Addressing Our Needs or The Need of The Hour?

Munna is an 18 year old unemployed college drop-out. He lives in the slums of Mumbai and would spend most of his time unproductively. Today, through supportive programs, he has received training in plumbing and is able to earn a sustainable amount.

Is this all that Munna is? Is this the real problem he has? Did Munna need training to be a plumber or electrician or if he was a Munni, training to be a tailor or beautician?

Cheap toilets, maths and English tuitions, vocational training, life skills workshops, mid day meal programs and many other such solutions add significant value to a larger plan. In silos, each initiative may not change lives or create impact. How effective is it to provide better pedagogy to a malnourished BPL child who goes home to an alcoholic unemployed father and an abused mother?

India has a rich philanthropic history of humanitarian work. Individual philanthropists, large business houses, non-profit organizations have worked for decades to improve lives of the needy. There have been philanthropists who went beyond charity to address the underlying causes that make charity necessary.

The mission was betterment of lives; however, traditional philanthropy had a limited impact on bridging the equity divide. The concept and practice of strategic philanthropy aimed at true, equitable, social change, while looking at a problem in entirety is still not common to India. Betterment of lives is addressed in parts depending on the belief of the philanthropist.

With the introduction of Section 135 in the Companies Act, the CSR mandate has altered the philanthropic world once again. It has brought an enhanced focus on sustainability, efficiency, accountability, processes and monitoring. But increasingly between the multiple approaches, concept notes, strategies, process documents, theories of change, there is one question that is probably not being answered. Does the beneficiary need this solution?

There is an increase in conversation around sustainable solutions that have a potential to scale, which is heartening. Considering the magnitude of philanthropic investment possible in the country today, such discussions are critical to progressive initiatives for systemic change that are scalable, sustainable, and replicable but also address critical questions such as: – How much of the plan is truly impacting the beneficiary?

Where beneficiaries are more than numbers in an excel sheet, or images in attractive collaterals, we can claim to be attempting solutions that drive systemic change. How sharp a program is, how crisp is the collateral, how scalable is the plan will seize to be of importance if the benefit does not reach the beneficiary. And here too, not the benefit that we want them to get, but the benefit they truly need.
So a skilling program that provides training in livelihoods to vulnerable youth derived from need analysis on demand for skills in the area becomes valuable. Additionally, mapping interest of the youth to available training makes for a significantly better value proposition. It not only provides for livelihoods but ensures the demand for the skills give the youth sustainable livelihoods.

Providing solutions after viewing a problem in its entirety, factoring in the socio-economic realities of the target beneficiaries, is becoming more critical as the complexity of social issues is increasing.

Corporate social responsibility can play an important role in sharpening this focus, strategizing around it, and driving the strategy to action resulting in impact, because this is the strength that exists in the corporate sector. This valuable strength can help in ensuring the benefit is for and reaches the beneficiary.

Philip Kotler, one of the leading authorities on marketing famously said, “the key to achieving organizational goals consists in determining needs and wants of target markets and delivering desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors.” Best practices and insights are available in plenty. Maybe what is needed is effort to apply them and ask the first fundamental question: – ‘what does the beneficiary really need?’

Naghma Mulla is the COO, EdelGive Foundation the philanthropic arm of Edelweiss Group. She spearheads its three verticals- Investments & Programmes, Fundraising & Partnerships and Employee Engagement. She is intensely involved with the Capacity Building Model wherein she works towards sourcing high quality solutions.