Do One Better with Alberto Lidji in Philanthropy, Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship

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CEO and Co-founder of the EkStep Foundation, Shankar Maruwada, explains how they’re leveraging technology, big data and mobile platforms to drive forward education at scale in India Jan 03, 2021

Show notes

Infosys Chairman and Co-founder, Nandan Nilekani, and Rohini Nilekani, are the other two Co-founders of the EkStep Foundation. Both Nandan and Rohini are signatories of The Giving Pledge — a commitment made by billionaires to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.

Infosys is one of the world’s largest IT firms and Nandan Nilekani’s involvement places the EkStep Foundation in a strong position to leverage technology in pursuit of education — the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4).

The EkStep Foundation was set up in 2015. The idea was to think big: they aimed for a big goal to reach 200 million children in India and improve their access to learning opportunities and help them achieve improved learning outcomes.

At EkStep, they have a sense of urgency and believe that social good can be done at the scale of the entire population. Time is of the essence since every single year there are 20 million children in India who enter and exit the education system. Therefore, every year wasted is tremendously costly. In addition to speed and scale, the third key consideration is ensuing their work is sustainable.

Organisationally speaking, the EkStep Foundation is relatively small and only has approximately 40 members of staff — considering they’re reaching more than 200 million children, this is quite a good ratio.

Shankar sheds light on the technology and methods they’re embracing to improve education for millions of children. One of the challenges is ensuring their approach is compatible with the sheer scale and diversity of India, with 25+ formal administrative languages and hundreds of dialects.

The technology should also help the existing ecosystem of actors since at EkStep they’re not interested in becoming yet another player in this field but, rather, they wish to facilities and improve the capacity of what’s already in place. The technology should fit in with the existing constraints and habits of the chidden, the schools and the education systems in place.

At EkStep, they thought long and hard about the possible ways in which they could help and ultimately ended up focusing on the humble textbooks that are delivered to millions of households annually.

In India, a billion textbooks are printed and distributed to children across the country entirely for free every year. A child may lack many things but a textbook is unlikely to be one of them.

Instead of thinking of the textbook as an outdated technology, they looked at imbedding QR codes so that when you access these QR codes you get content that’s relevant to the chapter and book you’re studying from. It’s a gateway to content that is interactive, trusted and relevant to the learner. It is a simple but effective approach.

QR codes tend to be present within each chapter; perhaps 10 to 15 QR codes per book, on average.

Shankar provides examples: For instance, a 2nd grade student follows the sequencing of chapters in her textbook and the QR code in each chapter provides free content that is created and curated by her school authority — so it’s trusted.

In a chapter about fractions, for instance, the content could show a video of a cake sliced into 5 pieces, so as to show the concept of fractions. This, in turn, could be followed by questions or a practice test, which then helps you know whether the content has been understood well.

One could say the QR code is somewhat equivalent to a GPS system within the textbook. It’s like that 2nd grade student is telling the system, here I am right now, I am looking at fractions and, yes, I am understanding this content well.

A fascinating aspect of this approach is that the content being shown to that student can change dynamically so that at the start of the year it’s more about explanations, while towards the end of the year it might be more about revision and mock texts. Each individual state in India decides on content and how to sequence it.

In most traditional education systems, there is only limited (if any) feedback of what content individual children are finding engaging. Now, with these QR codes and targeted, dynamic content, they do have remote sensing of data that enables the education system to understand patterns, content engagement levels, learning outcomes, mock exam outcomes and what content students are spending most time on. Are they focusing more on writing, mathematics, science etc?

They created technology as a digital infrastructure and they’ve called it ‘Sunbird’ — Shankar remarks that one can think of it as a kind of Linux equivalent for learning. Open infrastructure and free. Anyone who’s interested is welcome to have a look at it and embrace this platform if they wish, irrespective of where in the world they might be.

It wasn’t straightforward to be allowed to operate in around 28 states in India and to reach the 200 million children they had originally envisioned. But, with a clear focus on their original scale target and by not being precious about their brand, they have succeeded and are impacting millions of children. They decided that the EkStep brand should never be in the picture, they collaborated with many others and they made their solution open source, free, and available to anyone who wishes to use it.

