Impact at Scale

The Social Innovation Podcast had the pleasure of speaking with Jessica Camus and Mark Blick of Diginex Solutions.  Mark and I had a conversation about a year ago.  Jessica also has an incredibly strong background and a deep interest in development issues.  Jessica is originally from Haiti and grew up in Switzerland where she studied International Relations.  She has advised International Organizations and Corporates primarily in emerging markets on Social Impact Strategies, Impact Investing, and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance Issues).  One of the issues that Jessica observed was that it was difficult for these institutions to scale their impact and measure it.  This piqued her interest in how blockchain technology could potentially help to solve that with new and innovative solutions.

While there are not only technological issues to solve, we also discussed how creating the right partnerships and encouraging collaboration across domains can also be very important.  One of the ways to accomplish this is to have a common set of agreed-upon data so that all of the collaborators can be on the same page.  Jessica's time at Thompson Reuters and at the World Economic Forum taught her how important public-private partnerships can be in enabling effective change.

Since we last spoke, a lot has changed at Diginex Solutions.  While Mark notes that he likes to focus tightly and go deep on a particular topic, Diginex has been busy expanding its offerings and rapidly developing and deploying its software.  With an initial focus on forced labor and modern slavery, Diginex has now expanded to the full remit of ESG.  The idea is to expand the platform to drive meaningful change.

I had a great conversation with Adrian Tan and Greg Tan Tze Kai to start SG Assist.  These are two guys that quit good-paying jobs to build SG Assist in response to a family medical problem that Adian Tan experienced.  Greg comes from an Oil and Gas background while Adrian is a supply chain expert.  Although neither of them had any medical experience, after long chats in the canteen while they were performing reserve military service in Singapore, they realized that the problems that Adrian was experiencing were likely pervasive.

If you listen to Adrian and Greg talk, they are passionate about helping people help each other, their families, and their communities…and by employing technology to do so.  SG Assist’s vision “is to help save lives and build a culture of “kampong spirit" like the good ol’ days, when everyone in the community looked out for one another.

Via our mobile app, we aim to provide you with peace of mind through our swift assistance with community volunteers. Without prompt and proper medical aid, your loved ones may be at greater risk during a medical emergency. With our mobile app, we will help you locate a trained Kampong Hero to attend to your loved ones in your absence."

This is a worthwhile vision, indeed.

Anthony Moorhouse, a co-Founder of EarthTech Ventures, started his career in the Special Forces of the Australian Army as a counter-terrorism commando.  A frequent traveler, Anthony found himself at an airport and picked up a book by Richard Branson that talked about entrepreneurship...a word with which Anthony was unfamiliar at the time.

Anthony became obsessed with the idea that you could literally build something from scratch, from a blank sheet of paper.  He realized that a 'blank sheet of paper' was literally the most exciting thing in the world for him.  This was literally the beginning of his entrepreneurial journey.  The idea that anyone, from anywhere from any background can have an idea and turn that idea into reality.

This obsession pushed Anthony to come up with at least 20 business concepts, only one of which made sense for him to execute based on his military background.  Dynamiq, a company focused on crisis management, risk management, and international emergency evacuations, was born out of this process.

Twelve years later, Dynamiq was sold to a large insurance company and Anthony moved to Colorado to grow its US business.  Ending up in Boulder, Colorado, Anthony became more deeply involved in the startup scene.  He also built a social enterprise, did some lecturing, and decided after a time that with two small children, it was time to head back to Australia.

On the way home, he decided to take his children to a place that he and his then-new wife had visited 18 years earlier, the Great Barrier Reef.  While the reef was still amazing, something drastic had changed and this was a 'gut punch', epiphany moment for Anthony.  He wondered, 'With the resources and skills that I have if I am not making the world a better place for my kids, what will they think of me on my death bed?'Two or three months later he met his co-Founder Brian Keayes and the two started building out the infrastructure and vision for EarthTech Ventures.  The core philosophy is that we are in a global crisis around sustainability and that with the proper use of technology, entrepreneurs can have an exponential impact attacking the United Nations' 17 sustainability goals.

Their most ambitious (with more to come, for sure) accomplishment to date has been the EarthTech Challenge, a global competition that inspired 849 teams and almost 1,500 entrepreneurs from over 70 countries "to make discoveries, create the technologies and build the companies" to solve the world's biggest environmental and social issues.

