Corporations like Walmart have excelled in using information technology, ongoing systems improvement, and other process innovations to drive efficiency, allowing them to maintain over 11,000 stores across 28 countries while becoming one of the most profitable retailers in the US. Similarly, highly evidence-based organizations like USAID partners,
Living Goods and
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, not only prioritize rigorous evidence like impact evaluations, but also use evidence and data throughout the lifecycle of their program to increase their cost-effectiveness and ‘return on impact.’ For example, Living Goods has pioneered the use of an “Avon”-like door-to-door Community Health Promoter model, using improved
performance management, incentives, and
technology to achieve step-change improvements in performance and associated health outcomes, reaching farther than many last-mile
distribution models. Meanwhile,
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, a youth employment accelerator based in South Africa, has set up a unique, data-driven process - one that is beginning to leverage the power of big data and machine learning - to enable unemployed South African youth who may lack traditional markers of employability, such as a college education, to find good jobs. Join Shaun Church (President, Living Goods) and Maryana Iskander (CEO, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator) to share how their public sector innovations leverage the best of the private sector to drive impact and cost-effectiveness at scale.
Note: Kanika Bahl, CEO of Evidence Action, was originally scheduled to join this discussion to speak about Dispensers for Safe Water. Please visit their website or the Evidence Action booth in the Innovation Marketplace in the Atrium Ballroom to learn more about this ground-breaking, USAID-supported innovation.
Watch the video here.
