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>View discussions about this entry Country: India
Organization: Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, India
Field of Work - Sanitation
Year the initative began (yyyy) - 2007
Positioning in the Mosaic of solutions
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence? - Creating a low cost sanitation unit for rural areas which is technically and scientifically designed, easy and fast to install and looks good.
Describe your innovation. What makes your idea unique and different than others doing work in the field? - We work with the belief that the even the poorest family in the village deserves a sanitation unit which they can be proud of and which is comparable with those owned by their wealthier neighbours. Our innovation is designed to look decent and provide the comforts of household sanitation unit using pre cast concrete technology. The unit is light weight, easy to manufacture and transport and has unique design and detail. Manufacturers have readily accepted this innovation and adopted it for commercial production due to its high demand. The innovative approach has encouraged them to extend a royalty to us which we have converted to a direct subsidy for the beneficiaries of the sanitation program. The innovation is therefore in forward linking of product design and technology development with a supply chain establishment for ensuring sustainability, replicability and scalability. This model has not been developed by any other NGO working in the sanitation sector till now. Infact many NGOs have now adopted this innovative product.
Delivery Model: How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing? - The innovation is implemented through commercialisation of the same by transfer of technology. This allows the innovation to reach the masses without our capital investment. As a non-profit agency, the cost of transfer of technology is not being recovered but passed on to the beneficiaries of our Sanitation program in the form of a discounted price. The advantage is passed on based on our recommendation and is not time bound. Therefore maximum number of families are moving up the sanitation latter equitably.
How do you plan to expand your innovation? - The innovation is already expanding with more and more manufacturers adopting this technology. We plan to further expand through the popularisation of the product in the communities through NGOs and the Government as an ideal product for installation in rural areas. We also propose to scale up the Sanitation program of our organisation from 50 villages to 100 in the coming years. We would also like to patent the process and the product and leverage it for extension of benefit to the rural poor. Through the Government, we intend to standardise the product for adoption in its national programs such as Total Sanitation Campaign, Indira Awaas Yojana etc. Since the product is commercially viable, we would explore the setting up of self help groups to manufacture the same such that it could be linked to livlihood development and provide non-farm income in rural areas as well.
Do you have any existing partnerships, and if so, how do you create them? - What type of partnerships to do need? The partnerships which have been developed are informal and based on goodwill earned by our organisation. These are mainly through sharing of technology with manufacturers of pre cast concrete items in order to develop the low cost, pre cast, completely knock down sanitation unit and its components. Through this informal partnership, the product which is sold at Rs. 1500 per unit is sold at a discount of Rs. 400 to the beneficiaries upon our recommendation. The partnership has been created through the concept of transfer of technology and product development assistance. Marketing of the technology in newer areas and to new manufactureres is also a key component of the partnership. Popularising the technology by introducing it at grassroot level through our community mobilising team and linking them to the manufactureres has also helped create this partnership. Introducing the technology to other NGOs and the Government Rural Development departments has also encouraged the development of partnerships with them.
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact. - The product has improved sanitation coverage rapidly and contributed to improvement in quality of life through improved health and by providing dignity to women.
How many people have you served or plan to serve? - The product was introduced in Southern Saurashtra region of Gujarat. It was supplied in 17 villages with 450 units being distributed in 2007. In future, the number of villages being supplied would be 27 with an estimated 1300 units supplied. Partner NGOs have served about 600 rural families and plan for 2000 more. Apart from this there are several rural families who have opted for this product on their own, for which we have not maintained a count.
Please list any other measures of the impact of your innovation? - Reduction in diarroheal and other water borne diseases.
Saving in time resulting women devoting more time to upbringing of children and the men devoting more time for livlihoods. Provides safety, security and dignity to women. No open defaecation and overall cleanliness in the village and the outskirts. Reduced time in installtation of the unit. Low cost of unit result in financial savings upto 40 percent as compared to conventional sanitation unit.
Exactly who are the beneficiaries of your innovation? - Marginalised and poor families, their children, adoloscents, young and pregnant women ,old, disabled and sick persons.
