and trust outcomes are also positively affected by the treatment. We present behavioral evidence that the marginal willingness to remit was increased by the availability of mobile money. Finally, we observe a tendency for mobile money to substitute traditional alternatives for both savings and remittances.