Can digital jobs help solve Africa’s economic crisis?

Dramatic demographic shifts are happening across Africa. The number of people between the ages of 15 and 24 is expected to double to 400 million over the next 30 years, and by 2050, the continent will have a larger working-age population than India or China. Despite some bright spots in the economies of many African countries, economic growth and job creation are not keeping pace – youth under the age of 25 account for two-thirds of unemployment in sub-Saharan Africa, and nearly three-fourths of young people live on less than US$ 2 a day.

At the Rockefeller Foundation we see two other shifts at play that could accelerate job creation and present enormous opportunity for a growing youth population in Africa. First, the “digitalization” of our world has driven the growth of Africa’s information and communication technology (ICT) sectors, and with it, the demand for workers with digital skills. Indeed, the digital economy is churning out data at an unprecedented rate. Businesses and organizations of all sizes and focus – companies, universities, libraries, and governments – many of which are based in Africa, need workers who can curate and manage that data.

The second shift is globalization, which enables these kinds of digital tasks to be performed from almost any location in the world, so long as there is a well-trained and well-equipped workforce. This means that multinational corporations can tap into the high-potential youth who remain unemployed in Africa.

To help build a workforce prepared for these kinds of opportunities, the Rockefeller Foundation is launching Digital Jobs Africa – a seven-year initiative aimed at seeding demand for jobs as well as supplying the workforce with the necessary skills to succeed in the digital sector. The Foundation has spent the last three years conducting in-depth research and pilots to test how to best impact the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in Africa through digital job creation. From that research, we have selected six countries – Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa – for our work.

Digital Jobs Africa will focus on three specific interventions. We will begin by catalyzing the socially responsible arm of the business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing industry that purposefully employs people who have limited opportunity for employment – what we call the Impact Sourcing sector – as well as exploring other digital job opportunities that the booming ICT sector creates.

The second component of the Digital Jobs Africa initiative is a focus on skills development for young people. Currently, many African youth don’t have the skills or training required to access new digital jobs. The Foundation will work with our partners to ensure that young people acquire the prerequisite skills for employment in digital jobs, as well as supporting demand-driven training programmes that are linked directly to the demand for digital work from the private sector.

Lastly, the Foundation will work to build an environment that is ideal for the creation of digital jobs by fostering greater, more effective coordination among the key players – businesses, training providers, governments and non-profits – in developing the different components necessary for digital job creation. We know that there is the potential for hundreds of untapped innovations in digital job creation, and we want to seize the momentum of the growing ICT sector to grow and develop these new opportunities.

Our goal is to benefit one million people in the seven-year life of Digital Jobs Africa. Our greatest success will come when we are no longer needed – with a flourishing ecosystem for digital jobs that can be coordinated among government and businesses without the continued involvement of philanthropy. Our role is to jump-start this effort with our governmental and corporate partners and our current and future grantees on the ground. As many of our corporate partners gather at the World Economic Forum, we hope to use this occasion to find ways to collaborate on solutions to these critical challenges that embrace the incredible opportunities of our growing digital age. Together, we believe that technology can do more than just indirectly improve people’s lives – it can provide them with sustainable job opportunities and skills to work for a lifetime.

Author: Judith Rodin is President of the Rockefeller Foundation.