Digitizing Information for African Institution

Project Overview:

This project is being implemented by Digital Divide Data (DDD), a social business that creates jobs for talented youth in developing countries by delivering high-quality content business process outsourcing services to clients. DDD is an innovative, internationally acclaimed non-profit organization that operates with a strong business model and a "double bottom line" approach to development, and this is in line with African Innovation Foundation vision. The Goal of this project is Digitizing Information for Institutions in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. 

DDD’s social enterprise empowers its staff with the skills and experience they need to lift themselves out of poverty. DDD identifies and recruit motivated, disadvantaged youth who would not otherwise have access to good jobs or higher education.  DDD then trains and employs them at a fair wage, while offering them scholarships to attend university. DDD alumni go on to high-skilled positions in which they earn more than four times the average regional wage. This enables them to break the cycle of poverty that traps their families.

Objectives linked to AIF Grant:

The African Innovation Foundation (AIF) grant to Digital Divide Data (DDD) will support digitization projects that benefit public-interest institutions in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. It will facilitate greater access and transparency of information for these institutions working in the public interest in the aforementioned countries.  In addition, the work itself is expected to create jobs for disadvantaged youth from urban slums areas. Thus, DDD will establish a local capacity in Africa to digitize historic archives, economic data, government records and other key data, creating greater transparency.

This AIF grant will allow DDD to serve local institutions in East Africa, enabling them to make their information resources accessible and transparent.  In addition, DDD aims to demonstrate the replicability of its business model from Southeast Asia to East Africa.  As a social enterprise that has shown the ability to create lasting changes in the incomes of disadvantaged youth in Southeast Asia while operating a sustainable business, DDD plans to apply its model to create jobs and develop talent in East Africa. Moreover, DDD aims to test the viability of its business model in meeting local market needs in East Africa. 

More information on DDD can be found by following this link: www.digitaldividedata.org