The GSMA, Ooredoo, the Clinton Global Initiative and other partners are teaming up to get more women connected to the mobile internet and contributing to mobile technology development.
New initiatives for the GSMA’s Connected Women Programme will focus on undertaking studies to help measure the economic benefits of greater inclusion of women in the telecom sector.
The research will seek to understand the reasons behind the mobile phone gender gap. It will involve over 12,000 interviews and 84 focus group sessions in 12 nations including China, India and Indonesia.
Ooredoo and other telecom partners in the program will then use this data to provide tailored services for women in their respective markets, and initiatives for encouraging greater participation by female employees.
In Myanmar, Ooredoo said it will aim to connect millions of women to mobile and internet services. In Indonesia, the company’s Indosat unit will launch a new startup – Wobe – that will offer voice, data and internet services targeted at lower and middle income Indonesian women.
Clinton Foundation vice chair Chelsea Clinton said the goal of the the Connected Women Programme is twofold.
“Ensuring that women can fully participate in this growing mobile economy by joining the mobile workforce and lending their creative talent to what these devices can do is important, but also essential is increasing connectivity for women so that they can experience the economic benefits and growth that can make measureable differences in their lives and for all of us,” she said.
The Clinton Foundation was founded in 2005 by former US president Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton’s father.