Confidence & Well-being

Is the true path to happiness taking responsibility, being positive and being in control of one’s life? Case Study 1 – Accessing Social Protection...

Creating Social Value

As experts in social value assessment of business models, we support various corporates to monitor the social performance and assess the impact of their initiatives.The idea of social value is distinct from CSR, and is way broader. Unlike CSR, social value creation considers social concerns not as disconnected problems but as opportunities linked with business strategy. Thus, for a farmers model, social value would include the changes that the busine

From Designing and Implementing impact evaluations

Impact evaluations are now a part and parcel of international development grants. They not only serve an accountability function for donors and other stakeholders but provide an opportunity to learn lessons improving the delivery of subsequent interventions. Impact evaluations enable an unde

Gaming the wait

Queuing for health services is a bane to healthcare-seekers. Can we add worth to the wait? I was reading an article by Jacopo Prisco of CNN “Waiting game: An extended look at how we queue.” If the “weird and wonderful world of waiting line designs” finds place in the queue of your interests, this is the article for you. So how did it find place in mine? At first, the title captured my curiosity. Then, as I read on, the author’s suggestion that perception takes precedence over reality when it comes to the waiting pains of standing in lines triggered some thought

Gender & Well-being

Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and a sustainable world – Goal 5, SDGs Case Study – 1: Feeling safe at the factory The HERrespect project implemented in partnership with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) aims at building sensitivity around gender equity, gender-based violence and discrimination. During one such implementation, the Wellbeing for Workforce (W4W) te

Health, Life skills and Well-being

Health and wellbeing are essential elements to increase and/or maintain employee performance, productivity, job satisfaction and engagement within the work environment. Case Study – 1: Towards a healthier future

Inclusive Business Models

In India, around 70 percent to 90 percent of the rural households depend on agriculture and allied sector as their principal means of livelihood. Smallholder farmers constitute 80 percent of total farm households, forming the backbone of agricultural production. However, despite their contributions, they remain poor and vulnerable, plagued by a serious lack of resources ( land, water, energy, and credit), appropriate technologies, opportunities to develop skills, functional and fair markets for products and inputs, health care and sanitatio

Innovative Financing: Adjusting to the Waves of Change

Innovative Finance for social development is the use of non-traditional mechanisms to raise additional funds for development thereby enhancing the efficiency of financial flows and making it outcomes- or result-oriented. This allows the doers to focus away from mobilization of resources and more on delivering positive social and/or environmental outcomes through market-based instruments. We aim to scan the new and emerging financial instruments in the sector and focus on bringing out efficient and effective solutions that could be

Measuring the Immeasurable

Why is the sky blue? What are black holes? How did the world begin? Familiar questions to many parents. Curiosity plays a fundamental role in learning. It keeps you wanting to explore the world and constantly ask questions. Agastya International Foundation works to spark curiosity in school children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in India through innovative hands-on science education.Using fully kitted mobile-science labs and science centres, it gives children the opportunity to engage with science in a direct,

Reducing Ocean Plastics – Formative Research leading to Intervention Planning in India

The overwhelming plastic waste reaching ocean has been causing significant economic and environmental damage. This research was aimed to advance the current understanding of land based and other sources of plastics entering Indian oceans; government and private sector responses, existing policies and programmes to address plastic waste in India and potential solutions that can address the problem on a scale required as well as ideas for planning of specific interventions in specific hotspots

Scaling big data in Agriculture

Small and marginal farmers account for more than 86.2 % of all farmers in India. With fragmented land holdings, depleting natural resources and climatic variations, the marginal farmers have experienced prolonged low productivity and inefficient production. Actors including the state, civil society, nonprofits are working in their own capacity and in tandem to address the livelihood problems of small and marginal farmers. The common thread of solution that resonates across the ecosystem is the need for innovation. Big data co

Social Impact Organizations: The Constant Juggle between Social Impact and Financial Viability

Social impact organizations are catalysts in developing countries to alleviate some of the biggest socio-economic issues. Their vision, aligned to the core idea of solving problems, is to create social impact and transform communities. However, there are many roadblocks on this pathway to ensure organizational sustainability, including uninterrupted funding which is critical. Even as corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects have opened funding channels in the social impact sector, opportunities fall short, particularly fo

What Builds an Effective Information Exchange and Communication System for Disaster Response

Calling information a “life-saving resource”, the World Disasters Report, 2005 noted: “Disaster-affected people need information as much as water, food, medicine or shelter: accurate, timely information can save lives.” Indeed, it can. But how do you manage and provide accurate information on time in an emergency response situation? Here we share our experience of managing information exchange during the two-year relief and rehabilitation intervention in the Tsunami-hit Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu, India. What we did, observed, and learnt, converge to deliver insights into how a strong information exchange sys

Using Evidence to Influence Program Design

Breakthrough’s Early Marriage Campaign, implemented in three districts of the Indian States of Jharkhand and Bihar, aims to utilise a media (mass and community) programme that challenges existing norms around gender and sexuality, for discouraging the practice of early marriage. We are the impact evaluators for t

Task Shifting of HIV Screening in Sex Worker Communities

In a small office on a busy road in north-western Bangalore, health workers from Swathi Mahila Sangha (SMS) congregate to participate in a monthly training session. SMS is a community organization for women in sex work (WISW) focused on providing community members with improved access to critical resources and services. In order to promote HIV treatment and prevention, SMS is implementing the MITHR programme, a community-led model for providing on-site HIV screening and counselling services to high-risk groups. The MITHR programme

The importance of fit-for-purpose research design

The principle that policies should be designed using the best available evidence is one that is difficult to contest. Proponents of evidence-based policymaking argue that research evidence should also influence/drive policymaking. However, the notion of a linear relationship between evidence and policy is a far cry from the reality. That is not to say that evidence cannot play a key role in crafting policy. Our experience has identified key strategies that can be employed alongside the research process to facilitate the translation of evidence to policy.

Why care for robust secondary data

Choice of research methodology is largely determined by the research questions — what we want to find out, and what will help us do that best. But practical considerations such as the availability of resources (including the type of data available and the knowledge and skills of the persons undertaking the research) also influence the method we choose to employ. Data in its various types — primary, secondary, quantitative,qualitative — forms the core of a research study. It is ultimatel