I had the opportunity to speak with Nick Kengmana in the studio at True Digital Park.  Nick is a co-Founder of Go Beyond and is committed to building a community of purpose-driven entrepreneurs and helping them change the world. We had a pretty amazing conversation ranging from the impact of mechanized farming on society to the evolution of capitalism, with a bit of religion sprinkled in.

We also discussed how technology companies employ strategies to encourage dopamine hits and the differences between them and serotonin, which is sometimes called the ‘happy chemical’. We touched on the topic of the ‘scarcity mindset’ and how Nick believes that this is part of the root of many of society’s problems.  Nick believes that “Humanity, as a species, now has the capability to provide all the resources necessary for every human on earth to have a high quality of life. Scarcity has been a key driver of progress for the human species, but we’ve reached a point where there is no longer is true scarcity in our ability to provide enough for every human to have food, shelter, education, healthcare, opportunity, safety, etc.

Now scarcity and a scarcity mindset are no longer necessary and detrimental to the species, holding us collectively back and causing suffering around the world.

Often the best articulation of the future is presented as a continuation of the past…

I had a great conversation with Mark Blick, the Head of Government, Blockchain Technology at Diginex. Diginex is a global blockchain solutions company based in Hong Kong. They really focus on two broad themes, Financial Services and a Solutions and Advisory Business. Mark focuses on the intersection of where regulatory change and policy frameworks meet with private sector implementation.

Mark and I spent a lot of time talking about a project he and the team have been working on for the past year, modern slavery and forced labor…hence the title of this episode. We start with the fact that modern slavery is not new, but regulation seems to be catching up with this issue. The statistics around modern slavery will actually shock you…I know they surprised me. In terms of money size, it is second only to the illicit drug trade and only a minuscule fraction of the people impacted here are actually getting any kind of help.

Secondly, there are changing consumer behaviors…with consumers becoming much more cognizant of ethically how the companies whose products they buy actually operate. More specifically, modern slavery affects the products that consumers most commonly purchase and this awareness is forcing companies to take notice along with the changes in the global regulatory environment. These are not obscure companies…

To help combat the problem of modern slavery, Diginex worked on a project with the Mekong Club to pilot eMin in Thailand. eMin is a blockchain-based application designed to take a significant step towards improving the lives of migrant workers and to reduce the chances of exploitation, by engaging both the private and public sectors.

eMin was developed by Diginex, in partnership with the Mekong Club, and is designed to protect migrant workers and increase supply chain transparency. eMin enhances trust, transparency, and security in the worker recruitment process by storing an immutable copy of employment contracts and employment terms on the Ethereum blockchain.

Jeppe Mariager-Lam is originally from Denmark. He is currently the Technology and Innovations Manager at People in Need in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He first came to Cambodia after his wife got her Master's degree in International Development and got an internship with an NGO in Phnom Penh. This was actually Jeppe’s first time out of Europe.

His first job in Cambodia was working in a project management role for a software agency called Golden Gecko that was developing websites and apps for European clients. Work went well and Jeep got promoted to a senior position pretty quickly. More interesting was his and his wife’s experience adapting to the differences of living in Cambodia. In particular, they landed in Cambodia a day or two prior to the 2013 elections, which had its own, unique crisis. This election was quite contentious and the security officer at his wife’s NGO did not allow them to leave the hotel where they were staying for a week after the election. It was more surreal than scary…It was kind of like living in two different worlds.

After a couple of years of working in Cambodia, and a bit of burn-out, Jeppe and his wife decided to travel the world a bit before they took on the responsibility of dogs and children…in no particular order. While they were sitting and chatting on the Galapagos Islands, they both decided that they missed Cambodia and wanted to go back. It just felt like home to them…So they came home and Jeppe worked as a CTO for a bit before finding himself at People in Need.

People in Need is “a non-governmental, non-profit organization founded on the ideals of humanism, freedom, equality, and solidarity.” Find out more here…Essentially, People in Need is a Czech-based, global NGO with activities in over 25 countries, including the Philippines, Myanmar, Mongolia, Nepal, and Cambodia in Asia.

