The GSMA mWomen Programme today launched a new set of tools for the mobile industry at the GSMA mWomen Seminar at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. These accompany the launch of the research report ‘Portraits – A Glimpse into the Lives of BoP Women’
The GSMA mWomen Programme recognises that a definitive representation of the hundreds of millions of BoP women is impossible in any one research study and so aims that ‘Portraits: A Glimpse Into The Lives Of Women At The Base Of The Pyramid’ and the longer report ‘Striving and Surviving – Exploring the Lives of Women at the Base of the Pyramid’ (released on 8 March, International Women’s Day) will be a catalyst for further work in this area. To this end, all of the research tools used to create ‘Striving and Surviving’ will be publically available on this website here. These include:
- Ethnography Observation Guide
- Focus Group Discussion Guides
- Opinion Leader Discussion Group
- Wants and Needs Questionnaire
Please contact Per Helmersen, GSMA mWomen Research Manager for more information on using the Research Toolkit at [email protected].
Framework for Designing the mWomen Business Case
Since the launch of GSMA mWomen in 2010, the programme has worked directly with mobile operators in key markets to characterize the business opportunity and create a framework for understanding the key profitability drivers affecting the underserved women’s opportunity. The mobile operator Framework for Designing the mWomen Business Case has been created in partnership with USAID to support the mobile industry in creating new strategies to identify the opportunities and address the challenges to serve the underserved women’s segment. Though the regional and local contexts do factor into each country and region, this document identifies commonalities among the developing country markets and experiences and introduces a broadly applicable framework for analysis, as well as proposing a set of tools to analyse and address the market throughout the mobile product development lifecycle.
An Impact Pathway is a logical framework used to measure inputs, outputs, and outcomes against stated activities or occurrences. In particular, it illustrates a ‘theory of change’, demonstrating how access to mobile services for development can bring about short, medium, and long term change that improves lives and reduces poverty.
Impact Pathway for Mobile and Women
The Impact Pathway for Mobile and Women explores how women can be empowered through ownership and effective usage of mobile phones, and how access for women to life-enhancing mobile services can lead to economic advancement, and enhanced power and decision-making abilities. To test this theory of change, the GSMA mWomen team in partnership with USAID and AusAID, commissioned PwC to undertake a review of relevant literature covering leading initiatives, programs, and deployments known to be taking place. Data from the literature review has been captured and catalogued against indicators defined within the Mobile and Women impact pathway. By highlighting where concentrations of data exist, as well as gaps, the pathway can serve as a repository of information that can be used by development practitioners, donors, academics and mobile network operators alike.