PTA Signs an Agreement With GSM Association for Mitigating Digital Gender Gap

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has signed an agreement with the GSM Association to eliminate Pakistan’s digital gender gap. The two entities signed a partnership agreement at the Mobile World Congress 2022, which is presently taking place in Barcelona,

Through this partnership, the GSMA will assist PTA in establishing target-oriented projects to narrow the digital gender gap by exchanging data, insights, and expertise. In both rural and urban settings, these efforts will focus on digital financial inclusion, accessibility, affordability, online security awareness, and digital skills for women.

PTA Signs an Agreement With GSM Association for Mitigating Digital Gender Gap

The GSMA will also assist PTA in developing consumer surveys using SMS, WhatsApp, and IVR. PTA will collect authentic gender-disaggregated data on several gender inequality areas such as SIM and device ownership, internet and social media usage, and financial access gap through these surveys.

The GSMA will also share with PTA best practices/guidelines on gender inclusion in ICTs, as well as globally renowned data indicators. In addition, the GSMA will provide an Urdu version of the Mobile Internet Skills Training Toolkit (MISTT), which is a set of resources designed to promote digital literacy and enable individuals to use the internet safely on their mobile devices.

The collaboration will act as a means of addressing Pakistan’s digital gender gap. As of right now, according to a statistic, the digital gender gap in Pakistan stands at around 35% that needs to be addressed.

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