Creating Value for the Poor with Lean IT by Dr. Khuloud Odeh

Copyright © Institut Lean France 2013

3 & 4 October, 2013 Paris, France

European Lean IT Summit 2013

Reaching the “Last Mile” of Poverty:

Creating Value for the Poor with Lean IT

Dr. Khuloud Odeh – Grameen Foundation

Reaching the “Last Mile” of Poverty: Creating Value for the Poor with

Lean IT

Khuloud Odeh Steve Bell Lean IT Summit 3 &4 October, 2013

Paris, France

7 Billion people, 27% live in absolute poverty, 1 billion live on less than

$1.25 a day, and more than 3 billion live on less than 2.50 a day

22,000 children die each day due to poverty (UNICEF)

2.2 billion children in the world, 1 billion in poverty..every second child

Rural areas account for 3 in every 4 people living on less than $1.0 a

day

The poorest children are most likely to be out of school (UN MDG 2013 Report)

Global Poverty

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5

Our Heritage

Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus

Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank;

launched Grameen Telecom in 1997

Began microfinance work in 1976 after beginning in agriculture;

launched Grameen Bank in 1983 and other Grameen

organizations over time

Gave $6,000 grant to launch

the Foundation in 1997 and served on board for 12 years

Today, we are a world-class team of professionals, partners and

volunteers who are committed to freeing the world from abject poverty.

Grameen Foundation by the Numbers

$225 Million in local currency

leveraged through Growth Guarantees

program to support microfinance in 13

countries.

1.2 Million new borrowers have

received microloans via our Growth

Guarantees program.

9.4 Million of the world’s poor helped

by our MFI partners.

200,000 poor, rural farmers helped by

over 1,100 CKWs in Uganda.

6

90% of people earning <$1.25/day are

covered by the 200 institutions around the

globe using the PPI.

1.2 Million customers served by

12,000+ micro-entrepreneurs through

Mobile Micro-franchising in Indonesia.

22% increase in crop prices earned by

farmers with access to a CKW.

43% of the farmers we can reach are

‘very poor’, helped by 35% of our CKWs

being women serving women

20,000 women enrolled in the MoTeCh

maternal and infant health information

service in Ghana

100,000 hours contributed by more

than 700 volunteers in 600 projects

worldwide (worth $5.5 million)

Challenges Faced By The Poor

Lack of essential

and actionable

information

Inability to tolerate

shocks and

manage risks

Insufficient &

inconsistent

income

Needs are

not understood &

sub-par services

are delivered

7

Financial Services

Provide appropriate, innovative products to

manage household cash flows and risk

Information Services

Build two way flows of trusted, actionable information (esp. agriculture and health)

Tools and Insights for Anti-poverty Orgs

Mobile-based management and poverty

measurement tools, skilled volunteers and human capital resources

Progress out of Poverty Index® (PPI®)

MEASURE Poverty Outreach

TRACK Poverty Over Time

ASSESS Social Performance

A poverty measurement tool for

organizations with a mission to

serve the poor

10 easy-to-answer questions and a

scoring system

Provides the likelihood that the

survey respondent’s household is

living below the poverty line

Country-specific; there are PPIs for

46 countries

www.progressoutofpoverty.org

Rural poor have limited income

opportunities and lack of access to

quality healthcare and financial

services

Leader in IT and Mobile Development

(ICT4D) serving the poor

9

World’s population

living within reach

of mobile signal 80%

Opportunity with Mobile Technology

# Employees by Office

US Based

Program and

Support Staff

Colombia: mAg

& Financial

Services

Ghana:

mHealth Kenya: mAg

& Financial

Services

Uganda: mAg

& Financial

Services

Indonesia:

Financial

Services

India: mHealth

& Financial

Services

10

Philippines:

Financial

Services

Cote d’Ivoire:

mAg Guatemala:

mAg

Grameen Foundation Mobile Tech Efforts

Connecting the World’s Poor..

The CIO Challenge @ GF

To strategically “leverage IT” at GF to enable the poor, especially the

poorest, to create a world without poverty

How to transform IT to support a technology innovative, dynamic, mission-

driven, global organization

How to Support 200 plus staff across the globe with scarce resources

available (2 IT team members and a small budget)

To enable productivity, mobility and flexibility in challenging work environment

in terms of connectivity and IT infrastructure

HOW to: Connect .. Deliver.. Innovate

Four Levels of Leverage

• IT and mobile solutions development and Tools

• program management

• Impact Assessment reporting

• Donor Management

• fund raising

• Business development

• IT Infrastructure

• Keeping the lights on

• User productivity GF User-

facing

Donor/ External

User-facing

Poor-facing

Programs and

Regions-facing

Commodity/ Service Technology

Added-value Technology

Strategies for leveraging IT@GF

• Strategies:

• Pilot

• Build solutions

• Improve and scale

• Strategies:

• Connect

• Deliver

• Measure

• Strategies:

• Buy/ subscribe for service applications

• cooperate / share solutions with other NGOs

• Strategies:

• outsource

• Drive cost out

GF User-facing

Donor/ External

User-facing

Poor-facing

Programs and

Regions-facing

Outsourced/ managed/

Cloud-based

Salesforce CRM

PPI, KM, M&E, PM

ICT4D

Strategy Priority Action

• Strategies:

• outsource

• Drive cost out

User-facing

Outsourced/ managed/

Cloud-based

- IT Services Stability - Connectivity - Telecommunication - Lean/Infrastructure-less - Go Local - Simplify and streamline processes (Automated and self-service) - Drop complex/under utilized systems - Move to service-based models (cloud) - Standardize (what matters) - User-centric - Mobility & productivity - Smart Asset Management

Actions: - Google Apps - Box - Managed Support

Strategy Priority Action

• Strategies:

• Buy/ subscribe for service applications

• cooperate / share solutions with other NGOs

Donor/ External

User-facing

CRM Priorities -Single source of truth - Visibility and access to information on key donors and partners relationships - Transparency - Ability to tell our story - Sharing information and collaboration with partners

Actions - Salesforce.com CRM - AffinaQuest Fundraising Mgt - Volunteer Management System

• Strategies:

• Connect:

• Deliver

• measure

Programs and

Regions-facing

PPI, KM, M&E, PM

Priorities -Effective programs management (PM) - Global and Regional communication - Impact Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) - Knowledge Management (Feedback loops and capturing lessons learned)

Actions: - Salesforce Phase II -Upgrade connectivity - standard cloud based PM tool - Training- Capacity Building - InterCall International plan

Strategy Priority Action

• Strategies:

• Pilot

• Build solutions

• Improve and scale

Poor-facing

ICT4D

Priorities - ICT4D Thought Leadership - Innovative use of Technology - Tech skills development -Collaboration among technology development

Actions - NetHope membership - Field Force Innovation - technology collaboration group (Tech_Collab)

Strategy Priority Action

In the midst of the IT

Transformation I got

introduced to… LEAN IT

and the Lean4NGO

community!!

Steve Bell

The Value I saw in Lean IT

Integrate IT capabilities with business processes,

products and services

Bring operational excellence to our innovative and

agile approach in leveraging IT in the four levels

Help identify problems, guide improvement and

increase value delivery of the cloud-based and

outsourced IT systems and services

2011: Demonstrating the Value of Lean IT

“Lean Leadership” workshop (pro-bono from Steve Bell) to

introduce Lean to leaders of the support services groups: HR, IT,

Operations, and Finance

New Hire On-Boarding Process was selected as the case study

process for the workshop

Results

• Significantly improved process (still running smoothly till today)

• Training of support services leadership and an in-house resource to

lead the improvement of other processes

In 2012: Slower Adoption Why

- Organization Leadership Restructure

- Revised organization strategy

- Value of Lean IT in program delivery and solutions for the

poor was not demonstrated

- Technology Development work was program (budget)-

driven and not coordinated

Impact on IT - Delayed strategic leverage of IT capability in the programs-facing and poor-facing levels

In 2013: new opportunity

A challenge faced by the Community

Knowledge Worker (CKW) technology

program in Uganda presented a new

opportunity for demonstrating the value of

Lean IT in programs that create value directly for the Poor

What is the CKW Program ?

Ask Me About Farming !

Community Knowledge Worker (CKW)

- Launched in Uganda in 2009 with support from Bill

and Melinda Gates Foundation

- Addresses the “Last Mile” challenge for

Agriculture Extension Services by combining

mobile technology and human networks

- Help smallholder farmers get accurate, timely

information to improve their farming and

livelihoods.