The project that Jeppe was most excited about was a disaster management project, focused specifically on floods and disaster risk reduction in terms of getting people out of harm's way before the floods become dangerous. This is quite a significant problem in Cambodia. Flood monitoring in Cambodia is not new. However, the methodology used prior to Jeppe and People in Need applying their technical solution was concrete poles on the banks of rivers measuring water height. Clearly, this was a suboptimal solution. The solution put in place by People in Need employs state-of-the-art IoT technology to enable flood measurement, management, and disaster prevention remotely. Listen to the full episode to learn more about their innovative solution to a real-world problem in Cambodia.

Sovan Srun and Maes Sak Pheng join the series on social innovation in Cambodia to discuss Edemy, their award-winning social enterprise. The Tesdopi learning app developed by Edemy recently won the Cambodia Total Startupper of the Year award and Sovan Srun won the Top Female Entrepreneur Award.

After returning from the USA where they were Fullbright scholars, they turned to develop Edemy, which has the mission of equalizing “access to quality learning for everyone everywhere." To achieve this mission they combine their expertise in "education and technology to create a holistic learning experience".

They launched Edemy in early 2017 and joined the EPIC Incubation Program by Development Innovations, a USAID-funded project. The EPIC Incubation program provided funding, mentorship, and business training for Edemy to grow. Since then, they have gone on to create a range of projects that are transforming the experience of education for thousands of young Cambodians. These projects have included a Blended English Program and Learning Labs for rural schools.

Their latest creation is the Tesdopi app, which Sovan describes as a Fitbit for learning. Having lived through the trauma of preparing for university entrance exams in Cambodia, Sovan and Meas Sak were well aware of many of the problems faced by students. But they dived deeper and sought to understand why so many students were failing to achieve their goals. Among multiple challenges, they found that one critical but addressable problem was that students had no means of monitoring their exam preparation progress. So, they developed the Tesdopi app which diagnoses the strengths and weaknesses of students. It then provides learning videos for students to work on their weaknesses and generates a report which students can share with their teachers to optimize support.

The conversation with Sovan and Meas Sak covers a range of other topics including their experience studying in the USA, leveraging technology to deliver education in rural Cambodia, and their efforts to inspire and expand the world of young Cambodians.

As part of our series on social innovation in Cambodia, we talk to Channé Suy Lan the Managing Director of InSTEDD's Southeast Asia iLab in Phnom Penh. InSTEDD stands for Innovative Support to Emergency Diseases and Disasters. It was founded by Larry Brilliant, who while working with a team to eliminate smallpox in India envisioned how technology could play a vital role in early disease detection and response. In 2006 he presented his vision in a TedTalk, which won the year's TED Prize and he used the prize money to launch InSTEDD. In 2008 they opened InSTEDD’s first iLab in Phnom Penh to spearhead innovations in Southeast Asia with the support of Google.Org and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Channé Suy Lan joined the iLab when it was launched and has since experienced first-hand the evolution in digital technologies. According to Channé, SMS was central to many of the technological solutions they developed in the early years of iLab but now the internet is widespread and also cheaper. However, she emphasizes the importance of recognizing how many new internet users are not exposed to the internet beyond Facebook.

During its 10 years, InSTEDD's iLab in Cambodia has been involved in many projects from creating a malaria surveillance system to supporting remote printing for HIV lab results. One of the latest and most impactful projects is the 115 Hotzone Disease Reporting and Information Hotline. Working closely with Skoll Global Threats Fund and the CDC (The Council for the Development of Cambodia), they launched the automated hotline in January 2016. The hotline is designed as a medium to report infectious diseases before they spread and is used by 1000 health centers around the country.

Channe goes on to discuss iLab's ICT4D Solution Incubator Initiative, which is supported by SPIDER. It aims to empower Cambodia-based development actors to integrate ICTs in their programs for maximum social impact. One project Channe illustrates is with the KAPE, an NGO that focuses on improving education outcomes in Cambodia. Together with the KAPE, they are developing interactive Khmer reading and writing learning apps for use on tablet computers that are shared in school libraries.

The conversation concludes with Channe discussing the importance of projects and solutions being owned by government service providers. “In every place that we do our projects, we are trying to engage the government and the ministry because the goal is to have them own it.”

