{"id":15073,"date":"2018-10-10T12:19:48","date_gmt":"2018-10-10T11:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/?p=15073"},"modified":"2026-01-06T14:14:50","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T14:14:50","slug":"measuring-mobiles-impact-on-sustainable-development-at-unga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/article\/measuring-mobiles-impact-on-sustainable-development-at-unga\/","title":{"rendered":"Measuring mobile\u2019s impact on sustainable development at UNGA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The GSMA was in New York last month to represent the mobile industry at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA).<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of the week the GSMA participated in a wide range of activities with several high-profile partners, providing a platform for dialogue between mobile industry leaders, heads of state, global leaders and governments to further accelerate mobile\u2019s contribution to the UN\u2019s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the week we had a highly visible presence at the SDG Media Zone, a unique space at UNGA that allows attendees to participate in live interviews, panel discussions and special events. The Media Zone programme successfully showcased the wide range of initiatives that the global community is working on to support the 2030 Agenda. A round-up of all the activity is available on the UN website.<\/p>\n<p>The GSMA also co-hosted several side events within the UN. On Monday 23 September, GSMA Chair Sunil Bharti Mittal and I participated in the session \u2018<em>New Technologies and Mobile Solutions for Development: Business Driving Innovation for Social Good<\/em>.\u2019 This event brought together global leaders and experts from the public and private sectors to discuss how to maximise innovation to deliver on the aspirations of the 2030 Agenda. Click here for coverage of the event.<\/p>\n<p>The following day, the GSMA hosted a breakfast \u2013 under the theme <em>Big Data for Better Lives<\/em> \u2013 to explore how governments around the world can harness the power of big data as a means of tackling a range of global challenges \u2013 with a major focus on the GSMA\u2019s Big Data for Social Good (BD4SG) programme. Panellists included operator CEOs, representatives from UN agencies, and senior ministers from Norway, Belgium and Sierra Leone. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobileworldlive.com\/featured-content\/home-banner\/politicians-urged-to-back-big-data-at-unga\/\">Click here<\/a> for coverage of the event.<\/p>\n<p>The GSMA\u2019s Mobile for Development (M4D) team held a separate networking breakfast on the same morning under the theme <em>Transforming Women\u2019s Lives with Mobile. <\/em>This session focused on how mobile solutions are transforming the lives of women and their families by providing access to energy, water, clean cooking and nutrition information, and driving women\u2019s financial and digital inclusion.<\/p>\n<p>Away from UN HQ, we participated in several other related events in New York, including those held by the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, EQUALS, Concordia, One Planet Summit, and the WEF Sustainable Development Impact Summit, among others.<\/p>\n<p>We also used UNGA week to publish the 2018 edition of our \u2018Mobile Industry Impact: Sustainable Development Goals\u2019 report, which revealed that the mobile industry is demonstrating significant and measurable impact in contributing to the SDGs.<\/p>\n<p>Based on a proprietary methodology, the study found that the industry\u2019s contribution to each of the 17 SDGs has increased year-on-year over the last three years as mobile operators worldwide increasingly embed the SDGs into their core values, strategies, policies and services, via real-world initiatives. The scores also allow us to see where we are having the greatest impact and where our contribution is growing fastest (<em>see graphic<\/em>).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-15077\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/\/Picture1-3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"939\" height=\"470\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picture1-3.png 939w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picture1-3-300x150.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picture1-3-768x384.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 939px) 100vw, 939px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Source: GSMA Mobile Industry Impact report, 2018<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Click here to download the full report and also have a look at this article I wrote for the World Economic Forum, which highlights some key case studies from the report.<\/p>\n<p>The effective use of mobile big data is a key tactic for delivering many of the SDGs and was therefore a big focus at UNGA. The BD4SG team published a case study on the work being done in India by Airtel and partners in using big data to analyse population movements to identify tuberculous (TB) hotspots. The launch of this study coincided with the UN\u2019s <em>first-ever high-level solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/regulatory-environment\/mobile-energy-efficiencyting on how to accelerate efforts to eradicate TB \u2013 and surely big data has the potential to part of the solution. Read my recent blog on the issue <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/blog\/how-mobile-big-data-can-help-eradicate-one-of-the-biggest-killers-of-our-time\/\">here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>My key takeaway from UNGA is that our industry is now firmly playing a central role in accelerating delivery of the SDGs, by leveraging the power of mobile networks and services to transform lives around the world. However, while the 2030 deadline to solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/regulatory-environment\/mobile-energy-efficiencyt the SDGs may seem a distant horizon today, it is critical that all stakeholders \u2013 governments, the mobile industry and others \u2013 take concerted and urgent action now to further accelerate progress over the coming years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GSMA was in New York last month to represent the mobile industry at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). Over the course of the week the GSMA participated in a wide range of activities with several high-profile partners, providing a platform for dialogue between mobile industry leaders, heads of state, global [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1073],"tags":[],"algolia_discover_type":[6627],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.0 (Yoast SEO v22.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Measuring mobile\u2019s impact on sustainable development at UNGA - Newsroom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/newsroom\/article\/measuring-mobiles-impact-on-sustainable-development-at-unga\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Measuring mobile\u2019s impact on sustainable development at UNGA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The GSMA was in New York last month to represent the mobile industry at the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). 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