Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 9:43 am under Pakistan News Lahore High Court Decision On Lakhvi Lahore High Court has reserved the decision on transfer of Mumbai attacka s accused Zakiur Redman Lakhvia s case from Rawalpindi to an anti-terror court in Lahore.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 9:48 am under Pakistan News Tenure Of DG ISI Extended For One Year Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Tuesday extended service of Director General Inter Services Intelligence , Lieutenant General Shuja Pasha, for one year.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 9:53 am under Pakistan News Constitutional Reforms Package To Be Finalized This Month: Zardari President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday expressed the hope that with the finalization of constitutional reforms package by the end of current month, the 1973 Constitution would be restored to its original shape.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai will arrive in Islamabad on March 10 on a two-day state visit to Pakistan, the Foreign Ministry said Monday.
In a significant ruling that could affect the trial of seven suspects charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks in Pakistan, a bench of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday ruled that the confessional statement of Ajmal Amir Kasab could not be used against the accused.
Women and Mobile – A Global Opportunity is a post from: ProPakistani
Just yesterday, International Women’s Day was celebrated; we got little late in getting the approval of publishing this report and preparing our article, but let’s catch the frame before we are too late.
We had briefly reported about this study“Women and Mobile: A Global Opportunity”, jointly prepared by GSMA Development Fund, Cherie Blaire Foundation for Women and Vital Wave Consulting that focuses on issues like gender gap in mobile phone usage, potential market, prospects with respect to women – with a focus on low and middle income countries.
The report gathered its data through field research, and surveys of 2000 women in four countries (Bolivia, Egypt, India and Kenya). Along with, it took in-depth reviews from telco leaders, organizations working for women, processed case studies from across the world.
Report primarily found:
“A woman is still 21% less likely to own a mobile phone than a man. This figure increases to 23% if she lives in Africa, 24% if she lives in the Middle East, and 37% if she lives in South Asia. Closing this gender gap would bring the benefits of mobile phones to an additional 300 million women.”
To narrow down the understanding of behaviors, researchers divided women, who were surveyed, into five demographic groups, which were:
Report found that household income and weather a woman lives in an urban area or rural location have the most influence over women’s mobile ownership rates.
Report found that there are nearly half billion women in low and middle-income countries who access mobile phones through borrowing, while there are another two hundred and fifty million women who are yet to use mobile phone for the first time.
The Mobile Gender Gap
The study, in investigating this mobile ownership gender gap, notes some of the reasons why it exists, and quantifying what the gap means for women around the world:
“To quantify the gender gap, one must understand the breakdown of male and female subscribers. Today, 1.4 billion, or 48% of the 2.9 billion males in low and middle income countries, benefit from mobile phone ownership. In contrast, just 1.1 billion, or 38% of the 2.9 billion females in these countries have mobile phones. This equals a mobile phone gender gap of 300 million women. Of the remaining 3.3. Billion citizens of low and middle-income countries, there are 750 million females, or 26% of all female who could – but do not yet – benefit from mobile communications.” (Meaning that others are outside of mobile network coverage, or are under the age of 14 or over the age of 74).
The report states that if telecommunications providers closed the gender gap in mobile phone penetration, worldwide telecommunications revenue would increase by US $13 billion.
Report said that South Asia, Middle East and Africa are hot spots for eliminating the gender gap.
Case Studies
Many of the case studies, from across the world, show evidence of the power of mobiles for women in developing countries.
Report discusses a case study of Mobilink Pakistan that worked with UNESCO and a local NGO for the boost of girls’ literacy remotely through SMS. These girls were given low-cost mobile phones and prepaid connections. While teachers were trained to send text messages in Urdu, these girls remained in touch with their courses and interesting information through SMS.
Report says that programme organizers had encountered resistance from portents and community leaders in the start, however, they resistance softened as the locals understood the nature and benefits of programme.
Report notes that exams taken through SMS showed notably good results. Girls and other family members started using other features of mobile phone such as calculator.
Recommendations
The report concludes with an action plan for how to get mobiles to women. It advises:
Study acknowledges that there is a lot of work to be done by many different groups in order to close the mobile gender gap.
Download the complete report by clicking this link – PDF File 5.76 MB (Right Click and Select “Save Target As”)
ISLAMABAD: Trade is the best option to build confidence, improve relations and create new opportunities to uplift people from extreme poverty.
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Federal Investigation Agency investigation report regarding the Pakistan Steel Mills corruption case.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 2:20 pm under Pakistan News Taliban Extradition: LHC Seeks Reply From Interior-Secy Lahore High Court has sought reply from Interior Secretary vis-a-vis extradition of seven Taliban leaders to the US on March 15.
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