Report
Platforms and Livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa
—Learning Advances in Digital Finance
With the support of
This Learning Advancements Report is a semi-annual synthesis created by FiDA. The 2019 edition pulls across multiple research projects to offer a broader view of the topic of platforms and livelihoods.
This report provides an overview of the ways platforms are changing markets and livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa, including: informal uses of social media platforms, marketplace platforms, platforms and agriculture, platforms and digital financial services, and inclusion and the platform economy.
Platforms aren’t the only story in digitization, but they are a major force reworking how individuals communicate, find work, advertise their products and services, and organize their relationships to almost every sector of an economy.
“The rise of the digital platform firm means that technological effects reach more people faster than ever before” (World Development Report 2019).
Any discussion of livelihoods in 2020 should account for the growing role of platforms.
This report helps inform that discussion.
Contributors Marissa Dean, Dr. Jonathan Donner, Jessica Osborn, Annabel Schiff, Will Croft, Bryan Pon
Date
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. 
Areas of Expertise
