Mobile for Development Resources

This study aims to support wider government efforts by investigating the drivers of digitalisation in Tanzania, investments and policy enablers, gaps and ecosystem challenges, and other areas for value creation.

GSMA Innovation Fund for Mobile Internet Adoption and Digital Inclusion – Life Stories

Mobile is an enabler for digital inclusion. It empowers people with new opportunities and life enhancing services. But the usage gap is still 40% which means that 3.2 billion people live in an area with mobile broadband coverage but ...

Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Podcast – Episode 11:
Climate Change

In Episode 11, Carol Gitobu (Market Engagement Manager, Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation at GSMA) hosts an interview-style discussion with Daniel Odongo from Ushahidi and Jedidah Ganira representing World Vision Kenya. The podcast ...

Advancing women’s financial inclusion in Tanzania: The role of mobile money

Mobile money is a driving force behind women's financial inclusion in Tanzania. Looking at usage data on mobile money and digital financial services from the 2021 World Bank Global FINDEX Database, women’s ...

M4H Innovation Fund lessons and outcomes: Enabling access to energy through innovative battery solutions by UHD in Uganda

The GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund aims to promote innovation in using mobile technology to address humanitarian challenges. The second round of the Fund focused on providing support to test new ...

GSMA Innovation Fund for Mobile Internet Adoption and Digital Inclusion – Highlights video

Tackling social norms to reduce the gender digital divide

This session brings together new research by the GSMA and BBC Media Action India, to discuss innovative solutions to reducing the gender digital divide in India, and how to enable more women to take advantage of the many benefits of mobile internet access.

Accelerating Rural Connectivity: Insights from the GSMA Innovation Fund for Rural Connectivity

This report outlines the solutions implemented by the grantees of the GSMA Innovation Fund for Rural Connectivity and looks at the performance and impact of the sites deployed, as well as the lessons learnt and key recommendations.

How can technology and data-sharing improve sustainable urban mobility and healthcare in Malaysia?

A webinar discussing the use of frontier technologies and data-sharing to improve sustainable urban mobility and healthcare in Malaysia.

Webinar: Introducing the GSMA AgriTech Accelerator

Friday 16 Dec 2022 | AgriTech | English |

The GSMA AgriTech Programme recently hosted two webinars to present the recently launched

Webinar recording: The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Report 2022

In this webinar recording, learn about the latest trends in global connectivity from The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Report 2022. By the end of 2021, 4.3 billion people were using ...

Four years of the Mobile Money Regulatory Index: Insights, opportunities and challenges

Launched in 2018 by the GSMA, the Mobile Money Regulatory Index has proven to be useful in stimulating debate on the reforms that may be undertaken in more restrictive mobile money markets and, ultimately, help support the efforts of ...

Mobile for Development Theatre at MWC Africa: Session recordings

Resource

Wednesday 14 Dec 2022 | Mobile for Development |

At MWC Africa 2022, we hosted our very first dedicated ‘Development Theatre’. Watch these video recordings to catch up with our sessions on climate resilience, digital inclusion, gender, humanitarian innovation, financial inclusion and partnerships.

GSMA Innovation Fund for Mobile Internet Adoption and Digital Inclusion: Meet the start-ups

Videos

The GSMA Innovation Fund for Mobile Internet Adoption and Digital Inclusion was set up to help address the key ...

Mobile Money: Cross border remittance costs

The GSMA commissioned an independent mobile money remittance price survey through DMA Global, in Q3 of 2022 as part of its work on the topic. This is a detailed dataset from the survey.

Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Podcast – Episode 10:
Digital Worlds

In Episode 10, Zoe Hamilton (Senior Insights Manager, Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation at GSMA) hosts an interview-style discussion with Linda Ahimbisibwe, Omar Meksassi, and Jason Siwat- lead researchers for the flagship report ...

Financial Inclusion Week 2022: Reducing the gender gap

Watch this presentation of the GSMA Mobile Money Programme that showcases findings from our research across 10 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) on mobile money gender gaps.

Harnessing technology and data for urban healthcare in Malaysia

This report identifies how digital health tools can enable Malaysia to improve its healthcare system, combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs) more effectively, and better understand and manage public health by using integrated data.

Mobile Big Data and Artificial Intelligence: Towards sustainable development in Southeast Asia

This report explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Mobile Big Data (MBD), using ‘connectivity’, can achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Southeast Asia.

GSMA Innovation Fund Start-Ups: Knowledge Platform

To address the education crisis in Pakistan, Knowledge Platform created Learn Smart Pakistan, a gamified cloud learning platform, currently used by 125,000 students.

M4H Innovation Fund lessons and outcomes: Danish Refugee Council’s Water ATMs in Uganda

The Digital Worlds of Displacement-Affected Communities

This report presents a holistic understanding of how displacement-affected communities in three humanitarian settings are using their mobile phones.

Webinar: The business case for farmers to participate in digitised agricultural value chains

Friday 21 Oct 2022 | AgriTech | AgriTech solutions |

This webinar presents key insights from a recent GSMA report that looks at the business case for farmers to participate in digitised agricultural value chains.

The state of mobile-enabled climate technology in Indonesia

The report presents an overview of the current use of mobile-enabled technology solutions in Indonesia, investigates barriers encountered that hinder the adoption of solutions, and explores the potential approaches to unlocking novel climate responses.

The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity Report 2022

Growth in mobile internet adoption continues and is nearly entirely driven by people living in low- and middle-income countries. Across the world, 55% of the population was using mobile internet at the end of 2021.

Harnessing technology and data for sustainable urban mobility in Malaysia

This report assesses Malaysia's journey towards creating sustainable urban mobility in cities, and highlights the challenges and opportunities in harnessing technology and data to make mobility in cities greener.

Partnering With the Public Sector: A toolkit for start-ups in the utilities sectors

For start-ups and SMEs, partnering with the public sector can be challenging. This new toolkit can help illustrate a pathway through the obstacles to innovative and successful public-private partnerships.

M4H Innovation Fund lessons and outcomes: Welthungerhilfe’s Child Growth Monitor

The GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund aims to promote innovation in using mobile technology to address humanitarian challenges. The second round of ...

Mobile Money agents sustainability in a digital era: Findings from Mozambique

Agent are the mobile money industry’s backbone, digitising about USD 700 million per day in 2021. Mobile money agents play an essential role in enabling unbanked and underbanked populations access to financial services, thanks to their ...

M4H Innovation Fund lessons and outcomes: International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) CuéntaNos.org

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 providing support to test new ...

Methodology: The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022

This document details the methodology behind The ...

Data-driven advisory services for climate-smart smallholder agriculture

In order to achieve sustainable development in the face of the intensifying impacts of climate change, agricultural production systems need to simultaneously achieve three goals: Increase agricultural productivity and ...

Policy considerations to accelerate digital inclusion for women in low- and middle-income countries

This report provides an overview of the various challenges that need to be tackled to advance digital inclusion for women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and provides granular recommendations for policymakers to address the ...

The state of mobile-enabled climate technology in Indonesia

With funding from the German Ministry for Economic cooperation and development, the GSMA has conducted an in-depth study exploring the opportunities for mobile-enabled solutions to assist Indonesia’s climate mitigation and adaptation efforts.

How can mobile operators and plastics organisations partner to address the plastic waste problem?

This webinar by the GSMA ClimateTech programme features highlights from the report titled ‘Catalysing Partnerships in Plastics’ and discusses the importance of strengthening partnerships for circular economy solutions with key industry stakeholders.

Assessment of smart farming solutions for smallholders in low and middle-income countries

Smart farming solutions can play an important role in helping smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) increase their productivity and resilience to disaster by opening access to assets and mechanisation, ...

‘Building Climate Resilient Digital Nations’ session at GSMA Mobile 360 APAC

On 2 August 2022 at the Mobile 360 Asia Pacific event held in Singapore, the GSMA

Disease Surveillance and Monitoring in the Philippines: Building resilience through mobile and digital technologies

This report evaluates the gaps in disease surveillance and monitoring systems in the Philippines and identifies examples and best practices of digital interventions leveraged in both low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and more advanced economies.

