Humans in the Loop, an award-winning social enterprise with the vision to connect conflict-affected communities to digital work, has made a commitment to the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, on providing digital remote work opportunities to 400 conflict-affected people in the field of data annotation for Artificial Intelligence by 2022.

Witnessing the distress caused to communities by armed conflict and forced displacement, Humans in the Loop was established with the big idea of channelling work opportunities to those who need them the most as an alternative to the reliance on humanitarian aid. HITL currently have a workforce of more than 250 conflict-affected people who are working to power some of the most existing applications of AI. The innovative model of HITL has won the MIT SOLVE award 2020.

The commitment aims to provide young people affected by conflicts in the Balkans and the Middle East with access to remote online work in data annotation. Partnering with local organizations in the region, HITL reaches people who do not have the right to work locally and makes a transformative impact on their lives. The work provided will be compensated at a level of up to two times of the minimum hourly wage in each country and will be in line with the Fair Work Policy of HITL. The access to online work opportunities as well as the project-specific and generic digital skills trainings for all participants will be free of charge.

I am an Annotation Trainer at HITL and I am so glad to be part of this organization. Working in HITL has allowed me to increase my skills and I have gained a lot of knowledge. HITL gives lots of opportunities to people, especially young women, to start their careers!

Ghazaleh Alhabib. 21 year old from Iran

 Currently I am working in HITL as a full time Project Specialist. I started as an annotator and then applied for the Project Specialist Traineeship position which I finished a couple of months ago. Working in Humans in the Loop has given me the opportunity to grow and progress in my career. HITL helps women and young girls to improve their work skills and always welcomes young people. It is great to be a part of this amazing family! We’re happy to join an initiative like Decent Jobs for Youth that shares a common cause with HITL and promotes youth employment.

Yalda Alhabib, 18 years old from Iran

Humans in the Loop’s commitment will boost action and impact on two core areas of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth: Digital Skills for Youth, Youth in Fragile Situations and Gender Equality.

The Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Decent Jobs for Youth was launched in 2016 as a UN system-wide effort, focusing on the youth employment challenge that is central to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It has emerged as a global, multi-stakeholder initiative that brings together governments, social partners, the private sector, youth and civil society organizations, and others. They work together to share knowledge, leverage resources and take action at country and regional level, to support young people in accessing decent work and productive employment worldwide.

For more information, please contact:

Humans in the Loop, CEO, Iva Gumnishka I iva@humansintheloop.org

Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth I decentjobsforyouth@ilo.org