About the Team

GSMA Mobile for Development (M4D) is a dedicated global team within the GSMA, which brings together our mobile operator members, tech innovators, the development community and governments, to prove the power of mobile in emerging markets.

The GSMA’s Connected Society Programme works with the mobile industry and key stakeholders to increase access to and adoption of the mobile internet, focusing on underserved population groups (persons with disabilities, women, youth, rural and low income) in developing markets. For more information, please visit: www.gsma.com/connectedsociety and www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/assistive-tech/

An estimated 1.3 billion people globally have some form of disability, and around 80% of them live in developing countries. Furthermore, it’s estimated that 2.5 billion people need assistive technology, increasing to 3.5 bn by 20502, and yet only one in ten of those are getting access to the assistive technology they need to live healthy, productive, independent, and dignified lives. Furthermore disability status significantly affects and individual’s mobile phone ownership and usage, increasing the magnitude of the Mobile Disability Gap. As more services become ‘digital by default’, there is an increased risk that people with disabilities may be left behind if mobile and digital products and services are not made accessible and affordable to all.

Our mission is to advance the greater inclusion of people with disabilities by facilitating their access to and utilization of mobile technology. This involves offering crucial insights and evidence on the potential of mobile as an assistive technology across LMICs specifically. Importantly, we support mobile operators and other digital service providers in addressing the key barriers faced by persons with disabilities in accessing and using mobile devices, mobile internet, and mobile-enabled assistive technologies.

What the hiring manager says

“This role presents an excellent opportunity to become part of our Connected Society team and actively participate in shaping and executing our market engagement strategy across Africa and Asia. In our vision, mobile operators hold a distinctive position in fostering the digital inclusion of people with disabilities. As part of this initiative, you will serve as a catalyst for change by collaborating closely with mobile operators and other influential stakeholders dedicated to promoting inclusion for everyone. Additionally, you will join a dedicated and passionate team committed to advancing the digital inclusion of underserved communities on a broader scale.”
Kim Viljoen, Market Engagement Director

About the Role

You will work as part of the Connected Society Market Engagement teams to drive forward market engagements in Africa and Asia, helping cultivate and support a portfolio of mobile operators and other partners to drive the digital inclusion of persons with disabilities by addressing the key barriers they face in accessing and using mobile devices, mobile internet, and mobile-enabled assistive technologies.
 

Key roles and responsibilities include the following:

• Collaborating with the broader Connected Society market engagement team and director to develop and execute our market engagement strategy on disability inclusion, as a pivotal relationship builder for the program.    
• Supporting a portfolio of mobile operators and other partners across Africa and Asia to identify and implement impactful initiatives at scale to advance the digital inclusion of persons with disabilities. This would be achieved through regular bilateral meetings with partners, facilitating in-country or virtual strategy workshops or learning sessions (presenting our insights and sharing best practice approaches for driving the digital inclusion of persons with disabilities) and offering ongoing thought leadership and strategic advisory assistance on specific initiatives.
• Driving increased awareness and action on the challenges and opportunities for advancing digital inclusion for persons with disability and action.
• Creating and delivering strategy workshops for operators; support the launch and scale of existing initiatives and tracking and reporting on both commercial and social outcomes.
• Keeping up to speed with trend data and the barriers and opportunities for driving digital inclusion of persons with disabilities as well as a more granular view of the impact of current initiatives to close the usage gaps and use this in your work.
• Documenting insights and learnings and sharing your findings with the industry ecosystem. This will include collaborating with the insights team to generate insights from mobile operator and other partner engagements, and disseminate these through presentations, case studies, toolkits, blogs, events and meetings with relevant stakeholders.
• You may represent GSMA at conferences or speaking engagements to ensure effective dissemination of program messages and expand our network of public and private sector partners in the disability space.

About You

We welcome applications from professionals with the following demonstrated qualifications:

• You have experience in the mobile (and/ digital) industry, ideally with exposure to the mobile for development sector and/or working with mobile operators in emerging markets. Strong commercial experience is advantageous.
• You have demonstrable expertise or understanding of how to address the barriers faced by people with disabilities in relation to their access and use of mobile-enabled services. You have knowledge on mobile-enabled assistive technologies & digital accessibility.
• You are a natural relationship builder, with experience establishing and managing influential relationships, including C-level executives from various sectors.
• Strong and compelling written and oral communication (particularly presentation) skills in the English language are essential, with the ability to express complex or commercial issues articulately, concisely and persuasively.
• You have a proven track record of achievement under a range of challenging situations, including engagement with multiple countries and partners, ideally with experience in emerging markets.
• Strong project management skills, ability to work independently, self-motivated, entrepreneurial and organised to deliver high impact outputs.  Conscientious and creative with a can-do attitude.
• Experience working with a team across cultures and globally dispersed.
• We welcome applications from people with disabilities. Whether your disability is visible or unseen, we can provide the support you need at all stages of the application process, please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments.
• Authorization to work in the UK
• Open and excited to travel when external factors allow it.

Contract type

Worker type

What We Offer

Working at the GSMA offers you unparalleled access to the mobile industry. We offer a chance to truly shape the direction of mobile, whatever your role. By joining the GSMA, you will be exposed to a fast-paced rapidly evolving environment, working on global solutions, genuinely fascinating and industry-changing projects and a stimulating and dynamic environment designed to enable you to flourish.

In addition to architect-designed offices and competitive compensation, our benefits include fantastic learning & development opportunities, generous holiday allowances, four additional days off for professional development and many others.

To learn more about the GSMA, visit our career site, our LinkedIn page and our Twitter page.

Being You at the GSMA

We are one of the most diverse companies you will ever come across, we care deeply about equality and inclusivity and aspire to be the best at it. Your well-being and work/life balance is important so if you prefer to work flexi-time or a day from home, just ask. We’re keen to ensure everyone is equal, represented and connected so we particularly encourage applications from all demographics. The success of the GSMA year on year will continue to be contributed by people from all walks of life.

GSMA Values

Our values not only drive our culture – they shape how we work and interact inside and outside our global organisation.

Passionately driven

We approach everything we do with unparalleled capability, tenacity and commitment, knowing that the challenging scale, pace and complexity of our work is what leads to its world-changing impact.

Insightful leaders

We continually develop and engage our expertise, insight and creativity so that we’re always ready to respond to the changing landscape with authority, agility and nuance.

Stronger together

We lean on each other so the industry can lean on us, embracing our diversity by actively seeking out perspectives and skill sets beyond our own, fuelling each other’s successes and constantly asking how we can help.

Underpinning our values is our collective mindset to show up purposefully as good human beings every day, in every situation. When we’re at our best – we are collaborative, considerate and compassionate to others, and we create a safe space for one another to thrive, assuming positive intent in our colleagues. And if we aren’t at our best and the pressure is on – we feel free to be ourselves but still remain curious, lean into the tough stuff and we are always respectful to others and accountable for the part we play.

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