In this episode, we are joined by Thavry Thon for an inspiring talk about education, literature, and social change in Cambodia. Thavry is the author of several children's books and a Proper Woman. She is also the co-Founder of the Seavphovjivet, a publishing house dedicated to supporting Cambodian authors and inspiring young people through literature. Thavry also tours the country speaking to young people about the value of education and taking control of their destiny.

The conversation begins with Thavry discussing the influence of her parents. She explains, “my parents believed in education, and told us it was the ticket to a better life." Other friends would quit school in grade 9 or 8 and go to work at garment factories to earn $80 to $100 per month but Thavry's parents had a different strategy. “They invested in the long-term education of their children in the hope that their children would have a better life than they have”. Thavry reflects on the sacrifices her parents made. "People talked about her [Thary's mother] behind her back for being foolish." But after seeing Thavry and her brother's success, the perspective of education and towards her parents changed. Now they see them as "successful parents who raised their children well."

Empowered by her parents, she started the journey towards becoming an author and founding a publishing house. Along the way, she was granted a scholarship to study in the Czech Republic and wrote two children's books through the Room to Read program. Eventually, she turned to writing books for young adults, including  A Proper Woman, which is an autobiographical account of challenging her country's social and cultural norms about being a woman.

When she went to publish a Proper Woman, she "found it difficult and frustrating dealing with many of the publishing firms and book shops, and felt there had to be a better way." So, she decided to learn how to publish herself and joined forces with other writers to create a Seavphovjivet Publishing.

Together they hope to reinvigorate the publishing industry in Cambodia and support the love of reading across the country. There is a perception that people don't like to read in but according to Thavry “readers don’t want to read because they cannot find good books to read.” Part of the problem is publishing firms don’t give enough support to authors. Seavphovjivet is on a mission to change that. "We know what writers feel like because we are writers too. We want to treat them fairly”, Thavry explains. Based on their approach, they were able to entice one of Cambodia's favorite authors, Mao Samnang, back to writing novels after nearly a decade-long hiatus.

Thavry’s mission is to inspire young Cambodians so she regularly travels the country speaking at schools and shares her story and the message that "it doesn’t matter where you are from, your destiny is your own. You design your own destiny."

Photo Credit: Eldon Lee JinHu

Michael Waitze spoke to Tara Dermott about how IOM X is using media to support safe migration experiences and stop trafficking and the exploitation of the vulnerable.

Originally from the USA, Tara Dermott moved to Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer 14 years ago. Stationed in the Northeast of Thailand near the Cambodian border, Tara learned about issues related to migration, leading her to work at IOM X as the program leader.

IOMX is an off-shoot IOM (International Organisation for Migration), which is the UN’s migration agency dedicated to humane and orderly migration, providing services and advice to both governments and migrants. In partnership with USAID, IOM X creates innovative campaigns to encourage safe migration and public action to stop exploitation and human trafficking.

One of the problems is, according to Tara, people tend to deny the existence of such migrant exploitation where they live. It's treated as someone else’s problem, so IOM X works to demonstrate what human trafficking and exploitation actually look like.

She explains the approach of IOM X and how it uses Communication for Development (C4D), which draws on the fields of sociology, psychology, communication, and marketing to impact attitudes and behaviors.

Young people are moving away from traditional media yet are the main targets of trafficking and the most likely to engage in migration, so IOM X studies how their target audience is engaging with new media and then develops campaigns aligned with their online behavior.

The organization has made a vast range of short videos related to exploitation, trafficking, the fair treatment of migrant workers, and safe migration that are circulated across social media platforms such as Youtube and Facebook. Storytelling and drama, Tara explains, is a powerful medium to engage, inspire, and influence the attitudes and behavior of their target audience. One video went viral and raked in over 170 million views.

Target countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines are in the top 10 countries of most time spent online - often on sites like YouTube, but cutting through the noise on the internet and social media noise is a challenge, so IOMX partnered with Google Thailand to identify and work with Youtube stars to empower young Thais to understand exploitation in the manufacturing sector and make more informed consumer decisions.

Based on IOMX’s immense experiences in deploying communication for behavioral and social change, they have developed a resource portal for educators, students, and practitioners seeking to use C4D to support migrants and address other pressing social issues.

You can access IOM X’s resources here:  https://iomx.iom.int/resources