Behind the apparent invisible workings of the digital economy is human labour, who performs a variety of tasks involving manipulation of digital data. We call this digital labour. Driverless cars, search engines, recommendation systems, and web content is made possible by this digital labour. This digital labour can now be sourced from locations that were previously not considered to be a central node in the global information economy, for example, Africa. In the context of high unemployment rates and high informal employment, digital labour has implications for poverty, inequality and development. We approach this from a multidisciplinary angle to explore the growth of digital labour in Africa and its developmental impacts on workers who are brought into the networks of global digital economy. Therefore, in this panel, we are concerned not just by what kind of digital tasks are being performed to develop/produce digital goods (nature and kind), but also where do these get done (geography), who is performing (kind of labour), for whom and for what purposes (network and power), and what are the impacts of this digital labour in Africa (development).

Participants include:

• Dr. Uma Rani, International Labour Organisation;
• Mumbi Muriuki, Adept Technologies; and
• Patrick M. Karanja, MasterCard Foundation,
• Dr. Mohammad Amir Anwar, University of Edinburgh.

Please join us 2 September from 17:00-18:30 East Africa Time.

View event listing on Eventbrite.