Rong Chen

In Africa, numerous governments have embraced digital labour platforms, bringing together businesses, workers, and consumers, as a solution to decrease unemployment. Digital platforms stimulate employment and income generation, but they also encompass risks such as lower employment security and unfair working conditions. This has raised cross-cutting regulatory issues in a number of domains such as labour, social welfare, occupational health and safety, competition, taxation as well as data and consumer protection. As with other developments around digital transformation, the platform economy is evolving dynamically and therefore a new approach to policymaking and regulation is required – it should be more agile and more collaborative. The panel brings together high-level experts on the topics of digital transformation, platform economy, regulation and capacity building. It will discuss the developments in the field and the new requirements for regulatory and policy frameworks, which harness the positives of the platform economy and mitigate against the risks.