By Mat Despard and Julia Stevens, Center for Social Development

Do Ghanaian youth have money? How do they get it? What do they do with it? These are questions we are beginning to answer in YouthSave using data from a baseline survey of over 6,000 in-school youth.

This piece was originally posted on The Guardian's Data Blog.

Three quarters of the world's more than six billion mobile phones are located in the developing world, and the ubiquity of these devices in under-served areas provides valuable digital traces of activity that have never existed before. In particular, there is an unprecedented and largely overlooked opportunity to harness this digital data for global development efforts. From tracking the outbreak of diseases to better understanding unrepresented populations, a few promising examples are coming to light, and this mobile phone data is even proving to offer lifesavings insights.

One of the most successful tools in the fight against poverty, one that has attracted increasing attention over the past decade, is social protection via cash transfers. In fact, the New America Foundation’s Global Savings and Social Protection Database – which focuses on Latin America, Africa, East and Asia – has identified over 90 cash-transfer programs in 45 countries, with over a half billion beneficiaries. As the Chronic Poverty Research Centre puts it, “social protection is critical in preventing descent into chronic poverty and reducing the depth of poverty...