ETC Symposium

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  ICTs and Employment for Poverty Alleviation
  
Joint ILO-ITU-ECA study on the impact of ICTs on
Employment and Poverty Alleviation in
Africa Preliminary results
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Presentation outline

• Background
• Countries covered
• Objective and emphasis
• Detailed objectives
• Questions addressed by the study
• Detail of activities

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Background

• The 39th Conference of African Ministers of
  Finance, Planning and Economic Development,
  Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 10 to 15 May 2006
• Ouagadougou Declaration on Employment and Poverty
  Alleviation in Africa, the African Union
  Extraordinary Assembly of Heads of State and
  Government, September 2004
• Outcomes of the WSIS, Action line C7 of the Tunis
  Agenda for the Information Society
• Implementation of the Regional Initiative on ICT
  Applications adopted by the World
  Telecommunication Development Conference, Doha
  2006

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Background (continued)

• Collaborating institutions
• ECA
• ITU
• ILO
• Countries covered
• Burkina Faso
• Cameroon
• Egypt
• Ethiopia
• Kenya

• Mozambique
• Nigeria
• Senegal
• Uganda

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Objective and emphasis

• Prepare an Issues Paper on the impact of ICTs on
  Employment and Poverty Alleviation in Africa
• ICT as an economic sector
• ICT as a sector to leverage the growth and
  competitiveness of other African economic sectors

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Detailed objectives

• Assess the potential of ICTs in employment
  creation and poverty alleviation
• Assess the existing ICT and employment (direct
  and indirect) environment
• ICT industries
• ICT-enabled services
• Sectors utilizing ICTs applications
• Any other relevant areas
• Explore areas facing imminent danger as a result
  of the introduction of ICTs and the necessary
  strategies to mitigate job losses

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Detailed objectives (continued)

• Explore challenges and propose appropriate
  mitigation strategies to ICT sector development
• Provide models for and recommendations leading to
  an enabling policy environment conducive to
  increased employment through the use of ICTs
• Investment attraction for project financing in
  the ICT sector
• Promotion of broad access to skills and
  competencies
• Support to small-scale (SMMEs) ICT-based and
  enabled businesses
• Promotion of sustainable employment targeted at
  the youth and women
• Potential of ICT to dynamise the informal sector
  and increase their access to more markets

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Questions addressed by the study

• what jobs should be created?
• in which sectors?
• the role of Governments and the private sector in
  job creation?
• strategies needed for the creation of such jobs?
• resources needed to attain a given level of
  employment?

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Detail of activities

• Literature review of similar studies
• Review of policy documents
• Visits to policymakers, private sector, etc.
• to analyse the gap in policy
• to assess the capacity of the private sector
• Specification of gender and disability gaps with
  respect to the potential of ICT to address them
• Determination of the state of the information
  economy in selected countries and the necessary
  employment strategies needed
• Development of productivity measurements such as
  indicators for linking ICT to employment,
  productivity and economic growth.

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Preliminary results

• The use of ICTs are associated with new patterns
  of job creation and job loss.
• There are indications to suggest that jobs could
  be lost through three main channels
• - obsolescence,
• - automation, and
• - "disintermediation".

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Preliminary results

• ICT replaces old tasks and occupations through
  automation, such as the telephone switchboard
  operator.
• But the technologies also create new tasks and
  occupations, such as Webpage designers or
  call-centre workers or a variety of new
  intermediaries

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Preliminary results

• Demand for ICT products and services are
  beginning to generate new jobs in Africa
• The creation of entirely new industries such as
  the software, computer, micro-electronic, the GSM
  industries etc has brought about new employment
  opportunities, which employ a substantial number
  of people.

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Preliminary results

• The study shows that access to reliable, and
  affordable telecommunications and electrical
  power infrastructure is an important precondition
  for the use of ICT to generate employment
  opportunities.
• The study reveals that the African countries
  where the ICT sector have been liberalized tend
  to have higher telecommunications penetration as
  reflected in the increased growth in teledensity,
  more vibrant economy with more jobs being created
  directly and indirectly and more positive impact
  on poverty alleviation than countries that are
  not liberalized.

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Preliminary results

• There is great need for deliberate policies to
  promote the development of the required critical
  mass of skilled ICT manpower in the various
  countries to drive the ICT industry.
• Apart from countries like Egypt and Nigeria most
  African countries suffer from shortage of skilled
  ICT personnel

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Preliminary results

• Following are very important areas where the
  African countries could focus efforts with a view
  to create decent jobs, reduce unemployment and
  alleviate poverty
• Outsourcing
• Community Multipurpose Telecentre (CMCs), using
  post offices as outlets, and combining several
  technologies- radio, GSM, Internet , TV, and
  multi-media
• Market driven e-Agriculture.
• Promoting ICT based SMEs through franchising
• Software development (Local content dev)

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ICT BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING

• Even though the global outsourcing market is very
  huge, most of the countries studied are yet tap
  fully into it.
• The study also shows that African countries have
  the potential to participate actively in
  outsourcing and a lot of jobs could be created as
  a result.

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EFFORTS OF THE DIASPORAS

• Just like the Indian example, finding shows that
  Africans in diaspora could play very great roles
  in ensuring that the respective countries take
  advantage of the emerging BPO and hence
  contribute in no small way to the development and
  growth of the ICT industries in countries such as
  Egypt and Nigeria, for inst.

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e-AGRICULTURE

• The study shows that the value chain created
  through the introduction of appropriate
  e-agriculture programmes holds very huge
  potentials for generating large volume of decent
  jobs.
• For instance the Egyptian pilot e-Agriculture
  programme, the Virtual Extension Research
  Communication Network (VERCON), provides the
  platform for information sharing between
  agricultural researchers and extension workers
  and
• currently there were already 57 nodes in the
  network (5 in central and 52 in 6 governorates),
  and it had already created jobs for over 1000
  workers including 92 extension workers, 12
  researchers, and other workers involved in
  content development
• It has also contributed tremendously to
  empowering farmers with relevant information to
  boost their productivity and profitability.

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e-COMMERCE

• The lack of a functioning e-payment systems and
  e-signature acts in the countries visited are
  hindering the growth of e-commerce in these
  countries
• However, m-commerce picking up fast in African
  countries eg Flash me cash in Nigeria
• There is need therefore, in collaboration with
  relevant stakeholders, to create the necessary
  enabling environment for the establishment of
  e-payment systems.

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Thank You !
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