SMS Maama

PATIENT IDENTIFICATION CHALLENGE; UGANDA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Automated text messaging service for pregnant women to screen for potential complications.

Learn more about the Patient Identification Challenge and why identifying individuals in need of medical treatment and finding ways to make that treatment accessible reduces poverty.  

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Approximately 1 in 44 women in Uganda will die from pregnancy related complications throughout their lifetimes. SMS Maama is an automated text messaging service for pregnant women in Uganda that harnesses mobile technology to send health information and screen for these potential pregnancy related complications before they become more serious. As an organization, we believe every woman has the right to information and the right to receive respectful maternity care. By providing access to this necessary health information, SMS Maama works to empower women and serve as a modern addition to pregnancy healthcare in Uganda.

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

FOUNDING TEAM

Katelyn Pastick - Founder

Nicole Stephens - Founder

Meg Burman - Founder

Sonja Ausen-Anifrani - Founder

Access to Education

FLIPPED CLASSROOM CHALLENGE

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Flipped classroom. 

Learn more about the Flipped Classroom Challenge and why new education models, like flipping the classroom or deskilling a class curriculum, offer a solution to the vast teacher shortages in the developing world.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Access to Education (A2e) is an online educational platform that ensures remote areas students access to quality instructive videos and live classes, complementary to their academic curriculum that is facilitated by trained instructors through a multimedia classroom set up in each partner school. It is working to create a bridge between privileged and deprived students where former one will be able to share their learning experience with later one and synergize the power of education to break all barriers.

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Ayesha Meem - Co-Founder

Mostofa Sadab - Co-Founder

Samiha Nusrat - Co-Founder

Pardafas!

TRANSPARENCY CHALLENGE; NEPAL

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Online accountability tool that aims to fuel the national fight against corruption. 

Learn more about the Transparency Challenge and how citizen reporting platforms can be used to hold government officials accountable and reduce corruption.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Pardafas will be the counry's biggest effort to-date to map out corruption in order to create and distribute easy-to-use and people friendly, data-driven narrative to wage anti-corruption campaigns.  By going back through the archives of Nepal's top national daily newspapers, we will collect and code the data on federal-level corruption.

In three months, the team will produce a preliminary data on corruption levels in federal institutions and hope to use the data to reach out to at least 70,000 Nepalis. Within a year, they hope to mobilize at least 500,000 Nepalis to further enhance the data. Together with activists and anti-corruption organizations, Pardafas will use the data to unite people in fighting against rampant corruption at the federal level. The team will measure their success by the number of corruption cases filed in court from the campaign and the number of cases won in court. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 70,000 people during the pilot
• Reach 500,000 people by the end of year 1

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Subhash Ghimire - Founder, Director

Kritikal Lamsal - Head of Research and Public Mobilizer Team

Prem Lamichhane - Head of Technical Team

Angel Sharma - Head of Administrative Team

Alina Ghimire - Memnber of Research Team

Peach Health Technologies

MATERNAL HEALTH CHALLENGE; GHANA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Misoprostol tablets. 

Learn more about the Maternal Health Challenge and how the distribution of Misoprostol, a $3 drug that can prevent maternal deaths from postpartum hemorrhage, could save thousands of lives.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

In Ghana, the maternal mortality rate stands at 322 deaths for every 100,000 live births. Excessive bleeding after childbirth, known as postpartum hemorrhage, accounts for 25 percent of deaths. Excessive bleeding can be controlled if birth attendants are given the right training and access to medications like misoprostol. 