Android Apps SMS + USSD (178)

Call Center (178)

CKWs Farmers

Production Cloud Server (1)

Local + MTN Test/Backup Servers (7)

MTN Mobile Network

Project Management Cloud Server (1)

Salesforce Production

Farmer management

Poverty scorecard

Survey management

Bulk messaging

CKW + farmer groups

Handset + simcard control

CKW management Content Management System

Call center & case management

Dashboards

Reporting Performance tracking

Custom applications

Radio

Expert, local databases

Progress out of Poverty Index® data collection embedded

Partnerships at all levels

Adoptable information & services

CKW Program Impact ! 2009/10 2011/12 Change

Best Practice Crop Spacing (No CKW) 28% 39% 11%

Best Practice Crop Spacing (CKW) 41% 79% 38%

Best Practice Fertilizer Use (No CKW) 32% 33% 1%

Best Practice Fertilizer Use (CKW) 42% 73% 31%

Price Received by Farmers for Maize (No

CKW)

354 UGX/kg 495 UGX/kg 40% increase

Price Received by Farmers for Maize

(CKW)

354 UGX/kg 721 UGX/kg 103% increase

Lessons learned from CKW

Understand the customer

29

Data can improve outcomes

Design for scale

Build the business case

Information alone is not enough

Behavior Change vs. Info Increase

To create value for the poor

The CKW Challenge

- Scale and Replicate CKW (immediate need in Cote’d’Ivoire )

-Delivery of mobile financial services through

the CKW channel

- Attract and sustain funding

Requires

Document Standard Operating Procedures (SOP)

Identify and Improve Key Processes

Capture Best Practices

Demonstrating the Value of Lean IT in Programs

June 2013: “Lean Leadership”

workshop (pro-bono from Steve and

Karen Bell) to introduce Lean to CKW

program leadership and teams

• CKW program teams

• Mobile Financial Services

Product Design and Development

Service Delivery

Content Development and Analysis

Customer Care

The Lean Journey with CKW

Day1: Walking in the shoes of a CKW

Day2: Introduction to Lean and visual

management tools - Kanban

Day3: Process Value Stream Mapping & Scrum

Overview

Day4: Priorities

Day5: Action Plan & Celebration

Day 1: Walking in the shoes of a CKW

Destination:

Masindi District 200KM from Kampala

Challenges

- Connectivity

- Phone Maintenance

- Weather info

- Content Update

- Farmers expectations

- Transportation and Distances

- Financial Support

- Culture - Value of info Trust .. Leadership.. Self Organization..

Day 2: Workshop Kick Off

Why we are here:

- Scale CKW

- Improve CKW framework to deliver Mobile

Financial Services ( and other future extension

service)

Obstacles as seen by the teams

Long meetings, Communication, Change in way of

thinking, Continuity of program, Resources,

Training, budgets

Visual Management Tools

Kanbans

Day 3: Value Stream Mapping &

Scrum The Chaos before improvement

Process Mapping:

Partner/District Startup

Sustaining Operations

Country/ Expert Startup

Scrum

Product design and development

team (Android and Salesforce)

Day 4: Process Mapping and Priorities

- New Country Startup Process

(Preparing for CKW Cote’d’Ivoire)

-Solutions Workshop Process

- Procurement and Phone Maintenance

Process

Day 5: Action Plan, Report Out, and

Celebration

- Solutions Workshop (partner/district startup)

SOP

- Daily Stand up Meetings

- Lean Coach in Training: Charles Wanume

- Scrum Master: Eric Kamara

- Steve & Karen Bell continue to coach

-Kanban: individuals and teams

- Start utilizing A3 Problem solving

- CKW Fellow: Lean/ Agile/ Scrum

Impact in 5 months

“'We began our lean transformation 5 months ago. Since the implementation of

Kanbans, scrums/agile, root cause problem solving and value stream mapping, I

have seen the organization's walls coming down and the collective consciousness

rising. We are starting to celebrate problem solving and we are proactively helping

colleagues to unblock flow. But most importantly, we are experiencing a renewed

focus on creating value for the world's poor.'“ Sean Krepp

Country and CKW Program Director

Grameen Foundation Uganda

Value of Lean IT is recognized by Leadership now !

Lean@GF Community

Socializing Lean through Salesforce chatter group community of practice

Next: Organization Lean Transformation

40

- Roadmap for Leveraging IT capability in

programs-facing and poor-facing is resumed:

- IT will champion Lean Transformation Initiative

through programs and organization at large

- Applying Lean IT in data strategy, big data and

business intelligence initiative

How You Can Engage?

- Share with me your organization “Lean Transformation” experience

- Join Grameen Foundation Skillanthropy Volunteers Community of over 5000

members at BankersWithoutBorders.com

- Consider becoming the next “Lean Fellow” with one of our programs

- Visit Lean4NGO.org and join the LinkedIn group

- Find an NGO where you can help – make them a pro bono member of your

client portfolio

- Talk to a Lean Enterprise about making Lean Coaching part of CSR efforts

Become a Lean IT Community Knowledge Worker, and I will ask you

about Lean!

THANK YOU

Copyright © Institut Lean France 2013

3 & 4 October, 2013 Paris, France

More Lean IT videos and presentations on www.lean-it-summit.com