India

Sangeeta Chowdhry is Acumen Fund’s Ripple Effect manager. The India phase of  Ripple Effect included pilot programs by 5 organizations, the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation among them.

The Ripple Effect project presented the Jal Bhagirathi Foundation (JBF) in the Thar desert of Rajasthan with quite a challenge: Improve access to safe drinking water in the area in just 8 weeks. Not only did they meet this challenge but they went a step further - and added an additional goal – to create livelihood opportunities for women in the process!

The story of JBF is an inspiring one — as can be seen in this recent coverage on Indian television. For a start, the challenges addressed are not small. The project began in a region with highly saline ground water, rainfall of no more than 10-50 cm per year and temperatures of over 50C (over 110 degrees Fahrenheit) in summer. A few years ago, in an attempt to bring high quality, affordable water to the community, they had launched one reverse osmosis plant in Pachpadra village. While the plant was successful in providing safe drinking water at reasonable prices to customers who came to the plant, those customers had to walk around 2km to do so. JBF struggled to make it a sustainable business that reached larger numbers of people who could not travel the distance.

With the help of a small grant of $15,000 and business coaching provided by the Ripple Effect team, JBF created a viable water distribution business model that addressed these challenges. They established water outlets in villages that are managed and owned by women from local self-help groups (SHG), and also increased water sales from the plant itself.

Critical to the long-term impact of the Ripple Effect project, work was also done to make these advances sustainable. Work was done with JBF to understand the unit economics of the operation.  Once it was understood how much water needed to be sold per day, it became a matter of developing a strategy that would lead to multiple sales channels – wholesale to tankers and retail to individuals from the plant in addition to sales to and from the local outlets. Pricing models were then created to support this business plan.

This planning was essential but JBF’s commitment and enthusiasm was what really took this Pilot on to achieve results. In a span of the 8 short weeks of the Ripple Effect Pilot Project, JBF trained SHG members in business management; established four water outlets managed by the women entrepreneurs; improved the infrastructure of the treatment plant to fill a water tanker in 15 minutes instead of the typical 2 hours; created business plans for the main plant and the outlets and executed aggressive awareness campaigns in the village of benefits of safe water.

This careful planning, passion and commitment has reaped results that can serve as a viable delivery model in rural parts of India.  The water sale from the plant increased from an average of 2000 liters per day to 16,000 liters per day and the distance walked to fetch the water was reduced from 2 km to under 500m. Most significant, however, is that women operating the outlets are earning a living from their micro-enterprises and that, compared to a few short months before, thousands more people now have safe drinking water available.

Jal Bhagirathi Foundation has now turned over the running of the plant and it’s operations to the local village body, and is now planning to replicate the success of Pachpadra in 13 more villages in Rajasthan.

See more on this remarkable project here on local TV news.

Acumen Fund is excited to announce two new investments, both in the field of eye care. PVRI (Pushpagiri Vitreo Retina Institute) based outside Hyderabad, India, and UHEAL (Upper Hill Eye and Laster Centre), in Kenya, both focus on specific forms of preventable ocular damage.  With similar business models and parallel aims, through our investment in these complementary enterprises, Acumen Fund seeks to identify and and share best practices across continents, while building an effective model for delivering eye care to the poor.

Loss of eye sight has a tremendous economic and social impact on low-income families, eliminating the ability of at least one member to earn an income, and often requiring substantial assistance from at least one other family member. Its prevalence is in large measure a symptom of underlying challenges related to poor nutrition, lack of access to timely diagnostic screening, and the unavailability of appropriate treatment.

Using its flagship hospital in Secunderabad (near Hyderabad) as a hub, PVRI has provided outreach clinics, mobile screening units, and treatment camps in rural areas throughout the region, as well as in-house care to thousands. With the investment by the Acumen Fund, PVRI will be building two additional hospitals and corresponding expansion of outreach units. Gori Hari, CEO of PVRI, notes that the the expansion will allow PVRI to treat “450,000 patients through surgeries or procedures and screen a million patients over 10 years, as well as conduct 1800 camps to screen an additional 450,000 patients.”

Founded by Dr. Kibata Githeko, an opthalmologist specializing in pediatrics and retina care, UHEAL has operated mobile eye units throughout the region to counter long waits endemic in eye care. With Acumen Fund’s investment it will now be able to expand, operating fifteen camps a year, specifically to screen for diabetic retinopathy and to provide non-invasive and laser-based treatments, general eye examinations, as well as some follow-up care.