A question that often comes up pertains to the reality that many children simply don’t have mobile phones or smartphones that can access QR codes. Indeed, that is a limitation Shankar recognises. He mentions that half of children in urban India may not have access to mobile phones, and that number increases even further in rural India. However, he points out that every teacher has a device. So, if the teacher accesses the content they can teach better and enhance the traditional chalkboard they have in the classroom.

Moreover, as a result of COVID-19 schools are closed. So the government is coming out with TV programmes that also have QR codes that are connected to textbooks. They’re connecting the physical to the digital, trying out innovative ideas and aiming to ensure that no child should suffer for lack of access to technology.

Shankar’s key takeaway: When you’re thinking about making a social impact, think big. Don’t constrain yourself by the limited resources you have, because whether you think big or think small, the amount of thinking is the same. When you’re thinking big, don’t worry about not having a perfect plan, or about limited resources or worry about failing. Shankar has seen great things happen when you set a goal that is way above your means to achieve but it’s so inspiring that you start to attract people around you who are equally inspired and who help you achieve your goal. With that in mind, if you let go of the need to control the journey, be prepared for a fun ride. And, miraculous things will happen. Even if you don’t achieve your goal, you will end at a place that is far better than what you would have had if you had thought small and only achieved that.

Visit The Do One Better! Podcast website for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe to this podcast on your favourite app and share widely with others -- thank you!

New Year’s Special with Alberto Lidji - Key Takeaways from 2020. Philanthropy, Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship Dec 27, 2020

Show notes

A New Year's special episode featuring key takeaways from some of the fascinating guests who joined us on The Do One Better! Podcast during 2020, including:

• Fran Perrin - Chair of 360Giving

• Sir David King - Former UK Government's permanent Special Representative for Climate Change

• Per Heggenes - CEO of the IKEA Foundation

• John Goodwin - CEO of the LEGO Foundation

• Ben Davies - Executive Director of the Johnson & Johnson Foundation

• Tony Nader - CEO of Transcendental Meditation organisations

• Craig Silverstein & Mary Obelnicki - Co-founders of Echidna Giving and signatories of the Giving Pledge. Craig was Google's first-ever employee

• Tariq Al Gurg - CEO of Dubai Cares

• Sandro Giuliani - Board Trustee of the Roger Federer Foundation

• Brian Gallagher - President & CEO of United Way Worldwide

• Howard Taylor - Executive Director of the Global Partnership to End Violence Against Children

• Anurag Banerjee - Co-Founder of Quilt.AI

• Matt Reed and Tinni Sawhney - CEOs of Aga Khan Foundation in UK and India

• Jeffrey Abramson - Co-founder of the Rona and Jeffrey Abramson Foundation

• Edwin Macharia - Global Managing Partner of Dalberg Advisors

• Mabel van Oranje - Founder of Girls Not Brides

Visit The Do One Better! Podcast website to listen to the full episodes with the above guests and nearly 100 episodes with remarkable leaders in philanthropy, sustainability and social entrepreneurship.

Thank you for making The Do One Better! Podcast such a success in 2020. Happy New Year!

Executive Director of the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy, Clare Woodcraft, discusses philanthropy in emerging markets, the Global South / Global North power imbalance and the need for collaboration Dec 20, 2020

Show notes

The Centre for Strategic Philanthropy was founded by Badr Jafar and is based at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge. It was launched in June 2020 and is focused on emerging markets, with particular concern for the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. Its geographic focus is something that sets the Centre apart from other academic outfits in the field of philanthropy.

They have three core pillars of activity: (1) they are a research centre, (2) will provide executive education commencing in early 2021, and (3) are a convening platform bringing together diverse voices, especially from the Global South.

Clare provides insight into philanthropy in emerging markets and delves into some of the findings from their recently-published report Philanthropy and COVID-19: Is the North-South Power Balance Finally Shifting?

There is tremendous growth of philanthropy in the Global South and Clare explains how young philanthropists are increasingly moving away from establishing a straight forward foundation and, instead, are starting to consider alternative routes to doing good, such as creating an impact fund or starting a social enterprise.

