Innovation – The Pathway to Sustainable Impact

By Dr Sanjay Patra & Deepanwita De

What is Innovation?

Innovation by its definition is not sustainable, because innovation is only relevant till another innovation overrides it. To innovate is to disrupt and only when these two words are used together and acted upon, it becomes a continuous process towards being sustainable. These loaded words are now used daily in the business world, where big data, automation, Internet of Things, are used to leverage innovation. But when applied in the realm of social development, it acquires a different meaning. Social change or transformation of the society is a slow grueling process, where change doesn’t happen overnight. Which is why, measuring impact becomes the driver of social change.

On the contrary, business innovation and disruption are happening every day in plain sight, and impact is synonymous to scale. A classic example of such seemingly non-disruptive forces in business can be seen in the logistics industry. If we observe the trajectory of Dunzo to Blinkit and Zepto, or cab-aggregators in India – world has moved tremendously in the last 8-10 years. But as the economy races forward, developmental crisis are becoming more prominent. The incongruities of our society can be seen when our GDP is juxtaposed to the development indicators. Somehow, despite our collective growth in economy and technology, the disparities are growing each day, and it is becoming evidently clear that economic growth is not right way to measure development.

However, the most charged question is how and where is innovation for sustainable impact in the developmental discourse? While we try to find the answer to it, we should also be mindful that sustainability is susceptible to various external forces of nature, one of the classic example is the pandemic.

Pandemic was a natural disruptor and a fragility multiplier. And while it became a breeding ground for innovative action and business ideas, it exposed our vulnerabilities and pushed them towards a tipping point. Though there is enormous amount of data to speak about its cataclysmic effect, on the other hand there is substantial case studies to showcase how it fostered businesses to thrive.

There are ways to unpack this question, and here are three directions that one can take to embed innovation for sustainable impact.

Program innovation for scale

There is no dearth of such program case studies in India or around the world. One such programme innovation was the discovery of ORS by Dr Dilip Mahalanobis, also known as Doctor Babu, who saved over 50 million lives. During the Bangladeshi war of independence in 1971, millions of refugees in India suffered from dehydration and diarrhea due to the absence of clean drinking water. At the time, the only treatment for dehydration was expensive and complicated IV treatments. Dr Mahalanobis proposed testing a solution of sugar, salt, and water as a better alternative.

This solution, known as ORS (oral rehydration solution), was highly effective at rehydrating patients and has since been used worldwide to save lives, costing only 20 Rs over-the-counter and requiring no medical intervention. While the general argument would be to term it as a scientific innovation, the modality to implement and scale is something to learn from. The world is strewn with such examples, like Lanterns which use salt water to power, or a Standing wheelchair developed by IIT Madras.

Although, technology is a key driver here in such innovations, vis-a-vis a need for capital, the social sector itself has invested very little to connect the modes of technological advancement for promoting sustainable and scalable programs.

Innovation Labs for Sustainable Development

India’s social development growth story is synonymous with the mushrooming growth of the NGOs across the country. With approximately 3 million NGOs, with various registrations and method of functioning it includes a wide spectrum of non-governmental, quasi or semi governmental, voluntary or non-voluntary organisations. Within this kaleidoscopic spectrum, NGOs work as network or nodes, gathering data, information, know-how.

There are geographical network of NGOs, similarly thematic network such as Sanitation, Livelihood, Disability etc. While such cohorts are much needed and gives impetus on cross-learning, such networks lack collective action beyond a certain intervention. Historically we have seen collective action delivering solution, network-based action is a continuous process and therefore it is the responsibilities of the agencies involved to sustain the vigor and thereby promote innovation, despite the challenges of a coalition.

To rev-up the network capital of such groups, it is important to task them with innovation. Here it is important to draw our imagination again from the technological world. The modern day Hackathon was first organized in 1999, not in Silicon Valley, but in Alberta Canada, as a Hack-fest. Such hackathons were the breeding ground for innovative ideas to solve technological challenges, primarily designed for coders and programmers.

For more than 2 decades now Hackathons across the globe has become a place to bring young minds together to solve critical issues. Further, these young minds are incentivized and given the platform to work on their solution. However, come to think of it, we don’t have Hackathons for solving the water scarcity issue in Gurgaon, Bangalore. It is now time to create a hackathon for ‘social development innovation’, and these network are the best placed to start it off. These can become the innovation labs for sustainable development.

Capital

A large part of the work that has been mentioned earlier is dependent on capital. Capital to invest on Human Resources, on running programs, administration, etc. However, this is an idea that NGOs have little to do, instead they are relying on other donor agencies and corporates to fund programs. While RFP are how most donor agencies seek program innovation, there is very little investment in embedding catalytic innovation within organisations. Such support is the much needed foundation to bring in innovation, almost akin to seed capital for driving impact. However, to attract seed capital, yet again NGOs need to innovate. The cycle of innovation is to seek, act and disrupt.

Innovation should not be seen as a way of aggregating information. Innovation does not always adhere to processes, and should not be just limited to MIS, Website, Chat Box, CRM etc. these are tools to simplify work and not necessarily program innovation.

Before concluding, would like to touch upon Social Stock Exchange (SSE) which is although nascent, but is progressing fast to become one of the biggest social innovation undertaken by Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI). SSE will pave the way to benefit non-profit organsitions to diversify their funding base by trading in securities through Zero Coupon Zero Principal Bonds (ZCZP); Equity or debt securities; Social Venture Funds; Development Impact Bonds (DIB); and Mutual Funds. ZNZP and DIB are two key securities proposed to be allowed for meeting CSR obligations.

Recently SEBI granted approval for introducing SSE as a separate segment on BSE. What will come out of SSE is yet to analyze, but as NGOs, we should plan to cache this opportunity under the purview of the regulations and acts.