Mothers United of South America (MUSA)

Our solution addresses the ECD program access gap in Colombia by scaling up our network of 500+ Community mothers. Low Income Colombian and migrant women are increasingly at risk of abuse and violence for not having access to subsidized ECD programs. Our close knit support network for low-income women is built on 18 years of experience and on principles of innovative finance. 

The recent integration of IT solutions has helped mothers and children to have access to a virtual network of experts in health, nutrition, and childcare during the Covid crisis. Integrating MomConnect and Merkit allowed 10,000 children to continue receiving support as well as receive foods when education center and clinics were closed. 

Access to the ECD program allowed young mothers with the opportunity to return to work or study. The use of IT Solutions allows families to drastically reduce cost of foods.  

While access to ECD program for low-income family is law in Colombia, the government agency in charge of the program is continuously underfunded, leaving more than 2 millions Colombian children without access to the subsidized program and 700,000 migrant women without access to services. Young mothers are trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and violence with no options to study and/or work. 

Increasing pressure on the social programs due to large flows of immigration is weakening the program. As the Covid-19 pandemia is further complicating the situation for governments and mothers, our model managed to serve participants in the program because of our local approach.

Access to medical or nutrition information, childcare services, and professional services related to children are not coordinated making it further difficult for women to receive the required help.

Only 30% of migrant women apply for their visa, reducing their ability to access ECD ad social programs for the lack of knowledge about the processes to apply, making them more vulnerables to violence and abuse. 

Our solutions addresses the ECD service delivery gap by implementing a social entreprise solution that will ensure all children receive access to services.  

Building on 18 years of expertise in providing ECD program to more than 10,000 mothers on a daily basis, our solution developed in partnership with the private sector and the government agency responsible for children and adolescents, leverages innovative finance models to scale up. Using MomConnect and Merkit, we create local collective purchasing groups that: 1) Partially finance ECD program, 2) reduces the cost of foods to families in the program, 3) allows for young mothers and their children to access to public health government subsidies. 

Our social business model (Cooperative of Community Mothers), brings efficiency and financial sustainability to the program by leveraging the purchasing power of millions of low-income mothers. The savings generated by the purchasing program support families with access to nutritious food and redirects half of the savings in generating new spaces for children. This new funding stream allows the government to co-finance access to the program by reducing the cost associated with nutrition.

Supported by technology solutions (Merkit and MomConnect), Community Mothers have been able to coordinate distribution of foods, provide direct support to mothers in child stimulation, as well as support mothers in access to medical needs / questions. 

Coomacovalle network of +500 Community Mothers, 800+ professional staff (majority women) has been recognized as one of the most effective to reach and support women and children at risk. During the Covid crisis, the local network has helped mothers receive essential care, information, and support.  

The virtual application Merkit allowed mothers to reduce the cost of food and goods by leveraging the purchasing power of the collective which has helped prevent problems with malnutrition. The MomConnect application allowed mothers to continue receiving important childcare and health support. 

As the economy reactivates, the program allows mothers to return to work or study further supporting them in being financially independent. This is crucial in order to reduce violence and abuse against women and children.

For migrant women, the support network allows them to receive help during the migration application process so that they can access the subsidized healthcare system, social programs such as ECD, and other government programs. 

Our impacts are numerous as the delivery of ECD not only supports the children but also provides an opportunity for women to return to school or work. Such programs are now recognized as crucial for women's empowerment. 

Low income and migrant women with young children do not have the same access to quality children and mother care. Our network of 500+ Community Mothers in Colombia allows young mothers (and mothers to be) to have access to a local of support that is connected with the health system.

It allows women to have access to information about programs available to them as well as connect with their network of support via MomConnect. The Coomacovalle Collective Purchasing program also supports family to receive food and goods that are expensive and essential for young mothers.

Paying for access to childcare services is one of the major barrier for young mothers to return to school or work. Without access to the programs mothers are: 1) exposed to violence and abuse 2) their children may not receive proper stimulation and nutrition 3) mothers are often isolated with no access to professional help as health services are often not available in low income neighbourhoods. The success of Coomacovalle to bring services to mothers and 10,000+ children on a daily basis is built on strengthening the work of community mothers that serve as point of services and information.

