Microwork Income opportunities for the poor through virtual work

Cecilia Paradi-Guilford Lyudmila Bujoreanu

Ivan Gonzalez-Berenguer Pena ICT Unit

February 28, 2013

Image source: http://collaborativeactioncommunity.org/about/, http://www.horebinternational.com/creative-leadership-3/, http://macmurray7thgrade.pbworks.com/w/page/18345675/FrontPage

About Microwork

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Microwork Platforms on the rise

Source: oDesk 2012, http://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/29585/2/CeDER-10-01.pdf, CloudFactory 2012, MobileWorks 2012

oDesk Contractors in 2012: Amazon Mechanical Turks in 2010:

34%

46%

20%

India

USA

Other

30%

15%

15%

11%

10%

8%

3% 3% 3% 2%

Philippines

USA

Pakistan/SriLanka/Bangladesh

Ex USSR

India

Europe

Latin America

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Microwork is Geographically Dispersed

Image sources: http://www.mobilemarketingwatch.com/can-wi-fi-maintain-its-relevancy-with-mobile-broadband-3203/, http://www.somethingon.com/features/onlineregistrationandpayment/, http://isorequirements.com/iso_9001_6.2_human_resource.html, http://www.illustrationsof.com/87138-royalty-free-progress-clipart-illustration

+

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Key factors of a Microwork strategy

Microwork Feasibility Study for West Bank & Gaza, by ICT Unit

Creating new job opportunities for Jamaica’s youth, by LCSSO with support from the ICT Unit

Analytical work on the new frontiers and opportunities in work + upcoming ESW on jobs, by ICT Unit

Microwork strategy for STEP-B in Nigeria, by AFTEW with support from the ICT Unit

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The ICT Unit’s Microwork activities

• WB&G 23% unemployment – range up to 47%.

• Highest un- and underemployment at ages 15-24 and among women.

• High restriction on movement while access to ICT and basic/medium skills.

The Challenge

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• Disadvantaged youth + women can overcome physical , social restrictions to earn income.

• Supplemental income for those w/ low-medium skills and or limited movement.

• To reach multibillion $ revenues within the next few years.

The Potential

West Bank and Gaza Microwork Feasibility Study

Assess the feasibility of microwork for West Bank and Gaza from a socio-economic perspective in general, and for youth and women employment in particular.

Phase 2: Initiative business matchmaking and pilot design.

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Purpose

• Based on various methods for assessing locational attractiveness of IT-BPO services

• Looks at availability of employable skills, cost competitiveness, availability of relevant infrastructure, and enabling environment

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Methodology

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Strengths: • High % young, tech savvy demographic

• High % skilled women

• Regionally competitive Internet penetration and cost of access

• Regionally competitive English skills

Weaknesses: • Relatively high labor costs in main

cities

• Graduates’ unrealistic wage expectations

• Lack of cost effective mechanisms to process international micropayments

Opportunities: • Significant labor pool for microwork

• Discretionary income from microwork is attractive to youth and women

Threats: • Clients will opt for other countries with

lower labor costs

• Perception of difficulties of doing business due to the conflict

Competitive Analysis

1. Readily available, skilled, and accessible youth workforce

2. Adequate access to computers and Internet

3. Comparative advantage in limited types of microtasks due to its relatively high labor costs

4. More feasible in population centers outside Ramallah

5. For microwork to be feasible WB&G should target specific demographics

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Key Findings

Estimated up to 54k workers, $23m earnings, $11.43m industry value added in 5 yrs

Digital Jam 2.0: The Future of Work is Online

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• Raise awareness in Jamaica about the Virtual Economy.

• Give visibility to the pool of young Jamaicans.

• Present opportunities in the Virtual Economy.

• Facilitate an interaction and dialogue between youth, private and public sector, both local and international.

• Showcase young Jamaicans’ talents.

• Presentations from key players and the youth about the Virtual Economy.

• Hackathon.

• Apps competition.

• Job Fair and Market Place.

• Panel discussions.

• Software Training Camps.

Scope Approach Structure

2,153 Jamaican youths working on the

Microworkers platform (target 50,000 users next three years)

MobileWorks mentoring + support for the development and commercialization of the Microwork App Winner

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Digital Jam 2.0: Results

Microwork in Nigeria : NaijaCloud 2013 – Project Components

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• Current state of Microwork and Elancing in Nigeria and worldwide;

• Benchmarcking analysis;

• Roadmap and strategic actions for the Government.

