Jazz commits to bridging digital gender divide by enhancing female mobile broadband user base

Islamabad Pakistan (Correspondent Voice Of Germany): Jazz, Pakistan’s leading digital operator and a part of VEON Group,
has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with GSMA, a global organization that unifies and represents
the mobile ecosystem, to extend its commitment to the GSMA Connected Women Initiative to
increase its female mobile broadband users and maximize the business capacity of female micro-
entrepreneurs.
Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the GSMA Connected Women Initiative’s
primary objective is to increase women empowerment by facilitating their access to financial
independence by cultivating and supporting micro-entrepreneurship avenues for them. Under this
LOI, GSMA will provide advisory support to Jazz to research how female micro-entrepreneurs use
smartphones for their businesses; identify the barriers hindering their growth; and devise new
digital and business strategies to address these issues in order to scale their profitability.
Jazz’s collaboration with GSMA is aimed at informing this research, increasing smartphone
ownership and access to the internet among female micro-entrepreneurs, and providing regular
updates and feedback on their initiatives.
To increase 4G penetration and smartphone ownership under its ‘4G for All’ vision, Jazz was
previously recognized by GSMA for successfully rolling out the Jazz Digit 4G smart features
phones globally. The digital operator also offers Shariah-compliant easy installment payment
plans on these 4G-enabled handsets to encourage everyone to become part of the digital
ecosystem.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Aamir Ibrahim, Jazz CEO, highlighted, “Women empowerment
is at the heart of everything we do at Jazz so we are proud to extend this collaboration with
GSMA. Over the years, we have undertaken a number of initiatives, to bridge the digital gender
equality gap including our ongoing nationwide Rural Data Education Campaign to digitally
empower rural populations including men and women.”
Jazz has collaborated with the UNDP and UN Women to conduct various countrywide digital and
financial literacy training programs to instill technical and entrepreneurial skillsets in women, the
enabling them to enhance their lives and livelihoods.
In partnership with LUMS, Jazz also introduced an executive leadership training program for its
managerial position female employees, which is also open on merit for senior female professionals
outside the company.
Jazz’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) vertical is founded on a robust policy structure that
caters to women’s unique challenges in the workplace, and provides a gender-balanced work
environment that offers comfortable professional space for women from all walks of life. The
company has different female-specific programs which offer six months of paid maternity leave,
six-month flexible return support for new mothers, and a program for women returning to
corporate positions after a career break. It also issues Pink Cards which offer a 50% discount on
women-related medical tests for Jazz employees and their families.
These initiatives attest to the company’s mission to create a Digital Pakistan, and are in line with
this year’s International Women’s Day theme called DigitALL: Innovation and technology for
gender equality, which highlights the urgent interventions necessary to cover the gender disparity
in the workplace in the fields of technology, science, engineering, and mathematics.
The extension of the GSMA Connected Women Initiative delivers on 4 United Nations Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) including SDG 5 – Gender Equality; 9 – Industry, Innovation and
Infrastructure; 10 – Reduced Inequalities, and 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities.