Lessons in impact

1. Leverage what you know

My impact journey began when I saw two children drinking from a dirty puddle in the road. I knew I wanted to help them and their village, but I knew nothing about how the so-called WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) sector worked.

However, I did know a fair amount about electronics, product development and Chinese production lines, as well as global logistics, and how to run a business in West Africa. So, I decided to use what I knew and figure out the rest.

It has been a complex and nuanced learning curve but having the business-side knowledge has been invaluable and meant I wasn’t starting entirely from scratch.

2. Understand the local context

When philanthropists and social entrepreneurs get an idea, they should just get on with it, right? As long as they mean well, surely people should be grateful for their intervention?

Wrong! There’s no use in doing what you think is right and hoping the people you’re trying to help will appreciate it. Communities will never support a project from an organisation that comes in cold and delivers something without proper consultation, explanation, or agreement.

Understanding a local context is critical, and deep community engagement remains the most critical factor for success in all of our projects.

We have local teams that work with the local chiefs, village elders, and relevant local authorities to explain our objectives. Only with their input and sign off do we then implement projects. We aim to ensure that our projects are correctly deployed for long term impact and not just positioned for publicity shots and short term donor gain.

3. Innovation can also be low-tech

When we think about innovation, high-level technology often comes to mind.  I have learned, however, that good innovation is as much about simplifying as anything else.

Working in remote rural areas, Project Maji not only has to keep costs low, but our equipment needs to be robust so it can be reliable over a long period of time and easy to repair when something goes wrong.

Some of our early projects included batteries to facilitate round-the-clock water supply to the community, but we soon realised that batteries were not only expensive and required replacing at least annually, they were also vulnerable to theft.

We decided, therefore, to remove them and instead added a couple of extra solar panels and a larger storage tank, allowing us to pump more water during the day and store it for night-time use.

This removed unnecessary technology, saved us money, and increased the kiosk’s robustness, all without affecting convenience for users.

4. Collaborate

The lack of access to safe water is a major issue affecting nearly half the world’s population. The sheer scale of these challenges necessitates collaboration.

While in the commercial world, one tends to fight for market share (a zero-sum game), in the impact world, we thrive on collaboration.

There is nothing to be gained from “defending a market.” We can all share resources, best practices, and geographic reach, and unfortunately, there is more than enough suffering to keep all organisations busy for decades to come.

5. Be sustainable

From the very outset, an impact organisation needs to think about its financial model and long-term sustainability.

Many of the issues impact organisations seek to solve exist because addressing them is not profitable for businesses. In my mind, this necessitates giving or subsidised investments to make projects viable. However, at some point, they need to sustain themselves financially, independent of donations.

This requires a ruthless focus on developing efficient processes, which can be significantly helped by thinking of end users as “customers” instead of “beneficiaries.”

In the case of Project Maji, this mindset led us to set a nominal charge for water use, and in return, we committed to maintaining the functionality of the access points.

The revenue we earn from water will never be enough to pay for the hardware installation, but with scale, we have made it sufficient to cover our ongoing running costs. This safeguards us against donation shortfalls, ensuring that all our existing hardware can continue operating independently.

6. Map your impact

When working with funding partners, if we can’t offer a financial return, then it is critical that we quantifiably demonstrate the impact we make on the ground.

Overtime, we have had to learn how to identify and then accurately and efficiently measure outcomes from our work. One of the first thing we did was build technology to remotely monitor each of our kiosks. This has allowed us to track how much water each customer consumes daily while also assessing the technical performance of our systems.

In addition, we have developed a methodology to record adjacent impact. This includes how many hours are saved by not walking miles for water, how much money is saved by avoiding lost workdays and purchasing medicines for waterborne illnesses, and how many more days of school young girls can attend because they are not spending time collecting water.

We collate the details of our Social Return on Investment (S-ROI) and share with our funders.

7. Keep focused

When I started Project Maji, it was a CSR venture within my family’s business. And, as it grew into its own entity, I realised that we were not only positively transforming lives but also placing a huge responsibility on our shoulders.

In the building of our water network, we are taking on the role of a rural water utility. And, even though our customers pay for the water they consume, we still have an obligation to keep these facilities running effectively and indefinitely.

This is not something we take lightly. Strict internal KPIs keep our entire team focused and aligned. Every morning, we assess the percentage of our water access points that are functional (internally, this must never drop below 95 percent), and repairs must be conducted within a maximum of five days.

8. Be humble

I have been fortunate to enter the impact world from a position of personal financial privilege. Exposing myself to and spending time with the people in villages across Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda has been humbling.

It has led me to reflect on my own values, my responsibility to use my privilege for good, and to encourage others to embark on a similar journey of giving back.

It is rewarding and I believe we all have a responsibility  to take steps towards reducing the gross inequalities that exist in the world today.