Platform Building in the Development Sector

Spending the first two years of my professional career in building platforms to scale development sector solutions in India has been nothing short of fascinating. I’ve had the time and opportunity to look into complex societal challenges and re-design solutions that would create sustainable change in the future. Below are some of my learnings and experiences. Please note these are not exhaustive and are my personal opinions.

Scale: A hard pill to swallow

Understanding ‘scale’ and implementing ‘scale’ are the most under-developed and under-appreciated topics in the development sector. ‘Scaling up’ in the NGO space is the most dreaded by organizations and in my experience, it is always met with skepticism and disinterest.

Scale is misinterpreted in this sector and usually consists of uprooting a solution that is working in a particular context and placing it elsewhere and willing it to work. An example I have seen is one wherein organization ‘A’ spends 50 crores in building toilets in a district in rural Karnataka to support the Swach Bharat Mission. Over a year, the people of that district use those toilets and the district is declared ODF (Open Defecation Free). Organization ‘A’ sees this as a great success, which it is, and scales this similar project to another area in a district in rural Rajasthan. They build another 50 Crore worth of toilets because it is seen as a viable solution. However, in Rajasthan, only 50% of people are using the toilets and they are primarily men. On further inquisition for such a stark contrast in demographics, the ideation of scale becomes evident. Rajasthan is primarily a patriarchal society and in this particular district, women are responsible for fetching water every day. The only other time they are societally acceptable to be seen out of the house is to use the toilet wherein now organization ‘A’, has just spent 50 crore building toilets. Turns out, women in these areas much preferred openly defecating as it gave them a chance to socialize with other women and be outside of the house for longer periods of time (they would walk together to the open fields, chat and take a little extra time in order to catch up with the other women). A once functioning scalable solution is and will not work in this context.

You cannot distribute solutions to solve large complex problems, you can, however, distribute the ability to solve.

No Government, No Solution

Any large-scale complex problem cannot be solved without the help of the government. The government, especially the Government of India, is unmatched in its ability to reach every single citizen of the country. No big NGO, organization, or even the most recent big CSR spenders will reach the level of intricacy, and depth the government is able to do on a daily basis.

This is not to say that governments are well-oiled efficient organizations but rather, because of its large functionaries and vast network of actors, it becomes a very key player in solving large-scale societal problems. The arguments of bypassing the government due to its inefficiency, bureaucracy, and large amounts of red tape are naive at best when we are trying to solve problems of this magnitude.

A Few Key Principles to Building Platforms

Imagine a space wherein shared knowledge, data & skills can be found to create solutions for its own context. A place wherein knowledge can be democratized and shared with the right people at the right time. A place where an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, and a funding organization can all use relevant, timely, transparent, and verifiable information to make decisions and move their goals forward while at the same time leave behind their solutions, artifacts, data for the next set to use and re-imagine. Creating that requires a few key principles wherein any solution or infrastructure built is primarily to distribute the ability to solve and democratize working knowledge.

Principle 1: Creating re-usable infrastructure that are transaprent & verfied.

Every organization when they begin a new program almost inevitably starts from scratch. This can be by either doing a baseline study of the area of work or collecting data on a particular demographic. For some regions in India, multiple organizations might have collected data, created cadres of professionals, and even conducted a baseline study. These aspects are rarely used by any other organization that operates in the same community or neighboring communities and one of the key reasons is the lack of verifiability and transparency. Our ability to create a usable common infrastructure that is transparent and verifiable will help us outpace the problems and create solutions that are sustainable and reusable in the future.

Principle 2: First Mile Thinking

Solutions tend to be thought from top-down wherein the implementing organization is often leading the change in their location of work. Often, this is misguided as the communities of interest do not take an active hand in solving their own problems. Sometimes, the problems that are being addressed are completely different from what the actual root of the problem is. Solutions must be sought using the community knowledge and most importantly, must be able to leverage and strengthen the agency of the communities. The ability of the community to effectively access relevant expertise and knowledge alongside its agency to adapt to evolving circumstances are key to solving large-scale societal problems.

Principle 3: Platforms that empower

With technology so readily available and accessible, building platforms that empower and foster agency are critical for us to solve large-scale societal problems. Designing for data empowerment, privacy & transparency into these platforms will create an environment wherein it pays to follow these key principles. Such platforms will allow for solutions to be built on top of each other, foster collaboration, and leave behind key resources and knowledge that can democratize our ability to solve and achieve non-linear outcomes of scale.

All thoughts above are learnings and reflections from my time working at Socion Advisors under the mentorship of the leadership team.