The Centre wants to help new, up-and-coming philanthropists to deliver more impact at scale, and to do so collaboratively. They convene, attract new voices from diverse countries and encourage collaboration.

Part of the rationale for Badr Jafar’s founding of the Centre for Strategic Philanthropy was the lack of existing research into philanthropy in the Global South. When asked what success for the next 10 years looks like, Clare replies that she’d like to see the Centre fill research gaps as much as possible, develop a better understanding of the landscape and have more robust data. Moreover, there is also a need to determine and showcase what best practice looks like.

Clare’s key takeaway: It’s about insuring that good intentions translate into impact. We really need to look at the evidence around what works and what doesn’t work. She cautions that before rushing in to create a programme or an intervention, one should really try to look at who’s already working in the space in question and aim to collaborate if possible. Yes, bring your passion, but be aware that intentions need to be matched by evidence.

Visit The Do One Better! Podcast website for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe on your favourite podcast app and share widely with others -- thank you!

CEO of the FrameWorks Institute, Nat Kendall-Taylor, discusses the science of framing + how best to translate evidence-based research into effective communications for mass audiences and policymakers Dec 13, 2020

Show notes

The FrameWorks Institute has been around for 20 years and they currently have a staff of around 25 professionals, comprised largely of PhD-level social scientists. Nat describes the team as a motley crew of disenchanted academics. Interestingly, they really don’t have folks in the team who come from a communications background, which is a bit ironic considering they focus on communications.

Nat describes FrameWorks as a non-profit, communications, social science research think tank. They are mission-driven to use social science research to support the communications capacity of the non-profit sector.

They do this by focusing on three areas:

1) they study, and are interested in, how people think about complicated social and scientific issues — it’s not about what people say or how they answer polling questions but, rather, it’s about how people use common cultural ways of understanding to make meaning of complicated social issues;

2) they look at ‘framing’ and explore how presenting information in different ways influences how people think, feel and are willing to act — this is the science of framing; and

3) they take results from this research and partner with organisations that are active in key sectors and they use these findings to improve these organisations’ communications.

There’s an overarching observation Nat makes clear early on: don’t assume that you are your audience. Nat notes that it is extremely common for people who are communicating about specific issues to make the erroneous assumption that they are their audiences.

Data and evidence don’t necessarily make for effective communications. Nat asks, how many times have we seen presentations that start with data, have another piece of data, then include some charts and graphs about data, and then conclude with yet more data.

We assume that this data layering speaks to our audience the way it does to us. But this is by no means the case. Different people may need different elements in order to be convinced. Always keep in mind that you are not your audience. One needs to draw a distinction between data and various other aspects that activate common, widely-shared values.

We also have a tendency to think of misperception as being analogous to people being wrong, or incorrect or simply unable to understand. This is dangerous. It’s not necessarily that people are wrong but, oftentimes, that people simply have developed different ways of thinking about certain issues or understanding the world around them.

We hear how there’s a need to tweak the message to local cultures. The holy grail would be a single message that simply works all over the world — one size fits all. But in reality, while you may have a point you want to make to everyone in the world, how you make that specific point is going to have to be honed and made particular to given regions and countries, cultures and subcultures. You need to acknowledge the role that culture plays in how people think and process information.

Nat then sheds light on FrameWorks’ fascinating partnership with Harvard University’s Center on the Developing Child and its director, Prof Jack Shonkoff. This collaboration stretches back further than a decade.

We hear how FrameWorks helped the Center to translate complex research on early childhood development into highly effective messaging that helps a mass audience understand its meaning and helps increase awareness, change attitudes and drive forward positive behaviours.

We hear of the development of specific phrases, such as ‘brain architecture’, ‘toxic stress’, and ‘serve and return interaction’, that were created to help research findings from the field of early childhood development reach and impact a broad, international audience.

While these phrases seem fairly straightforward and sensible, Nat notes the work that went into developing these concepts took a great deal of effort and extensive development and testing; followed by extensive pushing and pulling between academics around how best to incorporate them. Nat expands on these key steps, providing rich insight into the nuts and bolts of this process.

