A Quick Look at what I intend to do at Milaap

Originally Written for IDEX at http://commonthreadx.ning.com/blog/work-plan-work-in-progress-soon-to-build-with-idex

Milaap has stepped into lending and supporting the Education Sector for the first time. The domains that Milaap has been working on are water, sanitation, health & others. The business model of lending is completely different from the other domains. The entire process of raising and allocating funds, sourcing applications, tying up with educational institutions, candidate verification, collections, repayment schedules, etc. have to be designed from scratch. At present, the market reach is very minimal. The business has just started and the working model is under discussion. My role is to design a system that ensures a smooth flow of the process. It is a pilot project and I am responsible for implementing standard operating procedures and practices to run the business. The following briefly cover my deliverable at Milaap partially over the next 6 months.

Building Milaaps risk management frameworks for wide range of loan products (education loans, green loans, SMEs etc)

The actions which I will take would be to research on the acceptable practices in the industry & verify whether it's feasible to apply for the product which we are building on. As the pilot project is live, I'm already working out & looking out for options which can help reduce the risk & also have suggested on couple of actions on the legal aspect which could help us  overcome the loss which otherwise would be incurred. This will be done on continuous basis throughout 6 months.

Building appraisal and rating systems that aid in field partner selection

As Milaap  has just begun to reach out to the training institutes. The Co founder is working on it as he wants to know the ground reality & I will be trained on the same after 2 months from now.

Managing portfolio risk as well developing and executing policies and practices to limit Milaap lenders; exposure to loss

This is an on going process. Trying to learn & find out more by interacting with the target audience, institutes & all other stakeholders involved. This helps to know on the psychology of the various stakeholders & thereby trying to set up a control point which can defeat the purpose of lag in the process.

Build frameworks and tool to understand the social performance of our field partners and measure the impact of these loans on the poverty level of their clients

This will done once we start expanding. When discussed with the Co founder he wants this work to begin from when we a handful of field partners. Suggested to begin after 4 months from now.

Manage Field Partner relationships and communications. Including traveling to train field partners' staff on Milaap's processes

An on going process as the business is in the introductory stage wherein there is a requirement of a continuos communication.        

Studying the Impact of Women Empowerment Initiatives in Tribal Villages

Originally Written for IDEX at http://commonthreadx.ning.com/blog/women-empowerment-at-tribal-village-impact-evaluation

I guess life's about to take an interesting turn as I plan to take up an Impact Evaluation Study as a part of my IDEX Fellow program. The opportunity has come from Youth for Seva (YFS), which is primarily a platform to provide opportunities for youth who want to take active part in community development. Through this platform, YFS aims to empower youth to become positive change makers who will enable organizations and institutions to work without a vested interest. The goal of YFS is to support schools, NGOs, government hospitals and other organizations in the social sector through volunteers who can help them mitigate some of their shortcomings and challenges. Volunteering is made easy and customized to the individual’s interests and time constraints.

So, my role is to visit all these places where YFS has taken initiatives to empower women and the society and prepare a Social Impact Evaluation Report on these projects. Basically the project would involve analyzing on the impact that the organisation has made on the lives of the women's coming from the rural background. These women's are trained in Bangalore and then placed on the various projects at tribal villages in Karnataka. The projects are running successfully over a period of time. But then there has been no report which speaks about the work going on and the impact it has made. Thus, I will have to travel to these tribal villages, prepare a report which will portray and give the whole idea about the project. Further define the actions which can help better the impact of the project in terms of employ-ability, build life skills and there by look out for the platforms wherein the organisation can provide them with more opportunities to help them build their lives.I would define these objectives to be achieved in 3 different stages as follows:

Data Collection and Research
At the first stage I would be interested to know about the organisation in detail. The structure, business model, different projects they are involved in and every other detail which would give a whole idea of what is the purpose of it's establishment. Further, would be meeting people who could give me a background about the project which I'll be associated and work in the coming days. Also, I would be conducting research about the tribal villages which I'll be visiting so as to be familiar with the culture and norms which will be help me conduct an interview with ease which in turn will enable to me to get all the questions answered to support the impact report. I will also be working on the questionnaire which will help me ensure all the aspects will be covered in preparation of the report.

