Gig Economy, Innovations For Growth & Job Creation In Kenya.
Gig Economy
Roundtable
An invitation to a Learning Roundtable on how our partner firms are innovating to unlock barriers to productivity within the GIG Economy and creating opportunities for decent employment.
About the event
Industry Learning Roundtable
Gig work is becoming increasingly important as a potential pathway to socio-economic development and employment creation, given Africa’s unique status as the continent with the youngest population but the highest youth unemployment rate.
Gallery
About the Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund and the Learning Roundtable.
The Kenya Catalytic Jobs Fund is a £5m, 4-year programme that aims to test and support the scale up of innovations that have the potential to stimulate job creation.
The programme takes the form of a challenge fund, with calls for proposals to select and support the best innovations, through a mix of grants and tailored technical assistance. It focuses on agriculture, manufacturing, and informal sectors, and seeks to capitalize on the opportunity presented by the youthful Kenyan population to accelerate social and economic development.
Our take on the future of work within Kenya is that there will be a steady increase in enterprises within the non-traditional sectors and we will see a greater majority of the people getting into the job market explore opportunities within the GIG economy.
This is even as Kenya poises itself as a leader in Sub Saharan Africa as the continent gears into the fourth industrial revolution. Since 2019, the Fund has partnered with and supported six local companies, WEEE Center, Taka Taka Solutions, and BuildHer to implement innovative solutions that have the potential to positively disrupt the status of the gig economy in Kenya and catalyze opportunities for growth and exponential job creation.
These solutions have not only delivered notable growth in the respective innovations, but have also transformed their value chains, improved on the enterprise performance and increased margins for other market actors in the chains. The accruing lessons are not only replicable, they are scalable and have the impetus to spur sector-wide transformation and greater economic development. It is on this basis that we invite you to join us as our partner firms share their achievements and as we seek to build partnerships and collaborations for scale.
Background
The Kenyan economy is largely defined by a fast-growing informal sector which accounts for 83.6% of the working population and employs 14.9million workers (KNBS 2020).
This makes the gig economy the norm in the country for decades. The gig economy’s growth is also being driven by a burgeoning youth population looking for work. Kenya is experiencing a “youth bulge,” with approximately 20.1% of its population between the ages of 15 and 24. This ratio of youth is above the world’s average of 16.2% and sub-Saharan Africa’s average of 19.7%.
With so many young people requiring employment, innovation and adaptation in the job market is key – in Kenya, only 17% of the working population is formally employed. Those between the ages of 15-34 years account for 84% of the unemployed population.
A synopsis of the innovative solutions supported under the KCJF
BuildHer equips women in Kenya with accredited construction and manufacturing skills leading to greater financial prosperity, changing male attitudes and promoting gender equality within the construction industry. They work to see women across Kenya actively contribute towards urban development to create safe, inclusive, resilient and sustainable cities.
Takataka Solutions is a social enterprise addressing the waste management challenge in Kenya. The enterprise operates a whole value-chain model including collecting waste from its clients, sorting the waste at a decentralized sorting station, selling recyclable materials and processing organic waste. The company set up Kenya’s first recycling plant for currently unrecyclable PP plastics.
WEEE Center is a social enterprise focusing on recycling of electronic waste (e-waste) from companies, governments, and individuals, training and creating jobs for youth and women in the informal sector as collectors. They refurbish, reuse components, recycles, and disposes of e-waste. Additional services provided including urban mining, device repairs, and data destruction. This addresses the challenges of minimal recycling of electronic waste in Kenya and Africa and the employment of the informal sector. WEEE Center is building awareness of e-waste and knowledge on safe disposal.
The future of work in Kenya is definitely moving away from the traditional careers as people are embracing alternative paths such as the cottage industry and also the jobs of the 21st century as brought about by the increase in connectivity and the social media tools that a majority of young people have access to.
The gig economy has the potential to enable Kenya to make meaningful headway towards achieving sustainable development, and there are evident opportunities to catalyze faster growth in the sector. For instance, while gig work holds considerable promise to formalize Kenya’s workforce.
Objectives of the Gig Learning Roundtable
This roundtable discussion presents us with an opportunity to reflect on how innovative solutions unlock barriers to productivity for the firms while opening new and exciting opportunities for employment creation within the GIG Economy.
Showcase Firms
Showcase how the different firms are advancing innovative solutions around the gig economy and how they have contributed to unlocking barriers to productivity, positively disrupting how we work, improving on enterprise performance and spurring job creation.
Demonstrate Use Cases
Demonstrate effective use cases for innovations that are creating employment opportunities within the GIG Economy.
Role of Industry
Discuss the role of industry in scaling up innovative solutions. How can we build a stronger ecosystem to support growth and scale? What are the drivers and enablers for scale. What are the catalytic drivers necessary for scale?
© 2021 KCJF