Mobile has the extraordinary potential to transform societies and economies, reach the most remote communities and deliver life-enhancing services to resource-poor women. With this in mind, more than 100 people convened at the GSMA mWomen seminar at Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, Spain, to discuss what is next in the women and mobile space. Opened by Cherie Blair, Founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, the session revolved around two important and innovative topics: how to reach women with mobile services at scale in order to unlock economic opportunities and drive social impact and, the potential of mobile broadband to transform the livelihoods of resource-poor women.

Scalability is the path to success

To claim success in the mobile for development space, initiatives should be commercially sustainable and, therefore, reach scale. However, using mobile to reach women at scale is often times a noble proposition that often does not translate into a commercially sustainable project. While each project is unique, there are recurring challenges that products and services commonly face, especially in the design and deployment phase. Building upon the experience and expertise of our panellists at the GSMA mWomen Seminar, a few key lessons emerged, including:

• Segmenting women:  It is important to recognise that women have diverse lifestyles, necessities and ambitions. Researching and understanding the wants and needs of the women in the target market is key to addressing them in a specific, targeted manner
• Understanding the business case:  Identifying the path that will allow the project to reach scale from inception is crucial. While pilots are important to test the feasibility of the project, they are not enough.  In order to reach scale, the project needs to be designed with clear long-term objectives and be commercially viable
• Creating awareness:  The lack of awareness is one of the major barriers that hinder uptake of life-enhancing mobile products and services by resource-poor women. As explained by the ‘Marketing Handbook’, a targeted marketing campaign proves effective in addressing this barrier and creates awareness for women
• Obtaining internal buy-in:  Gaining the support of the senior members of  a company is essential to drive projects forward and overcome operational bumps in the road when creating an offering for resource-poor women
• Building partnerships:  Partnering with external entities can be impactful if the right partner is identified.  For an MNO, for instance, partnering with an NGO would mean having access to on-the-ground networks and benefitting from a wide range of insights around the wants and needs of women in the market. And, vice versa, for the NGO partnering with an MNO would mean tying its social impact objectives to the MNO’s long-term, commercial objectives. That means that partnerships are not about value extraction, but rather about building a healthy, inclusive mobile ecosystem where the objectives of both partners are met
• Persevering over time:  Allow time for the project to reach scale as scale doesn’t happen overnight

Mobile as the vehicle to internet access

Recently, a study [1] found that women are 23% less likely to have access to the internet than men in developing countries. Mobile can be the vehicle to bring the power of the internet into the hands of resource poor women, however, there are common challenges that need to be considered when trying to develop solutions to promote internet access through mobile broadband. For instance, what are the barriers that hinder women’s access to mobile broadband? And what can be done specifically to promote that access?

• Key barriers:  During the session, there was consensus about the barriers that hinder women’s access to mobile broadband.  On the demand side, cost, cultural issues, lack of digital literacy and awareness prevent women from accessing the internet. These barriers are exacerbated and amplified by the lack of relevant content that make accessing the internet appealing to resource-poor women
• Potential solutions: Our speakers agreed that the above-mentioned barriers are complex and need to be targeted individually according to the specific market. However, from the discussion emerged that while the conventional MNO-NGO partnership have a lot to offer, when it comes to mobile broadband, governments are a key player and need to be part of the conversation to concretely help the mobile industry develop a solid business case to serve resource-poor women. An extremely successful example is represented by the Government of Malaysia, which has made concrete effort to focus on increasing adoption by looking at three key pillars: awareness, attractiveness and affordability.  It developed Broadband Carnivals to teach people about internet, made government services available online to stimulate demand and interest, and subsidised computers and smartphones for lower-income people. While getting the buy-in from governments appears to be crucial in addressing the barriers that hinder mobile broadband uptake, it might not be as easy as in the Malaysian case. In certain cases, awareness about the gender digital divide within governments will need to be created at the policy regulatory level

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