Accra, June 17, GNA - A Rockefeller Foundation funded report estimates that the field of impact sourcing, employing socio-economically disadvantaged people in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centres, is currently $4.5 billion and has the potential to reach $20 billion and employ 780,000 by 2015.

The report, conducted by Monitor Group, suggests a strong business case for impact sourcing which can provide high quality, reliable services at prices that are at least competitive with traditional BPO centres and, in some cases almost 40 per cent lower than what traditional providers can offer.

A statement copied to Ghana News Agency in Accra on Friday, said the findings, contained in the new working paper, Job Creation through Building the Field of Impact Sourcing, also found significant potential for poverty alleviation because impact sourcing workers could earn incomes up to 100 per cent over alternative employment options.

The working paper is part of the Rockefeller Foundation's Poverty Reduction through Information and Digital Employment (PRIDE) work. Through PRIDE, the Foundation plans to support the development and testing of impact sourcing business models, support research on interventions and continue to build the network of key impact sourcing stakeholders to advance the field.

Impact sourcing employs individuals with limited opportunity for sustainable employment as principal workers in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centres to provide high-quality, information-based services to domestic and international public and private-sector clients.

"Harnessing the global BPO trend, PRIDE exemplifies the Foundation's commitment to promoting growth with equity, in which the poor and vulnerable have more access to opportunities, such as ICT employment," said Dr James Nyoro, Managing Director for Africa.

"The Foundation is proud to partner with Monitor on this important research, which drives the idea that employing low-income workers will provide them with sustainable income which can lead to positive social outcomes, ultimately helping to improve livelihoods and build relevant skills for employment in the fast growing ICT sector."

Job creation through building the field of impact sourcing features case studies on current impact sourcing models in Africa, India and other regions, including those of Foundation grantees like Digital Divide Data, a social enterprise with the objective of creating jobs for poor and disadvantaged youth in Cambodia, Laos and Kenya; and Samasource, an intermediary that markets and sells impact sourcing services to clients based in the United States and United Kingdom.

"Based on more than 120 interviews across 13 countries with impact sourcing managers, providers of BPO services, outsourcing experts, employees, outsourcing clients, government officials, and other individuals linked to the impact sourcing space, this analysis creates a shared understanding of the current situation, the size of the opportunity and action agenda necessary to build this field," said Michael Kubzansky, Global Head of the Monitor Inclusive Markets Initiative.

The Rockefeller Foundation's mission to promote the well-being of people throughout the world has remained unchanged since its founding in 1913. Today, that mission is applied to an era of rapid globalization. Its vision is that this century will be one in which globalisation's benefits are more widely shared and its challenges are more easily weathered.

To realise this vision, the Foundation seeks to achieve two fundamental goals in its work, first to build resilience that enhances individual, community and institutional capacity to survive, adapt, and grow in the face of acute crises and chronic stresses.

Secondly to promote growth with equity in which the poor and vulnerable have more access to opportunities that improve their lives. In order to achieve these goals, the Foundation constructs its work into time-bound initiatives that have defined objectives and strategies for impact. These initiatives address challenges that lie either within or at the intersections of five issue areas; basic survival safeguards, global health, environment and climate change, urbanisation, and social and economic security.

The Monitor Group works with the world's leading corporations, governments and social sector organisations to drive growth in ways that are most important to them.

It offers a range of services=97advisory, capability-building and capital services=97designed to unlock the challenges of achieving sustainable growth.

Monitor brings leading-edge ideas, approaches and methods to bear on clients' toughest problems and biggest opportunities.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the firm employs more than 1,500 people in 18 countries worldwide.

Monitor Inclusive Markets (MIM) catalyses support for market-based solutions to social challenges. MIM does this by understanding and improving the business models of enterprises currently engaging people that live at the bottom of the economic pyramid, particularly helping these enterprises reach scale and commercial viability.