This blog contains a summary of the recently published Insights Paper, “Mutual value, mutual gain: Best practices from successful social sector partnerships with mobile network operators.” This paper analyses findings from in-depth interviews with social sector organizations to better understand common norms and tactics for successful social sector/operator partnerships and inform a set of best practices to increase the social sector’s understanding of how to successfully work with operator partners for mutual benefit.  It offers social sector organizations practical guidance on making the decision to approach an operator, and best practices to successfully pitch, negotiate and implement an operator/social sector partnership.  It also features snapshots of diverse operator/social sector partnerships, as well as key pieces of advice from experienced social sector organizations for those thinking about approaching an operator for partnership.  We encourage you to have a look at both the Insights Paper and share your own lessons learned from operator/social sector partnerships with us via Twitter or email: @GSMAmWomen or [email protected].

Why are operator/social sector partnerships important?

For operators endeavouring to increase their revenues, resource poor women are one of the last untapped markets: the estimated 300 million fewer women subscribers than men in low and middle-income countries represent a $13B missed market opportunity.[1]  To take advantage of the revenue potential found in these untapped communities, the formation of efficient and effective partnerships between operators and social sector organizations that have long-standing networks and expertise in serving rural and marginalized populations is crucial.

How do social sector organizations add value?

For operators without visibility into these communities, or experience developing services for them, partnerships with social sector organizations yield a myriad of benefits such as increased consumer insights, proven content for products and services, and access to existing marketing and distribution channels. Social sector/operator partnerships are especially crucial to serve low and middle-income women in emerging markets – the persistent barriers that inhibit women’s access to mobile services are among the most complex to solve in the M4D sector and prevent both the individual and community benefits that women’s access to mobile services enables.

Selected guidance for social sector organizations for getting social sector/operator partnerships right:

Before the pitch:

• Allocate resources to ensure coverage for necessary staff time to pursue operator partnership.
• Educate yourself on the pluses and minuses of direct operator partnerships vs. aggregators and make an informed decision on which path you’re taking
• Understand when in the project lifecycle to make the approach to ensure you’re picking a strategic time in the program to make the operator pitch.

Making the pitch:

• Articulate the value proposition of the partnership and where it sits within the operator (commercial or foundation/CSR).
• Demonstrate immediate value in the first meeting by presenting the operator with consumer insights and market intelligence gained through your organization’s existing work with target communities.
• Speak the same language as the operator representatives and don’t alienate them with social sector terms they may not understand – e.g., use the term ‘market segment’, not ‘beneficiaries’. 

Closing the deal:

• Prepare for a need for flexibility when negotiating the final vision for the partnership, as it might be different than the initial pitch due to internal needs and wants at the operator.
• Catalyze buy-in from both the group and opco levels by facilitating communication between all stakeholders early on in the negotiation process to ensure efficient service launch once the negotiation process is completed.
• Understand the possibility of a long negotiation timeline and set expectations both internally and with external stakeholders like donors accordingly.

Implementing the partnership:

• Plan for a time investment after contract signing to conduct country-level relationship building at the local, technical and programmatic levels.
• Begin service delivery as quickly as possible to ensure services meet the tighter timeframe expectations of operator partners.
• Manage partnerships efficiently, while trying to shield the operator from as much management burden as possible.

The Insights paper also covers other key issues such as:

• The pros and cons of partnering with aggregators vs. commercial VAS providers
• Partnership management models for efficient multi-stakeholder management
• Mobile operator group structuring
• Partnership exit strategies 

Despite the clear benefits to social sector/operator partnerships and the rapid maturation of the M4D sector that catalyzes them, successful examples of such partnerships are difficult to come by.  Lack of success in the design, negotiation and implementation of social sector/operator partnerships continues to be a significant challenge to scale in the M4D sector, and are rich topics for learning and guidance as the sector evolves.  Please reach out to GSMA mWomen to share your story and inform future research on this important issue.

Read the full Insights paper.

[1] Women and Mobile: A Global Opportunity, 2010: Link here