Solution to enable 10,000+ Afghan women to offer Outsourcing services worldwide

Millions of Afghan women in Afghanistan, many well-educated, are currently restricted in most professions to go to work. The loss of income creates a heavy financial burden to support the families, costs Afghanistan annually over USD 1 to 3 billion, and creates heavy despair on educated women who have to sit idle at home.

This article offers a win-win solution to generate USD 100+ million in revenues and create 20,000+ new full/ part-time/ project-based jobs by enabling Afghan women to work from home and provide IT & other outsourcing services to countries worldwide. Please note: This solution seeks to fully comply with Afghanistan government rulings and creates a win-win situation for everybody.

Understand the situation and challenges

Working from home is the only sustainable solution for most Afghan women in Afghanistan

Female doctors and other healthcare professionals, as well as a few other roles that require women to exclusively engage with women still work in public facilities in Afghanistan. Some women still work as shop keepers (although arguably not fully compliant with government ruling). Some women work on farms in the rural areas.

Otherwise, women are requested by authorities to stay home. Here women have to be inventive: Some women engage in hand-manufacturing items, products and foods. Some trade. But many have given up work and focus on family acitivities.

Many Afghan women in Afghanistan are well-educated and willing to work/ earn money for their families

Some research suggests that there are over 1.2 million women with Bachelor and Master degrees presently in Afghanistan. More than 100,000 women have degrees in IT & computer sciences. These women represent a notable workforce that could generate additional family income and help build Afghanistan.

Enabling educated Afghan women to work from home and offer international outsourcing services ?

Theoretically, Afghan women could work from home and earn money through the Internet. However, there are numerous challenges:

• Many Afghan women do not have reliable access to the Internet.
• Data & phone use is very expensive in Afghanistan (Read this article: Telecom transformation plan for Afghanistan to help achieve price reduction of 70+ percent for the average Afghan family | LinkedIn).
• Not all women have a laptop or computer.
• Purchasing good bandwidth Internet and equipment is expensive and not affordable for some families. Especially, as the women lost their work/income, and the male representative of the house has to feed the entire family alone)
• There is much competition in outsourcing from people offering such services around the world.
• Women are often without guidance trying to identify “Internet jobs” by trial & error. The effort is time-consuming, frustrating and often ineffective.

The solution: Provide a comprehensive, end-to-end service that enables women in Afghanistan to offer valuable services in a professional and sustainable way

The solution provides the functions & steps as follow:

Determine suitable clients, services and needed skillsets

1)???? Identify target clients:

• Identify countries and corporations that are willing to accept outsourcing services from Afghanistan, which currently listed as sanctioned country)
• Identify medium/ large size Afghan-led businesses throughout the world.
• Identify other Internet portals that facilitate project/ task-based work and legally surpass sanctions.

2)???? Define target services and needed roles

a.????? Determine the services that are needed by viable countries, clients and others.

b.????? Analyze the competition and determine services where Afghan women can reasonably compete.

c.????? Define needed roles.

3)???? Determine respective job descriptions and needed skillsets

a.????? Define specific job descriptions for main services & work.

b.????? Determine respective skillsets with hard skills (business, technical, project management, planning, writing, presenting, analyzing, etc.) and soft skills (problem solving, time management, ability for details, stress management, etc.)

Identify suitable candidates for jobs, projects, or tasks

1)???? Identify potential candidates, screen and short list suitable candidates.

2)???? Interview and select candidates.

3)???? Add to approved resource pool.

Set up/ enable home workstations for Afghan women

• Negotiate with telecom operators for Internet bandwidth (and voice) to the private home at very competitive rates on behalf of all the Afghan women that join the program. Negotiate a framework agreement to flexibly add more Afghan women over time.
• Negotiate with IT hardware providers special rates to purchase laptops (and smart phones)

?Provide training and coaching.

1)???? Identify gaps between work requirements and given women abilities.

2)???? Fill gaps through training before assignment or train on the job.

3)???? Provide coaching & mentoring as needed.

Generate an increasing number of jobs, projects and tasks that Afghan women can work on

1)???? Market & sell assertively to potential clients.

2)???? Generate increasing number jobs and tasks.

Build and ensure quality delivery.

1)???? Set up processes and procedures to standardize typical work efforts.

2)???? Monitor and control the work delivery of the individual Afghan women.

3)???? Deploy experts to help out on efforts to support when individual women are struggling in their delivery.

4)???? Guarantee quality results to clients.

Assure fair and increasingly improving compensation

1)???? Negotiate with clients on minimum rates (while staying competitive)

2)???? Arrange for increasing rates depending on experience and complexity of tasks.

3)???? Define and agree standard payment schemes with clients.

Build a systematic Outsourcing Platform

With continuing growth, the organization needs to increasingly formalize structures, processes, procedures and enable those through a systematic Outsourcing Platform. Goal is to streamline efforts, maximize efficiency, reduce overhead, and create an environment where the Afghan female professional can fully focus on serving clients.