Peach Health Technologies has developed a step-by-step solution to address the problem. First, they will create an electronic version of a misoprostol administering training guide on a mobile application called Peach. Peach is a mobile electronic medical records system with meaningful use designed specifically for developing countries. Community Health Officers (CHOs) in Ghana use Peach to collect patient information and follow-up with expectant mothers. CHOs who work with Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) will watch the training video to learn how to properly administer misoprostol. After CHOs have gone through their virtual training, they will each train a minimum of 5 TBAs in their district using the virtual program on their phones. CHOs will supply the TBAs with misoprostil and monitor its use. By using mobile phones, they will significantly reduce the cost of training and easily scale to reach every CHO with a phone. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Train 70 CHOs during the pilot 
• Train 350 TBAs during the pilot 
• Make 1,500 misoprostol tablets available during the pilot 
• Serve 300 expectant mothers during the pilot 

FOUNDING TEAM

Cobby Amoah - Co-Founder and CEO

Kwame Akpalu - Software Developer 

Humphrey Kanyoke - Business Development Manager 

Caleb Oppong Wiafe - Pharmacist 

Charles Kunene - Co-Founder and Product Designer 

Empower Generation

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE: NEPAL, MYANMAR

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar Lamps. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Empower Generation is a social enterprise that creates clean energy distribution networks consisting of women-led businesses that reach last-mile populations. Empower Generation provides women with the training, start-up inventory, mentoring, and long-term support they need to run a successful clean energy business.

Using an innovative, market-based and capacity-building approach, they build a network that sustainably distributes clean energy and brings economic opportunities to isolated and underserved communities. The key innovation is mentoring rural women to become solar CEOs and own their own businesses. Empower Generation’s CEO network improves health and increases education for their children, creates local jobs for rural and peri-urban communities, and contributes to a shifting role of women in society.

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Distribute 300 solar systems during the pilot
• Install 15 solar home systems during the pilot 
• Reach 2,560 individuals by the end of 6 months 
• Recruit 20 sales agents by the end of the pilot 
• Recruit 50 sales agents by the end of year 1 
• Distribute 1,500 solar lamps by the end of year 1 

FOUNDING TEAM

Anya Cherneff - Co-Founder and Executive Director

Chloe Chapman - Director of Operations

Sita Adhikari - Country Director

Please Disturb the Driver!

TRANSPARENCY CHALLENGE; MEXICO

Please Disturb the Driver! was founded by Miguel Torhton, Mexican citizen and Master in Public Policy graduate from The George Washington University. This new social venture will distribute a low cost intervention in the public transport in Mexico City to reduce the number of road accidents. Following the experiences in other countries, this intervention will encourage passengers to speak up to induce social pressure on the driver. The project aims to reach more than half million passengers per day within three months and hopes to transform public transport culture in Mexico by expanding this initiative to the largest cities in the country.

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Stickers displayed in public buses encouraging the public to stand up to reckless driving. This will reduce the number of traffic accidents caused by buses. 

Learn more about the Transparency Challenge and how citizen reporting platforms can be used to hold government officials accountable and reduce corruption.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

The intervention distributed by Please Disturb the Driver! (PDD) is based on posting evocative messages throughout the public transport (bus) system in Mexico City to encourage passengers to speak up against different forms of reckless driving. Their mission is to empower as many passengers as possible to speak up to reduce traffic accidents. This social experiment has proved successful in Kenya, where it significantly reduced the number of road accidents in the public transport system. 

During the planning phase of the pilot, PDD will partner with insurance companies, public transport offices, public transport unions, and innovation agencies within the Mexico City Government to distribute the messages. They will craft messages in focus groups to define the most evocative messages for Mexican culture and language. Four visible stickers with the best messaging will be installed within the treatment group of buses (a control group of buses will be used to measure effectiveness of the campaign). Communication with the bus drivers will be face-to-face. Interns working with the project will check on the quality of the stickers at the end of each day with one bus and bus driver winning a prize. After 8 to 12 months, it will be possible for the PDD team to measure the reduction in traffic accidents between the treatment and control bus groups. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Have stickers in 1,360 buses by the end of year 1 
• Have stickers in 2,600 buses by the end of year 2 
• Reach 590,000 passengers per day during the pilot phase 

FOUNDING TEAM

Miguel Angel Torhton - Founder and Program Coordinator

Pay2Educate

SCHOLARSHIP CHALLENGE; INDIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Education scholarships. 