Mobile360 APAC 2022 session: Southeast Asia – Mobile and frontier tech for Sustainable Development Goals

This Mobile360 APAC session titled ‘Southeast Asia - Mobile and Frontier Tech for the SDGs‘ explores strategies to bridge the 'usage gap' and achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by leveraging mobile and frontier technologies.

Mobile Money Certification: Enabling safer and scalable digital finance ecosystem

In this video, we hear directly from MTN Group, GSMA and Alliances Management how the GSMA Mobile Money Certification enables a safer, collaborative and scalable digital finance ecosystem.

Mobile Money Certification: A differentiation strategy in compliance implemented by leading fintechs

In this video, we hear directly from MTN about how the leading fintech uses the GSMA Mobile Money Certification as a differentiation strategy in risk and compliance by going above and beyond the national regulatory requirements.

Mobile Money Certification’s value proposition for the industry

Hear from MTN and the GSMA’s Ashley Olson Onyango about how the GSMA Mobile Money Certification enables a safer, collaborative and scalable digital finance ecosystem.

M4H Innovation Fund lessons and outcomes: Naya Jeevan’s Mohinja Sohna Thar project

The GSMA AgriTech Toolkit for the digitisation of agricultural value chains

The Toolkit for the Digitisation of Agricultural Value Chains is a collection of resources that illustrate how digital technologies can address pain points for farmers and value chain actors, such as agribusinesses and cooperatives, in ...

Inclusive climate resilience strategies in the US

This research report therefore evaluates the gaps in Early Warning Systems for climate-related hazards in the US, and identifies examples of mobile and digital interventions used at the community level in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

How to make internet-enabled handsets more affordable in low- and middle-income countries

In this virtual session, we explored ways mobile operators, policymakers and all stakeholders working on digital inclusion in low- and middle-income countries ...

M4H Innovation Fund lessons and outcomes: Sesame Workshop’s Ahlan Simsim

Mobile Big Data for Cities: Urban climate resilience strategies for low- and middle-income countries

Cities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, including rising sea levels and storm surges, heat stress, extreme precipitation, inland and coastal flooding and ...

Catalysing Partnerships in Plastics

Explore the potential for collaboration between mobile network operators and plastics organisations The mismanagement of plastic waste is a global challenge that must be urgently addressed if we are to achieve the Sustainable ...

Digitalising rural MSMEs: Thailand’s agriculture and tourism sectors

Thailand faces a dual challenge of havingto swiftly navigating the disruptions caused by COVID-19 while also needing to enable sustainable and inclusive development. Building resilience and enhancing productivity of Micro, Small and ...

Building ecosystems: identifying tech start-up enablers in ASEAN

This report identifies and analyses the main ecosystem enablers for a thriving tech start-up economy in ASEAN low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Sima Sami Bahous, Executive Director, UN Women

On Wednesday 15 June, the GSMA Connected Women team launched the Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022. At the ...

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau, ITU

On Wednesday 15 June, the GSMA Connected Women team launched the Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022. At the virtual launch event, Claire Sibthorpe, GSMA spoke ...

Vishakha Saigal, Vice President & Head-Strategic Initiatives, Regulatory Policy & Research, Reliance Jio

On Wednesday 15 June, the GSMA Connected Women team launched the Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022. At the virtual launch event, Claire Sibthorpe, GSMA spoke ...

Matthew Shanahan presents the key findings of the Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022

On Wednesday 15 June 2022, we launched the Mobile Gender Gap report 2022. At the virtual launch event, Matthew Shanahan, Insights Manager at GSMA, ...

Early Warning Systems in the Philippines: Building resilience through mobile and digital technologies

The Philippines ranks as one of the countries most affected by natural disasters in the world with typhoons, storms, floods, landslides or droughts reported as a common occurrence. In December 2021, the Philippines was hit by Typhoon ...

The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022

The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2022 explores the key barriers preventing women’s equal mobile ownership and access to mobile internet as well as the widening smartphone ownership gender gap.

