Across all of the GSMA Mobile for Development (M4D) programmes we prioritise three key impact areas: gender inclusivity, climate change and, through the GSMA Innovation Fund mechanism, investment in scalable innovations.  The world is more connected than ever before, yet 3.8 billion people remain digitally excluded worldwide. Almost all the unconnected live in low- and middle- income countries and, maybe surprisingly, are living in areas already covered by mobile broadband. Looking at the profile of those who are unconnected, our research shows it is disproportionately women, those with low-income, people living in rural areas and persons with disabilities. This shows that digital exclusion is part of broader development challenges.

To understand and assess our impact in each of these areas we’ve developed an impact narrative to identify the problems our programmes aim to tackle, shared outcomes and establish measurement approaches to assess impact at both programme and portfolio levels. Critically this enables us to collect and analyse gender data, enabling a comprehensive understanding of M4D’s gender work. Additionally, it facilitates continuous learning and data-driven adaptation by providing insights into M4D’s contribution to impact and outcome-level changes.

Discover more by reading our interactive PDF.