Learn more about our current distribution challenges and why we focus on interventions that are proven to impact lives.  

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Pay2Educate aims to provide better means for the education of young girls in India. It has created a simple platform that links donors to schools, creating scholarships for underprivileged females. Pay2Educate will begin operations in Bombay and will expand to more cities in the future. In three months, the organization will raise $5,500 for female education. Using this money, schools will create their own scholarships to provide tuition, supplies, and boarding when applicable for students. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Support the education of 100 girls during the pilot
• Create 1,000 new scholarships for female students by the end of year 1 
• Support the education of 1,250 girls by the end of year 2 

FOUNDING TEAM

Naureen Singh - Co-Founder, Finance Lead

Milinda Bhopatkar - Co-Founder, Partnerships Lead

Easy Solar

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; SIERRA LEONE

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar lamps. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Easy Solar provides pay-as-you-go solar-powered lighting and charging systems to people with no electricity access in Sierra Leone and Liberia. Easy Solar’s vision is to make energy, financial services and life improving products, affordable and accessible for all. They offer a range of products including solar lanterns, home lighting systems, appliances and cookstoves on affordable financing plans. All of their products are of the highest quality and come with a two-year warranty. Easy Solar is a social enterprise, which employs over 500 people to date, selling its products in Sierra Leone and Liberia. In these two West African countries, Easy Solar has installed solar devices in over 50,000 homes, providing access to electricity to more than 450,000 people. The company’s efforts have been recognized by the Schwab Foundation, which awarded Easy Solar the Outstanding Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2019).

Co-Founder Nthabiseng Mosia made the Forbes Africa 30 Under 30 list in 2019, in the category of “game-changers” in technology. She says, “We started as an energy company but four years later, I now know what we really are, is a people company. Day by day, we are realizing more that our mission of ‘lighting up lives’ goes beyond providing access to energy. At Easy Solar, we care about and seek to make a positive impact with the people in our local communities.”

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Reach 800 customers within the pilot phase

• Create 5 jobs within the pilot phase

• Reach 1,400 customers at the end of year 1

• Create 24 jobs by the end of year 1

• Reach 10,000 customers by the end of year 2

• Create 50 jobs by the end of year 2

FOUNDING TEAM

• Nthabiseng Mosia - Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer

• Alexandre Tourre - Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

• Eric Silverman - Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer

 

Deevabits Green Energy

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; KENYA

PROVEN INNOVATION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar Lamps. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Kenya has a population of 44.4 million and 75% of Kenyan homes use kerosene lamps as a source of light. In rural areas, only 7% of the population has access to electricity, and these families spend 30% of annual income on inefficient sources of light like kerosene. Deevabits Green Energy will solve these problems by distributing solar lamps that are cost effective, provide up to 15 times more illumination than kerosene lamps, and pay for themselves in less than a year for most households.  Solar lamps will be distributed through a group of Village Solar Entrepreneurs, group composed of youth and women. 

Village Solar Entrepreneurs are empowered and supported by Deevabits Green Energy to establish micro-enterprises distributing solar lamps in villages. If a group cannot afford the solar lamps, Deevabits will provide them with a start pack of 10 solar lamps on credit, re-stocking the entrepreneurs upon full payment of the previous solar lamps. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Support 10 Village Solar Entrepreneurs during the pilot
• Sell or distribute 600 solar lamps during the pilot 
• Reach 600 households during the pilot 
• Support 70 Village Solar Entrepreneurs by year 1 
• Sell or distribute 15,900 solar lamps by year 1 
• Reach 15900 households by year 1 

FOUNDING TEAMS

David Wanjau - Founder

Solar Army Project

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; UGANDA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar lamps and other solar products will be distributed by an army youth sales agents to last mile markets. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