• Awareness campaign through local microworkers and elancers;

• Ambassador’s figure to spread the word and increase awareness amongst Nigerians.

• Workshop on creating and managing personal profiles;

• Workshop for Nigerian organizations;

• Workshop for potential Nigerian BPO platforms.

Strategic Analysis

Train-the-trainers

Workshops

The ICT Unit’s microwork offering

What we are already doing:

• Feasibility assessment + benchmarking

• Business matchmaking

• Roadmap + pilot design

What we could do:

• Microwork as a component for data collection, verification and digitization for WB projects

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Questions, comments?

Thank you!

Image source:oDesk

Microwork caters to different skill levels oDesk tasks

Source: https://www.odesk.com

Relevant Finding: Need for Local Intermediaries

• Micropayment to Workers and Local Labor Laws

Cross-border electronic payment options have high transaction cost

• E.g. no PayPal or m-Remittance services

International microwork providers are cautious about local labor laws

• E.g. CloudFactory, Mobileworks

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Target Task and Demographics

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Complexity Types of Microtasks Demographic

Low Content moderation, and Arabic usability testing and audio transcription

• Unemployed high school graduates • Female homemakers

Medium E-commercial product analysis (Arabic), logo and graphics design, 3D modeling/animation

• Unemployed or underemployed tertiary graduates from various disciplines related to art and design

• Female homemakers • Tertiary undergraduates from similar disciplines as above;

and need additional income/financial assistance or seek practical experience

High Translation from English to Arabic, copy editing and proof reading in Arabic

• Unemployed or underemployed tertiary graduates from disciplines requiring extensive work in English (e.g., business, humanities and arts, social science, etc.)

• Tertiary undergraduates from similar disciplines as above; and need additional income/financial assistance or seek practical experience

Immediate Action Recommended • Design the two pilot intermediaries

– Mix of microtask types, locations, demographics, business and operational models

– Encourages participation of women

• Facilitate networks and partnerships for pilot intermediaries – Initiate contacts with international aggregators and potential local

intermediaries – Provide match-making workshops between international aggregators

and potential local intermediaries

• Develop the M&E framework and plan – Set up logic model – Develop M&E framework

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Possible Roles of Stakeholders

PNA

• Support and scale pilots

• Build first mover advantage

• Ensure enabling policy and regulatory environment

Donors

• Provide environmental, and fiduciary care

• Support immediate and short-term action recommended

Private Sector

• Partake in pilots as intermediaries

• Support development of strategy and implementation

• Collaborate with PNA for policy

• Partake in scaling and replication

Academia

• Help design and implement pilots

• Ensure quantity and quality of microworkers

• Provide venue, equipment for microwork

• Train and develop certification for microworkers and intermediaries

NGOs

• Partake in pilots as possible intermediaries

• Provide networks of potential beneficiaries and awareness raising

• Advise on design and implementation to ensure beneficial development impact

Palestinian Youth & Women

• Participate as microworkers

• Provide input to strategy formulation

• Raise awareness within their networks

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Digital Jam 2.0 Results

• 2,153 Jamaican youths working on the Microworkers platform (target 50,000 users next three years); • 1,150 Jamaican youths working on the MobileWorks platform (target of 10,000 within one year); • 8 internships for young Jamaicans at leading telecommunication companies in Jamaica and the

Caribbean; • MobileWorks mentoring and support for the development and commercialization of the Microwork

App Winner; • Launch of some of the applications coming out of the Apps Competition and Sports Hackathon; • Mentoring by Microsoft Jamaica of the winning application in the Sports Hackathon; • Requests to submit proposals for funding of specific activities including the incubation of app

development companies led by young Jamaicans, the facilitation of payment to microworkers via mobile-banking solutions, and the digitalization of government records and a move to e-government.

• Apps competition 250 young developers participated submitting 60+ concepts; • Market place and jobfair with the participation of about 40 national and international companies; • “Sports hackathon” to which about 200 youth participated; • Around 2,000 young Jamaicans attended the event.

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Post Digital Jam 2.0

During Digital Jam 2.0