Using the collective purchasing power of families, Coomacovalle works with Merkit to reduce food / goods cost as well provide access to nutritious food. The Hybrid distribution model generates efficiency and cost savings that are equally passed on to participating families as well as re-invested in the scaling up of the program (opening new ECD space). 

Other service providers focus on childcare only. At Coomacovalle, we work with our the families of the children in the program to make sure that their mothers have immediate and accurate access to health, childcare, and nutrition information on demand. Our motto - it takes a child to raise a village speaks to the economic and social opportunities that comes from the delivery of ECD.

Individually these families are poor and subject to pay higher prices for goods - together they generate a collective powers for economic opportunities. 

The cost of data and access to smartphone technology is a significant barrier for programs that depend entirely on complex technologies. Using two applications (MomConnect and Merkit) allows mothers to connect with a network of professional in nutrition, health, and childcare services. The socioeconomic data information received by the program helps target the collective needs of women in a particular geographic area of the city. 

Nutritionist provide and distribute short education video on cooking with nutritious food, childcare experts provide series of activities for mothers to do with their children, migrant women connect with virtual support to apply for their residence visa allowing them to access healthcare services and social programs.

Merkit allows families to connect to food distribution and donation in order to support children and their families to receive the appropriate amount of nutrition that is part of the program. The application (platform) allows for large businesses to complement food requirements by donating food directly via Coomacovalle's internal distribution system - allowing children to receive the appropriate nutrition. 

The technology solutions have allowed Coomacovalle to continue with the ECD program during the lockdown as well as monitor the need of mothers and their children. 

The technology solution MomConnect from South Africa was mostly used by mothers with HIV. As it runs on Whatsapp, the ease of use and little needs of data makes it simple for mothers to use in order to receive health support. The technology is used by more than 2 million mothers and the positive impact has been studied by several independents researchers. The application is widely used in South Africa - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj9JtT-DCE0

Instead of developing a new application, we are working with MomConnect to make changes that will enhance the current use of the application to serve all low-income mothers that are in the ECD program or looking for support. We have demonstrated that during the Covid crisis mothers used the application to connect with experts as well as receive information from health authority. 

Nutrition is an important pillar of the ECD program. This is where children receive 70% of their daily needs. During the lockdown, Merkit and Coomacovalle coordinated the distribution of food via the platform. Corporations actively used the platform to distribute food baskets to low-income families that were identified by Coomacovalle. Merkit provided information back to donors in order to help assess the impact of their contribution - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62b3ralFLPA

The following overarching Theory of Change summarizes how concrete actions that takes at the local and regional levels contribute to the impacts and outcomes across each of the five goal areas of the plan, as well as the cross-cutting priorities of gender equality and humanitarian action.

Our TOC Impact Statement - Resources are dedicated to improve parenting practices and to connect parents with community resources, social supports, and health servicesOur longterm impact goal as the Alliance for this project is improving nutritional status through the evidence based  and research proven Early Childhood Development model in Colombia. 

We have identified four (4) pathways with separate immediate outcomes which will converge into our longterm impact goal. Our first pathway is improving the supply side of the Hybrid Value Chain where we work directly with farmers, suppliers and community mothers through capacity building and technology on the delivery of healthy and affordable food. 

Our second pathway is the behaviour change intervention we conduct with mothers of infants in the ECD program on the preparation and consumption of balanced diets assuring a strong demand on products from the Hybrid Value Chain. 

Finally, there is the sustainable transition pathway allowing Colombia’s ECD model to transition towards a pay-for-result model based on the critical data collected by the Alliance. This pathway requires for the Alliance to build and maintain strong relations with policy makers that are key in this transition process.

The program is currently provided to more than 10,000 families. As the Covid-19 pandemia increase the need to connect young mothers and mothers, we began collaboration with Merkit and MomConnect to rapidly and efficiently distribute food to families in need who normally would have received this while attending ECD programs. 

The Merkit application allowed Coomacovalle to create Collective Purchasing groups in order to reduce the cost of nutritious food and connect smallholder farmers to low income families. We expect that we can increase the numbers of beneficiary by 20% within one year and reach more than 2 million women by year five. 

The numbers of people directly impacted by our solution can significantly increase depending on our ability to raise the appropriate levels of funds required for the scaling up of the program. As ECD programs require physical infrastructures and the engagement of several professionals from nutritionist, community mothers, psychologist, and health experts; the deployment of new facilities need to be coordinated with community leaders and the health sector. 

As some of the most vulnerable groups that are left outside of the ECD program are in hard to reach area, the implementation requires negotiation with community leaders in order to be able to cross invisible barriers that affect program delivery.

Our Social Business Model has demonstrated success and impact over the past 18 years, our plan aims to work with government authorities to jointly close the delivery gap.

We believe that our strategic approach to growth over the past 18 years has made a significant positive impact with all women and children that have participated in the program. Our program has already impacted (directly and indirectly) millions of women and children.

Working in some of the most vulnerables areas of Colombia requires patience and community engagement - trust is the most expensive currency. 

Researches have now demonstrate that the delivery of ECD programs delivers multiple impacts that goes beyond attending young children. We have demonstrated that the impact on mothers and families as well as the local economy supports smallholder farmers in the supply of foods to the program, that the delivery of services generate economic development and the structuring of new productive units around the program. 

Coomacovalle has been recognized for the positive impact generated. Our recent efforts to connect to global platforms and partners has generated interest from private funders to invest in the model. 

The next year will focus on completing the Business Model and Investment Plan. 

At the same time, we will continue working with government authorities and IT experts to improve the technology solutions. Scaling up efforts with migrant communities and community leaders will help lay the path to integrating more children and their mothers. 

Collective Food purchasing program will be rolled out to other communities in partnership with the private sector and Merkit. 

The government programs that allows to identify mothers in needs are well deployed in Colombia but government agencies lack the financial resources to reach low-income families and most particularly young mothers and their children. 

In order to open new spaces for children left outside of the program, the government will need additional funding. The on-boarding of children and their mothers is further complicated by the invisible barriers that restrict entrance in low-income neighborhoods.

Access to subsidized ECD program is legislated bylaw and the government have full authority to finance access. The problem is limited to the lack of financing by government authorities and the lack of proposals to build a social enterprise model. 

Over the past 18 years, Coomacovalle has demonstrated that it's possible to implement a model that will generate new revenues as well as bring efficiency by creating economies of scale.  

Our business models is being adjusted to allow private investment to support the program. These new investments will be blended with public finance in order to increase the amount of space in the program. 

Working with community mothers in low-income neighborhood will ensure that the delivery of the program is widely accepted by the community. The recent partnership with private sector companies in the food industry will help in reducing the cost of foods sold to members. These savings will be shared between users and the opening of new spaces.  

We are working closely with government authorities to build the a public and private partnership to close the ECD access gap.

Our solution team is nested within Coomacovalle as a unit that focuses on innovative finance modeling, integration of technology solutions such as Fintech, education, and healthtech. We leverage existing data from the ECD program to help increase impact and adapt existing IT solutions to reduce fragmentation in the delivery of services. Our work supports the mission of Coomacovalle by implementing innovative solutions for longterm financial sustainability of the programs.

We help create alliance and connect needs with financial opportunities. Our team brings new knowledge from international partners allowing for greater collaboration.

Our solution teams at Coomacovalle operates with five full-time staff. We connect to programs like Impact2030 and Moving Worlds to attract professional volunteers in providing a specific set of skills for the different needs of the solutions. We have currently engaged over 50 volunteers from both Colombia, the USA, Canada, and Holland to support the development of the solutions. 

These volunteers have conducted survey with programs participants, study impact measurements opportunities, connected the subsidized healthcare system, conducted their thesis research, business modeling, marketing / communications, and integration of technology solutions.  

Our core team comes from different background and offer complimentary skills to the successful implementation of the scaling up strategy. 

As the Project Director, Luc brings several years of expertise in finance and development. He is also a Senior Advisor to several international platform such as Concordia.net and Impact2030.com. Luc manages the relationships with government agencies and potential investors.   

Gloria Pena is the Founder and President of Coomacovalle. She brings 25 years of experience in managing the ECD program, 800+ staff, 500+ Community mothers, and several contractors. 

Marcos Rios has led the information technology transformation at Coomacovalle. He was instrumental in the design of the data system that generates information on more than 10,000 children and their families. 

Gideon Blaauw leads the development of the Social Enterprise Business Model in partnership with the private sector and professionals. 

