In a rousing speech, Cherie Blair helps launch mWomen

Introduced by US secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the US Department of State Cherie Blair helped launched mWomen

“My foundation for women and GSMA were drawn together by shared concerns that too many women were missing out on the opportunities that mobile phones were providing,” she explained. “As we know, mobiles have led a remarkable communications revolution, extending and improving the way people connect with each other. This is particularly the case in developing countries.”

She talked about how they are becoming increasingly used in literacy and health programmes.

Mrs Blair then gave some fantastic statistics:

“Africa, for example, is the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world with a 20% growth in 2009 alone. It is estimated that there are now close to 500 million African subscribers in a continent of some one billion people.”

Women in particular benefited from mobile

“Over nine out of ten women we surveyed felt safer because of their mobile phone. 85% felt more independent. And over 55% of business owners reported that they have earned additional income.”

Because the empowerment of women is so critical to the strength of our societies, the potential impact is huge.

The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women particularly supports female entrepreneurship, and this fits well with the mWomen programme because there is an incentive for the private sector to lend their support as it represents a 13 billion dollar revenue opportunity for mobile operators.

Cherie Blair emphasised the importance of combining efforts

“We don’t want to duplicate when we design solutions. We want to integrate a gender focused approach, building on the good work already being done by the mHealth Alliance, the work of the numerous NGOs here today, as well as the governments working to improve the regulatory frameworks to allow progress.”

And she ended with a pledge

“My foundation pledges its own support in the form of a three year programme focused on harnessing the benefits of mobile technology for women entrepreneurs. And as an mWomen ambassador, I personally commit to help make this initiative a success.”

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