Ooredoo recently hosted Myanmar’s first-ever Connected Women conference in Yangon in collaboration with global mobile operators’ association, the GSMA. During the conference experts explored how Myanmar’s technological revolution could be leveraged to empower women in Myanmar, equipping them with the tools to accelerate the nation’s progress.
The Connected Women conference united speakers and thought leaders from a wide spectrum of disciplines to focus on the role of women in Myanmar’s fast-moving mobile and technology sectors.
Health, education and entrepreneurship were key areas of focus during the conference. The discussions focused on how the empowerment of women through mobile technology across Myanmar would be an important driver in furthering the economic and social development of the country.
Virginia Murray, deputy chief of mission US Embassy and a keynote speaker at the event, said: “We must demonstrate a firm commitment to empowering women in Myanmar, seeding social change in communities across the country. Technology can play a critical role in facilitating this development but for any meaningful change to take place we must work together.
She said such commitment will help to sustain progress in Myanmar not only economically but acrosssectors throughout the country.
During the event the GSMA led a panel discussion on Women and Technology and the female-majority team which recently won the 2nd Ooredoo-sponsored Hackathon, also shared their experience and offered suggestions around how to better encourage women to participate in Myanmar’s vibrant, young ICT community.
“Women generally tend to be later adopters of mobile services and with this in mind the recent Connected Women conference sparked some excellent dialogue around how technology can empower Myanmar’s women at the base of the pyramid,” said Claire Sibthorpe, Connected Women Programme Director, GSMA.
During the event, Ooredoo’s start up accelerator, Ideabox, launched Geek Girls Myanmar, a community group of female technology professionals, students and enthusiasts and the first designed-for-women initiative in the technology industry in Myanmar. Their objective is to link female IT professionals and enthusiasts together, so as to create greater engagement and female participation within the technology sector as a whole. The next meeting will take place this month.
Ross Comack, CEO of Ooredoo Myanmar, said: ‘We are passionate about working to help women overcome the barriers which prevent them from accessing technology, such as technological illiteracy, costs and cultural or gender practices. We have a unique opportunity here in Myanmar to help address this issue early on in the country’s development.
“We were delighted to participate in the energetic discussions during the event around how we can best use technology to champion women and to help women thrive in society, to support their social and economic development and to accelerate Myanmar’s female mobile economy.”
