{"id":8675,"date":"2022-07-22T15:58:07","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T14:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/?p=8675"},"modified":"2025-11-25T14:20:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T14:20:28","slug":"gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/","title":{"rendered":"GSMA Brings Emerging Young Leaders to Hack for Digital and Financial Literacy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>At a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gsma_events\/gsma-hackathon-bridging-the-financial-literacy-gap-via-mobile\/#:~:text=The%20GSMA%20is%20pleased%20to,more%20inclusive%2C%20especially%20for%20women.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">two-day Hackathon<\/a> held on 8 and 9 July as part of a three-year capacity building project funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/equals-eu.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">EQUALS EU<\/a>\u201d, GSMA brought together 19 participants with diverse skillsets and professional and educational background to hack for digital and financial literacy with a particular focus on empowering women and girls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The goal of the hackathon was to invent and develop an open-source tool, platform or app which enhances financial and digital literacy for women across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in particular. Participants were encouraged to address barriers in financial and digital literacy amongst women users and non-users for mobile financial services and leverage the power of mobile money where relevant in their solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Participants were encouraged to develop online mobile solutions which allow for women users to do one or more of the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>Balance their income and expenses;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Build and maintain financial reserves;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Manage existing debts and have access to potential financial resources;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Plan and prioritize their expenditure;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Manage and recover from financial shocks; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use an effective range of financial tools.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The participants were briefed by <strong>Dominica Lindsey<\/strong>, Senior Director for Connected Women and <strong>Saad Farooq<\/strong>, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, Mobile Money as GSMA subject matter experts who spoke about the importance of closing the digital and financial literacy gaps for women and the power of mobile technology to overcome barriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Hackathon also benefited from expert views provided by members of the <em>EY Women in Tech Network and the Commonwealth Businesswomen\u2019s Network<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The winning team consisted of four women (three representatives of the Iraqi diaspora in London and one female expat from Ghana) who presented their concept for an educational mobile application called \u201cAmwali\u201d which aims to serve women in post-conflict regions in the Middle East by educating them on income, enabling access to emergency funding and rebuilding communities. The app consists of three unique elements: animated videos to educate women about finances, access to a community digital savings pot and a diaspora mentoring and investment network (please see diagram below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The winning team\u2019s prize included free leaders passes to MWC Barcelona 2023 and an enrolment into a 6 months virtual business incubation programme run by the <em><a href=\"https:\/\/globaluniversaldesign.eu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Global Universal Design Commission Europe<\/a><\/em>: one of the 19 EQUALS-EU partners alongside the GSMA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"940\" height=\"529\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-8676\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image.png 940w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The Hackathon was co-hosted by EY, Bloomsbury Institute, and the Commonwealth Businesswomen\u2019s Network and it was held within the framework of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.equalsintech.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">EQUALS Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age<\/a> which GSMA co-founded in 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At a two-day Hackathon held on 8 and 9 July as part of a three-year capacity building project funded by the EU Horizon 2020 programme called \u201cEQUALS EU\u201d, GSMA brought together 19 participants with diverse skillsets and professional and educational background to hack for digital and financial literacy with a particular focus on empowering women [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":8679,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3462,3407],"tags":[729,3424,3425,3421,3420,3007,731,3419,3418,3422],"algolia_discover_type":[3510],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.3 (Yoast SEO v23.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Young Leaders Hack for Digital and Financial Literacy | GSMA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As part of EQUALS EU, GSMA brought together young participants with diverse backgrounds to hack for digital &amp; financial literacy.\" \/>\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\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GSMA Brings Emerging Young Leaders to Hack for Digital and Financial Literacy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As part of EQUALS EU, GSMA brought together young participants with diverse backgrounds to hack for digital &amp; financial literacy.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"External Affairs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-22T14:58:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-25T14:20:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/e170ad26-d1fc-47de-9ad5-f2eedaa45566.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"svaldes@gsma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GSMA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GSMA\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"svaldes@gsma.com\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Young Leaders Hack for Digital and Financial Literacy | GSMA","description":"As part of EQUALS EU, GSMA brought together young participants with diverse backgrounds to hack for digital & financial literacy.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"GSMA Brings Emerging Young Leaders to Hack for Digital and Financial Literacy","og_description":"As part of EQUALS EU, GSMA brought together young participants with diverse backgrounds to hack for digital & financial literacy.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/","og_site_name":"External Affairs","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gsma\/","article_published_time":"2022-07-22T14:58:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-25T14:20:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/e170ad26-d1fc-47de-9ad5-f2eedaa45566.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"svaldes@gsma.com","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GSMA","twitter_site":"@GSMA","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"svaldes@gsma.com","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/","name":"Young Leaders Hack for Digital and Financial Literacy | GSMA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/e170ad26-d1fc-47de-9ad5-f2eedaa45566.png","datePublished":"2022-07-22T14:58:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-25T14:20:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/#\/schema\/person\/7d0f4d4bdcea1c0c3a78b07b3e527705"},"description":"As part of EQUALS EU, GSMA brought together young participants with diverse backgrounds to hack for digital & financial literacy.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/e170ad26-d1fc-47de-9ad5-f2eedaa45566.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/e170ad26-d1fc-47de-9ad5-f2eedaa45566.png","width":700,"height":300},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/gender\/gsma-brings-emerging-young-leaders-to-hack-for-digital-and-financial-literacy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"GSMA Brings Emerging Young Leaders to Hack for Digital and Financial Literacy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/","name":"#BetterFuture","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/#\/schema\/person\/7d0f4d4bdcea1c0c3a78b07b3e527705","name":"svaldes@gsma.com","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9cb7f84ab8c98e36a1f5db6c28c09050?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9cb7f84ab8c98e36a1f5db6c28c09050?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"svaldes@gsma.com"}}]}},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/e170ad26-d1fc-47de-9ad5-f2eedaa45566.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8675"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8675"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18042,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8675\/revisions\/18042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8675"},{"taxonomy":"algolia_discover_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/external-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/algolia_discover_type?post=8675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}