The role of mobile coverage data in integrated energy planning: The case of the Democratic Republic of Congo
Wednesday 10 August, 2022 | Africa | Blog | Connected Society | Democratic Republic of Congo | Digital Utilities | Energy | English | Mobile access and use | Partnership engagement | Rural network coverage
The rise of integrated energy planning in low- and middle-income countries Data-driven integrated energy planning strategies have become a critical tool in coordinating and accelerating investments in energy access. These strategies also serve as a foundation for ...
Introducing the ‘Platforms for Tomorrow’ acceleration programme in Tunisia
Monday 8 August, 2022 | Africa | Blog | blog | Ecosystem Accelerator | Employment | Mobile access and use | Mobile for Development | Mobile Innovation Hub | Tunisia
In the recent years, businesses have started to adopt the ‘Platform Economy’ model in managing their operations to ensure scalability and increase their reach. Platform Economy refers to a business model that leverages digital technologies to enable connections, ...
How crowding-in can drive greater impact in the digitisation of agricultural value chains.
Tuesday 2 August, 2022 | Africa | AgriTech | AgriTech solutions | Blog | blog | Innovation Fund | Kenya | Mobile for Development | Programme
In parallel to delivering the FCDO funded GSMA Innovation Fund for Digitisation of Agricultural Value Chains (IF), the AgriTech programme has been supporting the “crowding-in” of other stakeholders in the agritech ecosystem who we were unable to directly support through ...
Three lessons from Ahlan Simsim, Sesame Workshop’s GSMA-funded innovation project
Tuesday 19 July, 2022 | Blog | Disaster response | Education | Middle East | Middle East and North Africa | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Refugees and forced migrants
The GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund aims to promote innovation in the use of mobile technology to address humanitarian challenges. The second round of the Fund focused on; testing new technical solutions; catalysing ideas to improve or transform ...
Plastic Waste: An urgent global problem
Thursday 14 July, 2022 | Blog | Climate | ClimateTech | Global | Global | Mobile for Development | Plastics and Waste Management | Waste Management
The UN estimates that 300 million tonnes of plastic waste is produced each year[1]. Yet, globally, less than 10% of plastic is recycled, and some reports estimate that at least 75% of all the plastic ever produced has become waste[2]. With the vast majority of plastic waste ...
Driving alternative service delivery in South African informal settlements – Lessons from GreenCape
Tuesday 12 July, 2022 | Africa | Blog | Climate | Digital Utilities | Energy | English | Partnership engagement | Public-Private | Sanitation | South Africa | Water
In this guest blog from GreenCape, Reshmi Wolvers (Project Manager, Alternative Service Delivery Unit) and Cilnette Pienaar (Head of Communications) highlight the Alternative Service Delivery Unit’s unique working model that is increasing access to essential urban ...
Mobile Money: Driving affordable and resilient international remittances at scale
Monday 11 July, 2022 | Blog | blog | English | Financial Inclusion | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile Money | Mobile Money | Mobile Money | Mobile Money Blog
As mobile money expanded into the mainstream and increasingly diversifies into digital finance products, crossing the $1 trillion transaction mark in 2021, remittances have become a key mobile money use case. The number of international remittances sent and received via ...
Field Focus Week ‘22: Mitigating barriers to scaling key Agriculture digitisation use-cases
Monday 11 July, 2022 | Africa | AgriTech | AgriTech solutions | Blog | Climate | Digitisation of agricultural value chains | Financial Inclusion | Innovation Fund | Kenya
The focus of this blog is to provide an overview of the discussions from the latest Field Focus Week (FFW) event. The blog summarises key bottlenecks faced by the AgriTech grantees in their attempt to sustainably scale key digitisation use-cases and poses questions whose ...
The challenge of service provision in intermediary cities: In search of solutions
Monday 4 July, 2022 | Blog | Climate | Digital Utilities | Energy | English | Partnership engagement | Sanitation | South Asia | Sub-Saharan Africa | Water
Why are intermediary cities important? By 2050, two billion additional people are expected to live in urban areas meaning that two out of three people in the world will be living in cities. While this statistic has been at the forefront of urban development ...
Strengthening disaster preparedness in the Philippines through digital innovation
Tuesday 28 June, 2022 | Asia Pacific | Blog | Central Insights | Climate | Disaster response | East Asia and Pacific | Mobile | Mobile for Development | Philippines | Uncategorized
This blog looks at how digital innovation can strengthen Early Warning Systems in the Philippines, and provides recommendations for stakeholders involved in the development, management and financing of systems.
The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022
Wednesday 22 June, 2022 | Blog | blog | Connected Women | Gender | Global | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile internet for women | Report
Progress in closing the gender gap in mobile internet use has stalled More than 3.2 billion people in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) now access the internet on a mobile phone. Mobile is the primary way men and women access the internet in LMICs, accounting for 85% ...
Improving accessibility for vulnerable populations – the mobile industry’s efforts
Tuesday 21 June, 2022 | Assistive Tech | Blog | blog | China | Digital inclusion for persons with disability
Smartphones are so convenient. From reading a map to paying a bill or making a business deal, to sending schoolwork or ordering medication and groceries, they help us with our everyday lives, across all the generations. And now, this portal in the palm of your hand is ...
Sharing alternative data in agricultural value chains to unlock agri DFS for smallholder farmers
Monday 20 June, 2022 | AgriTech | AgriTech solutions | Blog | Building the financial ecosystem | Digital identity | Financial inclusion for farmers
This blog explores how data generated by the rollout of digital payment and procurement solutions in the agricultural last mile can be shared to unlock agri Digital Financial Services (agri DFS) for smallholder farmers. It also identifies considerations that come into play ...
World Refugee Day – The power (and limits) of mobile technology
Saturday 18 June, 2022 | Africa | Blog | blog | Disaster response | Europe and Central Asia | Global | Innovation Fund | Middle East and North Africa | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation | Refugees and forced migrants | South Asia | Sub-Saharan Africa
Worldwide 89.3 million people are forcibly displaced 27.1 million of these people have crossed a border and are refugees. As a result of conflict, violence, human rights violations, and increasingly severe climate shocks, a growing number of people are forced to flee homes ...
What can the US learn from the Global South as it seeks to strengthen EWS for climate resilience?
Tuesday 7 June, 2022 | Blog | blog | Central Insights | Climate | Mobile for Development | Mobile for Development | USA
Like the rest of the world, the United States (US) is experiencing more frequent and severe climate related catastrophes. What can the US learn from the Global South as it seeks to strengthen EWS for climate resilience in local communities?
Digital solutions to combat marine plastic waste
Tuesday 7 June, 2022 | Blog | blog | Climate | ClimateTech | Mobile for Development | Plastics and Waste Management | Waste Management | Water
On World Oceans Day 2022, under the theme "Revitalization: collective action for the ocean" the GSMA ClimateTech talks about using digital technology to combat the plastic waste crisis inorder to protect our oceans.
Mobile Digital Skills Alliance: Practical considerations for implementing mobile digital skills programmes
Monday 6 June, 2022 | Blog | blog | Connected Society | Digital literacy | Mobile access and use
The Mobile Digital Skills Alliance is a network of organisations, companies and academics dedicated to generating and sharing knowledge, disseminating best practices and fostering collaboration to improve mobile digital skills across low- and middle-income countries and ...