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Abstract The recent widespread use of mobile communication technologies has sparked considerable interest in their application to social and economic development in low-income countries. In this article we examine the different uses of mobile phones among livestock traders and Borana pastoralists of southern Ethiopia, where increased adoption of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has been recent and shows potential for improvements in local livelihoods and marketing systems. We draw on an ongoing study of pastoralists and livestock traders who, in the past five years, have increased their reliance on mobile phones. They increasingly employ them to access information on grazing, weather and market conditions despite local differences in adoption rates. The article argues that differential rates of ICT adoption among groups of herders and traders relate to unequal access to the technology and infrastructure, as well as differences in local practices of information gathering. We show that the high-level of sharing of mobile technologies between owners and non-owners, however, dampens some of the negative effects of unequal ownership and infrastructure deficiencies. In the conclusion, we address the program and policy implications of the study's findings and point to the need for additional research on mobile phone use among pastoralists.
Debsu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.