To begin, the organization will carefully select 20 youth (1/2 of which will be women) from rural areas in Eastern Uganda through collaboration with local authorities and other development partners in the energy space. Those selected will be trained and mentored through a three month process after which they will graduate with varying ranks depending on performance in the areas of sales, leadership, teamwork, reporting, and business acumen. The training program will retain the youth and supply them with products to retail in selected communities. Youth will be held to a sales quota of 2 sales per person per day; they will be expected to target making sales in open markets as well as through various organized groups common in rural areas. There will be weekly evaluations of performance and monthly mentoring and team building meetings. The setup will encourage competitiveness and cooperation to increase sales. Monthly one-on-one meetings will be held with supervisors and the solar army members as part of performance evaluation. 

The Solar Army will reach last mile clients by setting up distribution bases closer to the communities. These bases will provide logistical support, stock, strategic marketing support where bulk sales are possible, and after sales support. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Sell 1,200 solar units in quarter 1
• Employ 20 youths in quarter 1
• Reach 6,000 people who will benefit from solar energy in quarter 1
• Sell 12,000 solar units by the end of year 1
• Employ 60 youths by the end of year 2
• Establish three community based sales and service centers by the end of year 2

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Hamidah Naishur - Head of Operations 

Berabira Shamillah - Part time Book Keeper 

Adikini Gloria - Sales Agent and Team Leader 

Ivan Wanzala - Sales Agent, Eastern Uganda 

Okori Ignatius - ales Agent, Eastern Uganda 

Mother's Delivery Kit

MATERNAL HEALTH CHALLENGE; NIGERIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

The drug Misoprostol which will be distributed through trained Traditional Birth Attendants in rural communities. 

Learn more about the Maternal Health Challenge and how the distribution of Misoprostol, a $3 drug that can prevent maternal deaths from postpartum hemorrhage, could save thousands of lives.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Mother's Delivery Kit will provide a value added kit containing essential sterile supplies a woman and her birth attendant need to make childbirth safer and keep more women alive. The kit will include Misoprostol. Usual kits are only prepared to mitigate infection, not postpartum hemorrhage, and include a bundle of cotton wool, one antiseptic soap bar, delivery mat, methylated spirit, two pairs of sterile gloves, two cord clamps, mucus extractor, gauze, scalpel blades, disinfectant, maternity pads, infant receiver, and olive oil. Including Misoprostol will be cost effective because the team has connected directly with manufacturers who supply the drug at a discounted rate. 

Production and packaging of the kits with Misoprostol will take place at their production factory in Lagos, Nigeria. A medical team with considerable experience will train Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) on clean, safe, and hygienic deliveries as well as oh how to administer Misoprostol. Mother's Delivery Kit has already built a network of TBAs and will reach end users through this network. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Distribute 1,000 units of Misoprostol during the pilot 
• Reach 1,000 women during the pilot 
• Reach 3,000 women by the end of 6 months 
• Reach 6,000 women by year 1 
•  In the future, expand to neighboring states in Nigeria 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Adepeju Jaiyeoba - Founder 

PayGo Energy

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; KENYA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

A PayGo Energy device which couples onto any cylinder in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) ecosystem and leverages mobile money and machine to machine technology to deliver LPG on a pay-as-you-go basis. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is the de facto cooking fuel for developed nations because it is clean (50 times less polluting than charcoal) and affordable. However, BOP customers are traditionally financially excluded from LPG due to the high upfront cost and rigid payment system. The LPG supply chain and retailer hub infrastructure is already in place in Kenya and other countries to reach BOP customers but marketers and retailers need a smarter distribution model and product to reach urban and rural BOP customers and fit within their daily budget.

The PayGo Energy device delivers payment, location, and LPG usage data at the unit level through GSM technology. Partners receive critical insights into customer usage that helps them deploy their fleet more effectively. In urban areas, they are able to maintain their cylinder fleet within informal settlements through orchestrated refilling runs, combating illegal refilling and increasing customer retention. Within rural settings, where BOP customers do not have the benefit of a robust LPG retailer network,  location and consumption data will provide the insights necessary for a paradigm shift in distribution. 