UHEAL and Acumen will experiment with different pricing models to find the right balance between financial sustainability and social impact, while PVRI will subsidize eye care to low-income communities by charging higher margins to high-income consumers.

The parallel investments will provide added value in the form of shared learnings. As Varun Sahni, the India Director for Acumen Fund has recently noted, “Having two investments with similar models for delivering advanced eye care to the poor creates a unique opportunity for collaboration, and we look forward to sharing best practices across geographies as we work to bring these solutions to scale.”

Award-winning investees: Acumen Fund entrepreneurs continue to be recognized for their work. The founders of D.Light Design were among Social Venture Network’s 2009 Innovation Award winners. And the entrepreneurs behind Books of Hope were recently named as Purpose Prize Fellows. Congratulations!

Investee interview: Listen to Sam Goldman of D. Light in his recent podcast for the Social Innovation Conversations series.

MBAs and social enterprise: This article in the Financial Times discusses how business school coursework is responding to the rise of social enterprise. Acumen Fund investee LifeSpring is mentioned and our own Yasmina Zaidman is quoted.

Patient capital around the world: The concept of patient capital is gaining traction globally, as in this coverage in Gulf News of CEO Jacqueline Novogratz’s recent visit to Dubai and this LiveMint article from India.

If you haven’t voted in the People’s Design Award competition sponsored by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, the clock is ticking!

Acumen Fund investee D.Light Design is a nominee.

You can cast your vote HERE. Hurry - you have until 6 pm EST today to get your vote in!

UPDATE: As of 9:45 AM EST, D.Light Kiran was in FOURTH place (out of 196). Do submit your vote and push D.Light to the top!

Acumen Fund is seeking talented, passionate individuals for a few open positions. Complete job descriptions in PDF form can be found on the Work with Acumen page of the website.

The Manager of Portfolio Performance Management will directly oversee Acumen Fund’s post-investment management processes, from assessing the needs of our portfolio companies to designing the most appropriate strategy considering available best-practices and our unique market in addition. The Manager will also be expected to build a successful performance management capability in a fast-changing and entrepreneurial environment. Our ideal candidate is not only deeply committed to our mission and business model but equipped with 8-10 years of work experience in management consulting, private equity, venture capital, start up businesses, or a related area. This is a global role which will require the hire be based in one of our global offices and travel frequently to our investment regions.

The East Africa Portfolio Manager will be directly responsible for managing current investments in the Water and Sanitation portfolio in East Africa and developing future investments in the sector. S/he will also manage compliance and operations of the Acumen Fund East Africa office. S/he will be expected to play a significant role globally, helping to build on the existing water and sanitation expertise in the organization. Our ideal candidate is not only deeply committed to our mission and business model but equipped with 7 – 10 years of principal investing experience in the water sector.

The India Portfolio Manager will be directly responsible for (1) managing the healthcare portfolio in India, including current investments and the development of future investments in the sector and (2) managing compliance and operations of the Acumen Fund India office. S/he will also be expected to play a significant role globally, helping to build on the existing healthcare expertise in the organization. Our ideal candidate is not only deeply committed to our mission and business model but equipped with 7 – 10 years of principal investing experience in the healthcare sector.

If you or someone you know is interested in these positions, please visit the site to learn more.

Global Easy Water Products (GEWP), an Acumen Fund investee in our Agriculture Portfolio in India, is currently recruiting a qualified Corporate Strategy Intern to help the company build a new 5-year business plan and financial model. This is an exciting opportunity to work directly with the Managing Director and Board of Directors of the company to shape its future direction.

GEWP is the exclusive distibutor for KB Drip, a line of micro-irrigation products that drastically increase yields and incomes for small farmers, as well as reduce water and energy consumption by 30-70%. The company currently distributes through over 600 dealers in seven states in India, as well as exports across Asia, Africa and Latin America. GEWP has witnesses remarkable growth over the past two years and has proven that enterprises can operate profitably, while having a tremendous impact on poverty. The company is, therefore, revising its 5-year business plan and financial model to account for new growth opportunities.

The intern would be based in Aurangabad and/or Hyderabad for a period of eight weeks. To apply: Check out this position description, and send a cover letter and CV to khill@acumenfund.org, with “Application for GEWP Corporate Strategy Intern” in the subject line.

