Local Solutions Can Build Scale Through Innovation

The Sandbox ecosystem works beyond incubation support and offers social entrepreneurs the necessary hand-holding to help them reach optimal scale. The idea is to support locally relevant entrepreneurship and technology innovations to reach maximum beneficiaries within the local communities.

The Ek Soch Sandbox in Varanasi held a session during the recent Development Dialogue to demonstrate how models that built solutions for local needs had succeeded in expanding and executing their ideas efficiently.

One case in point was Operation Asha, an initiative to ensure last mile delivery of Tuberculosis (TB) treatment in villages. Operation Asha is managed by Dr Shelly Batra who conceived the idea when she realized that despite the perception of Tuberculosis being a long gone threat, there were 20 million cases everywhere; with India having 30% of the TB population.

The core challenge in TB treatment, according to Dr Batra, was the cost and convenience of treatment delivery in villages. Not only was the treatment expensive for a villager, TB clinics were only open during daytime. This meant that daily wage laborers had to choose between being treated, or foregoing a day’s wages.

Operation Asha built a solution for this need through a bottom-up approach. The nonprofit built grassroot infrastructure through networks of people who were part of the beneficiary communities, to ensure last mile delivery of  medicines and services.

For technology, Operation Asha partnered with Microsoft Research to develop a technology to optimize execution of doorstep delivery of the services. Notably, the technology was developed in collaboration with the target beneficiaries of the program, such as slum dwellers, enabling it to be aligned with the needs on ground. Using innovations such as biometrics to track patients being treated and through regular follow-ups, Operation Asha became one of the biggest NGOs in the field, working currently in nearly eight countries.

The model of Operation Asha offers a replicable model for working with grassroot communities and building solutions that are focussed on a local need. It also offers a proof of concept approach for deploying technology efficiently to ease follow-up procedures, maximize scale and impact.