How should effective mobile learning initiatives for women and girls be designed? How can they be created in gender-sensitive and sustainable ways? What barriers need to be addressed and what preconditions need to be in place for successful implementation? This presentation will address these important questions as well as initial lessons learned as part of a UNESCO Education Sector's project on “Developing Literacy through Mobile Phones - Empowering Women and Girls”. The project's purpose is to study initiatives from around the world aimed at empowering women and girls through education via innovative mobile technology-based learning and information programmes. It is also exploring what makes existing initiatives effective models of using mobile technologies to support literacy development and improve learning outcomes of women and girls, with the aim of providing a foundation for the future planning and implementation of scaling-up activities in this domain. In this context, UNESCO is producing a global report comprised of regional reviews and in-depth case-studies, and has organized three expert workshops focused on Africa, Asia & the Pacific, and Latin America & the Caribbean. Following the presentation of lessons learned based on these inputs, participants will be invited to join in a deeper discussion of the issues.