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)? - Though donor funding, beneficiary contribution and some Government subsidy. Donor funding is towards the staff and operational cost and towrds 30 percent of hardware activities. Beneficiaries contribute 70 percent of the hardware cost (the cost of the unit) of which the Government gives a subsidy from Total Sanitation Campaign funds.
Provide information on your finances and organization: - Current Annual budget (2007 fiscal year)?
Annual budget for the past 1-2 years (2006 and 2005)? Annual revenue generated? What are your current sources and/or streams of revenue? Do you currently have sources of earned income (examples?); If not, why? The annual budget for 2007-08 is Rs. one million. The annula budget for the past two years has been Rs. 40 lakhs and Rs. 30 lakhs respectively. Sources of funds are donors, Government and beneficiary contribution. No revenues are generated from our operations since we are an NGO working for the poor and marginalised communities. We prefer to use the potential earnings to cross subsidise the extreme poor and vulnerable families as is seen in the royaly of technical innovation being channelised towards subsidised price of product to beneficiaries by product manufacturers. What is the potential demand for your innovation? - How do you estimate this demand?
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers): The district level government has decided to install the innovative sanitation unit at every village in the districy as a demonstration unit. This will create a demand of about 8000 units in each district of the state. Considering there are 25 districts in the stae of Gujarat alone and 25 states in the country, an approximate demand could be estimated at 5 million units. This would require about 12000 manufacturers of the precast units thus creating livlihood opportunities in the country. What are the main barriers to financial sustainability? - Hardware cost of sanitation units has increased due to rising cost of building materials. However, this is not being simultaneously increased by the donors. There is inevitably a gap in funding for extreme poor families after all efforts have been exhausted. Banks and financial institutions normally due not extend line of credit to these families since there is no security or collateral available.
What is the origin of this innovation? Tell us your story. - The vision of our organisation was to cover 100 percent of village population with access to sanitation at household level. However, we discovered that there were several poor and extreme poor families for whom sanitaion was the least priority due to ignorance, financial capacity and social marginalisation. These families felt that this was a luxury for their wealthier neighbours and not a necessity for them. We started by providing them low cost sanitation units with recycled tin sheets of oil cannisters. However these were rejected by the poor families who displayed aspirations of owning pucca sanitation structures. This led to research and development in order to come up with a low cost, durable yet neat looking concrete unit. The answer was arrived at through a number of permutations and combinations for cost effectiveness and ease in implementation. The pre cast unit was devised since it optimised all elements of cost such as material, labour and overheads. The cost of materials was reduced by making the structure lightweight yet strong and the labour cost was minimalised by making the unit easy to assemble in a matter of two three hours per unit. The overheads were negligent since the technology was experimented at the manufacturers' cost. Finally the unit was introduced as a modern structure which instantly became widely accepted and the demad grew by leaps and bounds.
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers marketing material - Aga Khan Planning and Building Services, India (AKPBS,I) is a lead organisation working in the field of Environmental Health Improvement since 1978. The organisation believes in adopting a participatory approach which focusses on the specific needs of the marginalised families, women and youg children and is pro poor. Innovations in rural sanitation is an on going exercise at AKPBS,I such that there is equitable coverage of all sections of society in improving their quality of life.
Contact Information:
Anita Miya
Program Manager Aga Khan Planning and Building Service, India (NGO) Discussions about this entry
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Sanitation without tears, fears and high costs!
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Acumen Fund
Changemakers Featured Commentator
In your proposal, you clearly describe your organization as not-for-profit, and yet you are creating lots of value for the manufacturers of this product, and the consumers who use it. This approach may work well for you, and if you are able to secure the grant funding and subsidies you need, that will perhaps make it easier for you to focus on the needs of the very poor. What I wanted to ask is if you could imagine a role for credit in this model, either for manufacturers who need loans to build up a manufacturing operation or purchase materials they need to manufacture the sanitation systems, or for consumers, who may not always be able to access subsidies. What, if any, role do you see for credit?
i was just going thru your document, it seems nice
i was wondering if you also work with FEderations of slum dwellers in India
Vera, Malawi