Socially responsible outsourcing is a movement to democratize access to jobs in the business process outsourcing and technology-enabled services sector spearheaded by NGOs, small outsourcing firms in poor countries (analogous to "producers" in the fair trade system), responsible business associations, and other concerned stakeholders.
Currently, several different definitions of "socially responsible outsourcing" exist.
1. Social outsourcing, promoted by the academic Richard Heeks:
Social outsourcing means the contracting out of goods or services to social enterprises. When used by government, it can be seen as a hybrid of the workfare outsourcing found in wage employment schemes, and the commercial outsourcing of government activities to the private sector.
2. The guiding principles approach, developed by Leila Chirayath Janah and Joy Sun of the NGO Samasource:
Socially responsible outsourcing encourages buyers to hire firms that meet any two of the following three criteria:
(1) Located in a poor or very poor region (in a developing economy, as defined by the International Monetary Fund or a poor region within an emerging economy )
(2) Micro-, small-, or mid-sized (employing between 1 and 249 people)
(3) Owned by, or employ a majority of, economically or socially disadvantaged people (including women, ethnic minorities, and inhabitants of economically depressed regions such as rural areas and slum communities.)