PayGo Energy will partner with LPG marketers and overlay onto the existing LPG infrastructure. Due to the fragmented nature of the retailer and gas station LPG ecosystem, prioritizing marketer partnerships over retailer partnerships is a fundamental component of our strategy. The PayGo smart meter technology enables micro-asset financing and pay-as-you-go functionality that critically align with BoP customers’ variable income streams. The business model will be a service fee per transaction. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Fabricate 10 units during the pilot
• Install in 10 households during the pilot 
• Post 100 household PoM, team will seek Series A funding to build network capacity, reduce unit cost, and build full operations to handle up to >100,000 households with one or more marketer partners

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Nick Quintong - Co-Founder

Fausto Marcigot - Co-Founder

Laura Talsma - Co-Founder

M-Lesson

STUDENT TESTING CHALLENGE; KENYA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

A low-cost mobile tuition platform that measures and shares child, school, and regional current and projected academic performance. 

Learn more about the Student Testing Challenge and why student testing and public scorecards increase accountability in poor education systems. 

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

The Kenyan market has a present, distinct need for increased transparency and information around primary educational quality and performance. 

The key operational elements that will inform M-Lesson's success are technology, content generation, and management. The primary experience of M-Lesson's subscription-based product will take place entirely through SMS. A parent may subscribe to M-Lesson by sending a specific keyword to a registered shortcode. Following subscription, the parent will automatically receive one class subject multiple-choice question via SMS 6 times a week. They will be prompted to read the question to their child and ask them to select the letter representing the child's best answer. Once the response is received, an answer SMS is sent with the correct answer and an indicator if the child answered correctly or incorrectly. At the end of each week, the parent will receive an SMS informing them about their child's performance, ranks as compared to other students in the class and subject, and projected marks. They will receive another update at the end of each month. School managers, government and community leaders will be provided access to this information both through a web portal and through SMS. 

During the start-up phase, heavy in-person interaction with participating parents, schools, and education officials will be necessary to set up M-Lesson for local customer acquisition. The team will manually create school codes, collect student names and demographic information, and collect other information while building a customer base. If the pilot is successful, they will have enough information to invest in technological infrastructure development and build a more sophisticated web application and USSD user interface. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Partner with 25 schools across Nairobi during the pilot 

• Reach 2,000 unique customers during the pilot 

• Send 96,000 SMS questions sent by end of the pilot with a 75% response rate 

• Send 720,000 SMS questions by end of year one with an 85% response rate 

FOUNDING TEAM

Claire Mongeau - Chief Executive Officer 

Johannes Oula - Chief Operations Officer 

Vivian Awuor - Chief Experience Officer

Last Mile

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; TANZANIA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar lamps and other impact products and services to be distributed through a network of trained and respected local sales agents to improve access. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Last Mile is creating a strong distribution network of sales women which will be responsible for selling the products to various end consumers. They recruit and train sales agents to be both knowledgeable experts in the usage and benefits of the products as well as reliable and trusted resources in their communities. Sales agents are equipped with sales, health, and product knowledge through a comprehensive training program, as well as a basket of sample products and services which are based on proven local needs. Last Mile will begin with a limited number of products available to allow sales agents to develop their skills: AFRIpads, a brand of reusable sanitary pads; Virutubishi, a micro-nutrient powder supplement created specifically based on the average Tanzanian diet; iCHF, a government-matched health and medical insurance, and two solar products from the Greenlight Plant Sun King product line. 