Deepna Nandiga is currently a Business Development intern in Acumen Fund’s office in Hyderabad. She recently finished a masters degree in Anthropology from Columbia University, with a concentration in International Development. Previously, she worked with Accenture as a Business Consultant and also worked with Relief International, a humanitarian aid and development organization where her work was focused mainly on planning programs in public health, women’s education and microcredit in Darfur, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan. Prior to joining Acumen Fund, she worked for six months with Bhumi, a growing social enterprise with initiatives that target underprivileged communities in Hyderabad.

Rather recently, I found myself as guest in the home of Srinivas Yadav, a small holding sweet-orange farmer living in the Nalgonda District of Andhra Pradesh, an area located on the outskirts of Hyderabad. We ate rice and chicken curry off banana leafs on the floor of his home at lunchtime, which was truly royal treatment. Serving meat as part of a meal is quite an expensive undertaking for farmers like Srinivas, despite owning a substantial portion of land and receiving crop yields of up to ten tons per acre in good months.

I was flanked on either side by a senior professor from the Hyderabad Agriculture University, two government officials who work on subsidy schemes for farmers and a director of Safal, an organization that tries to provide a direct link between fruit and vegetable growers and consumers set up jointly by the Indian government and Mother Dairy Ltd. The purpose of the visit was for Acumen Fund to better understand the problems Indian farmers face and to look for opportunities for innovation in the highly inefficient producer-to-consumer agricultural supply chain. At one point in conversation with the professor from the Agriculture University, he mentioned the recently proposed government Right to Food Act. On further inquiry, he said, “Yes, in your country you have rights like the right to free speech and the right to bear arms and in our country we have the right to food for every person.” His words made a strong impact on me. The thought of having to guarantee something so basic to human survival and something I take for granted on a daily basis shifted my paradigms of freedom and human rights. Like many other experiences during my time here in India, it was quite the reality check.

Unlike the Constitution of the United States that protects mainly the infringement of civil rights, since its conception in 1950, the Indian Constitution ensures socio-economic freedoms as well. This is for good reason; the 2006 National Family Health Survey showed that the child under-nutrition rate in India is 46%, almost double that of sub-Saharan Africa, which is economically poorer than India (Source: India Development Blog) The Right to Food Act, which is currently under debate in the Indian Congress is the latest iteration of the government’s legislative attempt to end hunger.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi has made a strong pitch for providing the 35 kg of cereals at Rs.3 a kg that has been proposed under the new Act each month to the poor. The Food Security Act has also received a thumbs-up from Nobel Laureate and economist Amartya Sen, famous for his human-development centered approach to solving problems of poverty. The current debate focuses on the terms of the Act and on defining the threshold of the below poverty line (BPL) population. By one committee estimation, 77% of the Indian population or 836 million people are not able to spend more than Rs. 20 a day, which will not buy more than two square meals per day. (Source: Deccan Chronicle). Ironically, often those facing hunger are the farmers themselves. Lately, every news report I watch mentions the dire state of farmers due to the unusually dry weather of the last few months over the Indian plains. I’ve learned however, that weather is not the only limiting factor in farmers’ inability to provide for themselves. An estimated 200,000 farmers have committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh over the last 15 years.

India’s hunger problem more than anything else, lies in inefficient distribution. In fact, India is the third largest agriculture producer in the world, following China and the United States. As I witnessed at Srinivas Yadav’s farm, lack of access to markets, transport inability, a lack of cold storage options and a number of other reasons relating to supply chain inefficiencies are to blame.

In spite of these bleak statistics, the day’s conversations on the farm left me feeling optimistic. It was an example of the times I get most excited about my work here. Acumen Fund is finding innovative market solutions in places where government policy and humanitarian aid falter. I was reminded of Acumen Fund’s unique place in not only encouraging creative new business models, but also in impacting legislative and human rights imperatives in meaningful ways. My belief in the need for Acumen Fund’s work (and for smart solutions in sectors like agriculture and nutrition) in countries like India was re-affirmed. It’s heartening to be a part of an organization like this that is working to fill this vital gap.

Acumen Fund India is seeking a new Portfolio Manager to support our health work. The PDF version of the job description can be found here: India Portfolio Manager or on the Work with Acumen page.

