Ayo Dooit!

Dooit is an innovative, open-source smartphone app for poor, deprived, unemployed young people in Indonesia to develop and practice good savings habits and employability skills, which prepare them for the future - to get jobs, build businesses and manage their income - and to break the intergenerational cycle of poverty.

Poor youth in Indonesia commonly lack skills, opportunities and networks to get jobs or build businesses. They do not save - thinking they can only save when they have more money and a regular job. Finance classes are theoretical, leaving youth ill-equipped to apply financial literacy to their personal lives. Without bank accounts, credit cards, or regular incomes, youth cannot use existing mobile financial  applications. They must strengthen 3 skills employers need from young employees - goal setting, problem solving and self discipline - and to pay expenses of job search, business start up, and further education for decent jobs.

As young people gain financial literacy and practice financial behaviors such as saving regularly - a combination known as financial capability - they will simultaneously develop at least 3 employability skills - goal setting, problem solving, and self-discipline. Research demonstrates that employability skills predict youth’s  employment and earnings, rivaling academic and technical skills (Kautz et al 2014), and financial capability improves future orientation and planning, key skills sought by employers. (YouthSave Consortium 2015; McKinsey 2012). Strengthening financial capability will help youth save for education, job search and business start up expenses and develop and reinforce requisite employability skills.

• Reach 15,000 youth aged 15-24 in urban/peri-urban areas by August 2018.

• Deploy through users’ internet-connected devices, and via (1) aggressive marketing campaign delivered through popular social media sites;   (2) promotion by school partners in West and East Java and South Sumatra; and (3) youth-led outreach campaign by “Dooit Ambassadors” in Save the Children project sites

• Outcomes:a) savings habits -- starting to save, saving regularly, and saving more; b) employability skills; and c) job placement rates; business start up rates.

• Services can be built on top of the Dooit platform, increasing impact. Examples: digital wallet, crowdfunding for entrepreneur

Track downloads in the Google Play Store and registrations through the application’s content management system - Reach: 15,000 users (60% female) by August 2018

Track in-app analyitcs

Through Save the Children’s Employability Skills Assessment Tool – to be delivered to users when they first sign up for the app

- Saving regularly: 60% of users report saving regularly

Employability skills acquisition: Users demonstrate improved employability skills

Through surveys when users first sign up and then several months later to measure changes in employment status (get a job, get a paid internship/apprenticeship, start a business, expand a business) - Employment/self employment status: Users get jobs and build businesses

Dooit is the only product on the market designed for financial behavior change in poor Indonesian youth  through behavioral nudges using smartphone notifications; and for youth who do not have an open and active financial account with at least 1 financial institution or regular income, which existing savings applications require and the majority of the most deprived youth do not have. It uses smartphones, because a majority of Indonesian youth - 80%+ in some areas - have mobile access, and smartphone penetration is expected to grow nationally across all age groups from 40% to 70% in the next 2 years

Dooit was designed with and for girls in the target market. We developed concepts addressing the youth employment challenge in Indonesia by analysing market research conducted by Save the Children and Girl Effect Mobile. We used a human-centered design approach to test ideas with girls and iterate the design with their feedback. All design elements (logo, color scheme, name) were chosen using polls to the Girl Effect Mobile youth network on social media. We continue to get feedback from users through social media accounts, Dooit Ambassadors, and Save the Children programs using Dooit in the classroom to support financial capability.

Indonesian youth are extraordinarily well connected, relying on smartphones and Internet for social networks, entertainment, and information. Smartphones provide a ready-made pathway for regular nudges to enable savings habit formation and reinforcement of employability skills via notifications.

Dooit is available free from the Google Play store. With SOLVE support, Dooit can be adapted for older versions of Android (Android 4.1 and below - pre 2013 operating system) and/or for web-based use for improved access by the most-marginalized who currently cannot access the application due to lack of devices or slow bandwidth

• Dooit, developed with partners Praekelt Foundation and Girl Effect Mobile, is managed by Save the Children and integrated into an ongoing project funded by Accenture, with support from Students Rebuild to use Dooit in school classrooms. Over next 3 months, develop a business plan to find the right partner to take Dooit forward in Indonesia, with revenue generation model feasible for a solution serving the most deprived to sustain  marketing and maintenance of the app; e.g. link with financial service partner to integrate a digital wallet.

• By expanding Dooit’s reach to youth with older smartphones and weak connectivity in remote areas, increase market for Dooit and attractiveness of the platform to partners, because the app develops behaviors attractive to financial services providers and skills that make  users more employable.

• Save the Children is pursuing funding to adapt this open source app and validate the concept in new contexts/countries

• Resources to maintain marketing campaign on social media  for scaling to areas beyond Save the Children’s face-to-face programming

• Resources to ensure frequent content updates to keep youth engaged and recency rates high

• Viable revenue models for sustainability-  limited ability to charge for services at sufficient level  before we hit sufficient scale, given that target market is most deprived and unemployed youth

• Unforeseen competition - to our knowledge we are the first mover in the market  for this segment, but that can change rapidly

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• Increase our capacity to develop and deploy digital solutions for youth employment

• Develop business operating models to support revenue generation and sustainability of the solutions

• Create partnerships with the financial sector to link Dooit to a digital wallet, or another financial product, that make the self-reporting savings against goals within Dooit a reality and helps youth become financially included

• Adapt Dooit for lower-end phones and weak connectivity

• Connect us to  relevant resources, experiences, and expertise from people and organizations beyond the nonprofit sector.  

Accenture, Students Rebuild, Praekelt Foundation, vocational schools in West Java and South Sumatra, West Java Provincial Education Office (of Ministry of Education), Entrepreneurs’ Association of Bandung (TDA)

Plan International, FHI 360, RTI, EDC, Mercy Corps, International Youth Foundation, CRS, BRAC, DAI,