As Chief Nutritionist, Patricia Cortes Bonilla is working closely with all nutritionist in the program and food providers in order to develop menus for 10,000 kids. Patricia leads the student mentorship program that are in charge of developing short video and recipes for mothers and family. 

Our team is supported by professional volunteers that bring a specific set of skills during project development and implementation. Staff at Coomacovalle, provide technical support in the services delivery of ECD program in communities at risk. 

Over the past two years, we have managed to attract grant funding from Gates Foundation to support the development of solutions. The funding allowed our team to further develop partnership with 

- Colombia Fintech to integrate financial solutions.

- Impact2030 to provide volunteers on various topics

- Gestarsalud to connect the needs of mothers and children in the program with the subsidized healthcare system.

- Praekelt.org to use / integrate MomConnect in Spanish

- Merkit to organize communities in Collective Purchasing Groups (reducing cost of foods and goods)

- Moving World to provide key professionals that travel at their own expenses to the site in Colombia.

- The International Center for Tropical Agriculture which brings expertise on working with smallholder farmers - connecting agricultural products through Hybrid Value Chain

- Colombian Association of Foodbanks as hubs for food distribution to

This is a short list of partners that are providing professional supports to the development of the solutions within Coomacovalle. These partnerships have supported the growth of Coomacovalle as well as help provide key solutions for the Office of the President of Colombia in implementing solutions for the increase flow of migrant women in needs of access to healthcare. 

Cooomacovalle (Cooperative of Community Mothers) is one of the largest providers of Early Childhood Education program in Colombia. Our services include a wide range of good and services that complement the early education to low income families. The cooperative provide direct employment to 800 staff, 500+ community mothers, and 24 productive units.

Our cooperative grew from a humble start of 15 kids to now serving more than 10,000 kids on a daily basis. Coomacovalle depends entirely on the revenues received by the state to provide services, putting at risk the financial sustainability of the cooperative 

With Moving World, we have been working on the Social Business Model for scaling up nationally and having a financially sustainable model. The cooperative manages close to $10 million USD annually in program delivery. 

The Covid-19 crisis nudged Coomacovalle to quickly integrate IT solutions to address the needs of mothers and children during social distancing and the closing of ECD centers. 

As the program provide an opportunity to organize Collective Purchasing Groups, the access to foods through Merkits will help co-finance scaling up of the program. By organizing communities in purchasing groups, we can drastically lower the cost of foods as well as provide an hybrid delivery model.

The Collective Purchasing Groups model has generated over $1 million in saving annually. The next phase of development is to scale up to families and migrant population.

The program is currently financially sustainable with this specific population of 10,000 children and their mothers as all expenses are covered by the subsidy received by the state. In order to generate one new space in the program, Coomacovalle needs to find $4 per day/per child. 

We have identified three investors that are interested in the program as the impacts are multiple. The investment for $30 million would be protected by government guarantees therefore reducing the cost of borrowing. The purchasing power created by collective purchasing group would provide for a saving of 30% to family and the cooperative. The national government would be responsible for half the loan and the other half would be paid through the revenues generated by half of the savings on the cost of food. 

As food is indispensable and price (or access) is a major barriers, the Hybrid Value Chain delivery of good / foods through Collective Purchasing Groups will be the key engine that supports the financial sustainability.  This investment is key to get to a critical mass to help finance the ECD program. 

Family do not have the ability to allocate money to ECD program but collective purchase become a loyalty-like program that parents and families use to finance the program. 

As simple as it may sound, the application process is a good exercise in itself for an organization to review how we communicate our impact and how to scale up. Completing the application is an opportunity to reflect on the progress and expected plan to scale up. 

Getting access to funding will be extremely important but having access to a ew network of experts in technology solutions, business development, and finance will also be crucial to increase the integration of technology solutions.

Networking with like minded individuals and organizations can bring new ideas in the delivery of services and program in general.

Having the opportunity to be selected in the process will help our team identify financing opportunities, collaborate, and design a scaling up strategy to close the gap on access to Early Childhood Development (ECD).

As a founder of Impact2030, Coomacovalle has engaged several professional volunteers to help in the development of the business model. A partnership with you would bring knowledge to further refine the funding and revenue model that we have developed. 