Nat’s key takeaway: firstly, it’s important to realise that you are not your audience. As a mantra, if you can repeat that, you’ll fall into fewer traps and you’ll make better decisions as a communicator. And the second piece revolves around the role of ‘framing’ in the process of change-making. Keep in mind that what you know is important, but there’s the bit about how you say what you know — the significance of framing. Realise that it’s not just about ‘what’ you know, but it’s about ‘how’ you communicate it in order to have impact with your information.

Visit The Do One Better! Podcast website for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please click the subscribe button on your favourite podcast app and share widely with others — thank you!

President and CEO of World Vision International, Andrew Morley, talks about their work in supporting the most vulnerable children across 100 countries, with 37,000 staff and 100,000 volunteers Dec 06, 2020

Show notes

In 2020, they are celebrating their 70th birthday. World Vision International operates in most countries across the world and is a $3 billion organisation focused on ending violence against children in all its forms and supporting children, particularly in some of the most challenging countries, such as the DRC and Syria.

While World Vision is a Christian organisation, they serve those of all faiths and of no faith at all. They’re structured globally by setting up separate legal entities in the countries where they operate (such as World Vision South Africa) — these entities all agree to work in partnership with all the other World Vision entities around the world. They also work with delivery partners in local settings. Many of World Vision’s in-country team leaders come up from local communities, as opposed to being expats placed there from overseas.

Andrew sheds light on World Vision International’s funding. Their primary funding is derived through their child sponsorship model. This is a model that aims to develop communities — not just the individual child but also the communities where that child lives.

Since they are a $3 billion organisation, they are fortunate in having adequate resources to withstand a shock such as that posed by COVID-19. Part of the reason why their funding streams are robust is the strong link between sponsors and the children and communities where these children live.

We also hear of Andrew’s career trajectory. He started off in the private sector and only later on in life moved into the non-profit world. He was always selling things from an early stage in his childhood and, then, also as a teenager. The idea of marketing was something he was passionate about. Then, at 30, he had a powerful coming to faith moment and felt a calling to become a Christian. His life turned around at that point. At the time he was working for Sky TV as sales and marketing director — he recalls how back then he was the youngest executive on their Management Board.

He stayed in the corporate world for 20 years, spending time at high profile organisations, such as Google and Motorola Mobility. In 2017, he was ordained as an Anglican Vicar in St Paul’s Cathedral. Now, alongside his work at World Vision International, on Sunday mornings Andrew serves at a London church called Holy Trinity Brompton. He loves combining the two.

We hear how transitioning from the corporate world to the non-profit world is not that straight forward. The remuneration is much different and in the non-profit world everything is about excellence at a minimum cost, while in the corporate world it is about excellence at an acceptable cost. In the non-profit world, funding decisions often impact whether a child goes hungry or not. Andrew advises the audience: if you feel pulled towards the non-profit world, then go ahead and give it a try.

One of the major programmes at World Vision is focused on ending violence against children. Andrew notes how lockdown and COVID-19 have meant that children are at home more, and they’re away from the protective environment of school and are often not given access to the adults who might protect them. So, the risk of violence against children is exacerbated.

When asked what success for the next 10 years looks like to him, Andrew answers that he’d love to see an end of extreme poverty in all its forms by 2030. He’s optimistic and explains that despite the backwards steps in economic indicators due to COVID-19, what we’ve also learned from this pandemic is that when people come together and have a common goal that we can achieve lots. He’d also like to see an end of violence against children in all its forms and have World Vision play its part in making that happen.

Andrew’s key takeaway: Think about how your life is having an impact on the world, and ask yourself what you want your legacy to be. Most of us want to have a legacy that makes the world better in some way, so think about how you can do that. Have the belief that you can make a difference.

Visit The Do One Better! Podcast website for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe on your favourite podcast app and share widely with others. Thank you!

CEO of the Scouts UK, Matt Hyde, talks candidly about painful decisions taken on restructuring, redundancies and disposing of assets in the face of COVID-19. Invaluable insight on weathering the storm Nov 29, 2020

Show notes

Scouting prepress young people with skills for life. It has been around for 113 years and is active in 190 countries. There are 53 million scouts worldwide and 460,000 in the UK. Moreover, there are 160,000 adult volunteers in the UK and 60,000 young people who are waiting to join the Scouts.

