Welcomed by song and dance, I was incredibly excited to learn that the communities had formed committees to maintain the bicycleambulances and regulate their usage.  The committees each had an appointed treasurer who gathered and secured funds to ensure that thebicycle ambulances would be well kept as a community resource.  Of the three communities I visited, one community had used their bicycleambulance twice, another once, and the third had still not used theirs.  While at first this seems like the bicycle ambulances are being underutilized, to me it reflected a real valuing of the bicycle ambulances;the communities were not allowing them to be abused and were reserving them for truly grave emergencies.   This was a perfect (and heartening) example of real community buy-in, which at the end of the day is one of the few variables that can really support true sustainability.

It is incredibly refreshing to be asked about more than just our overhead to program ratio- as Anne mentioned in a prior post, we’re always thinking about what metrics we should be measuring our work by and how best to share our successes with our supporters.  We’ve been working back and forth with the guys from GiveWell for the past couple of months and been thoroughly impressed with the amount of work they put into each analysis they do.  We are incredibly proud to have passed their high standards!

At VillageReach, we are evaluating different methodologies to formulate our approach to quantify and present the value of a social investment. We are considering two methods: a BACO Calculation (for best available charitable option – created by the Acumen Fund) and an SROI calculation. The BACO model enables us to perform a cost-effective analysis on philanthropic dollars by comparing two options: a charity donation vs. an investment in a business. This analysis provides us with decision-making data to assess and determine the return the greatest social impact at lowest cost. The SROI (“social return on investment”) methodology has been in development for many years, and calculated using a discounted cash flow analysis + projected socio-economic contributions (direct, demonstrable cost savings and revenue contribution that are associated with the social purpose enterprise) into a projected blended business performance. There are distinct challenges with both of these approaches as it is difficult to often find a “comparable” charity donation and quantify the context of social outcomes. However, we strive to build quantifiable metrics that will help continuously evaluate our investments and allow us to communicate our impact to an external audience. Let us know what steps you are taking or thoughts about this process as this is clearly a shared effort.

At VillageReach we focus on energy, transport/logistics and communications, the “Enabling Services” that are required to fulfill the mission of VillageReach programs. When implementing health care programs in regions with weak or nonexistent Enabling Services, NGO’s have traditionally elected to handle the provisioning of Enabling Services internally. Trucking in generators, fuel and other supplies directly supports the program objectives but it does little to provide Enabling Services to the surrounding community. It is widely recognized that a successful and sustainable program intervention creates and uses local capacity. The VillageReach model and programs to date have as a guiding principle the creation of local capacity not only for last mile health care infrastructure but also for the Enabling Services that support that infrastructure.

To sustain the improvement in health and decrease in mortality that is the core of the VillageReach mission it is necessary to create permanent health care resources in last mile communities. Sustainability requires that Enabling Services be available, be reliable and can be procured at affordable rates for the long term. In order for Enabling Services to be available for the long term the customer base must be substantially larger than just the rural health care clinic and therefore must include a vibrant market in the local community. The lack of Enabling Services in many of these rural situations clearly shows that sufficient market demand does not exist today for a viable commercial business. It’s a classic chicken and egg problem – VillageReach is moving forward as a catalyst with creating basic demand for Enabling Services as part of its programs to support last mile health care and incubating the required commercial business for the services.

So, why is social enterprise required in the VillageReach model? Because without established Enabling Services as one of the key elements in the intervention – the VillageReach programs would not achieve the required sustainability and would become yet another solution that fails to provide the long term impact when transitioned to local operation.

There are 4 main categories of players: Governments, NGOs, multi-lateral organizations (WHO, UNICEF) and public-private alliances.  While there are many, many important and interesting stakeholders in the field, the most interesting evolution over the last decade has been the ways these groups cross boundaries to find creative ways to work together.

When Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) was established in 2000, it had an enormous impact on the field of vaccines.  GAVI refocused attention on vaccine-preventable diseases which waned in the 90’s after the highly successful immunization campaigns of the 70’s and 80’s. And as a public-private partnership funded by donor governments and private organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it brought serious financial resources to the table (over $2 billion of net assets in 2007).  Currently, GAVI supports 72 low and middle-income countries in vaccine financing and procuring.  While considerable resources at GAVI have been directed towards augmenting the supply of existing vaccines and developing new vaccines, GAVI and its stakeholders are increasingly beginning to consider the inadequacies of the health systems into which these vaccines must enter.

One particularly interesting initiative is The Optimize Project, a joint collaboration between the WHO and PATH.  The Optimize Project seeks to identify and advocate for the “immunization systems and technologies for tomorrow.”  Funded by the Gates Foundation, the Optimize Project is a recognition that discovery and development of vaccines is only half the battle.

Here at VillageReach, it has been exciting to see the development of enthusiastic recognition and articulation of the problems of logistics at theLast Mile.