My World 2015 and mobiles - post 1 of 6 - an introduction

In a ground-breaking survey in honor of the end of the Millennium Development Goals in 2015 and the establishment of a new “post-2015” global development framework, the United Nations Development Program, the UN Millennium Campaign, the Overseas Development Institute, the ONE campaign, and over 700 on-the-ground grassroots organizations as well as international and local information technology companies created and continue to implement a world-wide survey seeking to collect the opinions of individuals everywhere on what matters most to them when it comes the future.

Survey respondents are asked to vote on 6 out of a possible 17 policy priorities, including a fill-in-the-blank priority that the individuals can add themselves. The survey is called My World 2015.

My World 2015, launched in December 2012, continues to collect feedback via the web, pen-and-paper ballots, and mobile phones.

About 20% of over 2 million votes have come in via mobile phones. Over 70% of the mobile phone respondents live in countries that score low on the Human Development Index (versus 31% in the overall survey). More men have responded via mobile than women (at a rate of 2 male respondent for every one female), and respondents via mobile tend to prioritize better job opportunities at a slightly higher rate than the majority of respondents.

In implementation, the mobile phone promotion and distribution of the survey differed slightly from the pen-and-paper and web distribution of the survey. Promotion for all three of the survey distribution methods included integrated campaigns targeting specific national and regional audiences as well as ongoing global efforts to raise awareness and foster interest in the survey. As with the pen-and-paper, mobile distribution benefitted heavily from local and international partnerships and, as with the web, more immediate and centralized collection of the data was possible.

This post, number one of six posts, introduces the My World 2015 survey and looks specifically at how mobile phones played and continue to play a role in distributing the survey and collecting feedback from respondents. This overview is meant for individuals who are new to the My World 2015 survey and who have a specific interest in learning about the survey as well how to use mobile technology to reach out to and engage individuals in developing countries.