 |
 |
| Labour Market and Business Process Outsourcing Research Team Meet in Nairobi |
 |
|
The South African team (Kathleen Diga, Mike Rogan & Imraan Valodia, pictured right to left) from the School of Built Environment and Development Studies flew to the University of Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2012 in order to discuss the preliminary research findings on a project about labour markets and business process outsourcing (BPO). Kenya and South Africa are two of the three African countries (Ghana is the third) where they will analyse the labour situation particularly in providing the context of the workers within the emerging BPO sector.
The purpose of the visit was for the two teams to meet for the first time, peer review their draft reports and then provide feedback for the common themes arising from the discussions. The workshop was set up to help meet the above objectives in an informal space and allowed teams to better understand the labour market and BPO environments experienced in both countries. The session also allowed members to ask questions and to build a working relationship between the two teams. By the end of the meeting, the objectives were met and will contribute to improved research papers from the two country teams.
There were several common themes which arose from the two preliminary reports as well as differences. In preparation for the final reports, it would be important to highlight the differences in context which make up the differences in labour (ie. historic disadvantages due to apartheid for South Africa, the post-election crisis in Kenya). The South Africa team pointed out that the two countries seemed to have similarities more on the BPO research than there was in the labour market research. As Kenya displayed a population which had substantial informal work, this was the opposite for South Africa labour who mainly worked in formal and wage earning settings.
 Back
|
 |
