Digital Ecosystem for Women in India

The digital gap, isolation from support and training opportunities, unemployment, the inability to sell in larger markets and the lack of timely finance are some of the reasons why vulnerable women in rural areas in India are pushed to poverty.

To tackle this, Self Help Groups (SHG) have traditionally established themselves as effective programs, but haven’t yet unleashed their potential taking advantage of digitalisation.

Our solution is an inclusive digital platform co-created along with SHGs and NGOs that aims to fill these gaps with the power of technology.

By co-creating an inclusive digital platform and their own crypto-token and governance model blockchain backed, women can create a disruptive digital economy to trade among themselves without intermediaries, loan funds among SHGs or individuals and even define their governance model.

Our aim is to help the current 6.964.192 SHGs in India digitize to ensure 75 million women digital inclusion.

In India, 25% of the population still live below the poverty line. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian economy has contracted by 8% and unemployment has risen, being women the most affected. The situation of women continues to be vulnerable: child marriage (27%), domestic violence (28%) or gender gap (66,8%).

To address gender inequality in workforce, self-help groups have established themselves in India as effective programs to improve access to credit and training for vulnerable women to improve their livelihoods, through a methodology based on mutual trust and support. The women participating in SHGs in India (currently 75 million) are mostly poor and more than half illiterate. Predominantly, the livelihood of the women is related to agriculture or small businesses. In most cases in the informal sector, unable to access formal employment opportunities.

However, factors such as the digital gap, isolation in remote areas that stops them from marketing their products in larger markets and lack of timely finance prevent SHGs from reaching their full potential in today's digital age.

Our solution aims to reach 82.612 low-income women in remote communities in India (that currently take part in 6.699 SHGs) and then scale to reach 75M women.

Our solution is a blockchain backed inclusive platform (co-designed with users) that allows tokenised access to micro-finance and loans, and market expansion for products and services created by SHGs women in India. Accessible even from non smart cell phones technology entry barriers are minimised as never before and can be optimised and have easy UI adoption with minimum training. Both the API´s and marketplace blockchain backed open applications can easily be adopted by NGOs and other organisations to manage micro-investment funds, micro-loans, trace and report returns and real impact, provided secured digital easy to use digital wallets and scale current circular economy in and great ecosystem that can include all SHGs creating a bigger virtuous market of 75 million women, already culturalised about self supporting,  that already exist but it is not interconnected. On the other hand, the blockchain customised marketplace applications will upload SHG´s individuals and collective products and services to make them available for consumers committed to fair trade worldwide with immutable blockchain SDG´s impact print and reporting. A SHG blockchain backed token will allow to create self control, governance and stimulus for easy financial integration and leverage self-sustainable circular economy to around 75 million women.

Our target population are all women members of SHGs in India (currently 75 million), although in the first phase we are only working with our partner Bosconect NGO network (82.612 women participating in 6.699 SHGs). 83% of them live below the poverty line and more than half are illiterate according to a study carried out by our partner Bosconet NGO, with a sample of more than 6.000 SHGs. Most work in the informal sector due to their lack of education and skills (especially in rural areas, where the majority live). Thanks to being part of a SHG, women have been empowered in a multifaceted and multidimensional way. They are on the way from a position of invisibility to one of power.  Thanks to saving as a group and accessing micro credits many have already started their own small businesses or are engaged in income-generating activities. However, the digital gap and the fact that digital platforms are not sufficiently inclusive for them, it is preventing them from optimising the SHG Indian network, that only by digitalising could achieve great efficiency in terms of financial transactions among groups, product marketing and sharing and supporting each other in infinite ways.

To understand their needs our partner in the project, Bosconet (that has been supporting the creation of SHGs for decades in India and that successfully empowered already over 86K women) frequently carry out trainings with the SHGs of their network, to recognise the existence of a collective problem from direct life experience of women, and to understand its magnitude. For the success of moonshot projects such as this one, it is imperative not only to listen and understand the existent collective problem, but to ensure those that need to lead the change truly believe in the possibility of making a change and turn all that listening into concrete community initiatives.  

These concrete community initiatives are then co-created along with women of the SHGs and other actors interested and invited to what we call “co-creating Labs”. In those labs, testing of prototypes help the program to finally create viable products, that we then accelerate engaging empowered participants to take advantage of the digital products to accelerate their own small businesses and income generation activities.

SHGs are circular economy groups led by vulnerable women established to provide access to minimum finance and small markets in order to develop their communities.  The groups represent an enormous opportunity if the model could scale. Technology can now help to accelerate access to financing individual and collective initiatives, help market their products in new larger markets and even create their own economy through their token,  and therefore increase competitiveness and wealth for millions of women in India and the world.

Our blockchain-based solution has been developed to make the best of the off-line trusted network already created through the SHG's micro finance and training programs to unleash its potential in the digital world. Apart from equipping vulnerable women in India with relevant digital literacy skills, our main objective is to provide and scale new digital tools that blockchain technology enable, such as digitised virtuous circular financial loops within SHGs, leverage access to new functional and geographical markets and tokenise financial services and products supply chain to trace impact and improve reporting to help women and their businesses thrive in the digital workforce.

We have already ran pilots with some of the features of our solution in India  in other use cases (i.e, during Covid19 pandemic, to ensure funds reached isolated communities and to increase donations thanks to a digital real-time reporting and funds traceability). However, we are currently adapting our solution to this use case in collaboration with Bosconet NGO. Our plan is to validate and improve the features first along with SHGs in 3 identified locations (Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka), and then start the expansion to all the SHGs managed by Bosconet (6699, each of them reaching between 10 and 15 women) and then opening the program to any SHG in India.

Although part of the technology is already developed and tested in other use cases, in order to adapt it to this specific one and/or develop new functionalities, we need to undergo a listening phase along with the women to better adapt the user experience and remove all barriers to ensure 100% inclusiveness before the pilot. 

We have already co-designed with our partner Bosconet how the prototypes will take place in three different locations (strategically thought to reach a diverse group of women to ensure the solution works both in rural and slum areas). 

The selected locations and number of participants that will participate in this "listening phase" are:

Delhi (Najafgarh): 100 SHGs - 1500 women

Andhra Pradesh: 550 SHGs - 8000 women

Karnataka: 600 SHGs - 9000 women

The objective is to enrole all women in the SHGs, but to start only 10% of them (those that have small businesses in place) will be taking part in this phase. 

After testing the prototypes with the women and listening to their needs, we will be adapting our ecosystem to move on to the pilot phase, that will be opened to many other SHGs of Bosconet network (currently 6699)

It is remarkable at the level of product innovation: first digital blockchain backed platform to be designed by the women of the SHGs and that will create an entire digital ecosystem with its own governance model and economy thanks to its token. Its functionalities will aim to solve the challenges of SHGs -access to financing, difficulty accessing new markets with their business, digital divide, etc.

Digitising and tokenising the current SHGs system has the potential to increase interactions between women from different groups and regions, generating a much more efficient network than the actual.

It makes possible to maximise the financing possibilities in the ecosystem itself, as well how to attract new forms of financing.  At the product level, it allows increasing the sales to female entrepreneurs, beyond their community. Also, breaking the barrier of access to technology and opening up to the digital world, opens up a huge possibility of access to open knowledge, to training, to mentoring, etc. Built with an APIs First approach, the business model facilitates the delivery of the technology, making it inclusive for the women of the self help groups.

The governance model will also be innovative. SHGs are already innovative in this regard and this project will lead to a digital environment with a similar model, but with greater possibilities thanks to the fact that the new technologies further enhance the possibility of more distributed governance, decentralised, horizontal.

Even if the solution incorporates other technologies such as AI or ML, the core technology powering the project is blockchain. The solution is based in The Common Good Chain (ComGo) blockchain backed application for the social good. ComGo is a private permissioned blockchain set of applications created and permanently updated since 2017. Hundreds of social entities, including United Nations Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL) adn IBM SPIG (EU) recognized ComGo as one of the best blockchain developments for social good. ComGo was a finalist at the EU Blockchain4good Award 2020. Blockchain applies perfectly to the project as financial inclusion, digital wallets, tokenized processes, digital ID, project and products traceability and impact measurement can create a unique opportunity to leverage and scale current SHGs offline activities, unleashing its potential in the digital economy and ensuring vulnerable women are not left behind. 

The Common Good Chain blockchain backed applications have been created in a “mosaic” or “tetris” concept in collaboration with incumbents of the social sector. The sum of the different applications resulted in an entire blockchain backed ecosystem for the social good. The applications are in different TRL´s (from 4 to 9). ComGo applications have been used by United Nations Technology Innovation Labs and the government of Malaysia in projects called Sharity and together4sdgs, by La Caixa Foundation and CajaNavarra Foundation at the region of Navarra in Spain (www.navarrasolidaria2020.org) as well for hundreds of social entities (NGOs, Impact investment funds, B-corps, etc) under stopcovid.io to fight against social and economic impact in vulnerable population as consequence of Covid-19 

Technology always needs to be adapted and this is the ComGo mission. ComGo is pionering since 2017 early adoption of blockchain technology in the social and cooperation universe. Current applications have been developed in close collaboration with all actors in the social impact ecosystem having always the beneficiaries as the center. ComGo has developed the proprietary BRM (Beneficiary Relationship Management) reporting application, an easy to use blockchain backed reporting tool to address beneficiaries real needs and impact reporting. 

 ComGo is a founding member of INATBA (International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications) a well known organisation searching for permanent compliance and secure and privacy adoption of blockchain applications. Security is a major task for our solution. ComGo blockchain is a private permissioned blockchain based solution which is built around hyperledger and IBM bluemix which guarantees highest standards of security. The SHG´s unique designed token and wallets will be a  secondary token running over Stellar public blockchain fully secured.

Users data privacy is guaranteed by BoscoNet users onboarding process and the full compliance with GDPR

From an operational point of view training and culturalization will be key for the adoption of the new ecosystem. Bosconet partner leading institution with granular geographical penetration to the last mile on the field will be instrumental in mitigating that risk and gaining early adoption and penetration of the application  to the entire SHGs community.

Our current project, co-designed along with Bosconet will serve during the next 12 months the Bosconet network of SHGs in only 3 locations in India:

Delhi (Najafgarh): 100 SHGs - 1500 women

Andhra Pradesh: 550 SHGs - 8000 women

Karnataka: 600 SHGs - 9000 women

We expect that from all these women, 10% will take advantage from at least one functionality of our digital ecosystem (fundraising, loan, marketplace, etc), which means 1850 women will improve their livelihoods through increasing their income generation. At least 50% (9250 women) will participate in digital skills trainings, therefore reducing the digital gap in the 3 locations. 

In 5 years, we expect to reach over 20.000 SHGs in India which means over 250.000 women. Indirectly we are talking about over 1M people affected through the small businesses of the women, through job creation, community development, etc

• Collaboration with NGOs (provide numbers of current partner Bosconect for the prototypes) but also of Navsarjan, Manvi and other NGOs we are currently collaborating with)

• Collaboration with public administrations

• Collaboration with financial institutions

• Collaboration with international development institutions (The World Bank, UN)

Proposal aligned with government plans and initiatives regarding reducing poverty and improving rural livelihoods –National Rural Livelihoods- and with the aid to women offered from the Ministry of Women and Development Child –Women's Empowerment Schemes-.

This is important for the implementation and success of the proposal. But, in addition, the proposed strategy also focuses on strengthening the initiatives of citizens –such as the Multistate Cooperative Society and the SHGs- that fill the gap by that many of the initiatives launched by the government in the area of social development have not worked. 

Level of satisfaction of the women who have participated.

Level of motivation of women with the possibility of improvement.

Acceptance among women of the proposed innovation initiatives.

