This research sprint addresses the topic of online gig work in Ghana and specific aspects of work brokered via online platforms in the region. Over the course of six weeks the research fellows, guided by the project team, develop approaches to inform practitioners and policy makers in Ghana about the country's online gigwork ecosystem and its governance. The sprint is taking place online and closes with a finishing week in Accra, Ghana.

Digital platforms have become central ecosystems for economic activity in the 21st century. On two-sided markets, they mediate between buyers and sellers of digital work or enable novel business opportunities. At the same time, they amplify existing polarisation of work, workers and economic resources and call for new regulatory measures in an increasingly uneven digital economy. Both the benefits and perils of the digital platform economy on the economic development pathway are distinctly visible in  sub-Saharan Africa. How can platform work in sub-Saharan Africa be shaped sustainably? What role does fairness play in regulation and the exchange between different interest groups? These are just some of the many pressing questions related to platform economy and regulation, which we address in an interdisciplinary research sprint with exciting structures for policy impact (both public and private).

The fellows collaborate in two research groups, each dealing with a different research question. At the end of the sprint, they will publish policy papers and present them to local partners in July of 2022. A second sprint will be conducted in autumn of 2022, focussing on green technologies and digital approaches to climate change in Southeast Asia.