Digital Access and Barriers in Displacement-affected Communities in Sudan (White Nile & West Darfur)

According to the United Nations, 14.3 million people in Sudan will need humanitarian assistance in 2022 due to numerous overlapping crises. 1.2 million are refugees, roughly 800,000 of whom have been displaced from South Sudan. In a ...

M4H Innovation Fund lessons and outcomes: Flowminder

The GSMA Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund aims to promote innovation in the use of mobile technology to address humanitarian challenges. The first round of the Fund focused on providing support to help to ...

Mobile Money agents: sustainability in a digital era – Findings from Kenya

There are a variety of challenges that impact agents and their much-needed network in the future, particularly in Sub-Saharan. The GSMA commissioned MicroSave Consulting (MSC) to research cash-in/cash-out (CICO) agent circumstances in Kenya.

Reaching and Empowering Women with Digital Solutions in the Agricultural Last Mile

Our latest report explores how women’s limited participation in digitised agricultural value chains can only be addressed through gender-inclusive approaches that purposely consider women as well as men.

Water Utility Digitalisation in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Experiences from the Kenyan water sector

This report aims to address this evidence gap by examining the digitalisation journeys of four Kenyan water utilities. Through detailed case studies and interviews with key players in the water sector, we identify important lessons and opportunities.

Deep Dive: State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2022

Over the past ten years, mobile money has expanded from a niche offering, to a global financial service connecting over a billion people to the formal economy, offering diverse services and improving lives and ...

Driving the Digital Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities: Policy considerations for low- and middle-income countries

Drawing on insights from recent research on the mobile disability gap and a policy review in 28 countries across Africa and Asia, this report provides a framework for action to increase digital inclusion for persons with disabilities.

Digital Inclusion: Driving mobile internet adoption and use

Mobile internet connectivity delivers significant economic benefits, reduces poverty and transforms lives, providing people with access to information and services that not only assists them in their daily lives but that they would not ...

M-KOPA: Applying the pay-as-you-go model to smartphones in Africa

In Africa, handset affordability is a key barrier to accessing & using mobile internet. This case study highlights how M-KOPA, a connected asset financing company, is making smartphones more affordable to underserved customers in Kenya, Nigeria & Ghana.

Payment Service Banks in Nigeria: Opportunities and Challenges

This report highlights the opportunities, challenges and potential role that Payment Service Banks (PSB) can play in expanding financial inclusion in Nigeria.

Closing the Mobile Disability Gap in Ghana: Insights and Recommendations

In Ghana, persons with disabilities are 34 per cent less likely to own a mobile phone and significantly less likely to own a smartphone than non-disabled persons. In this short report we present six key findings on the mobile ...

GSMA Innovation Fund Start-Ups: Orenda

Pakistan has the second highest number or out-of-school children in the world. This figure currently stands at 22.5 million. Both enrollment and performance ...

Making internet-enabled phones more affordable in low- and middle-income countries

This report provides an overview of approaches, business models and technological innovations that are improving the affordability of internet-enabled handsets in low- and middle-income countries, particularly for underserved populations.

Agritech Data Enables Loans for Farmers in Papua New Guinea

In Papua New Guinea, agriculture is the most important economic activity, dominating rural areas where over 86 per cent of the country’s population resides. A key challenge ...

Mobile Money Agents: Sustainability in a digital era – Findings from Côte d’Ivoire

Mobile money agents play an essential role in enabling unbanked and underbanked populations access financial services. However, several factors challenge agents and their much-needed network in the future, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Exploring opportunities for climate services in Papua New Guinea with Digicel

Our new report illustrates the unique opportunity to use existing mobile infrastructure for high-resolution rainfall observation and improved climate services in Papua New Guinea.

Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Annual Report 2021

In 2021, against the backdrop of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, humanitarian needs continued to rise. Disasters from climate-related hazards, displacement caused by conflict, and food insecurity – sometimes in combination, remained a ...

Exploring women’s use of mobile money in Ghana

The reports looks into the impact of the pandemic on mobile money usage for men and women and the barriers to greater usage, with a specific focus on women entrepreneurs.