The India Portfolio Manager will be directly responsible for (1) managing the healthcare portfolio in India, including current investments and the development of future investments in the sector and (2) managing compliance and operations of the Acumen Fund India office. S/he will also be expected to play a significant role globally, helping to build on the existing healthcare expertise in the organization.

Our ideal candidate is not only deeply committed to our mission and business model but equipped with 7 – 10 years of principal investing experience in the healthcare sector.

If you or someone you know is interested in the position, please visit the site to learn more.

Does the vision of serving the low income segment of society extend beyond the investors and CEO of a social enterprise?

In my opinion, only an affirmative answer to this question will ensure that the vision of serving the poor is fulfilled (however long it may take…).  Watch what the team of doctors running AyurSEVA Hospitals has to say about their vision and motivation to work for this organization.

Geetika Agrawal is pursuing her MBA at the Stern School of Business at New York University, specializing in Finance and Social Impact & Innovation. She is currently a Summer Associate at the Acumen Fund India office, where her focus is on building out the Agriculture portfolio and consuming as many mangoes as possible. She holds a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University.

The agriculture industry employs 60 percent of the Indian labor force, according to the CIA World Factbook. The backbone of this sector is the small holder farmer, those living off less than five acres and earning on average about 160 INR per person per day (approx $3 USD). While the Green Revolution increased the productivity of the farming sector and helped alleviate some hunger issues in the country, it did little to increase the livelihoods of the farmers.

In fact, within the fruit and vegetable sector today, there is a post-harvest wastage of 20-40% due to many factors: a lack of storage facilities, poor transportation logistics, a complicated web of middlemen, a dearth of quality controls and other critical supply chain inefficiencies.  This means farmers are often unable to fully realize the value of their crops. These issues in the agriculture sector are further thrown into relief by the fact that while India is the second most productive country in the world when it comes to produce variety, quality, and quantity, its total fruit production represents 8% of the world market share and its vegetable production equals only 15%. Illustrating where the inefficiencies hurt India, the Netherlands imports mangoes from Chile, at half the price, despite the fact that Chile is twice as far away.

On the bright side, supply chain inefficiencies and a demand for innovation regarding sourcing are a cries for help - and for creative business models. With these motivations, the Acumen Fund India team has started to build out a strategy and pipeline for investments in the agriculture industry. As a Summer Associate, my first task is to build a detailed case for Acumen’s involvement in the fruit and vegetable market. After a week of office ramp-up (i.e., numerous hours of quality time with the computer), it was time to get on the ground and understand how the kilos of mangoes I’d be consuming since I arrived in India actually got from the small market to my plate.

I jumped into an autorickshaw and headed to Rythu Bazaar in Hyderabad, a government supported market that allows farmers to sell directly to the customer. These bazaars are still relatively new, created to cut through the complicated set of middle men who would eat away profits through commission and price gouging.

My trip to Rythu was a unique opportunity to converse with the farmers and understand better their daily activities. They were open and eager to share their different methods of getting their produce to market.  I was also incredibly humbled to see how hard each of them works. One farmer, selling a variety of greens, described how he starts his day at 4 AM, first harvesting and then bundling the 500 bunches of greens he brings into market. He then carries the large sacks of greens on the back of his motorcycle two to three hours to bring them from his farm to the mundi.

Other farmers bring their produce by local bus, or they rent autos. On a good day, the “greens” farmer – like many others – will have leftovers which either go to hotels or wholesalers at mass discounts or simply get dumped, due to lack of cold storage.  The fact that this food often just goes to waste is tragic considering the high rate of malnutrition in India - especially in many of the surrounding villages. Storage is limited to cheap tarps and large leaves, leaving a day or less before produce spoils in the heat and humidity of monsoon-season Hyderabad.

When pressed on whether they would prefer cold storage however, many of the farmers shook their heads and simply said “No, madam, who wants to sell old vegetables? That’s not how it’s done.” After reading report after report on how important cold storage was and then hearing their stories, this was a good reminder of the difference between understanding needs and wants.

After a little while in the mundi, I had accumulated a little entourage of young farmers who would take me from one friend’s stand to another.  I was handed samples of mangoes, posed for pictures and they answered my questions before I even asked, since they had memorized them.  Then the tables turned and I was grilled on my life in Hyderabad, what I thought of being here, and most importantly, more details on my iPhone, which I was using to take pictures. I left feeling re-energized and committed to helping these entrepreneurial, energetic people find a way to reap more of the fruits of their labor.

