The Rockefeller Foundation’s Digital Jobs Africa initiative seeks to impact the lives of 1 million people in six countries in Africa by catalyzing sustainable Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-enabled employment opportunities for African youth who would not otherwise have an opportunity for sustainable employment. A key element of this initiative is the development of the impact sourcing industry which employs high potential but disadvantaged people in outsourcing jobs. The Foundation supported Accenture Development Partnerships to develop a recruitment, training, and impact measurement approach that can be leveraged by any organization interested in, or currently engaged in, impact sourcing in order to support the future growth of this industry.
The Rockefeller Foundation has been working on the issue of youth employment in the rapidly growing information and communications technology (ICT) enabled sectors for the last several years, and has engaged with many business leaders around a promising solution, called Impact Sourcing.
However, to achieve long-term growth, and ultimately realize greater social impact, the impact sourcing industry will need to scale. As identified in Avasant‘s report, enhancing the “supply” of workers is one of the key enablers for scaling. This means that more workers will need to be recruited, hired, and trained—in an efficient, cost effective manner. ISSPs will therefore need to enhance their talent management systems and processes to handle an increasing employee population and rapid growth. And traditional outsourcers, who will seek to do more in this space through social responsibility and/or business reasons, may need to modify their operations to reflect the unique features of this industry—most notably that it intentionally employs the poor and vulnerable, which can add additional risks and costs.