A main office in the Moshi Municipal district of the Kilimanjaro region allows for easy access routes to consumers in urban, rural, and peri-urban wards. Training programs are hosted out of the office. Monthly refresher trainings are an opportunity for sales network to restock, learn about new products or sales strategies, and offer an environment for agent-run support meetings. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Train 25 high-performing sales agents during the pilot 
• Distribute over 500 quality, affordable solar lamps and other products during the pilot 
• Create over 4,000,000Tsh in local income during the pilot 
• Distribute 7,678 products by year 1 
• Impact 24,798 people by year 1 

FOUNDING TEAM

Liz McNeil - Managing Director

Nina Mairo - Sales Manager and Trainer 

 

SMS Care

PATIENT IDENTIFICATION CHALLENGE; UGANDA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

An SMS database management tool. 

Learn more about the Patient Identification Challenge and why identifying individuals in need of medical treatment and finding ways to make that treatment accessible reduces poverty.

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

A simple SMS database management tool allows SMS Care to identify underserved patients, connect them to their nearest provider, and manager their treatment through to discharge. While the service model will be tested with clubfoot in Uganda, the framework can easily scale to identify other diseases. 

Clubfoot is a commonly recognized condition within Uganda but people do not seek treatment due to a lack of knowledge of available care and apprehension of the associated costs. SMS Care tackles this apprehension through a public awareness campaign that directs parents and caregivers of children with clubfoot towards free assistance. By texting a free number, they enter the database and self-identify to a central coordinator. Their phone number then becomes their unique case identifier, allowing the team to track patient progress until discharge. Mobile money is also connected with this number to compensate the caregiver throughout the treatment cycle while care is provided through partnership with CURE Clubfoot, a leading iNGO establishing a network of clinics to deliver free care to treat this condition. 

Once an individual enters the system, the central coordinator calls to verify if they need assistance. If so, a trained health care practitioner (HPC) is dispatched for an in-person visit. If the condition is present, the HPC assigns the child to their nearest care clinic and updates their record to indicate progression. The caregiver is informed that mobile money will automatically credit their phone number to cover the cost of travel and time taken off work which is triggered by this progression through the system and the assigned clinic is told to expect a visit within the week. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Identify 100 patients during the pilot 
• Reach 100,000 parents of children between the ages of one and two through a public awareness campaign during the pilot 
• Establish a care partnership with CURE Clubfeet for clinic referrals during the pilot 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Ron Morrison - Manager, human-centered program design

Thomas Disley - Technology design and marketing strategy

Rimay

TRANSPARENCY CHALLENGE; ECUADOR

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

A crowd-sourced platform that allows people to rate government services. 

Learn more about the Transparency Challenge and how citizen reporting platforms can be used to hold government officials accountable and reduce corruption.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Rimay is a crowd-sourced review platform that allows citizens to rate public services, report irregularities and provide feedback for improvement. It will target all levels of services provided directly by the government or through partnership with private institutions. In order to create buy-in from citizens and authorities, Rimay would first seek to establish its services for local governments headed by mostly progressive, transparent bureaucracies. The pilot will take place at the municipal level in the city of Quito, Ecuador, initially focusing on assessing the improvement of public transportation services as a result of recent changes in policy. As use of the platform grows, the services available for rating and reporting will increase. 

At the end of the second year, Rimay expects to cover all major services availalbe in Quito and have a presence in four more cities in Ecuador. Successful implementation in Ecuador could further scale up the initiative to be replicated in other cities of Latin America and the developing world. 

At its launch, Rimay will conduct a public awareness campaign highlighting the shared responsibility among citizens, municipal authorities, and transportation unions in improving the provision of taxi and bus services using banners and promoters at four main bus stations. Rimay seeks to receive an endorsement from the local municipality to have access to their public information channels and leverage this reach to access large numbers of users of the transportation system. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Technical platform is developed and tested during first three months 
• Official approval from Quito municipality received during first three months 
• Pilot is implemented in month 4 
• 10,000 visits and 1,000 ratings received by month 6 after the pilot
• 50,000 visits and over 5,000 ratings received by year 2 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Francisco Mejia - Executive Director

Sauti East Africa

TRANSPARENCY CHALLENGE; UGANDA, KENYA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

An SMS-based platform for reporting corruption and harassment at East African border crossings. 

