GSMA mwomen Webinar: Women and Mobile Financial Services
A gender gap has emerged in the mobile technology revolution Women experience lower levels of access to technology A woman is 21% less likely to own a mobile phone than a man in low- to middle-income countries. This represents a $13 billion missed market opportunity 300 million women 1.1 billion subscribers Gender gap 300 million fewer women subscribers than men subscribers in low- and middle-income countries 1.4 billion subscribers Women are underserved by mobile services 22% of those who did not want to own a mobile phone said the main reason was they wouldn t know how to use it 2% of BOP women have ever used the mobile Internet 30% of women who do not own a mobile phone report not seeing its value Suggests services are not tailored to meet their needs 40% of women reported that a disadvantage of owning a mobile was that it allowed their family to keep track of them. Women Men Sources: GSMA and the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, Women & Mobile: A Global Opportunity, 2010. GSMA, Striving and Surviving: Exploring the Lives of BOP Women, 2012. Note: gender gap data is valid for 2009. 1
The GSMA mwomen Programme Promotes improved mobile access and use by resourcepoor women in the developing world Encourages an industry shift towards investing in women Catalyses availability of life-enhancing valueadded services to meet women s needs Promotes solutions that address women s technical and cultural barriers to adoption 2
Focus is on resource-poor women in Africa, Asia Pacific and the Middle East Resource-poor women 1 may experience one or more of the following: Low income Low level of empowerment Limited access to education Social isolation due to limited mobility 1. Note that resource-poor is not a measurable or consistently used term; the programme has identified the definition above to help clarify the focus of its work 3
GSMA mwomen activities Facilitate and support industry and ecosystem partner action Innovation Fund grants Technical assistance Research and evaluation Generate and share insights to promote action and impact Knowledge generation Innovation to address barriers Gender data Knowledge sharing 4
We aim to encourage and equip industry partners to incorporate women into their business strategies Monitor gender composition of the subscriber base Set a women s KPI and target Gather consumer insights Design an offering Launch an offering to test commercial and social value Scale up in same market Replicate in new markets 5
Highlights so far GSMA mwomen Innovation Fund Awarded 4 operator and 2 NGO grants 6 new grants to be announced shortly GSMA mwomen Design Challenge Awarded prizes and began commercialization Unlocking the Potential: Women and Mobile Financial Services Published research and implications for action Mobile World Awards for mwomen Awarded Asiacell the annual award GSMA mwomen Marketing Handbook Tool for operators and other practitioners 6
Coming soon Transforming Women s Livelihoods through Mobile Broadband A study on the value of mobile broadband to working women in the developing world magri/mwomen Handbook Handbook designed for operators to integrate women smallholder farmers better into agricultural Value Added Services (VAS) Get in touch! www.mwomen.org @GSMAmWomen mwomen@gsma.com 7