Problem #8:  Poor Women Workers from the Informal Economy have not Benefitted from the Advancements in Data Science and Analytics

Country/Region of execution: India
Collaborating Organization: Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA)
Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), founded by Smt. Elaben Bhatt is a member-based organization of 1.6 million poor women workers from Informal Economies across 18 States of India. SEWA also has its presence in neighboring Afghanistan, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, and Sri Lanka. SEWA’s strategy involves working around achieving twin goals of (a) Full employment - employment that provides work, income, and food security and Social Security and (b) Self-reliance – economical & decision-making.  By organizing these women workers to attain full employment, SEWA helps them become autonomous and economically self-reliant both individually and collectively, including decision-making ability. To achieve its goals, SEWA follows an integrated approach:  (a) Organizing for collective strength,  (b) Capacity building to stand firm in a competitive market,  (c) Capital formation for risk mitigation & fight poverty, and  (d) Social security to enhance well-being & productivity.
Problem Statement Description:  Several occupations and sectors have seen the introduction of new technologies, such as satellite imaging, soil and water sensing, and smart irrigation systems, over the past decade to improve productivity. However, poor women workers from the informal economy have not benefitted from these advances in technology and data science. Lack of access to best practices and real-time feedback on how they can boost output in the face of ever-changing environmental, economic, and market conditions contributes to them remaining in the vicious cycle of poverty. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic slowdown only worsened the burden on women since it wreaked havoc on the traditional supply chain and disrupted the usual sales channels.  While there is a data collection frenzy, the vast majority of organizations have failed to develop a data culture – that is, a deep, organization-wide comfort level with using metrics to maximize social impact. Every day, immense quantities of field data are collected and stored by organizations for needs assessments, measuring and evaluation, and informing future interventions. While the data gathering means are generally quite different (paper questionnaires, spreadsheets, and online surveys), its end destination after a project is often the same: data silos and on-site servers.  A lot of effort and time goes into collecting huge chunks of data, sometimes repetitive, but the outcome is amiss.  There is a lack of common standards and guidelines to collect and manage data, as a result of which the data points do not speak to one another and do not guide the programmatic decision-making within the organization. Given the work and scale of SEWA, it is crucial that data culture is embedded into the DNA of the organization so that the relevance and impact of the organization grow at pace with a fast-changing world.  Over the next few decades, data science will be a powerful tool in informing organizational decision-making. To improve collective bargaining power of poor women, it is critical to understand what data do collect, why to collect certain data, how to collect that data, and how to use the data effectively. The need of the hour is to design a data strategy framework and data collection framework that guides SEWA and defines how we will collect, manage, and analyze the data. The data strategy framework should also help identify and evaluate disparate external data sources and metadata that could be leveraged to make future data analysis richer. Additionally, there is a need to create a data culture that can create behavioral change among informal sector workers, shifting from reactive to proactive decision-making. An evidence-based, data-driven culture that is integrated within the organization’s DNA will not only help SEWA provide full employment and self-reliance for women but also improve service delivery to members.

[1] ‘Enhancing the Effectiveness and Impact of Schools: Insights from School Health Screening Program, Report by Jerma Wellness, 2019

[2] Prevalence of ear disease among school children, Madras ENT Research Foundation 2019

Problem #13:  Increasing Salinity in a Changing Climate in Sundarbans Deteriorates Water, Sanitation, Health, Livelihood, and the Ecology

Country/Region of execution: Bangladesh
Collaborating Organization: World Concern
World Concern, an international relief and development agency founded in 1955, focuses on the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable within society, providing capacity-building for partners while having the flexibility to respond to disasters through relief and rehabilitation assistance. Currently, World Concern implements roughly $30 million in programming in its 10 country offices located throughout Africa, Asia, and the Americas. Since 1991, WCDO has received, implemented and administered grants in excess of $59 million from USAID. WCDO headquarters is based in Seattle, WA, and the Bangladesh country office is located in Dhaka.
Problem Statement Description: Upazila Mongla in Bagerhat district, Bangladesh, at the edge of the Sundarbans, faces a severe sweet water crisis.  Due to the increased salinity of farmlands, the soil has become infertile.  The freshwater ecosystems and rich biodiversity of this world heritage site are also getting severely impacted, leading to both socio-economic and ecological disasters for the local communities.  The problem dates to about three to four decades when the freshwater flow from upstream started to reduce.  This has led to the ingress of saline water contaminating both surface water and groundwater, which has impacted crop production and fisher-folk communities. As the saline increased its spread, paddy fields shrank, with the small and marginal farmers suffering the most. With an ever-increasing sea-level rise and more intense extreme weather conditions, things got worse.  The local natural canals and wetlands have undergone structural changes and other problems due to the change in farming patterns.  Cyclones like Sidr, Aila, and Amphan brought in more woes with water logging situation increasing by the day.  Salinity seems to have permanently settled in the area giving rise to water, sanitation, health, livelihood, and ecological problems.  We seek innovation to restore the farmlands by desalinizing soil and water resources to help restore and sustain crop farming and other livelihoods. Part of the solution will be to provide farmers with technological support to restore the local soil ecology and the local freshwater bodies called Beel.

