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Tracking the mobile money industry 10 years on: Addressing the mobile money gender gap

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This blog shares some key findings from the “Addressing the mobile money gender gap” Chapter on page 60 of the GSMA’s State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2022.  It draws on recent GSMA nationally representative field research in a number of low- and ...

Improving Women’s Digital Safety with Mobile Tokenisation

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In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), like Ghana, the wide-ranging benefits of mobile technology are evident in the everyday life of underserved communities. Mobile enables access to voice and communication services, and provides a preferred, and often first, entry to ...

Our latest data highlights the urgency to address the mobile gender gap two years into the COVID-19 pandemic

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Over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the importance of access to mobile and mobile internet. Women in particular have been disproportionately negatively impacted by the pandemic and mobile has provided them with a means to mitigate many of the ...

Protecting women’s identities through mobile tokenisation

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Mobile technology is being used to change lives and bring new solutions and services to underserved communities. According to the GSMA’s Mobile Gender Gap Report 2021, 143 million fewer women than men own a mobile across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and women ...

Bank Asia’s top agent and the lessons from her success

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Alsin is a young mother and wife, and the top performing agent among Bank Asia’s over 4,800 active agents (of which only about 10% are female). In recent months, her average monthly commission has grown to over 40 times the average commission of all other active agents. In ...

COVID-19 is diversifying mobile internet use for women in Bangladesh, but most are still excluded

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Connected Women has conducted several in-country research studies in Bangladesh over the past year. This blog captures some of the emerging findings. It is 7pm in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Tonema is home from work, exhausted from the countless tuk-tuk rides she has taken since this ...

The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2021

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In a year of unprecedented stress, loss and continuous uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic, mobile phones provided a lifeline for women to stay afloat. Across low- and middle-income countries, 3 billion people now access the internet on a mobile phone[1], and for most ...

GSMA Makes Bold Commitments at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris

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The GSMA has made bold commitments on behalf of the mobile industry to tackle the mobile gender gap and promote digital inclusion for women and girls at the Generation Equality Forum in Paris. The forum was convened by UN Women and co-hosted by the governments of Mexico and ...

Top 10 recommendations for reaching women with mobile

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Relevant for mobile operators, policymakers, the development community and other stakeholders who are seeking to reach women with mobile products and services in low- and middle-income countries. How can mobile operators reach women with mobile across low- and middle-income ...

Choose to challenge: Looking at the mobile gender gap

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As we celebrate International Women’s Day, it is important to reflect on the year that has passed and its impact on women. The theme of International Women’s Day this year is “Choose to Challenge” and a critical challenge is the digital gender gap. The year 2020 marked the ...

The importance of digital literacy to access sexual and reproductive health content via mobile internet

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We know that mobile internet content can bring invaluable benefits to millions of women worldwide. But developing relevant e-health services for women is not only about making information and services available through an app, a website, SMS or USSD channels; it’s also ...

Key take-aways from GSMA Connected Women at Thrive Africa

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At the end of September 2020, over 90 people from all over the world – from the mobile industry, the ICT industry, governments, the international development sector and the academic community – joined the Connected Women seminar on reaching women at scale to accelerate ...

Grameenphone’s GPAY app: How small changes can make a big difference for women

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Listening to customers to understand the barriers that restrict women from using mobile services can be instrumental in helping MNOs uncover some cost-effective quick wins for reaching female customers. This blog talks about one such quick win, which was unearthed by ...

Does just being a woman reduce the likelihood of using mobile?

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Women in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) are 8 per cent less likely than men to own a mobile phone, and 20 percent less likely to use mobile internet, or own a smartphone.[1] While this ‘mobile gender gap’ is well-documented, new econometric analysis by ...

The digital divide at the intersection of gender and disability

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Our GSMA Connected Women and Assistive Tech teams analysed data from the GSMA Intelligence Consumer Survey 2019 to better understand the characteristics of digital inclusion of women with disabilities. The message is clear: women with disabilities are disproportionately ...

“Safety and security”: How mobile operators can improve the safety and security of their services for women to help close the mobile gender gap

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This is one of a series of blogs that deep dives into our framework to help mobile operators close the gender gap in their customer base. This blog focuses on one of the five themes that we believe mobile operators should focus on to address the most common barriers ...

Adapting services for digital inclusion during COVID-19: Grameenphone’s Sign-Line

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s more important than ever to ensure that everyone is digitally included. However, mobile internet and digital content are out of reach for many.

“Usability and skills”: How mobile operators can help close the mobile gender gap by improving the usability of their services and women’s skills

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This is one of a series of blogs that deep dives into our framework to help mobile operators close the gender gap in their customer base. This blog focuses on one of the five themes that we believe mobile operators should focus on to address the most common barriers ...

“Relevance”: How mobile operators can improve the relevance of their services for women to help close the mobile gender gap

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This is one of a series of blogs that deep dives into our framework to help mobile operators close the gender gap in their customer base. This blog focuses on one of the five themes that we believe mobile operators should focus on to address the most common barriers ...

Why COVID-19 has increased the urgency to reach women with mobile technology

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As COVID-19 inevitably spreads across low- and middle-income countries resulting in tragic health and economic impacts, lockdowns, uncertainty and misinformation, a mobile phone can be a lifeline. Mobile is the primary way most people in these settings access the internet, ...