Use of Mobile Phones by the Rural Poor: Gender perspectives from selected Asian countries
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Mobile phones have been shown (though not uniformly) to contribute positively to rural development in many ways, from reducing information asymmetry, to improving functional networks, to increasing access to services and finance. This report uses empirical quantitative surveys and qualitative fieldwork in a cross-section of economies in South and South East Asia (Bangladesh, India, Indonesia [Java only], Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand) to examine the digital gender divide among the poor in rural and urban settings.
The editor
Gerard Sylvester is a Knowledge and Information Management Officer with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). He is located at FAO’s regional office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand.