The document outlines UNESCO's proposal for Phase II of a project aimed at improving literacy among women and girls through mobile technologies, highlighting barriers they face and the potential of mobile learning to overcome these challenges. It emphasizes the need for tailored solutions, community engagement, and partnerships to enhance access to education and empower women. Expected outcomes include increased literacy, life skills development, and strengthened community support for women’s education.

1. Advancing Literacy through
Mobile Technologies
Empowering Women and Girls
PHASE II:
From Insight to Action
15-16 October 2013, Washington, D.C.
2013 Mobiles for Education Alliance International Symposium: Commit Fair
for Project Scaling
Project Proposal by UNESCO Headquarters, Education Sector
ICT in Education Team

2. 126 million children
OUT OF SCHOOL
©UNESCO/Marc Hofer

3. 3
© UNESCO/Akhtar Soomro

4. 774 million adults
and
123 million youth
lack
BASIC
LITERACY
SKILLS
© UNESCO/Françoise Pinzon Gil
4

5. © UNESCO/Françoise Pinzon Gil
5

6. Framing the Issue
Women and girls face barriers
to accessing education…
(cultural, societal, religious, political, economical, their own
attitudes, and geographic or security constraints. )
Learning through mobile
devices can help overcome some of these
barriers….
(their unique features include portability, relative
affordability, discreteness, potential content richness, wide-use
and increasing social acceptability, and one-to-one learning
advantages)

7. Rapidly rising
global mobile cellular
subscription rates
Per 100 inhabitants
100
90
6.8 billion
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2000
2005
2010
2013
Source: ITU, 2013 (estimated)

8. And greater world coverage
by a mobile cellular network
67% in 2005
96% in 2013
Source: ITU, 2012; ITU, 2013
(estimated)
© Milica Sekulic

9. ©
UNESCO/Roya
9
Aziz/Star Group

10. © UNESCO/Mario Santan

11. UNESCO recognized the need to know
more about:
• how mobile devices can provide
better access to
education, especially to women and
girls
• how to overcome the obstacles
preventing their optimal use for
learning and improvement of
livelihoods

12. Mobile Phones
Advancing
Women’s and Girls’
Literacy
Support was provided by the government of
the United States of America
12

13. Projects reviewed
Asia and Pacific
Project MILLEE (India)
Pink Telephone Project (Cambodia)
Mobile-based Literacy Programme (Pakistan)
Mobile Literacy Project (Afghanistan)
USTAD Mobile Application (Afghanistan)
Nokia Life Services (India, China, Indonesia)
Arab states
Somali Youth Livelihoods Project (Somalia)
SMS Use by Berber Women (Morocco )
Africa
Project ABC – Mobiles 4 Literacy (Niger)
Jokko Initiative (Senegal)
Latin America
AlfabeTIC (Argentina)
Cell-Ed - Teaching Adult Literacy (USA Latin American immigrants)

14. © UNESCO/Bunyad Foundation
14

15. 15
© UNESCO/D. Willetts

16. Key Messages Emerged from the report:
•
Mobile learning for
women’s and girls’
education and literacy is
an opportunity that
governments can not
afford to miss.
•
The particular needs of the
targeted women and girls must be
addressed and life-skills and
empowerment opportunities
offered.
•
There are few initiatives
and more action is needed
to scale them up, with
close monitoring and
gender-sensitive
evaluation.
•
Programmes can bring added value
through a powerful combination of
3-levels of change (change of self, a
change in the perception of
self, and a change in the perception
of others of self).
•
Community sensitization
and mobilization as well as
political support are key
ingredients for success.
•
Reasons, structures and spaces
with flexible learning times are
needed, with close consideration of
how the mobile technologies can
be optimized in the different
16
educational contexts and settings.

17. UNESCO is committed
to empowering women and girls
through education
via innovative
mobile technology-based learning

18. UNESCO calls for
to launch phase II of the project
© UNESCO/Roya Aziz/Star Group

19. PHASE II:
From Insight to Action
Bring about large scale impact on literacy for women and girls in
targeted PCPD countries and open potential for similar initiatives
Best leverage literacy education for life skills development in the areas of
education, health, rights, agriculture, sanitation, water, and personal and family
finances
Raise awareness and promote the value of literacy through mobile
phones
Develop effective mobile learning models for literacy development
among women and girls
Build capacity of the UNESCO field offices and local implementation
agencies
19

20. PHASE II:
From Insight to Action
• A pilot project is proposed to target PCPD countries where
the need literacy and life skills is greatest and the impact
can be most effective.
• Mobile solution (basic or advanced devices) used to
disseminate information, enable feedback and
monitoring, and enable communication between
participants to form peer-to-peer learning networks.
• Partnerships with local NGOs for literacy content
development and training, as well as partnerships and
local mobile network operators.
• Dialogue with and support from governments to ensure
sustainability and reach for scalability.
20

21. Project Implementation
v
Stage I:
• Needs assessment (field visits), partnership establishment
• Community sensitization and mobilization campaign for awareness, political
support and local buy-in, including participatory methods to include the
future beneficiaries' voices.
Stage II:
• A 6-month face-to-face literacy programme including life skills development
modules and embedded within a broader empowerment and human rightsbased curriculum.
Stage III:
• Introduction of the 4-month basic mobile technology component, with
gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation (feedback through focus groups
and community meetings).
• Peer-to-peer connection and chat-feature through a network for building in
interactivity, providing feedback.
Stage IV:
• Reflection and documenting model and lessons learned.
• Promoting sustainability of the initiative.
21

22. Example Target Countries
Country
Greatest Challenges
Advantages
Haiti
-One of 41 countries farthest
from literacy goals.
-One of 11 countries with adult
literacy rates below 50%
-Low literacy rates for adult
women (44%).
-One of UNESCO’s 20 targeted
education priority countries.
-Post-Disaster setting.
-Island country, which would
offer valuable lessons for
scaling-up to similar contexts.
-UNESCO office in Port-au-Prince
(national office to Haiti)
-Regional diversity: Example from the
Caribbean
Rwanda
-Post Conflict Post Disaster
setting
-East Africa focus; possibility to expand
programs in similar cultures and using
English
-One of UNESCO’s 20 targeted
education priority countries.
22

23. Expected Outcomes
• The quick reinforcement and scaling up of basic
literacy among women and girls, especially
those who have been the hardest to reach.
• Development of life skills in specific contexts.
• Greater connections woman-to-woman and
with the greater world.
• Increased autonomy, confidence and
empowerment (3-levels of change in self and
the community).
• Stronger communities that value and encourage
women’s and girls’ education.
23

24. Strengths
Challenges
• Identification of an urgent need • Specific and difficult contexts to
among marginalized target
implement the project and
audience and strong mobile
convince community members
potential solution
of its importance for the
targeted population (especially
• UNESCO to leverage the
in conservative areas)
accumulated knowledge and
established network of experts • Potential challenges in
from the global study
measuring outcomes given the
contextual and cultural
• A very active UNESCO Mobile
constraints
Learning Team
• Need for a wide spectrum of
• Broad and deep organizational
committed partners at the
capacity to provide both
governmental, local and private
centralized coordination and
sector level
in-field, local expertise in the
selected countries
24

25. Connect with us
UNESCO: ICT in Education – Mobile Learning
tinyurl.com/unescomobilelearning
se.vosloo@unesco.org
UNESCO ICTs in Education
@UNESCOICTs
25

26. United Nations
Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization