DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY AWARD
Individuals, academic institutions, corporations, NGOs or government authorities that have made a remarkable and successful effort at providing digital opportunities to those in need are eligible for this award. Nominees must help facilitate the deployment of information and communications technology and use of the internet among inner city populations, or in towns, rural areas or cities in developing and least-developed countries in order to be considered for this award. WITSA member associations have autonomy in nominating and selecting the most qualified candidates in their respective country or region. In order to nominate a candidate, the WITSA member association must demonstrate the effectiveness of the program; approximate the number of people benefiting from the program; describe the degree of intensiveness of the program; and evaluate the level of innovation used in achieving the program’s goals.
YOUR NOMINEE(S):
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC): eRezeki Program
REASONS FOR NOMINATION (please justify why you think your candidate is qualified):
Background Information
MDEC is driving the eRezeki Program, which opens up and provides digital income opportunities, especially to individuals from the lower income households’ category. The main component of the program is the eRezeki Platform; which profiles and matches the crowd workers with digital work or task, aggregated from various crowdsourcing platforms. The other component of the program includes dedicated ‘Pusat eRezeki’ or eRezeki Center that provides not only access to ICT infrastructure, but also dedicated personnel to facilitate the training and on-boarding process of crowd workers.
The eRezeki Program is a unique approach that was never attempted before by any other country. In its traditional form, crowdsourcing platform will make an open call to crowd or online worker to sign-up and to attempt to qualify and perform work on their platform. Workers will have to scout around in the wild internet to look for platform that provides suitable digital work that matches their skills portfolio.
Impact of Program
Initiated in 2012 with just 4 platform partners, it was referred to then as the ‘Microsourcing / Crowdsourcing Project to Generate Additional Income to the B40’. From a pilot project, targeting to benefit 1,000 B40s in 2012/13, the program was then scaled up and given additional income to 3,811 B40s in 2014 and eventually about 13,000 B40s by end of 2015. For year 2015 alone, the reported total value of additional income earned by the B40 workers was about RM11 million.
Today, there are more than 20 partners consisting local and international platforms that are partnering and supporting the program.
Through the eRezeki Program, workers are being profiled, offered training and guidance to work, and work are being matched to them, based on their skills profile. Workers who do not have access to good ICT infrastructure (e.g. high speed broadband and computing devices), will be able to use the facilities at Pusat eRezeki, which has been designated as ‘center for income generation’.
There are currently 66 Pusat eRezeki nationwide to facilitate this. Workers that require additional assistance with training and longer time to familiarize with digital work approach, will also be guided and placed under ‘internship programme’ for a maximum period of 2-months.
The eRezeki Program which is based on crowdsourcing service-based model, is a brave attempt by Malaysia to make sure that everybody, including those from lower income households, are not being left out and can benefit from the digital economy. It is also a step towards embracing the Future of Work, removing physical barriers that normally limits certain segment of the communities such as the disabled and pensioners.