Category 3: Social & Economic Development

3b. GSMA mWomen Best Mobile Product or Service for Women in Emerging Markets

The GSMA mWomen Programme ( www.mwomen.org ) is an unprecedented global public-private partnership between the worldwide mobile industry and the international development community, with the objective of closing the mobile phone gender gap. In 2010, research by GSMA and The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women estimated that 300 million fewer women subscribe to mobile than men. In addition to a gap in access, the study identified cost, cultural and other barriers to women’s full use of phones to improve the lives of themselves and their families. The study also estimated this gender gap represented a $13 billion lost revenue opportunity for mobile network operators.

GSMA mWomen aims to reduce this mobile phone gender access and usage gap by working with the mobile industry, development partners and others in the mobile ecosystem so that 150 million underserved women gain access to mobile phones and tools by 2014. The programme aims to:

• Encourage an industry shift towards investing in women
• Identify challenges and foster opportunities for targeting the women’s segment in emerging markets
• Catalyse creation of commercially viable, life-enhancing mobile services for women, including health, finance, education and economic empowerment.

The GSMA mWomen Programme will achieve these objectives by providing direct assistance to mobile operators seeking to design and launch innovative mWomen initiatives, generating research, developing toolkits and sharing knowledge, particularly by means of the GSMA mWomen Working Group, which includes more than 30 partners from the mobile industry. The programme also aims to stimulate innovation.

The GSMA mWomen Award aims to salute an innovative product or service in the marketplace specifically designed to meet the needs of underserved women in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Pacific.

A shortlist of candidates will be published by the GSMA in January, 2013. Winners for all award categories will be announced at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday, 26th February 2013.

Eligibility

The GSMA mWomen award is open to any individual or organisation operating in the mobile industry, e.g:

• Mobile network operators
• Equipment manufacturers
• Content providers or aggregators
• Application developers
• Social enterprises
• Non-governmental organizations.

The nominated product, service, programme or initiative must have launched and be commercially available or in large-scale commercial trials in at least one market prior to the awards closing deadline on Friday, 30th November 2012. Please include evidence of launch in your entry, such as the launch date and location.

Judging criteria

Successful companies will be able to demonstrate thoughtful design and successful implementation of approaches that deliver quantifiable commercial and social results for women. Judges will look for entries that demonstrate concrete efforts to reach and enhance the lives of underserved women. Entrants should be able to demonstrate:

• Innovation
• Benefits to underserved women in emerging markets
• Commercial viability and sustainability
• Clear strategy for scaling and replicating in current and future markets.

How to enter

Submission of video to support entries is encouraged. In your application, you may provide a URL link to one YouTube video of 3 to 5 minutes maximum length, either privately or publicly posted. If creating a private post, please provide a user name and password for judges to access.

You may also direct judges via a link to one website providing information relating to your product, service, programme or initiative. Due to the volume of entrants, judges will view one website only.

The online entry form allows you to upload supporting documents and multimedia. You may upload up to 5 files to accompany your entry, with a maximum file size of 5MB each. Supporting material should be relevant to your entry and may include business cases, illustrations, technical specifications, photographs, etc.

Specific entry form questions for this category

On the entry form, in addition to submitting contact and company information, please answer the following questions. Please note the maximum character length, for your answers, including spaces , as indicated below:

1. What is the official name of your product or initiative? (150 characters.) Please note that the name provided will be used in all award publicity.
2. Is this a joint entry? If so, who are the partner organisations? (150 characters.)
3. When was it launched and in which markets? (500 characters.)
4. How does the product or service benefit underserved women in emerging markets, particularly women living on less than $2 per day? (1500 characters.)
5. How is the product or service innovative and unique relative to those currently in the market? (1500 characters.)
6. How might this product contribute to closing the mobile phone gender gap? (1500 characters.)
7. How is the product commercially sustainable and scalable? What is the business model? (1500 characters.)
8. What marketing strategies have you employed to promote the product or service to women? (1500 characters.)
9. What are plans for expanding your product or service into existing or future markets? (1500 characters.)