Closing of the Impact IS Project
By Lydia Midecha
November 2013
Nairobi
The Kenya Law- Rockefeller funded project “Improving Public Access to Information through Impact Sourcing —IMPACT-IS” (IMPACT IS) concluded its activities on 31 October 2013 with a final event – the launch of the project’s product- the Kenya Gazette Database, scheduled to take place by December 2013 with the participation of all stakeholders and partners of the project. The project was launched on 1st November, 2011.
The Impact IS Project sought to test assumptions and build an evidence base for global business process outsourcing sector and specifically Impact Sourcing: Outsourcing that employs people from the base of the pyramid (the marginalized and disadvantaged groups) as principal workers in Business Process Outsourcing Centers, because those ISSPs can offer services at a reduced cost and the added value of social impact, attracting a steady stream of clients based on this value proposition which will enable ISSPs to be sustainable, employing people in full-time, steady jobs.
For Kenya Law, the project was meant to help other government institutions recognize the potential for Impact Sourcing to contribute to economic development and social impact and encourage the sector to scale by implementing key enabling policies and incentives that make their countries attractive destinations for outsourcing with specific focus on Impact Sourcing.
For the past two years, Kenya Law has provided a platform in which to prove the truth of the assumptions and tests that were the driving factor of the project, by outsourcing its Kenya Gazettes volumes to an Impact Sourcing Service Provider, DDD, for conversion into universally accessible formats and into HTML versions. By outsourcing these works to DDD, not only were the Kenya Gazettes volume converted and made accessible to the common mwananchi, but also 50 jobs were created for people from disadvantaged backgrounds. A case for impact Sourcing has also been made to various stakeholders, as was the case during the presentation of the Impact IS project during the second East Africa BPO forum held in Nairobi in September.
The closing of the project will present the project results among the various stakeholders in the project, and reflect with stakeholders on how the project results can be used in the future to achieve the objectives of the IMPACT IS Initiative.
The key thematic areas covered by the project will be discussed in the final report. Major stakeholders will participate in the launch of the Kenya Gazette platform. Results achieved within the framework of the project can be accessed on the Kenya Law website http://www.kenyalaw.org/kenya_gazette which will be accessible beyond the projects’ closure.
Other Links:
Kenya Law - www.kenyalaw.org
Digital Divide Data - www.digitaldividedata.org
The Rockefeller Foundation - www.rockefellerfoundation.org
About Business Process Outsourcing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_outsourcing
About Impact Sourcing - http://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/newsroom/rockefeller-foundation-foster-impact
