The Rockefeller Foundation is currently developing a potential initiative entitled “Poverty Reduction through Information and Digital Employment” (PRIDE) that would support the development of a new arm of the outsourcing industry called Impact Sourcing. PRIDE seeks to harness the outsourcing industry to foster the development of Impact Sourcing.

While BPO has been recognized and analyzed as an opportunity for job creation, generally, the sector’s ability to provide employment and higher incomes for poor and vulnerable people has not yet been thoroughly evaluated. Both historically and in the public imagination, the BPO sector has been associated with high-end, high-contact functions like call centers, which have required significant levels of education and language literacy. The income benefit of this booming sector has been undeniable for those who have participated in it, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the majority of employees in this sector have not come from disadvantaged geographies or populations. Most BPO employees in India, for instance, have college educations. In contrast, most of the growth in South Africa’s BPO sector in recent years has come—as a result of significant government investment in training—from high school graduates in low-employment areas.

The South Africa example exemplifies Impact Sourcing (IS) which employs poor and vulnerable people with limited opportunity for sustainable employment in meaningful jobs in the information technology and business process outsourcing industry.  Those employed in Impact Sourcing jobs in urban areas will generally have attended high school or below; and in rural areas may have completed university.