World-Makers Issue Lechal

INNOVATING GRANT-GIVING &PHILANTHROPY IN SINGAPORE Designing a new end-to-end grant experience with SG Enable, from ground up, from outside in Words & Photography Jason LeowHow might human-centered design help around the grant, that supports and excitescreate a better experience for grant-makers an entire sector?and grantees alike? What’s the current relationship like betweenThe Tote Board Enabling Lives Initiative grant applicants and fund administrators?(TB-ELI) Grant is a new grant that How does collaboration happen? What doesaims to create meaningful social impact the sector need most and how would thefor persons with disabilities and their grant add unique value? How do we createcaregivers. The grant is open to Voluntary new ways of solving old problems? It wasWelfare Organizations (VWOs), non-profit in the spirit of these big questions that weorganisations, social enterprises, and private started a design sprint project to learn morecorporations with a social mission. Besides and design better.pilot projects, the grant will also fundexisting programmes that need resources to Our Processscale up. A five-day design sprint might be short but certainly not any less useful. Field-testedWith an all-new grant, the SG Enable on over 100 startups by Google Ventures,TB-ELI Programme Office had the exciting design sprints are a fast and focused wayopportunity to envision a new way of grant- to quickly innovate in any problem space,making. SG Enable approached Outsprint even for social issues. It can point out newto tap on human-centred design to explore questions to ask about the issue, and thesenew areas for redesign of the end-to-end questions can help point the team towards aexperience of the entire grant process. The better grant process and experience. Evolvedteam felt duty-bound to challenge the status from the start up world of bootstrapping onquo, but only if the status quo was a worse- tight resource constraints, design sprints areoff future than our vision for the grant therefore suited for the funding constraintsexperience. We asked what do we want the that organisations often face in the publicgrantees to feel at the end of their grant? and social impact sector. This approach also plays to the time and manpower constraintsWhat if a grant wasn’t just about the money? of the SG Enable TB-ELI ProgrammeHow might we create a holistic experience Office and also contain costs.

01 06 Mystery shopper thinking about solutions. Being able to see otherWe walked in the shoes of a hypothetical social examples of innovation in action also helps us getenterprise researching through real websites of a tangible feel of how we can apply it in our ownexisting grant makers in Singapore to look for setting by borrowing elements of the experience orsuitable grants for its new tech product for persons product. In our case, we visited local incubator spacewith disabilities. This all0o2wed the team to develop The Hub and learned how they bring in diverseempathy and understanding of the painpoints and skillsets and mentors to help start ups grow. needs of grant applicants. 07 In-depth conversations IdeationWe would spend an hour or so to chat with people The team brainstormed ideas around 7 key themesface-to-face, and at a venue most convenient and that came up after sense-making. Colleagues fromcomfortable for them, be it their home or a café. other departments were invited to help the teamRather than a stiff and boring survey interview, generate many wild and useful ideas. This was alsothe session is more like a casual friendly chat. This an opportune time to engage and update colleagueshelps us develop rapport and gives them time to who might be directly or indirectly involved at lateropen up, and for us to explore deeper questions and stages of implementation. Following the brainstorm,truly ‘get under their skin’. Photo prompt cards and we prioritized the ideas into 3 groups – mission- critical for launch, important but not mission- journey map sketches also help us achieve that. critical, good but optional ideas – and proceeded to 03 work on the mission-critical ideas. Guided tours 08When we meet people to have in-depth Storyboard & prototypeconversations, we try to meet them in the context Storyboarding is a useful way to organize the manyof their environment. A guided tour through their ideas generated during ideation. Creating a storywork space adds important experiential data to the of an ideal experience that a grant applicant goesverbal information they say, helps us ask better through from start to end, is a more concise wayquestions and allows us to better understand what to share many different ideas. Prototyping ideas by creating rough paper mock-ups of what parts of the they are saying. service might eventually look like, allows people to see, touch and feel the ideas in a tangible way and 04 thus help them give better feedback on our ideas. Sense-makingAfter all the in-depth conversations, it’s easy to 08feel overwhelmed by the amount of information Testing our conceptscollected. During sense-making, we jot down on We invited 6 people outside of SG Enable tosticky notes the key quotes and comments that were come hear our pitch for the new grant experiencesurprising, insightful or useful for the project topic, and to openly give feedback on what works andorganize them into themes and push the analysis what doesn’t. It’s also a great opportunity to bringbeyond the face value of the words into deeper stakeholders from different parts of the ecosystemmotivations and unarticulated needs. This helps together in the same room to hear one another’sthe team filter and synthesize all the rich learnings concerns and develop mutual understanding.into something more manageable to ideate around at the next stage. 09 Reflecting on next steps 05 The team spent the last hour of the design sprint Analogous settings reflecting on the new tools and techniques theyLooking in the same places often leads to the learnt, as well as planning the next steps and designsame answers. Getting the team to venture out of iterations to follow up on.the social sector into foreign but parallel settingsin other industries helps spur creative leaps when



