Several organisations and reports have illustrated that outsourcing can help alleviate poverty by deploying BPO services overseas.

According to an Outsourcing for Social Good report from Telus International and Impakt, BPOs can play a role to shift social landscapes in emerging economies around the world, which is a view also shared by The Rockefeller Foundation. This foundation has established a project that aims to improve one million lives in six African nations – called Digital Jobs Africa.

Similarly a company called Digital Divide Data (DDD), a New York-based nonprofit that operates for-profit data centers in Cambodia, Laos and Kenya, also advocates the concept of socially-responsible outsourcing. It also uses this approach to help differentiate itself from others in the market.

The Telus report goes on to predict that reputation-conscious brands will ask for more socially-responsible behaviour from outsourcing firms, just as they have from their other suppliers.

Out and Proud