Mobile for Development Blog

Filter

What is scale and how can start-ups achieve it?

post image

The GSMA Innovation Fund positions start-ups and SMEs in low- and middle-income countries to scale operations and amplify their social and environmental impact. But what is scale? Through a series of interviews conducted with our alumni, we collected in-depth insights ...

Expanding beyond borders: Greenovator’s journey of regional expansion

post image

Introduction Greenovator, a member of the GSMA AgriTech Accelerator cohort, is a digital agriculture service provider that aims to empower farming communities to improve their livelihoods. Their services are centred on leveraging mobile to deliver agricultural advisory, ...

Our new data shows the mobile internet gender gap has narrowed slightly, but there is still much work to be done

post image

#InspireInclusion: Latest data and commitments The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “Inspire Inclusion”, and we are sharing a preview of some of our updated figures on the mobile internet gender gap in advance of publishing our Mobile Gender Gap Report 2024 ...

Sustainable Waste Management: Highlights on digitalisation and partnerships from Freetown, Sierra Leone

post image

This blog presents highlights from a discussion hosted by the GSMA Digital Utilities programme together with Freetown Waste Transformers on the challenges of waste management in the city of Sierra Leone, including opportunities for digital solutions and innovative ...

Announcing The GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation Cohort 2.0

post image

Announcing the `11 start-up organisations selected under the GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation 2.0

To deliver on its promises, digital financial services must hear the voice of consumers

post image

Amidst the global surge in digital financial services adoption, a collaborative effort between GSMA and Consumers International highlights both progress and challenges in ensuring these innovations deliver on their promises, particularly for vulnerable consumers. Drawing ...

Trends in Innovation Pitches: Opportunities for Climate Tech Investment

post image

This blog presents an analysis of key trends from the applications for the GSMA Innovation Fund for Climate Resilience and Adaptation 2.0, and expands on analysis of emerging trends within climate tech innovation from the first round of this Fund.

Understanding AI for sustainable development in Africa  

post image

AI innovations have the potential to contribute to economic growth in Africa, and are playing an increasingly important role in the region's sustainable development. Read the blog to discover more about these possibilities, alongside the challenges to fostering AI-enabled ...

How user-centred design can improve agri e-commerce interfaces that cater to the needs and literacy levels of smallholder farmers  

post image

Agri e-commerce has become a viable alternative to traditional unstructured markets. E-commerce platforms have enormous potential to transform agricultural trading. They enable the selling and buying of agricultural produce online. Doing so allows farmers to sell directly to ...

Combler le fossé hommes-femmes en matière de technologie mobile en Afrique subsaharienne : Une opportunité sociale et commerciale 

post image

En Afrique subsaharienne, les téléphones portables transforment la région de manière sans précédent. Ils ont évolué au-delà de leur fonction première de communication pour devenir des moteurs de progrès dans de nombreux domaines tels que la santé, l'éducation, la finance et ...

Closing the mobile gender gap in Sub-Saharan Africa: A social and commercial opportunity  

post image

In Sub-Saharan Africa, mobile phones are reshaping the region in unprecedented ways. They have transcended their initial purpose of communication to become catalysts for progress in various areas, including healthcare, education, finance and agriculture, offering innovative ...

Mobile-enabled early warning in Cambodia: Field visit with GSMA Innovation Fund grantees 

post image

In January 2024, we visited Cambodia where we were hosted by two organisations from the GSMA Innovation Fund for Anticipatory Humanitarian Action, People in Need and ActionAid. Both organisations have been instrumental in developing the EWS 1294 system for Cambodia, launched ...

Accelerating Impact through Innovation

post image

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) funding gap challenge Social impact ventures face a range of diverse and complex challenges to scale their impact in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), including limited market access, a lack of infrastructure, regulatory ...

Connectivity in Crisis: The humanitarian implications of connectivity for crisis-affected communities

post image

Connectivity has changed the nature of humanitarian crises and humanitarian response. More and more, affected people and humanitarian responders rely on connectivity for information, coordination and services. And, while this increasingly connected world has many benefits, ...

The GSMA Agritech Accelerator Bootcamp: Building synergies to deliver on the Accelerator’s objectives

post image

‘The cross-learning from other innovators and networking opportunities has been amazing,’ remarks Peter Okonmah, co-founder of Nigerian smart farming agritech FarmSpeak Technology Limited. This is just one example of the many positive testimonials validating the purpose of ...

Five steps to measuring environmental impact of climate tech innovation

post image

There is still much to learn about measuring and attributing the impact of climate tech solutions, and in particular, the environmental impact. Rapidly advancing climate tech offers significant potential to serve as a catalyst for climate action.

Reflections from COP28: Digital will be central to climate action

post image

Digital will play a key role in climate action. Read our reflections from COP28.

Enhancing commercial sustainability of assistive tech solutions through business-to-business models

post image

Digital assistive technologies (AT) are a gateway for persons with disabilities to access life-enhancing services and opportunities that can enable them to live more independent and autonomous lives. In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), nearly half (around 43%) of ...

J-Palm Liberia: Transforming sustainable palm oil through mobile blockchain technology

post image

J-Palm in Liberia, is revolutionising the sustainability of wild palm oil in West Africa using mobile and blockchain technology, and strengthening the climate resilience of communities.

The GSMA Innovation Fund for Humanitarian Challenges is open for applications

post image

We are pleased to announce the launch of the GSMA Innovation Fund for Humanitarian Challenges. As global humanitarian needs continue to rise, the Fund will leverage our proven innovation fund model to provide grants as well as additional non-financial and technical support ...