How to reduece unemployment using IT:
The digital economy has taken over our world. Upstarts like Uber, Airbnb, Kickstarter
and Square are proving that we live in a world where technology pioneers and the
monetization of disruptive technologies win consumers over with innovative thinking.
This raises the question of how such market solutions can be used to tackle some of
society’s most pressing issues — specifically, the 60% of young people in developing
regions who are either unemployed, not studying, or engaged in irregular
employment, according to ILO. Africa is a prominent example of this, with its
exploding youth population.
Judith Rodin, President of The Rockefeller Foundation, suggests that the number of
young people between the ages 15 and 24 in Africa will double from 200 million to
400 million by 2045. Sadly, based on current projections, only 3-5 million jobs will be
created for the 10-12 million youth eligible to enter the formal economy annually,
leaving approximately half of these youth with little prospect for employment. I
suggest that technology can be used to turn the tide on the continued economic
marginalization of young people.
In today’s economy, civil society organizations are often left to relieve the pain felt by
these marginalized youth, women and children, while government points to the
private sector to create the necessary jobs and the private sector in turn points to the
government to create and implement the necessary policies to allow it to create jobs.
But no one has asked which jobs must be created, for who, how and why — especially
when it comes to tackling these inequalities.
Perhaps digital tools are able to provide insights and an understanding of the future of
youth empowerment and employment. Firstly, data collection (including personal,
market and other sources of big data) must be improved, and so must the analysis of
that data. Secondly, decision-making must then be based on the employability of the
person, in terms of soft skill attributes. As digital tools become more efficient in
solving daily productivity problems and more adaptive to learned situations, we’ll
progress to a stage where digital tools can be deployed to solve some of society’s
greatest challenges, including unemployment and/or employability.
How the Global Shapers are using technology to solve this
After becoming a winner of the Global Shapers Community ‘Coca Cola Shaping a
Better Future Challenge’ at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2014, the Cape
Town Hub of the Global Shapers Community was able to successfully launch The
Social Collective, a Global Shaper Hub project turned for-profit technology start-up.
The Social Collective is now developing a digital Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
tool which makes M&E more meaningful — to organizations and individuals — by
providing specialist software and consulting services. Monitoring and Evaluation
(reporting) is required by donors of civil society organizations. However, few digital
tools exist to increase productivity and provide analysis of data being collected for
improved program management, or for beneficiaries to track their personal
development and employability. The Social Collective responds to this need.
As a digital tool that is available on mobile phone and even via SMS, The Social
Collective gives civil society organizations access to their data so that they can gain
insight into the livelihood, personal and professional development of individuals,
which gives rigor to intuition. Beneficiaries, on the other hand, can easily track the
skills that they have acquired and the hours spent acquiring each skill. Then
policymakers and the private sector can begin to answer the question: which jobs must
be created, for who, how and why.
Technology has shifted consumption to more luxuries:
Technological progress has cut the prices of essentials, such as food, and the price
of bigger household items such as TVs and kitchen appliances. The real price of
cars in the UK has halved in the last 25 years
Changing lifestyles, work is undergoing a transformation not seen since the
Industrial Revolution. Just a generation ago a typical employee could land a job
right out of college with a large company, and reasonably expect to stay there for
his or her entire career. Contrast that with this startling statistic from the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics: As of 2010, the average time an American worker will
stay at any job has plummeted to less than four and a half years.
Technology innovation is overturning traditional work structures. Businesses are
extending their workforces by hiring record numbers of freelancers, consultants
and other non-traditional workers. By supplementing core staff with online talent
who lends skills and knowledge just-in-time, these companies are able to access
more workers and get work done with increased agility.
To say the least, things have changed immensely. Today the opportunity for
freelancers is exploding, as is the development of tools allowing people to work
independently. A freelancer today can monitor job demand online, connect with
businesses anywhere with a few keystrokes, and completely automate payment
collection through online freelance platforms like E-lance. Shared workspace can
be rented through NextSpace and emerging new skills can be learned on General
Assembly or Lynda.com. It is an exciting time for those hiring and those ready to
adopt a new way of working, and the future only looks brighter.
Dream of a world where everyone is educated, trained and free to create and
sell any form of innovation they come up with. All with will and easy access to
markets and required resources. Technology can not only be a source but an
enabler for this dream to come true.
1. Greater access to technology in the areas of skill development
2. Connect educators and trainers who create specialized training modules
based on demographic and cultural challenges
3. Making credit (esp. microfinance) more accessible for the needy and
deserving
4. Connect communities and Self Help Groups (SHGs) for a more
inclusive system of help and support
5. Allow underprivileged raise their concerns and be heard
6. Help access an open market where anyone and everyone can sell their
skills and products
7. Make on-ground innovations mainstream
8. Improve connections between recruiters and candidates irrespective of
geography limitations
9. Allow innovations to create and drive markets
10.Ensure that investments flow towards building a better and more
humane world.