Learn more about the Transparency Challenge and how citizen reporting platforms can be used to hold government officials accountable and reduce corruption. 

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Informal cross-border trade is a major feature of African economies: it creates jobs, contributes to food and energy security, and alleviates poverty. Notably, women make up 70-80% of cross border traders and reinvest up to 90% of their income in their families and communities, making the income earned through these activities critical to their household, including the education and health of their children. Yet, small traders are particularly vulnerable to higher levels of harassment from border officials (customs, police, and immigration), including excessive charges, bribe extortion, impounding of goods, difficulties in obtaining passports and visas, sexual harassment, and gender-based violence. They are often unaware of their rights as traders, customs procedures and the required documentation - further exacerbated by an information asymmetry that prevents them from holding corrupt officials to account. 

Sauti means voice in Swahili. It is an sms-based advocacy, prevention, and response tool that uses crowd-sourced data to map incidents of harassment and bribery at border crossings across East Africa. Traders will be able to access a toll-free number that will send out both automated and tailored information on documentation, taxes and tariffs applicable to their products, as well as regular updates on any changes to border procedures. Sauti East Africa intends that all advocacy campaigns that utilize data gathered through the platform to be owned by the beneficiaries and organizations -- including the East African Sub Regional Support initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI) and the network of Cross-Border Trader Associations -- representing them. Rather than engaging directly in advocacy, Sauti East Africa wants to provide these partners with the right tools and data so they can drive these efforts themselves. 

The operational model for Sauti East Africa’s online platform is divided into three sections: Data Reporting which outlines how incidence reports will be collected, Presenting which describes how incidence reports will be aggregated and delivered, and Engaging which describes what services will be made available to users. After being revised following participatory feedback, the platform will be launched with an initial set of training workshops at each of the pilot border crossings. At each border crossing, EASSI will help to identify 50 champion traders who will participate in the training and educate other son how to use the platform. 

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• 3 borders targeted during the pilot

• 1,500 traders utilizing the SMS system during the pilot 

• 4 national and regional advocacy campaigns implemented using Sauti reports during pilot

• 9 Borders targeted by year 2 

• 5,000 traders utilizing the SMS system by year 2 

• 10,000 people viewing Sauti's data per month by year 2 

• 8 national and regional advocacy campaigns implemented using Sauti reports by year 2 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Julia Lipowiecka - Manager of partnership and advocacy  

Lance Hadley - Platform designer, web developmer

Diego Hakspiel - Manager of monitoring and evaluation

TextDirect

PATIENT IDENTIFICATION CHALLENGE; UGANDA

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

TextDirect will introduce an automated system that sends mobile phone text messages reminders to patients. 

Learn more about the Patient Identification Challenge and why identifying individuals in need of treatment suffering from health conditions such as obstetric fistula, cervical cancer, club foot, and cataracts which can be corrected with cost-effective interventions, could save lives. 

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Low adherence to antimalarial therapy jeopardizes the efficacy of treatment, leading to loss of productivity, higher mortality, and spread of the disease. By creating a mobile phone system through which health workers can register their patients for free reminders, we can scale this technology to clinics around the country. 

The project will operate in Uganda, the country with the third-highest malaria morality rate in the world, and will target patients receiving Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) which the World Health Organization recommends as the most effective treatment for malaria in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although the course of medication is fairly straightforward (typically three to four pills for three days), many patients fail to follow through due to perceived cure after the first dose. Inadequate use of ACT means that patients remain infected, increasing the risk of transmission to others while contributing to the appearance of drug resistant strains. 

Setting up the project will consist of two main phases: establishing the text message system and operationalizing the program. TextDirect will activate a toll-free number, set up a database with two primary tables (health workers and patients), collect contact and medical information of malaria patients, and disseminate short text reminders to patients at the time when they are supposed to take their ACT dosage. Health workers will be incentivized with phone credit to sign up patients.

