Category 4: Social & Economic Development
4b. mWomen Best Mobile Product or Service for Women in Emerging Markets
The ‘mWomen Award’ aims to find the most innovative product or service in the market place specifically designed to meet the needs of female consumers in emerging markets, particularly women living on less than $2 per day. We wish to stimulate mobile operators, manufactures and the broader mobile ecosystem to create unique solutions that help to close the mobile phone gender gap.
The mWomen Award is an opportunity to highlight products and services that speak to a currently underserved segment of the mobile industry, Women. The mobile phone gender gap represents a $13 billion missed market opportunity, and mobile solutions can also have a life-changing effect on the female segment in emerging markets.
The GSMA mWomen Program (www.mwomen.org) is an unprecedented global public-private partnership between the worldwide mobile industry and the international development community designed to accelerate women’s ownership of mobile phones and provide life-changing services for women in the developing world. The Programme will close the mobile phone gender gap by 50% over three years, enabling mobile phone ownership for 150 million women and leveraging the mobile channel to provide value added services in women’s health, education, finance and entrepreneurship.
The judges will shortlist five entries in this category, with one winner announced at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday 28th February 2012.
Eligibility:
This award is open to all organisations that serve the mobile industry around the world, including
- - Mobile operators,
- - Manufacturers and product/ service/ network providers
- - Content Aggregators
- - Individuals or organisations
- - NGOs and charities
- - Entrepreneurs and business people
- - Labs and app developers
The product, service, programme or initiative entered must have been launched and commercially available prior to the closing deadline of the awards Wednesday 07th December 2011 at 5pm (GMT). Please provide evidence in your entry to support this such as launch date of the service, including details of countries or regions where the service is available.
Judging criteria:
The judges will look for evidence of pro-activity and tangible progress in terms of identifying the opportunity around the women’s segment in emerging markets. Successful companies will be able to demonstrate well conceived, designed and successfully implemented approaches that deliver quantifiable results both for women and with regards to sustainability.
They will be looking for entries that show genuine efforts toward incorporating the women’s segment into core business and identifying products and services that can enhance women’s lives, particularly those living on less than $2 per day. Entrants should be able to demonstrate:
- Innovation and uniqueness
- Benefit to women in emerging markets
- Commercial viability & sustainability
- Clear go to market strategy, including relevant marketing campaigns
