GSMA mWomen Innovation Fund

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide. Spanning more than 220 countries, the GSMA unites nearly 800 of the world’s mobile operators with more than 230 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset makers, software companies, equipment providers and Internet companies, as well as organisations in industry sectors such as financial services, healthcare, media, transport and utilities. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as the Mobile World Congress and Mobile Asia Expo.

GSMA is calling for concept notes for its mWomen Innovation Fund grants for non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The goal of the GSMA mWomen Programme is to promote greater mobile access and usage by resource-poor women in low- and middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

The objectives of the Innovation Fund for NGOs are to provide seed funding in order to:

• Accelerate the use of mobile technology to achieve development-related goals, specifically the empowerment of resource-poor women;
• Provide solutions to the barriers to women’s adoption and use of mobile phones and VAS;
• Generate lessons and models of success which can be shared with the wider development community, as well as mobile operators; and
• Stimulate productive partnerships between NGOs and mobile operators in order to achieve these objectives at scale.

This round of grants is dedicated to NGOs (including social enterprises), working in partnership with mobile network operators.  Its objectives are to:

• Provide seed funding to support the design and launch of innovative products, services, marketing approaches and distribution mechanisms aimed at increasing women’s access to mobile and use of life-enhancing mobile services;
• Generate lessons and models of success which can be shared with the wider development community and the mobile industry; and
• Stimulate productive partnerships between NGOs and mobile network operators.

This round of grants is open only to NGOs.

The next round of grants for mobile network operators will be launched in the second half of 2013.

This round is comprised of three matching grants, valued up to US$140 000 for projects up to ten months long. The grants are intended to provide seed funding for NGOs, working in partnership with mobile network operators, to design and launch products, value added services, marketing campaigns and/or distribution mechanisms (‘offerings’) that will increase women’s access to and use of mobile and life-enhancing services.
For more about the mWomen Innovation Fund, refer to: http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/gsma-mwomen-innovation-fund-grant-documentation-ngos-april-2013