Problem #14:  Detect Water Depth so that Bore Well Digging Expense do not get Wasted

Country/Region of execution: India
Collaborating Organization: Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA)
Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), founded by Smt. Elaben Bhatt is a member-based organization of 1.6 million poor women workers from Informal Economies across 18 States of India. SEWA also has its presence in neighboring Afghanistan, Bhutan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, and Sri Lanka. SEWA’s strategy involves working around achieving twin goals of (a) Full employment - employment that provides work, income, and food security and Social Security and (b) Self-reliance – economical & decision-making.  By organizing these women workers to attain full employment, SEWA helps them become autonomous and economically self-reliant both individually and collectively, including decision-making ability. To achieve its goals, SEWA follows an integrated approach:  (a) Organizing for collective strength,  (b) Capacity building to stand firm in a competitive market,  (c) Capital formation for risk mitigation & fight poverty, and  (d) Social security to enhance well-being & productivity.
Problem Statement Description:  Salt farmers pump out briny groundwater to produce salt using expensive diesel pumps from the borrowed money from lenders at a high rate who bought the salt at artificially low prices. They work long hours in the scorching sun to dig the 2/3 wells, which provides sufficient water for salt production.SEWA started organizing Agariyas in 2001 who were trapped within a vicious circle of poverty due to being unorganized, unbankable, inaccessible to market, and thus, exploited by money lenders and intermediaries. SEWA organized 30,000 women salt pan workers and provided them affordable finance, collective market, capacity building to produce marketable salt, and means to adopt renewable energy sources. Currently, there is no scientific method by which the Agariyas identify the area where the water table is up, and they decide to dig a well. They have to dig the well randomly based on their assumption, which may succeed or fail, putting much effort to dig it. It also involves an investment of money, time, and energy; thus, SEWA feels that there should be equipment that can help the small marginal farmer get the exact water table level, which helps them decide on digging the well. This should be affordable to the small marginal family farmer or their group.  Similarly, the family farmers also dig the groundwater for irrigation purposes, which involves an investment of money, time, and effort. Thus there is a need to innovate equipment to identify the water table level before digging the well by Agariyas or farmers. Lacking access to knowledge and new technologies, Agariyas remain completely dependent on money lenders and are unable to improve their livelihoods.  This will help them to invest their money and efforts in the right direction from their meager income and debt, so the workers do not get trapped in a vicious circle of poverty of high cost of production of inland salt farming with technology innovation in the hands of poor that allows them to know the water level in the land before the digging process.  The problem of determining the water level, by the salt farmers, is directly related to the twin goals of SEWA, i.e. (a) Full employment - employment that provides work, income, and food security and Social Security; and (b) Self-reliance – economical & decision-making. In the absence of solutions, farmers cannot optimize their farm yields and incomes, leading to them being trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty. Given that SEWA is a member-based organization of poor women workers from informal economy, all its initiatives need to be supported by following cost-effectiveness and affordability by the poor women workers from informal economy, technology that is easily adaptable and replicable across the members of SEWA, Environment friendly and preserving the natural resources. The solution needs co-creating support and designing the effective technology keeping in mind the end-users who are poor women members / small and marginal farmers from the informal economy.

Problem #15:  In Kédougou, Senegal, Accessing Clean, Safe Water is Increasingly Difficult due to the Effects of Climate Change, Placing Adolescent Girls at Further Risk of Dropping Out of School and Marrying Early

Country/Region of execution: Senegal
Collaborating Organization: Plan International USA
Plan International USA is a girls’ rights organization. Powered by supporters, Plan partners with adolescent girls and children around the world to overcome oppression and gender inequality, providing the support and resources that are unique to their needs and the needs of the communities, ensuring they achieve their full potential with dignity, opportunity, and safety. Plan programs reflect the priorities and needs of young people across their life cycle. Our holistic approach leverages learning and cross-sector programming as core strategies to tackle structural drivers such as poverty, gender inequality, and education. Guided by local experts, in partnership with global education and development sector leaders, we embrace adaptive learning and leverage innovation as a core strategy for promoting equity and resilience.
Problem Statement Description:   Education around the world is facing a generation-defining emergency: climate change. This is especially true in Senegal, where increasing droughts have exacerbated chronic water shortages. In Kédougou, only 21% of rural households have access to clean water, mostly through manual pumps that are often broken. During the dry season, the falling water table can leave people without access to clean water for up to three months. This places an increasing burden on adolescent girls, 87% of whom are responsible for water collection at home. When they must venture further for viable water sources, they have less time for school. The likelihood that girls drop out increases. Having solar water pumps would alleviate this burden, making their tasks easier and allowing more time to devote to their studies. Plan’s GirlEngage Senegal program works with 600 secondary school girls in the Kédougou region, building their sense of agency and self-efficacy as they advocate for girls’ education. Our life skills training program, coupled with community engagement projects and advocacy campaigns, directly contributes to SDG 4. GirlEngage features girls as central drivers of change. Aligned with SDG 5, girls have an active role in creating a gender transformative environment that meets their needs. Plan has successfully worked with the DeBoer Lab at Purdue University to co-create a low-cost power and light source that is renewable and scalable for use to learn at home. This successful collaboration has organically led to the identification, by the girls themselves, of water scarcity as an additional concern. Our current workaround green energies can be a springboard for co-creating a solution to ensure the availability of a sustainable water source (SDG 6). Technical support from colleagues within Purdue’s Engineering department is essential to position girls as equal partners in engineering, a sound solution to address this challenge.