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InterMedia has conducted research and analysis in Latin and South America, from Venezuela, Argentina and Bolivia to Haiti, El Salvador, Cuba, Colombia and Peru. This includes work on behalf of the BBC and other international broadcasters, as well as the World Bank.
Latin American media has always reflected the struggle between repressive and democratic forces. In some places, communication across and between sectors reflects government priorities—media are used as propaganda tools to manipulate and control populations. In other regions, the media serve to uncover abuses, promote democracy and protect the rights of citizens. On one end of this scale lies countries like Chile, which boasts a free, independent and largely privately owned media. At the other extreme is Cuba, where there is no independent media, and communication of all types is severely restricted by the government. In the middle, countries such as Peru and Bolivia find their freedom to get and distribute information varies depending on the current political environment.
Like elsewhere around the globe, new technologies—the internet, cell phones and SMS—are increasingly popular. The difference, however, is that in Latin America use of these technologies among those with low incomes is rising nearly as quickly as it is for the wealthiest. There is much narrower digital divide between the rich and poor there than anywhere else in the developing world.
For more information about our work in Latin America and the Caribbean, contact Susan Gigli at giglis@intermedia.org.
Some examples of our work in Latin America & Caribbean.
The Haiti Mobile Money Tracker Project
Broad access to regular banking and financial services is crucial to an economy in normal times. It is even more crucial for a country attempting to recover from a major disaster and restore its economic footing. Without a safe means of storing, withdrawing and borrowing money, consumers and business owners waste time and effort, lose economic opportunities and face greater financial risks.
A lack of access to financial services has plagued Haiti’s economy for decades and worsened substantially after the devastating earthquake in January 2010. Formal banking infrastructure was already very limited and only about 15 percent of the population had a formal bank account.
The Financial Services for the Poor initiative (FSP) at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation postulated that a robust m-money and/or banking system would greatly ease these problems. With this in mind, the Gates Foundation partnered with USAID to launch the Haiti Mobile Money Initiative (HMMI), featuring a $10 million fund to incentive mobile service providers to launch m-money services relatively quickly. The HMMI helped in getting rapid deployments of two m-money services: TchoTcho Mobile from Digicell and Voila's T-Cash.
To help monitor the impact of m-money in Haiti, the Gates Foundation commissioned InterMedia to conduct a baseline household survey of Haitian adults (18+) to assess knowledge of, access to and use of banking and mobile network services, including the nascent m-money services available when the survey was conducted in March 2011. The baseline survey showed that nearly 10 percent of respondents has signed up for a m-money service only a couple of months after they had been launched. Awareness of the services was high, but understanding of their offerings was low.
InterMedia's Haiti Mobile Money Tracker Project will conduct follow-up surveys to provide useful trend data for financial access stakeholders in Haiti, and help to improve implementation of m-money services to reach the bottom of the pyramid in the country.
For more information about the HMMT, visit the AudienceScapes website or contact Peter Goldstein at: goldsteinp@intermedia.org