Want to end poverty for good? Entrepreneur and Samasource founder Leila Janah has the solution—give work, not aid. “An audacious, inspiring, and practical book. Leila shows how it’s possible to build a successful business that lifts people out of poverty—not by giving them money but by giving them work. It’s required reading for anyone who’s passionate about solving real problems.” —Adam Grant, author of Give and Take and Originals Despite trillions of dollars in Western aid, 2.8 billion people worldwide still struggle in abject poverty. Yet the world’s richest countries continue to send money—mostly to governments—targeting the symptoms, rather than the root causes of poverty. We need a better solution. In Give Work, Leila Janah offers a much-needed solution to solving poverty: incentivize everyone from entrepreneurs to big companies to give dignified, steady, fair-wage work to low-income people. Her social business, Samasource, connects people living below the poverty line—on roughly $2 a day—to digital work for major tech companies. To date, the organization has provided over $10 million in direct income to tens of thousands of people the world had written off, dramatically altering the trajectory of entire communities for the better. Janah and her team go into the world’s poorest regions—from refugee camps in Kenya to the Mississippi Delta in Arkansas—and train people to do digital work for companies like Google, Walmart, and Microsoft. Janah has tested various Give Work business models in all corners of the world. She shares poignant stories of people who have benefited from Samasource’s work, where and why it hasn’t worked, and offers a blueprint to fight poverty with an evidence-based, economically sustainable model. We can end extreme poverty in our lifetimes. Give work, and you give the poorest people on the planet a chance at happiness. Give work, and you give people the freedom to choose how to develop their own communities. Give work, and you create infinite possibilities.
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“An audacious, inspiring, and practical book about how to drive meaningful change. Leila shows how it’s possible to build a successful business that lifts people out of poverty—not by giving them money but by giving them work. It’s required reading for anyone who’s passionate about solving real problems.”
— Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author
“The author’s earnest narration, combined with a perspective on work that rises above political rhetoric, makes this a must-hear audio for anyone concerned about poverty and the dignity of work.”
— AudioFile“Living-wage digital work targeted to the world’s poorest people is a transformational force for good. Leila’s pioneering work in this realm is as instructive as it is inspiring. An essential read!”
— Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn and New York Times bestselling authorBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Leila Janah is the founder and CEO of Samasource and the co-founder and CEO of Lxmi, both ventures focused on using new sourcing techniques to reduce poverty. She was previously a visiting scholar with the Stanford Program on Global Justice, a founding director of Incentives for Global Health, and a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners (now Booz & Co.). She has also worked at the World Bank and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a director of CARE USA, a 2012 techfellow, recipient of the inaugural Club de Madrid Young Leadership Award, and the youngest person to win a Heinz Award in 2014. She received a BA from Harvard.