We also believe that the experts at MIT and Solve will be able to help us identify other technology solutions that will further foster efficiency in the delivery of the ECD program.  

We have also noticed that other organizations have previously submitted proposal / initiative on the topic of ECD program. Our partnership goals are diversified and complementary in a sense that the impact generated by the program are multiples. 

Exploring both the MIT Faculty page and Solve Members list, we would welcome the opportunity to have experts in social businesses as well as expert in technology to help incorporate new strategies. 

We hope that through this application we can obtain more information on the level and field of expertise that we can attract to the project.

Based in Cali Colombia,  Coomacovalle works in partnership with several organizations to scale up the model across the country. Over the past two years, Colombia has received an increase amount of economic migrants from Venezuela. We have already incorporated migrant women in our services and we are currently leading a national project to implement a financially sustainable programs for more than 700,000+ migrant women who do not have access to the program.

We have successfully demonstrated that the services that we provide as part of the ECD program have helped migrant women obtain goods and food at lower cost. Certain products such as diapers, hygienic towels, baby food, and nutrients are essentials but often impossible to purchase for the little individual economic power that migrant women have on their own. Once organize in large groups, the purchasing power of the collective help reduce the price of goods.

Providing support to migrant women to navigate the migration process is crucial to help them access government programs as well as access to training or work. 

Coomacovalle brings a set of tools to help migrant women integrate in the social fabric of the community.

During the past 18 years, Coomacovalle has built a large network of Community Mothers that have supported mothers and children in some of the most difficult places of Colombia. While technology was initially used to collect data, we have realized that connecting women through a support network has helped several women attend school and/or return to work. 

The Covid crisis has helped us scale up the use of technology to support mothers to a local network of professionals such as nutritionist, childcare experts, nurses and specialist. 

Low-income neighbourhood like Aguablanca are extremely complex where women displaced by war or force by conflicts come to start a new life. Technology is key to break the isolation and help women out of situation of abuse or violence.

Maybe our solution should be described - not as Innovative Technology - but Innovative ways to use technology to support women in some of the most difficult areas of Colombia. 

As simple as using technology to connect migrant and displaced women is already a important step to prevent violence and abuse. Community mothers play a crucial work in low-income communities where technology is not impacted by invisible barriers.  

Over the past 18 months, we have been able to build a large coalition of stakeholders interested in supporting the scaling up of the Coomacovalle model at the national level. Our work has also generated interest from the government agency in charge the Early Childhood Education program as well as with the subsidized healthcare system who is a great opportunity to leverage a collective of more than 1.8 million mothers that are part of the ECD program. 

We believe that - it takes a child to raise a village - early investment in childhood education is also an investment that allows mothers to return to work or work. Research are now showing that previous work on investigating the impact of an ECD program focused merely in the child and not so much on the family; providing mothers with opportunity for economic empowerment. 

Children should normally receive 70% of the nutritional value through the program and the rest should come from meals consumed at home. Our research with families has clearly demonstrated that families pay much more for food as they are often unable to purchase large quantities. We have demonstrated that while families are individually poor, they are collectively able to generate a purchasing power through collective purchasing. 

With increasing debt associated with the Covid crisis many governments will be forced to reduce important social investment such as Early Childhood Education. 

Working closely with the government agency for children and the public healthcare system, Coomacovalle's program is an investment in social determinants of health that can drastically reduce the burden on limited financial resources associated with healthcare. 

The cost of inaction by government to address the service delivery gap for children under the age of 5 is estimated at more than $1 billion USD annually. A one time investment of $300,000 million in a Social Business Model would close the financing gap and bring an opportunity to implement a self-sustainable model.

Our program has managed to scale from a humble start of 15 kids to now serving more than 10,000 children ad their mothers. Access to ECD program is crucial for young mothers in order to continue studying or going to work. Without access to the program young mother are exposed to isolation, violence, and abuse.

Experts from around the world also recognize the importance of ECD for children. This is the most important moment of their live when it comes to brain development. 

We have built a Social Enterprise Model that allows for Coomacovalle to be self-sustainable in the next three years. We have also generated interest from private funds and the World Bank to receive a private investment.

The support of the Future Planet Capital would help us secure this funding and help close the service delivery gap for more than 2 million young children and their parents.