The digital divide: Impact sourcing or socially responsible outsourcing, a response to digital transformation?

The digital divide is a big problem for people in Africa.

The challenge is to give birth to a model for developing skills, connecting people to each other and improving the living conditions of emerging-country populations through Digital. Tomorrow, the work will be mostly digital, and we will have to learn " at the moment " thanks to new Technologies.

This vision revolves around several values: a fair, equitable world that would offer the same opportunities to everyone and that would rely on technology and the Internet to redistribute work with a social impact and allow them to Connect to the digital world of tomorrow, especially for women and young People. In the next 10 years, the African continent must be able to meet a need for more than 100 million posts for young People. A big challenge and therefore a need for jobs very quickly.

The Rockefeller Foundation defines the Impact Sourcing as " a practice of social inclusion through employment, whereby societies give work to young people from emerging countries ." The impact sourcing differs from traditional sourcing, which is to outsource all or part of a company's activity to avoid costs, thanks to its impact on society, by promoting the social inclusion of the people furthest from Employment. In french," Impact sourcing " is translated as " socially responsible outsourcing ".

Despite its significant social impact, the impact sourcing does not cost more to client companies that outsource since it is competitive against traditional Sourcing by offering the same services at the same rates and with identical Quality. Companies using Impact Sourcing benefit from a double profit: excellent value for money and the benefit of participating in a responsible project that can be part of their CSR policy – social responsibility for companies.

This market for socially responsible outsourcing amounts to 20 billion, Million. It is a market that grows much faster than that of conventional outsourcing, with an annual growth of 25%. Digital tasks currently represent 20% of this market and will reach up to 80% market share in 2020.

Flexibility and total planning of the schedule

The contribution of crowdsourcing platforms with social impact could contribute to This. Several initiatives of this kind in the world and in Europe are available to help these people in their everyday struggle, and try to improve their daily lives.

The principle: micro digital tasks, ranging from the sentimental analysis to the tagging of images and data processing, cut and distributed to the different " jobbers " working on the platform via their tablet or smartphone.

This online work system allows flexibility and total planning of its schedule, a necessary characteristic when you already have another job and/or a large family and/or you follow your Studies. Moreover, externalizing the digital tasks of European companies in African countries has a twofold interest: to be competitive in the western market while allowing local populations to increase their purchasing power considerably.

Young French start-ups, have recently entered the market of the Impact Sourcing and outsource in Africa by making people working in precarious situations, mainly women and young People. They thus position themselves as an income supplement which allows for a working time of 3 Hours/day to earn €250 (I.E. 160 000 CFA)/month.

This income supplement allows the "workers " " to achieve a professional project, such as creating a local business or returning to School. In addition, these people, who are mainly women and young people, are accompanied by digital training offered to enable them to appropriate the tools of the digital, the Internet and the codes of the world of Work. These women are encouraged to leave the informal economy by opening a bank account and declaring themselves to be a local self-employed worker.

The digital transformation associated with local digital work with social impact on the ground is a huge opportunity at this time when migrants in Europe are making news. The digital transformation thus becomes a fair profit for the two Parties.

Isabelle Mashola, CEO and co-founder of ISAHIT

Find this article by clicking on the link: Http://afrique.latribune.fr/think-tank/tribunes/2017-09-10/la-transformation-digitale-pour-reconcilier-business-et-impact-social-en-afrique-749685.html