 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Grow from 15 to 45 participating health workers during the 3 months of the pilot 
• Increase the number of patients receiving text massages from 150 to 1,150 during the pilot 
• By year 1, over 84,000 patients will receive text messages and 324 health workers will sign up new patients 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Shashank Iyer - Executive Director 

Nitsan Shakked - Chief Operating Officer 

Anudeep Yegireddi - Chief Technology Officer 

Siago Sanfelice - Chief Financial Officer

Sage

SOLAR LAMP CHALLENGE; SENEGAL

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Solar lamps and solar energy systems. 

Learn more about the Solar Lamp Challenge and how these lamps create enormous benefits for developing world families.

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Sage will use a scalable 12V solar energy system that delivers electricity via a PV panel, lithium ion battery, and USB connectors. The system has a 3-room light array and embedded pay-as-you-go technology allowing affordable monthly payments via mobile money. These systems meet the Lighting Global Quality Standards. Sage's intuitive pay-as-you-go platform allows customers to pay via mobile money, receive a numeric unlock code via SMS, and then enter that into a keypad on the system. Such innovation allows for efficient, secured payments in affordable increments. 

Sage will leverage solar hardware and user payment data to build data driven customer relationships and profiles that capture what people have, want, and can afford. Sage CRM will aggregate payment and usage data, sales agent survey data, and responses from SMS communication. Continuously tuned analytics will create credit scores, improve sales operations, and personalize promotions. 

PILOT AND SCALING GOALS

• Build out of branding / distribution in Senegal
• Onboarding and training of team of field agents
• Installation of approximately 400 solar home systems in rural Senegalese homes, generating monthly recurrent revenue of > $4,000 
• Development of customer Relationship Management (CRM) and payment automation software. 
• At 6 months, deploy 400 energy systems, 300 lighting packages, 100 TV packages
• At 6 months, reach 2,000 direct beneficiaries 

FOUNDING TEAM

Dan Murphy- Co-founder and CEO 

Matt Evans - Co-founder and President 

Kat Harrison - Director of Field Research and Operations 

Zero Violencia

CUSTOM CHALLENGE; PARAGUAY

PROVEN INTERVENTION TO BE DISTRIBUTED

Life skills programming for children. 

Learn more about the Custom Challenge and why we only fund ideas that focus on distributing proven poverty interventions. 

 

DISTRIBUTION MODEL INNOVATION

Statistics on violence in Paraguay are alarming. Studies have shown that 60% of children experience abuse at home, 20% of women are victims of domestic violence, and 70% of victims do not report the issue. Teachers report concerning levels of bullying and physical aggression even at elementary schools and one study has reported that 42% of violent episodes reported were related to sexual violence. These numbers do not capture long-term consequences of violent incidents like post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, depression, or violent behavior. 

Zero Violencia will develop a curriculum designed to foster WHO's 10 essential life skills: problem solving, critical thinking, effective communication, decision-making, creative thinking, interpersonal relationship skills, self-awareness building, empathy, and comping with stress and emotions. They will incorporate lessons that have successfully engaged youth in Paraguay in the past. 

Distribution will begin in Coronel Oviedo, a city of 110,000 people that has been ignored by NGOs despite extremely high poverty levels. Their distribution plan includes four steps: build local partnerships, recruit and train facilitators, launch programs, and conduct evaluation. 

 

PILOT and scaling GOALS

• Reach 800+ children during the pilot 

• Reach 1140 children by the end of year 1 

• Reach 2880 children by the end of year 2 

• Reach another 4320 younger children by the end of year 2 through associated tutoring and games for a total of 7200 students. 

 

FOUNDING TEAM

Estee Katcoff - Founder and CEO

Maria Martinez - Program Manager 

Genaro Cardozo - Community Organizer

Laura Lopez - Youth Organizer