Please join the Global Center for Youth Employment on March 1, 2017 for the launch of a new report on Microwork and Impact Sourcing. The report will be distributed at the event and speakers will discuss the potential of microwork and impact sourcing to help achieve global development goals. Agenda below.

An important consequence of the global digital economy is the emergence of online work opportunities that break down barriers of time, geography, market access, and social exclusion for millions of potential workers. The World Bank estimates that 48 million people participate in online outsourcing and that the market will grow to between $15 billion and $25 billion by 2020. Under a microwork model, service providers divide up job tasks and distribute them to workers around the globe. When done with an impact sourcing approach this model can benefit disadvantaged, less skilled youth. The scaling of microwork has the potential to create additional jobs for disadvantaged youth in economical constrained environments.

The Global Center for Youth Employment and its members Banyan Global and Future Work Consulting conducted a study of online outsourcing service providers and their client companies to map current trends, challenges, and success factors. The report includes interviews with Microsoft, Pinterest, Ebay, Getty Images, Samasource, Digital Divide Data, IMerit, Daiprom, Cloud Factory, Rockefeller Foundation, and MasterCard Foundation among others, and data from site visits to microwork centers in East Africa.

Where: RTI International conference facility, Washington, DC.

Agenda:
8:30 to 9:00am — Light breakfast

9:00 to 10:00am — Opening Remarks, John McArthur, Sr. Fellow Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institute. Author of numerous studies on global development.

10:00 to 11:00am — Launch of Microwork and Impact Sourcing report. Panel with report authors (Lis Meyers, Branka Minic) and Sameer Raina, Digital Divide Data.

11:00 to 11:30am — Discussion on scaling of Impact Sourcing with Sara Enright, BSR and the Impact Sourcing Coalition.

Additionally, we invite you to stay for lunch and our quarterly Center meeting. The agenda for the meeting is:

12:00 to 1:00 — Networking lunch. Center members will share recent successes and challenges while seeking new partners.

1:00 to 2:00 — Morning event follow up. What’s next for the Center in the area of Microwork?

2:00 to 3:30 — Discussion of Center member survey and external consultant report (to be distributed in advance) on the future direction of the Center

3:30 to 4:00 — Discussion of Bangkok Ideathon outcomes and the Center’s May Ideathon sponsored by the Ford Foundation.

4:00 ­­­­– Happy Hour for those interested in continuing the discussion!

Please register here to attend the Microwork report launch in person or via live-stream.