Tactical Tech, a UK-based international NGO advocating for the promotion of human rights through the use of ICT and digital technologies has listed out the budgetary requirements for cellphone-based projects aiming at social change and sustainable development in developing countries. For a quick start guide for NGOs on how to begin a cellphone-based project, click here.
Tactical Tech’s budgetary checklist provides information about the costs involved in implementing such a project. This checklist is also useful for NGOs which are planning to develop proposals for donors to work on it. The checklist has three broad categories of human resource costs, technology costs and maintenance costs. The human resource costs include professional costs for staff and consultants working on planning, market research, project coordination, technology preparation, content development and other campaign preparation. NGOs may not be able to hire technical staff in this context, but can hire consultants for short-term period to undertake market research and planning for the project. The role of the consultants can be reduced once the mobile project is initially set up. The technological costs involved for such a project can be very high compared to other budgetary items. The hardware and software used for such projects have to be purchased and in most cases, customized for use in various locations. The list of necessary technological items has been listed out in the checklist. The maintenance costs cover the last part of the budget here. This includes salaries, consultant fees, hardware/software running costs, administrative support, training and security.
The actual costs for each of these items greatly vary from country to country. NGOs need to find the local prices for them. According to Changemakers Quick Start Guide for SMS-based projects, except in United States all countries have free incoming SMS facility. This works out very well in favour of NGOs seeking to develop such projects as a good part of maintenance cost is covered up here. More information about the checklist is available at this link.