In the UK, the Scouts are a federation of 8,000 Scout charities. The organisation has numerous income streams and areas of operations.

Matt sheds light on the dynamics of how the Scouts operates in the UK and we discuss how different parts of the organisation have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. He describes in detail the painful realisation over the late summer, 2020, that this pandemic wasn’t going to be going away quickly and, therefore, they needed a decisive plan.

Consequently, the team has been reduced from approximately 390 staff to around 260, and many property assets, including Baden-Powell House in central London, are being disposed.

This has been painful for the entire organisation and staff morale has clearly been affected. And, yet, there is a realisation of the importance of focusing on the Scouts’ mission and ensuring everything works towards achieving that.

Matt’s key takeaway for other leaders trying to weather the storm: The first thing is to go back to your mission. Ask yourself, is everything you’re doing furthering your mission? And, are you taking those difficult but courageous decisions that you need to take? Because, sometimes, to build the new you have to give up some of the past, and that’s difficult — and it’s emotionally difficult. We often don’t talk enough about the emotional drain on leaders. It’s about a mindset shift that says, OK, we’re going to build something new and therefore we’re going to take these difficult decisions. And then, ask how are you adapting your strategy in order to deliver that — in order to return to a time when you can be more optimistic about the future. You have to go to the depths of those difficult moments to come out on the other side.

Visit The Do One Better! Podcast website at Lidji.org for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please subscribe on your favourite podcast app and share widely with others — thank you!

CEO of United World Schools, Tim Howarth, joins Alberto Lidji to discuss strategic exit planning, transitioning schools to local education authorities and expansion into new geographic regions Nov 22, 2020

Show notes

UWS is an educational NGO, based in the UK, with an international approach and a presence in Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal.

Through education, UWS transforms the lives of some of the poorest children in the world who would otherwise have no access to education. They work with local communities to build and nurture schools and, then, to transition these schools into the government system.

They have launched 226 schools and learning sites in Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal. Each school typically serves 150 children.

UWS looks to build schools in places where there is a good fit. They identify regions where there are large populations of out of school children, which are remote, difficult to reach and are marginalised for various reasons.

They identify these communities by liaising with local government and by working closely with teams on the ground. Importantly, UWS engages with local ethnic minorities who have key insight on where needs are greatest.

Each school is different and has its own life journey. It may take a year or two to develop a school. Then, it’s about developing the enrolment and getting students in the habit of turning up — after all, these are often communities where the concept of attending school regularly is new. From there, it’s about maturing, whereby schools are brought up to a certain quality standard.

This whole process takes several years; possibly a cycle of between 5 and 10 years. Once the school in question is working very well, then UWS looks to transition it into the local education authority — thereafter providing very light touch support.

We hear how the actual workforce is key to success, and how the whole endeavour is much more than simply constructing a new school building. Local communities, teachers, education authorities — everyone is vital for success.

One of the hardest things UWS needs to do is figure out where they’re going to invest their finite resources. This means that if they find an education authority that is engaged and provides good political capital, there is an incentive to work with them repeatedly.

When looking to expand geographically, they consider (1) whether the level of need is there — ensuring they only go into places that have a clear need; (2) whether there is the potential for good partnerships, particularly with national and local governments, with good political capital where the government helps with the process; and (3) whether UWS can engage their supporters and donor-base to ensure there’s sufficient funding available.

Tim’s key takeaway: UWS uses this transition concept as an absolute guiding light for their overall strategy because it means they ultimately can deliver their mission and are leaving behind an empowered, well-run, robust project.

Visit The Do One Better! Podcast website for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please click the subscribe button and share widely with others — Thank you!

President of Rotary International, Holger Knaack, discusses the importance of attracting more female members and young professionals; ensuring diversity within their 36,000 clubs and 1.2m members Nov 15, 2020

Show notes

We discuss Rotary International’s charitable work in local and global settings. They are the largest service club organisation in the world and operate in more than 200 countries. While clubs are independent they all follow core values.