This platform has five key parts:

1)????? Marketing & Sales platform

a.????? Identify and support target clients.

b.????? Negotiate framework agreements.

2)????? Jobs Platform

a.????? Gather and lists jobs, projects & tasks.

3)????? Delivery Platform

a.????? Determine services, roles & responsibilities, KPIs.

b.????? Assure quality delivery.

4)????? Enablement platform

a.????? Train, mentor, and coach Afghan women

b.????? Provide with suitable workstation (good internet connection, equipment, other)

5)????? Screening & recruiting platform.

a.????? Identify, screen and select the right resources.

As the organization learns and grows structures, processes and procedures will require adjustments. All processes and workflows must be properly understood, documented and streamlined before automating efforts. Creating above platform requires both business and technology expertise.

How to finance all the above

Generate income from the Afghan ladies providing services and earning money

1)???? Initial sign-up fee: Each Afghan woman makes one-time payment to cover application, screen and selection costs. (This fee could be postponed to a later stage when the person earns money on first job.)

2)???? Annual subscription fee. Each Afghan woman pays a semi-annual or annual fee to be part of the program. This money pays for administering and continuously improving/ expanding the program costs.

3)???? Percentage of individual worker revenue: Each Afghan woman pays an agreed percentage of every work revenue she generates. This money helps pay for marketing & sales efforts to gain clients, negotiate contracts, and create jobs that the Afghan ladies can work on.

Large contracts with corporations or organizations

• Sign-up large clients. Agree on framework agreements. Negotiate large guaranteed lump sum fees. Ask for pre-payment of a minimum percentage.

Support from Afghan people living & working abroad

• Assertively ask for funds, loans, gifts and other help to finance initial capital, ongoing operations and costs to scale (if necessary)
• Gain projects and jobs for Afghan-led businesses at very favorable rates.

Sponsorships, Grants, Donations

• Target global institutions and obtain funding (example: World Development Bank, Asia Development Bank, UN, etc.)
• Obtain funding and grants from NGOs
• Explore government support

Monetize the enabling of other business efforts through established the network & platform

• Many companies and businesses in Afghanistan are struggling to market, sell and distribute their products and services. Mid/ long-term the Outsourcing service network & platform could assist in such effort and charge a fair price for it.

Assertive Cost Management

Eliminate, avoid, and postpone costs as ever possible!

• Stay practical and focused on what brings immediate results!
• Eliminate all nice to do tasks.
• Leverage pool of existing volunteers.
• Only involve paid contractors when absolutely needed for specific expertise.

Minimize/ eliminate need for initial capital

• Give initial investors ownership share in business

Achieve and maintain positive cashflow

• Focus on placing women on billable jobs/ work and getting paid!
• Scale efforts. Cover costs with increasing revenues.
• Minimize needs for capital by negotiating with creditors/ investors to postpone profit/ interest payments.

Turn operations into a professional USD 100+ million corporation.

Applying the above will generate notable revenue streams. Enabling and equipping 10,000+ Afghan women to provide International Outsourcing services could generate over a hundred million USD! The Afghan Women Outsourcing organization can become one of the largest local corporations in Afghanistan and write world history!

It will require professional leadership, corporate governance, solid ethical values and continuing strategic, systematic management.

?Conclusion

The article offered a solution and plan to enable 10,000+ Afghan females in Afghanistan to provide International Outsourcing solutions from home. The article turns the current challenges into potential blessings. It could create the first Afghan women-led 100+ million-dollar corporation and write world history!

Connect with/ contact Alex Steinberg directly at WhatsApp +966 531824178 to schedule a meeting for expert exchange & discussion. Note: Alex is Kabul (but keeps his foreign WhatsApp number)

About the author

Alex Steinberg has helped develop, lead, execute, and advise large programs & projects for many of the largest telecom operators, equipment vendors, system integrators, construction companies and consulting firms: Verizon Wireless, Telefonica, British Telecom, Huawei, ZTE, Vtech, Tech Mahindra, Black Veatch, WSP, Accenture, Deloitte and others. Alex has also developed and co-directed media organizations (video/audio production, print publishing & distribution, media shows & events)

Alex has helped build countries by conceptualizing and delivering strategies, programs, initiatives and solutions in healthcare, education, telecommunications, real estate & infrastructure, energy, and other key industries. He has helped positively impact over one hundred million people.

Alex is currently in Kabul, identifying opportunities and developing solutions to help build Afghanistan. Alex is coming as an expert advisor to work alongside with government, businesspeople, NGOs, and other parties to serve the people of Afghanistan.

Legal Disclaimer

This article reflects the opinion of Alex Steinberg only. It does not claim to represent the viewpoints of any present/ former client, employer, or partner. The author acknowledges that there are often different viewpoints on a topic, which are equally valid. Constructive discussion rather than criticism can lead to better ideas and positive outcome & value to business and society.

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