Field Visit:

Once done with collection of the data and well versed with the organisation and people, I would be required to visit the tribal village and thereby conduct an interview with the ladies there and get all the required information which in detail explains about the entire process which went into making the impact.

Report Submission

After the visit would be working on the tools and procedures which can help me in preparation of the impact report which will give a clear picture about where the project is heading and what will be needed to take a step ahead to enable in impacting more lives.

I'm sure this is going to be a highly challenging and a definitely interesting project.

Exploring the Unexplored... Unlearning the Learning... Building with IDEX...

Originally Written for IDEX at http://commonthreadx.ning.com/blog/explored-the-unexplored-unlearning-the-learnings-building-one-sel

In midst of a brand new social journey with IDEX, I have been experiencing lot of emotions, situations and challenges, which made me pause for a while and reflect on what has been added to my life, personally and professionally. I joined IDEX with a purpose to apply whatever skills I possess, make use of my strengths, thereby also challenging myself to build a better world around in whatever way I can. Further I wanted to try, experiment, learn, unlearn and relearn my beliefs and assumptions. The biggest learning for me has been of creating an opportunity in-spite of less space to accommodate oneself. The strong opinion that invoked me is to create your own space irrespective of whatever challenges one face. As I could believe by this practice that challenges are temporary and this is the time one needs to put in extra effort to figure out what one wants out of the situation. Being calm and thinking about the solutions with various options has helped me to deliver the best of my capabilities in the job till date. Social Enterprise was completely a new sphere of work for me as I had worked earlier in the MNC's. One major difference I could see in this space is that efforts of the organizations are built to get the basic facilities or accommodate the people at BOP with the facilities that can enhance their living experiences with having fulfilled the basic needs. This becomes very essential as a economy as a whole because in India it is said that until and unless the poverty & unemployment is not eradicated a country cannot progress & around 33% of the population is below poverty line according to the UN report 2013. The companies working out of social sphere are focused on making the experiences better for the one's who already have enough to live life with all comforts. They are attracting and creating a market which enriches the experience of the population who are already self sufficient with everything that is required to lead a normal life. Agree that economic development of the country is very essential but then this development need to drive along all the people irrespective of the financial strata only then we can see the real difference and growth in the economy.

When we say industries, we refer to the group of companies who build the products and services which caters to the needs of the industry. These companies usually tend to be organised as they need to ensure output in a timely manner. To manage the process they have core departments specialized in Human Resource, Marketing, Finance, IT, Maintenance, Facility, Security and many more. Each department has its own set of goals apart form the Mission/Vision of the company at the Strategic level. Marketing department caught my attention because this is one branch which drives the entire business as it involves in promoting the products, sell it and thereby earn revenue for the company. It aims in numbers, meaning it aims to increase material wealth. Further if we observe the companies operating in a particular industry try to compete with each other in providing better or an additional service in comparison to its competitors.On the other hand if you observe marketing team in a social sphere they are trying to build human network than building an asset. Trying to earn wealth not to amass wealth for it's company or employees but for the people around who are in real need. Wondered how the same marketing department have complete two dimension of goal. It was amazing to learn in this social space.

Have learnt to deal with the unexpected situations, overcome them by handling it with effective communications. Allot time to research on the work assigned which helps to deepen the knowledge & has helped to implement the solutions effectively. Understanding the various processes & skills that goes into building a team or a project. Developing marketing and fund raising skills which I never explored. The research attributes to a major extent in my work and playing a great role to ensure for the right action at the right time. Awaiting for more learning and exploring the microcredit industry and social enterprise as a whole in the second half in the journey of IDEX.