Poverty in the gaza strip: Empowering the unskilled workforce to utilize international crowdsourcing markets and platforms

Despite global advances in well-being, healthcare, and the economy, poverty remains widespread, with many people worldwide lacking opportunities to overcome it. Living in an environment where basic human needs are not continuously met can prevent people from achieving the work outcomes that would otherwise be possible without the poverty barrier. To overcome inequality and a lack of local jobs, technology can provide opportunities to sell services and products globally via online markets, crowdsourcing platforms, and other business models. The skills needed to participate in online markets vary from the basic to the highly specialized. Learning basic skills is a realistic possibility for many people; however, empowerment initiatives supported by governments and businesses are required to provide the necessary technology, infrastructure, and training to those living in poverty, so that they can make their services, skills, and products available to global customers. The application of such initiatives will impact participants' lives, reduce unemployment rates, and alleviate poverty, in addition to offering benefits to stakeholders and other involved parties. This paper highlights the need for investment in providing opportunities in the Gaza Strip to people whose choices have been limited by poverty, empowering them to overcome these barriers and to play innovative roles in shaping their local economies. A model is proposed for running social enterprises with a focus on the micro-tasks offered by popular crowdsourcing platforms, and utilizing market demand to train and empower motivated individuals to gain a source of income and to exploit the potential opportunities.