MOBILE PHONES, INTERNET, AND GENDER IN MYANMAR MOBILE PHONES, INTERNET, AND GENDER IN MYANMAR Make content more relevant and increase awareness Supply-side solutions alone are insufficient. When asked why they do not have a phone, more women (34%) say, “I have no use for it/don’t need one” compared to men (25%). For women, a mobile phone has to be seen as a tool for improving their livelihoods (income), as opposed to taking money away from other household expenses. There is clearly a limited picture of what the internet is and what one can do on it (gaming and social media, as far as many are concerned), and there are many negative perceptions of the ‘internet’ as a result of this limited outlook. As the financial managers of the household, the value proposition is still not sufficient for many women to venture into using data services. Crossing this barrier requires skills, awareness, applications, and content that is relevant to women and the different roles they play in the home and society. Platforms are needed that enable women to conduct homebased micro-businesses, applications that allow them to find the best prices for everyday household goods, provide microfinancing to start businesses, and offer other content in the local language. App developers should ensure these types of services are accessible even to those with poor digital skills, for example, by incorporating simple design, using graphics, and IVR. Creating mobile apps and content does not just happen. It takes a nudge from the government and investment from the private sector—there has to be a real return for the young and tech-savvy to develop content and apps for women, especially poor, unconnected women who have less spending power. The innovation and social investment environment is key. Apps are also a differentiation strategy for network operators, since they will reach market saturation in a few years and will need to attract customers from other networks. Improve digital skills The barriers to digital literacy need to be addressed. Many do not have the skills to get online, or even to operate their mobile beyond calling; some are inhibited to explore the functions of their handset out of fear that the phone could ‘break’. From our findings, these problems are more common among women. There is no evidence that phones are breaking, but there is a perception that they will. Handset manufacturers need to conduct further research into the negative perceptions of low-quality handsets to see whether these views are widespread, and understand the reasons behind these negative perceptions (design issues, faults, lack of repair facilities, etc.). Some women have derived limited utility from their phones, but basic digital skills are required to even do this. Most respondents in the qualitative research had still not passed the ‘set-up’ stage of GSMA’s digital literacy framework. Mobile operators, NGOs, government, and other specialised organisations can play a role by developing and disseminating easily digestible digital skills training (e.g. short video tutorials) that gives people the basic skills to operate a smartphone, search for content, judge the credibility of content from different sources, operate privacy settings, and so on. Making these tutorials easily accessible through the internet can reduce women’s reliance on men to gain digital skills. The power of social media can be harnessed to disseminate this content even more. Operators (through their agent networks) need to play a role in increasing digital skills and awareness, for example, by providing incentives to agent networks to improve the digital literacy of their female (and male) customers (i.e. an in-person approach). Government and educators also have a role to play in de-bunking misconceptions about the internet, and educating schoolchildren about internet safety and privacy, particularly on social media. Governments and educators should explore the possibilities of incorporating these topics into the national school curricula from a primary level, to ensure girls who may drop out after a few years can also benefit. 68 69