Simple & Customized, a Novel Solution. 

If everything worked as planned, we won’t need policymakers. 

More often than we like, we see well-intentioned policies leading to little or negligible intended impact. It takes a lot of novel thought-process, research & administrative resources to try and implement a policy and yet, we fail to produce the desired impact in majority of cases. 

Much research has gone into proving that we need more specialised solutions for different population groups based on different characteristics like income, employment, gender among other factors. This is usually not a simple exercise, because more often than not, we are dealing with tons of inter-related factors to find an appropriate solution. Often, we either misinterpret or completely overlook the necessary determinant to the success or failure of a socially driven exercise. 

A case in point could be a research which was done to find a possible co-relation between education & income levels among population. The question was if giving out subsidised education to students can work towards increased attendance and lower drop out levels. The data showed strong correlation between disposable income & education levels among different population groups but a simple scheme to this effect hardly produced any desired impact. As it turned out, the real factor which led to higher education levels was not income, but the “education of mother” in a particular household. It was so observed that this particular factor(Mother’s education) was also the causal factor for higher income levels & hence a shift away from the initial "education subsidy" policy was required to bring about a significant impact in the medium to long run to impact literacy levels. [1]

Another example is the widely popular scheme of Microfinance which with its seemingly obvious benefits, failed to produce the desired impact because of a simple design flaw. While the primary idea of lending small sums of money to a large population had the potential to reduce underlying risk, the benefits were not as clearly observed as estimated. Money was lent to the vast majority of poor population without recognizing the end objective to which it would be used. As it turned out, a large share pf population was spending the borrowed money on subsistence activities like shelter, clothing & one-time expenditures like marriage or birth of a son which brought about little economic benefit in any time-span. This led to high default rates & far-reaching disastrous effects like increase in suicides, community troubles & decreased income levels. This is a sad example of a brilliant idea not reaching its intended potential due to a small design flaw & a one-size-fits-all approach. [2]

In recent years, private players & non-governmental organizations are playing a huge role in devising customized solutions in a much more practical way than what generic policies have done in the past. The inclusion of private players has brought about a fresh breeze of innovative solutions which has in turn encouraged more & more organizations catering to the specific needs of a unique population groups with different needs to be addressed.

 A very simple & elegant solution which can support this claim is the recent collaboration of a company named Grey Group, based out of Singapore with an NGO called “The Neelvasant Medical Foundation and Research Center” based out of India to distribute “iodine-coated bindis”** to rural Indian females. The “bindis”, are a sort of a religious and cosmetic enhancement applied on the forehead by women in India. As it turned out, the product was seamlessly absorbed by the rural females as an existing social practice. These bindis in-turn worked like iodine patches which provided the daily needs of iodine to the intended population. While this is still a new concept, it found huge success in its pilot form and is currently being heavily invested in to solve the iodine-deficiency among rural Indian women. [3]

This is just one example of the array of initiatives bringing about customary solutions in developmental areas but provides a glimpse of how a simple idea can bring about a huge impact. What remains to be seen is how many more such initiatives will we see in the coming future, and how many of those would be financially feasible. What is also an interesting question is what can policy makers do to invite more private players in this area. 

[1] Book: Mostly Harmless Econometrics:An Empiricist's Companion, Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke

[2] http://ssir.org/articles/entry/microfinance_misses_its_mark/

[3]http://thecommonstory.com/a-bindi-became-a-life-saving-initiative/

**Lack of Iodine could cause various severe and life threatening diseases to women such as breast cancer, brain damage and several pregnancy-related complications

A Match Made in Heaven

In the past decades, emerging markets achieved tremendous growth rates, resulting in rising attention and investments from all over the world. However, many global and local companies are still shy on grasping the substantial opportunities arising from this development. Others decided to take the bet but failed to achieve their full potential, often because of a mismatch between their offering and local needs. My years working for a consulting firm on Africa related topics confirmed this trend as I was faced with several clients who were aware of the Africa opportunity but saw the continent as a big scary spot on the map and didn’t know where or how to start looking into it. On the other hand, many research and analyses that I performed showed that the population is still struggling with day-to-day basic issues that could be addressed by those same companies. It felt like all the ingredients for a great match were available but the recipe was missing out or was at best very fuzzy.

Human-centered design might be the mean to close this loop. This simple and efficient approach caught my eye lately as it has been gaining momentum across various fields and industries. Through a collaborative and inclusive process, it uses insights from the community as a starting block to finding tailored solutions to specific needs. It is different as a problem-solving technique in its emphasis on the discovery and interpretation phases where people and their behaviors are thoroughly observed and distilled. This method is even more relevant in an emerging markets context where people tackle their problems with very simple solutions adapted to their reality and limited resources. Using human-centered design, these solutions can be more easily scaled-up and adapted to reach a larger target, more efficiently.

Quickly stepping back and thinking through this lens, coming myself from an emerging country, Morocco, my brain is already starting to make connections between observations and possible applications. For example, one thing that pops up to my mind is how groups of people use a system called “the Wheel” to save money and finance important expenses: Each month, all members contribute a fixed sum, the total of which is given to one of them based on a draw or an agreement. What if we could find inspiration in this system to improve the bancarization rate? Another system is how independent grocery shops created an informal network to enable people in different locations to buy items for each other: The buyer gives money for a certain item to the grocery shop manager who calls a fellow manager in the desired location asking him to deliver the requested item to the beneficiary. The managers will later balance their accounts through bank transfers. Can this idea help us rethink distribution strategies to easily reach a larger pool of people?

Modern alternatives to these traditional systems exist but the fact that the latter are still used means that needs are not served in the most efficient way. A bottom-up approach like human-centered design could be the missing link between those needs and the resources available in the world. Companies and other organizations can use it as a powerful tool to efficiently address any topic in any market. If adopted on a large scale, this could generate an exponential number of sustainable and efficient solutions that can drastically improve the life of billions of people. The next question is: How can we make that happen?

Don’t Use the Word “Charity” (4)

This article is an interview with Will Prochaska, the director of Alive & Kicking, an African social enterprise using sports, specifically, the manufacture of soccer (and other sport) balls to provide recreation and promote health knowledge amongst children as well as create jobs for adults in low income areas in Kenya and Zambia. In this interview conducted by Kerry Ann Eustice of the Guardian, Prochaska discusses his enterprise and the challenges he has faced in developing and growing his business, particularly when he is committed to fair pay for his employees and his competitors are not.

He has established a sustainable business by differentiating his product with the help of retail outlets in both Kenya and Zambia. His marketing strategy involves going into retail outlets and highlighting the low quality and poor labor conditions in the manufacturing of his competitors’ products in other countries. He compares this to his own manufacturing process, educating his potential customers about the benefits of a locally produced product.

This is a very interesting example, particularly as it relates to other aspiring social enterprises in their development and growth. As, Prochaska indicates, his business had particular difficulty in establishing themselves as an independent operation, free of outside support, while still providing a valuable social service. To overcome this difficulty, the mentality of the entire organization had to change, some of which was achieved through more ownership and responsibility by staff within each operation. He also provides some advice to other enterprises, recommending that everyone involved in the organization needs to understand the need for the business to operate independently, while making the case for avoiding unrealistic expectations inside and outside the company by overtly pushing the social mission.

What do you think about Alive & Kicking’s marketing model? Would it be effective (and sustainable) in other situations for other businesses? In addition, do you agree with Prochaska that it is necessary to push away from the charity (or social enterprise) label to be sustainable?