Max Cuvellier Speaks on GSMA's Commitment to Women’s Digital Inclusion

In an exclusive interaction with Dataquest, Max Cuvellier Giacomelli, GSMA's Head of Mobile for Development, discusses the Mobile Gender Gap Report 2024's key findings. This research focuses on digital inclusion's continued challenges and advances, particularly for women in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Despite major advances in mobile internet access—particularly the rapid spread of 4G and 5G networks—gender discrepancies persist, with women in India utilising mobile internet at only 37%, compared to 53% for males. WiDEF seeks to support organisations addressing barriers such as access and affordability, product relevance, literacy and digital skills, and safety and security for women in the digital economy.

How does digital inclusion in India compare with other regions globally, based on GSMA's latest reports?

India's digital ecosystem is expanding rapidly, with almost ubiquitous 4G and extensive 5G deployment, and this presents a considerable opportunity to increase digital inclusion further. 

Although there has been substantial progress in digital inclusion over the last few years in India, with 37% of women in India using mobile internet - compared to 53% of men - according to the GSMA's latest Mobile Gender Gap Report 2024, suggests that there are other barriers besides infrastructure that are still preventing many women from getting online.

Looking to other regions, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa continue to have the most significant gender gaps in mobile internet usage. In Sub-Saharan Africa, women are 32% less likely than men to use mobile internet (meaning for every ten men online, less than seven women are online), while in South Asia, this is 31%.  

How does women's digital inclusion contribute to job creation and economic growth in the regions GSMA has studied?

GSMA analysis has estimated that closing the gender gap in mobile ownership and use in low- and middle-income countries over eight years could add $3.5 trillion in total additional GDP.

Why are safety and security essential for inclusive growth, particularly for women using digital platforms?

Across low- and middle-income countries, affordability, primarily of handsets, literacy and digital skills, and safety and security are the primary barriers preventing women from adopting mobile internet. Once women use the mobile internet, the barriers tend to be reported differently. For example, in India, concerns about safety and security are the top barriers preventing women from using the internet more.  

Addressing safety and security issues, alongside other barriers, is crucial to enabling often marginalised groups, especially women, to use the internet more and benefit from all the internet has to offer. 

What barriers does WiDEF address regarding digital literacy and product relevance for women?

WiDEF aims to accelerate digital inclusion for women through competitive rounds of funding and technical assistance to scale solutions to address the digital divide. This includes supporting for-profit and nonprofit entities to scale solutions to elevate digital literacy and skills, unlock access and use of relevant digital products and tools, improve access and affordability of devices, and improve online safety and security. All while generating data and insights on the most promising solutions to address the gender digital divide at scale.

What role do emerging technologies like AI, IoT, and mobile internet play in making digital access more accessible and affordable?

Mobile phones and mobile internet can be life-changing, enabling people to stay connected to each other and access information and services from anywhere, including health care, education, e-commerce, financial services and income-generating opportunities.

In 2023, the world was more connected than ever, with more than 3.7 billion people accessing the internet on mobile phones in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Mobile is the primary way people access the internet in LMICs, accounting for 84% of broadband connections in 2023.

This is especially true for typically underserved populations, including women and those who live in rural areas. In 10 of the 12 countries we surveyed for our 2024 Mobile Gender Gap Report, women who use the internet are more likely than men to access it exclusively on a mobile phone.

Can you provide examples of how technology has successfully improved digital access in underserved areas?

GSMA is driving innovation in digital technology to reduce inequalities in our world. To date, we have impacted the lives of over 220 million people through our programs and work with our partners. 

For instance, since 2016, more than 50 mobile operators have made formal commitments to accelerate women's digital and financial inclusion, collectively reaching over 70 million women.  This includes using our open-source digital skills training toolkit, available in 30+ languages, which has been used to train 75 million new customers on the basics of mobile internet. 

More people than ever before are now accessing the internet through mobile devices. By the end of 2023, mobile internet users increased to 4.6 billion globally (57% of the global population).  96% of the worldwide population now are covered by a mobile broadband network. Yet the benefits of connectivity are not being realised equally. Some 39% of the global population live within mobile broadband coverage but are not using it.

What are GSMA's plans or initiatives to promote digital in WiDEF, particularly for women's marginalised communities?

GSMA is leading two sets of competitive rounds to scale proven solutions to address the gender digital divide within WiDEF. This includes rounds aimed at sizable global private sector enterprises to provide technical assistance support to optimise their solution to reach women better. And rounds for Indian entities (non-profits, small for-profits/start-ups) for grants to scale their solutions to address the gender digital divide. Our consortium partners are also running global rounds for organisations outside India. Through these rounds, we aim to see solutions developed by for-profit and non-profit organisations reaching women at scale.