DESIGN8 human insights into the grant experience How might the grant management team continually stay on track of the grant’sInsights are interpretations of what vision and at same time, stay relevant withwe learned from our interviews and changes in the sector and needs of ourobservations. Insights reveal something stakeholders?non-obvious, surprising or valuable for ourproject. Making sense of what we learned Insight 02 / Collaborationfrom our conversations, we ended up with 8 Interactions are mostly ‘vertical’ andinsights and opportunities: confined between a grant maker and applicant. Seeding lateral connections might Insight 01 / Grant intent then seed more cross-collaborations.Managing innovation is counter-intuitive:what we do and what we want to achieve Our experience as mystery shoppers formight sometimes conflict, if we are not grants was a confusing one, jumpingmindful. to and fro websites trying to compare grants. There’s currently no easy way forIt’s easy to lose sight of what really matters grant applicants to ‘shop’ for grants andwhen it comes to grant-making. We compare them side by side, and it’s evenlearned f rom ex-grant manager Lionel’s more frustrating considering how huge(not his real name) experience running and diverse the grant landscape is. Thistechnology grants in the public service, inefficiency is then transferred to grantto ask the all-important question “Are we makers collectively, since applicants havedriving utilization of the grant, or driving to ask around each grant to make sure.innovation in the sector?” Managing Hence there are opportunities for grantthe day-to-day operations of the grant makers to collaborate on information andcan become about numbers-chasing for referral, but extending beyond, perhapsoutreach, utilization and KPIs, and this during application and reporting as well.might dilute or even conflict with the larger Ying (not her real name), an ex-grantmission of the grant of spurring innovation manager, mentioned how grant uptake canto better serve needs. Metrics for innovation be enhanced by working with a selectivecan be counter-intuitive from the usual network of funders who refer applicantsmetrics for grant management, e.g. having to you if the proposals are not eligible fora 90% success rate for proposals submitted their own grants. For VWOs, collaborationsto panel for approval might sound good for are more likely between two organizationsthe grant team, but that might also mean when they are not serving the same clients.that we’re not pushing innovation enough If they have the same target clients but haveby self-censoring and floating up only ‘safe’ different expertise on different parts of theproposals. Another counter-intuitive point: value chain (e.g. a counselling service andgetting a good number of good projects a research organization whom both haveto be funded under the grant might be caregivers as their target clients), workingimportant to track in the short-term, but for together is possible too.impact and sustainability in the long term,it is perhaps better to develop an ecosystem How might we get grant makers to workof investors and projects that sustains and together on information and referrals,replicates itself and weans off grant money and beyond? How might we create moreeventually. All these would not be achieved opportunities for connections in the grantif grant managers were focused only on process, not just between VWOs, but alsohitting numbers.

