GSMA to Undertake Ground-breaking Research to Accelerate the Female Digital Economy
LONDON - Thursday, September 25th 2014 [ME NewsWire]
(BUSINESS WIRE) -- The
GSMA today announced its Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action,
Connected Women: Accelerating the Female Mobile Economy, at the Clinton
Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York City. The GSMA and its
partners are working together in the Connected Women Programme to
accelerate growth of the female digital economy, having already reached
10 million women through existing initiatives. The Connected Women
Programme will undertake studies that will offer critical insights into
the socio-economic benefits of greater inclusion of women at all points
in the industry and will be used by partners to develop initiatives and
services for female consumers and employees.
“The ubiquity and affordability of mobile presents us with the
unprecedented opportunity to improve and enhance social and economic
development” said Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA. “However, women
in particular tend to be left behind, not only as consumers of mobile
services, but also as employees and leaders in the mobile industry. To
address this, the GSMA has partnered with key industry stakeholders with
the vision of accelerating the potential of the female digital
economy.”
In partnership with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade (DFAT) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),
the GSMA will undertake a research project to increase understanding of
the current mobile phone gender gap, the drivers for and barriers to
mobile phone access and usage, and implications for industry
policymakers and other stakeholders. The study will be amongst the most
comprehensive taken to date by the international community on women’s
technology wants and needs at the base of the pyramid. The research
project will include 12,000 interviews and 84 focus group sessions
across China, Columbia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt,
India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria and Turkey.
In partnership with A.T. Kearney, the GSMA will also undertake and
publish a landmark piece of research examining the state of gender
diversity across the industry, highlighting best practices and offering
strategic advice on areas of potential change. The objective of the
research is to raise awareness of the opportunities for and the role of
women in the global telecoms ecosystem and to drive change across the
industry by demonstrating how women can support the aspirations of the
industry. The report will provide metrics for monitoring progress and
activity.
Upon completion of the research reports in early 2015, the GSMA
Connected Women Programme partners, which currently include Ooredoo,
Qualcomm, Roshan and Smart Communications, commit to using the insights
and recommendations generated, to create programmes and services for
their female customers and employees. GSMA operator partners will use
the findings to deliver the appropriate services including: enhanced
access to the mobile Internet for women; recruitment of women to become
distributors of mobile airtime credits within their communities, which
will allow them to expand digital access while generating household
income; provision of information and services that women need with
regards to health, education and entrepreneurship skills; provision of
mobile technology to women factory workers to enable access to health
information; and launch services designed to protect women in vulnerable
situations by enabling them to block unwanted callers, preventing
harassment and verbal abuse.
Ms. Bouverot continued, “The GSMA Connected Women Programme is
spearheading the growth of the female digital economy and we look
forward to welcoming new partners to help to bring critical
socio-economic benefits to women consumers and employees across the
globe.”
-ENDS-
Notes to Editor:
About the Clinton Global Initiative
Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global
Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes
global leaders to create and implement solutions to the world’s most
pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than
180 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading
CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members
of the media. To date, members of the CGI community have made more than
2,900 commitments, which are already improving the lives of more than
430 million people in over 180 countries.
CGI also convenes CGI America, a meeting focused on collaborative
solutions to economic recovery in the United States, and CGI University
(CGI U), which brings together undergraduate and graduate students to
address pressing challenges in their community or around the world. For
more information, visit clintonglobalinitiative.org and on Twitter
@ClintonGlobal and Facebook at facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.
GSMA Connected Women Programme
The GSMA Connected Women Programme builds upon the achievements of
both the mWomen Programme, which was launched by U.S. Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton in October 2010 to increase women’s access to
and use of mobile phones and life-enhancing mobile services in
developing markets, and GSMA Connected Women, launched in Brussels in
2012 to close the ICT skills gender gap, attract and retain female
talent and encourage female leadership in technology on a global basis.
The Connected Women programme builds on the momentum of these two
programmes through the delivery of research, technical assistance,
meetings, advocacy case studies, best practices and toolkits to further
address the digital skills and connectivity gender gaps to enable women
to meet their full potential as consumers and employees. For more
information visit: www.gsma.com/connectedwomen.
About the GSMA
The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators
worldwide. Spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800
of the world’s mobile operators with 250 companies in the broader mobile
ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies,
equipment providers and Internet companies, as well as organisations in
industry sectors such as financial services, healthcare, media,
transport and utilities. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events
such as Mobile World Congress and Mobile Asia Expo.
For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.
Contacts
Media:
For the GSMA
Charlie Meredith-Hardy
+44 7917 298428
CMeredith-Hardy@webershandwick.com
or
GSMA Press Office
pressoffice@gsma.com
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