The field trip was also an important reminder of how important it is to reconnect with the client, and how much knowledge can be lost if you just spend time behind the desk. It is also clear to me that we have a long road ahead of us as we seek to make an impact in this space - but it is one that won’t be without its rewards.

This post was originally posted on the Ripple Effect blog by Acumen Fund’s Sangeeta Chowdry - Ripple Effect Project Manager.

Ripple Effect team presenting at the conference

The Ripple Effect team marked the end of the successful India phase of the project by attending and presenting at the recently concluded Water Summit 2009 conference held in New Delhi.

The summit had an excellent turnout with over 150 attendees and speakers representing multiple stakeholders from the water sector in India. These included senior representatives from the Government of India, NGOs, World Economic Forum, UNDP, USAID, SDC, private sector, as well as various State Water Boards and financial institutions.

An introduction to the Ripple Effect project was made by Acumen Fund and IDEO, followed by presentations from four of the organizations running the pilot projects – Jal Bhagirathi Foundation, Naandi Foundation, Piramal Foundation and Water Health India.

All the presentations were very well received by the attendees, who also provided valuable feedback to us. In particular, the technology based work of Piramal and Naandi was complimented by several members of the audience. It was mentioned that while similar ideas had been implemented elsewhere, (eg. by Mother Dairy in India), this approach had not been tested in the water sector until now. One audience member commented that successful projects like they had seen within the Ripple Effect, should be linked to the public sector through policy interventions, in order to reach even greater scale. Yet another, from an international NGO, suggested starting a Ripple Effect like project in sanitation.

Jal Bhagirathi water outlet

During the pilot presentations, Jal Bhagirathi spoke of the successes it had achieved through their public-private-community partnerships model. Their reverse osmosis plant was now selling water to newly established remote water outlets, owned and managed by the community members. The project resulted in improved availability of safe drinking water while providing opportunities for livelihood generation for the women in the village. As a result of this project, the volume of water sold from their reverse osmosis plant, had increased from an average 2000 liters a day to 12,000 liters per day. The location of the outlets had resulted in reducing the distance of access to water from 2 km to under 0.5 km for the community.

This post was originally posted on the Ripple Effect blog by Acumen Fund’s Sangeeta Chowdry - Ripple Effect Project Manager.

At the edges of the Thar desert in Rajasthan, in the region of Marwar -The Land of Death- Jal Bhagirathi Foundation, a Ripple Effect pilot awardee, has been working to bring water security to village communities. This is no small challenge in a region where the average annual rainfall is a mere 100-500mm and the water table is declining at a rate of 1-2 meters a year. The focus of communities here is to get access to any water at all – let alone safe water. It is in this environment that JBF has, amongst other water harvesting initiatives, been running a reverse-osmosis treatment plant in Pachpadra, about 100 km from Jodhpur.

Ripple Effect and JBF have been working together to develop a sustainable business model to extend access to safe drinking water to households located at a distance from the RO plant. This model not only aims to meet the water needs of these communities but also to provide a source of empowerment through livelihood provision to the members of local self-help groups.

The model that is being operationalized has water from the reverse-osmosis plant delivered to several distribution outlets run by members of the local self-help group where it is then sold on to other households. By reaching both wholesale and retail users, the output of the plant is being tripled and local incomes increased. The careful and collaborative business planning that went into the model has enhanced its potential for viability and sustainability – costs of operations have been carefully determined; a break-even analysis has been performed; and a tiered pricing strategy implemented.

Planning can, however, only go so far. Critical to the success of this model is the buy-in of the community – water quality was not previously seen as a high priority – and a powerful awareness-raising and marketing campaign was essential. In this area JBF’s passionate work made all the difference. In a few short weeks multiple meetings and discussions were held with self-help groups; market surveys of hundreds of households were completed; individuals selected and trained to run outlets; many hours of physical labour dedicated to gearing the plant to handle the up-scaled operations; and multiple community awareness activities have been undertaken and will continue. It has been most heartening to watch the skeptical village Sarpanch, turn into the foremost champion of the project and lead a rally through the village to announce the work! The local media too has picked up on the work being done and has publicized this swaach (safe) water initiative.

It has been truly remarkable to have been on this journey with JBF and to see the synergies from effective public, private, community partnership. At the time of writing this, the demand of the water at the outlets has already reached twice the initial target!