Nº of co-creation activities carried-out.

Nº of co-created prototypes.

Nº of women benefited from the prototypes

Nº of jobs created/strengthened through the solution

Nº of active women on the platform

Nº of active SHGs on the platform

Nº of products/services in the marketplace

Nº of entrepreneurships financed through the platform.

Sales produced on the platform. 

2 full-time staff, 4 part-time staff and 3 volunteers at ComGo team. However the solution has been co-designed along with Bosconet team (6 full-time staff enroled in the project, but the NGO counts with teams all over India managing 6699 SHGs among other projects. 

We are currently applying for investment (from EIC Accelerator Challenges) and Acumen's Foundation angel grant because we want to acquire the best possible talent to succeed in our plans. We have a great experienced, committed and diverse team but we are willing to grow and welcome new members with importante technological skills.

Arancha Martínez: EU Women Innovator 2020, Acumen Fellow and Princess of Girona Social Award 2018 among others. She has been working to tackle poverty through technological innovation for 13 years. Her most relevant achievement has been the development of a biometrical app to enable NGOs to accurately identify street children an efficiently and securely manage their data, first piloted and implemented in India, where she lived for 5 years.

Manuel Hurtado: Serial Business and Social entrepreneur, team builder, philanthropist, ComGo founder and Executive President. Has collaborated with projects in India for 10 years.

Julius Akinyemi: Former Pepsico and Wells Fargo Global VP of Innovation. Social Entrpreneur. Entrepreneur in residence at MIT MediaLab. ComGo Advisory board lead. 

Ignacio Moreno Aeronautical Engineer, Social Entrepreneur. ComGo board

Celia Roca: 10 years of experience in international cooperation at it-willbe.org implementing technological solutions in the field (India, Senegal, Sierra Leone)

Rajish Rajan.Marine Engineer, ComGo CSO and Blockchain Solutions Officer

Sanachit Mehra, Software and IT Engineer CTO and Blockchain lead

Mr Louis: MSc Maths and MBA (NGO Management). Bosconet National Project Manager and PhD & Academic Research Guidance Director. Has decades of experience working with SHGs in different states in India.

Mr Thomas Aquinas: Engineer, Youth at Risk and ChildMISS Manager at Bosconet, has been working for the past 6 years in digitalisation and innovative projects to introduce disruptive technology such as AI, big data or blockchain into the humanitarian aid field.

In conclusion, we have built a dream team, totally prepared to deliver the solution thanks to their huge experience implementing innovative projects in India.

Our diverse team is formed by both women and men from different countries and ethnics (India, Spain, Nigeria), different religions (catholic, hinduists) and cultural background and different age (from 25 to 60 year old members). We all believe that the best ideas always come from diverse teams and when you invite everybody to give their opinions. We have all worked in different contexts, countries and cultures and we are all aware (because we have also failed in the past) that only by co-creating our solution with the beneficiaries it will succeed. So, we can say that apart from our team, we will be strongly partnering with many women and leaders from the communities we serve.

We are looking for a strong partner to help us take our project forward. We are sure our technology can create a huge impact in the world as we have already seen the first results in 2020-21. Our CEO Arancha Martinez was awarded European Woman Innovator 2020 by the European Commission. But we need the best companions with us to succeed as we know we won't make it alone. We want to access the best talent, social committed people that embrace our mission, talented and honest people that will help us see what we do not see and what we are not doing good.

The Common Good Chain is by coincidence a social corp founded as a result of a capstone project for the MIT-Getsmarter Fintech and the Future of Work 2016 cohort program led by Manuel Hurtado that got an A as final evaluation. Manuel and the project are well known by Michael Casey, Sandy Pentland and Karl Koster among other referent individuals at MIT

 We would love to have access to collaborate with other MIT departments and 4good tech initiatives such:

- Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo MIT’s -Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)-

 -Connection Sciences- (Sandy Pentland, Pablo Rodriguez, Dhaval Adjodah, i, etc) Also with a main reference for us is also  Sanjay Sarma