Infobip, a global cloud communications company that enables businesses to build connected customer experiences across all stages of the customer journey at scale has delivered an omnichannel solution to Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator that is focused on tackling the global scourge of youth unemployment.

The non-profit organisation (NPO) works to improve the employment outcomes of young people in South Africa and Rwanda by partnering with government, businesses, the young job seekers and other partners who are committed to results that can work at scale.

Harambee CIO Marzanne Collins.

Harambee CIO Marzanne Collins says Infobip was chosen for the project due to the cost effectiveness of its offering, great customer service and a flexible and user-friendly product that caters for all of Harambee’s communication channel needs.

Shaun van Rooyen, Strategic Accounts and Partnerships Manager for Africa at Infobip, explains that the NPO needed an omnichannel solution that would facilitate communication with their network of more than 700 000 job seekers, over the channel of their choice. Infobip delivered an omnichannel platform that enables communication over SMS, USSD, email and WhatsApp.

Van Rooyen adds, “We are very proud to have partnered with Harambee on this project and support them in their work to tackle the massive challenge of youth unemployment that affects millions of young people not only in South Africa, but across the entire continent.”

Value in choice

Belinda Lewis, Product Design Head at Harambee, says there is a lot of value in giving people a choice of channels so that they can select the one that works best for them. WhatsApp is a new addition to Harambee’s channel mix, but SMS and USSD will remain a big part of its suite, providing greater accessibility to young people using with any form of mobile device.

“Accessibility is one of our core design philosophies, so we must offer channels that even the most basic mobile phone can access. USSD also offers us the ability to zero-rate communication whereby the user does not pay for connectivity, if the need arises.”

Lewis says the mix of channels allows the organisation to provide both engaging experiences and critical push messaging with practical information about particular job opportunities.

Collins says the NPO previously used different providers for different communication channels, meaning that it could not store and track all communication against its candidate profiles.

“This made our work much more fragmented and it was harder to make a young person’s experience as good as we wanted it to be.”