KAKUTE Data Vyanzo
Creating stable jobs for rural youth through a data collection enterprise
Background
Youth unemployment in Tanzania is estimated at 13.5%. The 800,000 youth entering the job market each year are competing for only 280,000 jobs. In rural areas, where 70% of Tanzanians live, most youth (~80%) find employment in the agriculture sector. Therefore, during agricultural low points of the year, there is little work for youth. As Tanzania increasingly connects to global markets its agricultural products and climate change affects the growing season, jobs in the agriculture sector have become less stable. A growing rural population combined with a lack of employment opportunities in rural areas is leading to a large youth migration to urban areas, drastically increasing urban youth unemployment. Therefore, there is a need to diversify and expand employment opportunities in rural areas, especially for Tanzania’s youth.
Solution
Data Vyanzo unlocks market information at the village, ward and district level enabling businesses and NGOs to make better decisions. We do this through a network of data collectors, smart tools, open-data principles and collaborative partnerships. The data collection is supported by partners’ paid access to high quality market data.
Process
Data Vyanzo is building a network of youth data collectors who already have smartphones to conduct market research for partner businesses and NGOs. Data Vyanzo identifies and trains these data collectors on offline smart-tools, then deploys them to conduct quantitative market surveys within their own communities. Using machine learning, Data Vyanzo is creating a profiles of small businesses from our datasets, allowing surveys of newly registered businesses to be automatically verified, or flagged. When data collectors complete a survey, if there is internet it is uploaded, if offline the survey is saved for an online sync. After the surveys are uploaded and verified on the backend then a payment is sent to the youth data collector and the business owner surveyed.
This continuous, high quality market data provides value to our partner organizations, who gain timely insight into the local market conditions at a competitive price. Through continuous data collection, Data Vyanzo provides rural youth with a new type of employment and a source of income even during economically slow times of the year.
Outcomes & Impacts
Through the Data Vyanzo pilot, a fully-functional and –integrated data collection (mobile), survey verification (web portal), and dashboard (web portal) system has been built. Furthermore, the system has been tested and deployed across 8 villages in 3 wards, impacting 30 youth in direct employment, and over 250 youth business owners in visibility for new opportunities of products and services.
Key Collaborators
Data Vyanzo is now looking for additional donor funding to support refining the process of the recruitment of youth, the data collector training module, and improved capabilities of survey verification through technologies of machine learning. With those pilot learnings, Data Vyanzo will scale data collection across more regions of Tanzania.
Kakute is a social enterprise based in Arusha, Tanzania. Our members have decades of combined experience in market research. As a winner of the Data for Local Impact Innovation Challenge (DLIIC), Kakute received a grant of USD 60,000 to implement the Data Vyanzo project, which increases rural youth employment and livelihood through an innovative data collection tool.
DLIIC aims to engage, support, and connect Tanzanian innovators, developers, and solution providers to each other and to opportunities to make a difference in people’s lives. Learn more…