I was recently at “Skoll”, the biggest NGO/social entrepreneurship conference. From one conversation to the next, two topics popped up over and over……. and over

1. Scale, Scale, Scale
2. Scale through Government, Government, Government

We at OneDay Health grapple with these questions: how then Shall we scale? And shall we through Government? Right now we operate 88 one-nurse health centers which save lives in remote rural healthcare black holes. Our one nurse in one room model can get good primary care to people cheap and fast. But to get good healthcare to everyone, we’ll need to do more than “grow”, but “scale”.

If we continue to launch more health centers every year through donor money, we’ll do plenty of good but can only grow our impact in a linear-ish way. From 100 to 150 to 200 health centers. Each year we’ll have to increase our donations and budget to increase our impact. Even if we succeed we’ll never reach tens of millions of people. So what is this “scale” business and how could we get there? Kevin Starr has outlined two key principles of scale.

1. “Scale is about exponential [...]

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Outline:

(02:14) Three Concerns about Scale through Government

(02:55) Not the only way

(05:21) Should governments pay for the best interventions?

(05:57) Morally Dodgy

(07:10) Its really hard

(08:39) Poor Taxpayers not Excess Western Money now pay for the impact

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First published:

Source:

Linkpost URL:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-201440232

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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