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Facilitating Gig Work Opportunities for Youth in Developing Countries: A Systematic Literature Review

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Implications of Information and Digital Technologies for Development (ICT4D 2024)

Part of the book series: IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology ((IFIPAICT,volume 708))

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Abstract

Gig work presents a promising prospect for youth in developing countries by offering a flexible and economically viable alternative in the face of high unemployment rates. This Systematic Literature Review (SLR) looks to uncover practical strategies and best practices to facilitate the creation of gig work opportunities for youth in developing countries. It poses two research questions, namely: What gig work opportunities exist for youth in a developing country context, and what practices and strategies facilitate the creation of these opportunities? The SLR identifies a number of gig work jobs and groups them into five categories including online consulting, gig work, online micro-tasking, and social media content production. Eleven strategies and two practices for fostering the creation of gig work opportunities in developing countries are identified from the 20 articles included in the study. The strategies range from providing training, improving infrastructure, enacting legislation, raising awareness, to governments creating gig work opportunities by putting tasks on these platforms or creating their own platforms. Consequently, the SLR calls for future research to evaluate the outcomes of strategies and practices implemented to unlock gig work opportunities for youth in developing countries. The SLR also suggests further research into better mapping the exact type of skills necessary to take advantage of the promising gig work opportunities available.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Informatics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa

    Kagiso Molema & Marita Turpin

  2. Department of Information Systems, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa

    Jean-Paul Van Belle

Authors
  1. Kagiso Molema
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  2. Marita Turpin
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  3. Jean-Paul Van Belle
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marita Turpin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa

    Wallace Chigona

  2. University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa

    Salah Kabanda

  3. University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, South Africa

    Lisa F. Seymour

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Molema, K., Turpin, M., Van Belle, JP. (2024). Facilitating Gig Work Opportunities for Youth in Developing Countries: A Systematic Literature Review. In: Chigona, W., Kabanda, S., Seymour, L.F. (eds) Implications of Information and Digital Technologies for Development. ICT4D 2024. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 708. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66982-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66982-8_5

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