‘Partnering for Impact’ mobile operators look to the future and to the importance of cross-industry collaboration as the way forward
Women in South Asia are 58% less likely than men to use mobile internet. This represents the highest gender gap of anywhere in the world. While progress continues to be made, the digital gender gap remains a crucial topic for mobile operators, policy makers, the development community and wider industry stakeholders across Asia.
On 4 December 2018 in Delhi, India, the GSMA Connected Women team hosted ‘Partnering for Impact: Digital Inclusion for Women’ to advance the conversation of the effectiveness of cross-industry partnerships as a means of reaching women at scale. Here we share with you four such examples of collaborations highlighted on the day.
1. Robi Axiata, Bangladesh partners with Dalberg Insights and GSMA Connected Women to identify the gender of their customer base
Robi Axiata, a Connected Women Commitment Partner, committed to increasing the proportion of women in its mobile internet customer base in Bangladesh. Robi Axiata was aware there was a gender gap but was facing a common challenge for mobile operators of understanding the gender of their customer base. The absence of gender-disaggregated data presents issues of measuring, evaluating and ultimately resolving barriers for women’s access to mobile internet.
Robi Axiata collaborated with Dalberg Insights and the GSMA Connected Women programme on the implementation of the Gender Analysis and Identification Toolkit (GAIT); a machine-learning algorithm that analyses mobile usage patterns to estimate the gender of subscribers.
With GAIT applied to the customer base, gender was predicted with over 80% accuracy and subsequent analysis resulted in interesting revelations. The Robi team were able to identify ineffective targeting of female customers via outbound messaging channels as women were shown to use more ‘instant message’ platforms than originally known. Robi Axiata has recently launched Joyeeta, a smartphone loan programme specifically for women. GAIT is playing a key role in helping Robi target female customers, who are most likely to benefit from the programme, by reaching them with service information messages.
2. Mobitel, Sri Lanka partners with Google to empower women agents through business skills training
Mobitel offers a range of women specific services, from voice and data combined with insurance (Liyasara), to healthcare applications. As a Connected Women commitment partner, Mobitel was exploring effective ways to reach new women customers and educate them on Mobitel’s women related products and services.
Mobitel collaborated with Google in Colombo to introduce the #WomenWill programme to the female segment of their retail agent network. #WomenWill is an initiative designed to create economic opportunity for women, so that they can grow and succeed. Mobitel and Google set about training female Mobitel agents on business and entrepreneurial skills. These women became trainee ambassadors for woman’s digital inclusion, whilst simultaneously sharing and educating female customers on Mobitel relevant products and services.
Through this programme, Mobitel’s aim is to train and upskill 3,500 women agents across Sri Lanka. As well as serving the local market, these trained women agents become part of a global network of women benefiting from exposure to digital literacy, entrepreneurship, leadership and workplace advocacy.
3. Banglalink, Bangladesh partners with Facebook to provide digital skills training to new users of mobile internet
Connected Women research found that in Bangladesh 58% of women are less likely to use mobile internet than men. Research by Lirneasia also found that 67% of Bangladeshis aged 15-65 do not use the internet, citing that they “do not know what it is” as the main reason, thus further underscoring the opportunity for growth in mobile internet in Bangladesh.
In September 2018, Banglalink announced a partnership with Facebook to launch ‘Learn Internet, See the World’, a digital investment programme to empower the people of Bangladesh by providing access to mobile internet. Using a “train the trainer” model, this programme aims to train 2 million new internet users. 3,800 Bangalink promoters have engaged in the programme; more than 350 of which are female. They provide basic training on usage and benefits of the internet, including Facebook, demonstrating it as a tool that enables them to remain connected with friends and family, explore their interests and expand their skills. December 2018 data from Facebook shows that successful training under the programme has reached more than 200,000 citizens, of which 56% are women.
4. JazzCash, Pakistan partners with Unilever and Women’s World Banking to create a shared distribution network
Women’s World Banking’s (WWB) carried out research to understand why, despite JazzCash focusing on the female segment of their customer base, women’s uptake of a JazzCash account was lagging behind. This work has resulted in a ‘win-win proposition’ for 3 invested partners: JazzCash, Unilever and unbanked rural women in Pakistan.
WWB’s research established that approximately 99.9% of JazzCash’s ~70,000 agents were men. However, women did not feel comfortable transacting with JazzCash’s predominantly male agent network, which led to lower product uptake. To address this, WWB and Jazz collaborated with Unilever’s Guddi Baji (colloquially known as “good sister”) training programme for women entrepreneurs. Jazz introduced expertise in mobile money registration and management while Unilever brought core competencies in engaging and training rural women entrepreneurs.
Female rural shop owners were subsequently trained as both JazzCash agents and Unilever retailers, selling their range of household products. This resulted in an expanded retail footprint in remote rural areas, leveraging partnership and economies of scale. In addition to the benefits for rural female customers, women agents (shop owners) benefit from increased income plus enhanced business skills which, as a result, contributes to further business growth.
It is clear that working to close a gender gap as high as 58% is not without risk. There are extra demands put on stakeholder resources. Equally, the rewards can be great. These four collaborations confirm that a mutually agreed commitment, shared resources and a deal of tenacity can ensure partnerships succeed.
Click here to learn more about the mobile gender gap in the Connected Women programme’s latest report.