Holger is looking to increase the number of female members who join Rotary International as well as the number of young professionals. Diversity is vital and much progress has been achieved on this front in recent years.

Rotary International supports a wide range of charitable activities. Holger specifically references polio eradication, a successful initiative they started decades ago in the Philippines, which has led them to collaborate with key global partners, such as WHO, UNICEF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Holger also talks about Rotary International’s support of peace initiatives and notes they’re currently partnering with seven universities in the world to run peace projects; where people are conducting masters studies in peace to drive this field forward globally.

Rotary International is both local and global. They support local service projects as well as international projects focused on water, and on maternal and children’s health in Africa and India, for example. Since Rotary clubs are everywhere, they can interact internationally for charitable work unlike many other organisations.

Rotary International is a very flat organisation and has been around for 115 years. There’s just one president — interestingly, Holger’s term is just one year in duration — and there are 17 directors, and then 530 district governors around the world.

Holger’s key takeaway: Rotary is probably different than you thought. It’s a different organisation than it was 100 years ago. It’s not an old man’s organisation that is about going to lunch. Rotary is a vibrant organisation with many different clubs that fit your needs. Rotary clubs are looking to make lasting, positive change in the community, in the world, and within ourselves.

Visit The Do One Better! Podcast website for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please click the subscribe button and share widely with others -- thank you!

CEO of Gorongosa Trust, Matt Jordan, joins Alberto Lidji to discuss social enterprise + wildlife conservation at Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. One of the most biodiverse places on the planet Nov 08, 2020

Show notes

This conversation provides great insight into a public / private partnership with a strong philanthropic underpinning that simultaneously drives forward human development and wildlife conservation at scale — within a challenging context that in recent years has included conflict, local fighting, a commodities crash, a currency devaluation and a massive cyclone.

A focus on forestry, ecotourism and agribusiness has resulted in robust social enterprise activities that incorporate local communities while helping tackle climate change.

There are 200,000 people around Gorongosa National Park and 80% of them are subsistence farmers living on under $2 a day. They are vulnerable to malnutrition, poor education and other challenges.

Creating small businesses, helping with skills and fostering greater access to finance helps establish the ‘enabling’ conditions that transform livelihoods for the long term.

Matt’s key takeaway: Be part of something that creates a world where people and planet thrive together!

Visit The Do One Better! Podcast website for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please click the subscribe button on your favourite podcast app and share widely with others — thank you!

Co-Founder of Quilt.AI, Anurag Banerjee, joins Alberto Lidji to discuss the power of artificial intelligence, big data and the Internet to drive forward the global development agenda Nov 01, 2020

Show notes

A fascinating and thought-provoking conversation for anyone who's looking to understand attitudes and drive behaviour change at scale for the betterment of society.

What drives misogynistic attitudes? How do you know whether your philanthropic intervention is making a difference? Can AI and big data help improve girls' education and expected career outcomes? What about privacy considerations when analysing mass behaviour online? We discuss these questions and many more.

Quilt.AI is a mission-first technology company, seeking to increase empathy in the world. Using the Internet as a source of knowledge, inspiration and communication, Quilt.AI works on issues including climate change, gender equity and health across the world. Their work has focused on a range of thematic areas across the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The firm’s clients include some of the world’s most recognised for-profit and non-profit organisations. They’re headquartered in Singapore with a presence in New York, London, Zurich and New Delhi.

An insightful conversation that's perfectly aligned with today's global development needs and technological advances.

Anurag’s key takeaway: The Internet is still in its infancy. We think of it as something that’s been here forever but it’s still relatively new. The next version of the Internet, the way information is indexed, the way we experience it, these things are all still to come. These are fascinating times.

Editor's Note: This interview was conducted in August 2020. In October 2020, Quilt.AI became a corporate sponsor of The Do One Better! Podcast. The original interview was conducted well before there had been any conversations around sponsorship. Anurag Banerjee was invited as a guest on The Do One Better! Podcast purely on the merits of his work.

Visit The Do One Better! Podcast website for guest bios, episode notes and useful links. Please click the subscribe button on your favourite podcast app and share widely with others – thank you!

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