ICT4D and Enterprise Development

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Samasource is an ICT4D solution to help educated impoverished people, with a specific aim at women, to find employment. Leila Chirayath Janah is founder of this company and the creator of an ideal she calls "microwork"(3). Microwork is a "new way to fight poverty by enabling capable, marginalized people to complete digital tasks in some of the world's poorest places”(2). The idea is that US Tech companies give projects to Samasource, they then divide the project into microwork that can be distributed to individuals across the globe. Once individual work is completed it is compiled by Samasource, verified for accuracy, and returned completed to the US business. When asked if this type of program takes jobs away from Americans Janah’s response was "`Most of the work we do would otherwise go to large, for-profit outsourcing firms in big cities in India and China,’ she says. These companies do not recruit marginalized women and youth, and do not guarantee living wages to their workers”(4).

In exchange, Samasource requires that partners adhere to an ethical code of conduct. They must reinvest at least 40 percent of revenues in training, salaries, and community programs. They must hire workers who were earning less than $3 a day. (Once employed, they generally earn $5 a day, and often more.) To date, the company has distributed $1.2 million in salaries. Seventy percent of its workers are the primary breadwinners in their households and support at least two other people.

Conclusion

In the next ten years the unemployment rate for the poorest 1 billion people will reach a staggering 70% (1). Jobs and work opportunities are available now but are not usually reachable by the poorest of the poor. Technology can bring these jobs to the poor and unemployed using the internet. ICT4D projects, some shown in this paper, demonstrate that improvement can be made and change for the better can be achieved.

Employment raises economic conditions for the better. The worst human conditions such as crime, hunger and violence are caused by poor economic conditions and we must use every tool necessary to bring workers closer to the available jobs.

ICT4D and its many facets are making progress in resolving these world issues. Failures do continue but each step is a learning step. New businesses ideas have sprung up from ICT4D roots like Samasource and M-Pesa that are enabling marginalized persons to take control of their finances, their homes and their desire to work. New ventures such as these will continue to develop thanks to open source software and improvements in education. The work of organizations like infodev, researchers like Dr. Cliff Rogers and the evolution of technology as seen with Ushahidi give us hope that we will one day have the right formula to resolve global poverty.

References

External Links

http://http://samasource.org/

ICT4D and Enterprise Development

From IT

Contents

Samasource

Conclusion

References

External Links

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