Understanding the social return on investment of Shortlist’s device lending program “Accelerating the Rise of Cloudwork in Kenya”

Background: A primary challenge faced by young Kenyans in participating in jobs in the global digital economy is the lack of access to necessary technology, largely due to financial limitations. As the world’s workforce goes distributed, more young people in Africa are starting to work for global companies without leaving home. In many cases, though, workers need to “BYOD” (Bring Your Own Device), disadvantageous to those who don’t have access to laptops and other infrastructure they need. In many cases, this is the single greatest barrier to entry for youth looking to join the global digital economy; without essential devices like laptops or smartphones and power backup solutions, many opportunities are beyond the reach of these young people.

Shortlist’s device lending program: To address this, Shortlist Futures, a workforce innovation lab driving employment, growth, and impact in Africa, implemented a program where youth can purchase devices and equipment (laptops, smartphones, power back-ups, etc.) at list price with a small upfront deposit, and monthly payments that are deducted from wages or paid directly via M-PESA, with the goal of lessening the cost burden for young people to do these jobs. This program is supported by the Challenge Fund for Youth Employment (CFYE) an initiative funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In the first eight months of the program, 3,000+ jobs were created, and 375+ devices were lent to youth across 17 counties in Kenya with a 94% repayment rate on devices lent. However, despite these results, Shortlist still lacked a concrete analysis on the social return on investment these devices have provided to the youth who have received them — largely due to beneficiaries being hesitant to respond to surveys due to lack of incentives and privacy concerns, and fear of sharing income details linked to secondary earnings due to potential repercussions from their employers, as economic increases from these devices can be achieved through ‘side hustles’.

Weaverbirds: Shortlist used Weaverbirds to engage with beneficiaries to better understand the full extent of impact these devices provide — including income increases, increased sense of mobility and job agency, satisfaction with their career prospects and self confidence. Through a mix of multiple choice and open text and voice WhatsApp responses, Weaverbirds engaged with 139 beneficiaries. These discrete as well as free-form responses were then analyzed to generate both quantitative and qualitative insights about the program.

Outcome and insights: Based on conversations with 139 participants, Shortlist’s “Accelerating the Rise of Cloudwork in Kenya’’ program has illuminated how transformative removing the main barrier to participating in the global digital economy can be for young Kenyans, and especially young Kenyan women. This initiative has not only enabled them to engage in a wider array of remote work but also significantly boosted their incomes and career prospects.

Key insights include:

• Participants experienced overall monthly income growth of 28%, with women, in particular, seeing an average increase of 44%.
• Access to devices opened up new opportunities in fields like web development, graphic design, and content creation that were previously out of reach.
• Participants demonstrated enhanced job mobility and career progression as they leverage online resources for skill development and academic improvement, directly influencing their competitiveness and satisfaction in their careers.
• Most surprisingly, the largest income increases were achieved through access to a smartphone. Respondents who received a smartphone on average earned nearly 50% more, almost double the income increases for those who received laptops.

These findings will be used by Shortlist to begin to develop a more robust social return on investment (SROI) analysis on the full extent of impact the device lending facility has on its recipients. Shortlist will use this information to communicate this impact internally and externally and also intend to make program design decisions to make the program as valuable as possible for youth who participate. The Shortlist team anticipates utilizing Weaverbirds for further survey collection on the program over time.

“From our initial engagement with Weaverbirds, we were impressed by their consultative approach and ability to deliver high quality work in short timelines. The solution Weaverbirds offers to organizations like Shortlist is invaluable, both to dive deeper in our impact analysis and to audit the impact of our programs over time. I would recommend Weaverbirds to anyone looking for an affordable and efficient solution to extend their impact measurement needs.”

Austen Stranahan, Chief Operating Officer @ Shortlist