The Value of Pay-as-you-go Solar for Mobile Operators: Insights from customer journeys in Benin and Cote d’Ivoire

While our previous research clearly demonstrated the benefits quantitatively, it did not shed light on how and why people changed their behaviour. In partnership with MTN in Benin and Orange in Côte d’Ivoire, we conducted a follow-up qualitative study.

Mobile Money and Humanitarian Assistance

Presentation

Partnerships between humanitarian providers and Mobile Money providers established via open APIs can facilitate cash in emergency situations to those displaced or in need of humanitarian assistance.

MWC Barcelona 2022 Session: ‘Reaching Underserved Population Segments’

At some stage in the innovation journey, customer acquisition curves start to flatten and growth strategies shift to focus on creating value for unreached customer segments. A one-size-fits-all strategy no longer resonates with ...

Typhoon Rai Response: The role of the mobile industry

On December 16, 2021, the Philippines was hit by Typhoon Rai (known locally as Odette) causing devastation in island and coastal communities in the east and flooding cities all over the country. Nearly 8 million people were affected by ...

Mobile Internet, Well-being and Gender: Understanding the Links

The GSMA Connected Women team partnered with the University of Pennsylvania to develop a multidimensional well-being index to examine the link between mobile internet use and well-being among men and women.

Mobile money as a channel for remittances: How open APIs enable fast, low-cost, and secure delivery

Presentation

Find out more about how open APIs enable fast, low-cost, and secure delivery in this report.

M4H Innovation Fund lessons and outcomes: Nokia Saving Lives

Closing the Mobile Disability Gap in Sri Lanka: Insights and Recommendations

Access to mobile can be life changing for persons with disabilities. Mobile phones, particularly smartphones, can cluster multiple assistive technologies into one device, enabling more autonomous living. But many persons with ...

Updated: GSMA Mobile Internet Skills Training Toolkit (MISTT)

The GSMA Mobile Internet Skills Training Toolkit (MISTT) is a set of free resources to teach people the basic skills they need to access and use mobile internet. It uses a ‘train the trainer’ approach and consists of short lessons ...

Mobile money and consumer financial health

Gain an insight on what ‘financial health’ means in the digital financial services industry, and how mobile money providers are contributing to robust financial health of their consumers.

Mobile Money Metrics Tool

In 2021, the GSMA Mobile Money team launched the ‘Mobile Money Metrics’ tool. Offering ecosystem players from providers and governments to aid and development organisations information to enable them to make better decisions about how ...

Informal Youth Employment in the Mobile Industry in Sub-Saharan Africa

This report shines a light on informal economic opportunities created directly in the mobile industry value chain. Between December 2020 and February 2021, GSMA Mobile for Development conducted interviews and surveys with youth in six ...

The GSMA AgriTech session at Cracking the Nut 2021: Building resilient food systems with digital agriculture

On 16 November 2021, we hosted a breakout session at Cracking the Nut, the global event convening development practitioners to discuss issues around building the world’s rural and agricultural markets.

The GSMA AgriTech programme: How we work with agritech companies and investors

The AgriTech programme operates at the intersection of the mobile ecosystem and the development sector to develop, launch and scale commercially viable digital solutions for smallholder farmers.

The GSMA AgriTech programme: What we do

The AgriTech programme operates at the intersection of the mobile ecosystem and the development sector to develop, launch and scale commercially viable digital solutions for smallholder farmers.

The GSMA AgriTech programme: How we work with MNOs and climate resilience service providers

The AgriTech programme operates at the intersection of the mobile ecosystem and the development sector to develop, launch and scale commercially viable digital solutions for smallholder farmers.

The GSMA AgriTech programme: How we work with agribusinesses

The AgriTech programme operates at the intersection of the mobile ecosystem and the development sector to develop, launch and scale commercially viable digital solutions for smallholder farmers.

Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund Portfolio (2017-2022)

Within this document you will find a summary of each of the investments from the Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation Fund Portfolio.

The Mobile Disability Gap Report 2021