with social enterprises, research institutes Ying shared that “In grants, there’s aand institutes of higher learning? continuum. There’s this grant model that shows different stages of growth of a non- Insight 03 / Communications profit organization, and what type of fundsJargon may help us cover all our bases for will help them… It depends on where youraccountability, but it can lead to downstream grant sits, and what’s the aim you’re tryinginefficiencies from queries due to confusion to achieve.” When we identify the stage ofand frustration. life cycle of the particular organization with their idea, we are in a better position toUsing technical terms such as “capital design diagnostic tools and grant support/funding” or “recurrent funding’ helps us resources to intervene. This informs theshare information that is accurate and entire grant process – how we fund; howtransparent to all. But sometimes this leads many layers of approval we need; how muchto downstream inefficiencies in the form of to expect from projection figures; whatqueries, as applicants might not be familiar are the reporting commitments; whetherwith such terms, even the ones who had we measure outputs or outcomes; theapplied before, because applications are different criteria the Panel evaluates eachnot typically their core work and they only proposal by. Being able to diagnose thecome across these terms during application. growth phase also informs how we supportThe whole step-by-step process of the the organization during implementation.grant application is often not clear, and Supporting and enabling them to take stepshow information is laid out and presented to be successful within each phase, is keyvisually are often inconsistent across to ensuring long-term sustainability of thedifferent grants, leading to even more project, and thus also the overall impact ofconfusion. Details are often shared from the grant.the agency’s point of view – knowing thedate your panel meets is less helpful than How might we better assess the differentknowing when they can expect an answer profiles of applicants and their needs,on their grant application. Evaluation context, challenges so that the support andcriteria of proposals are not always money from the grant is more targeted?transparent – this can leads to applicantsjust trying their luck sending in proposals Insight 05 / Relationships(and therefore the grant manager has more The best grants in people’s minds are usuallypoor proposals to go through). Last but likened to marriages. Instead of heavy-not least, the tone of the writing is often a handed transactions or pay-for-service,signal for the relationship you want to have think mutually supportive partnershipswith the applicant – is the usual top-down,authoritative tone the best way forward? A VWO partner Kay shared very starkly that “There’s also this attitude [thatHow might we communicate information funders have], that “I’m always right. You’reabout the grant in a way that even someone receiving funds. I issue you KPIs and younew to grants is receptive and understand? just do it.” I don’t agree to that. I know my programme better and so let’s set the KPIs Insight 04 / Differentiated diagnostics together. Of course I will not go for a lowAssessing and supporting a project needs and easy-to-achieve KPI, because I do wantto be appropriate to its growth phase. A to make my programmes more robust. Thisone-size-fits-all approach might be counter- is something we have to be really careful.”productive instead. Both grant makers and grantees we spoke

DESIGNto preferred having a more equal and an innovation manager, I would manage themutually supportive working relationship. process, not just the money.” ~ LionelA ‘master-slave’, heavy-handed approachthat centres around money and numbers was As the team thought through their roles,frowned upon, although this was still the one thing emerges very clearly: there’s nodominant way of working. Ying emphasizes way for any grant manager to possibly havethat “If you view grantees as partners, you enough knowledge or contacts for everywill do things differently…” It’s a little possible project proposal that comes along.bit like a marriage, like how Alicia speaks There needs to be ways to bring in diverseaffectionately of her positive relationships skillsets, in order to have sufficient depth (inworking with corporate partners as a VWO: specific fields or domain knowledge such as“It’s a lot of effort, a lot of give and take. We software development) and breadth (morego in and support them. We want to show general skills that are applicable acrossthem that they have been supportive of us organizations such as impact measurement,so we support them too. It’s a relationship.” leadership).How does a mutual relationship look like?Advice was plenty: be less critical but more How might we bring in diverse skill setsconstructive; “f riends” or “partners” instead and expert knowledge needed in enablingof “applicants”; involve VWOs in setting grantees through the whole grant cycle?KPIs; pitch together to the Panel. Withouta doubt, there’s a hunger for a different kind Insight 07 / Process pain-points andof relationship that we are well placed to time lagintroduce as a new grant in the sector. An onerous grant process too focusedHow might we grow relationships with on accountability affects the success andgrant applicants that are equal and mutually relevance of the grant in ways we may notsupportive like a partnership? see. Insight 06 / Capability Often, it is the bigger and betterThe job title “grant manager” is a organizations who might choose not applymisnomer. The skill base need to make a if the grant process is too onerous andgrant successful goes beyond mere money micro-managed, as they can tap on theirmanagement. own donor sources and are less desperate for projects. Making the process as easyDiverse skill sets and capabilities are needed and straightforward as it can – withoutbeyond project management, if we want compromising accountability – is thereforethe projects to succeed. The grant manager also in the best interests of achieving thehas to play multiple roles beyond simply strategic outcomes of the grant by attractingmanaging the numbers. Having industry the most promising candidates and bestcontacts and access to domain knowledge ideas, in order to get more impact for theof the projects is important. Being able same amount of money put out.to network is an asset too, so as to createconnections and foster collaboration. “When it comes to grant calls, we have now become choosy in terms of the process. I“I really saw myself as a “grant manager” want to see how efficiently the funders arethen. But if you think about the job title, going to manage us. If it’s a $3mill project,it’s of course set up to fail. I’m managing we can always have one dedicated staff tothe grant, not managing innovation. If I’m manage funders. It’s not worth having 3 or 4 people managing a small amount of funding,

like $100,000. I can say this because we Insight 08 / Conflicting messages and rolesgot volume now. If I don’t, I’ll probably be We tell partners to be bold and innovativedesperate and do as the funder pleases.” ~ in their proposals, but later on we say “don’tKay, VWO partner fail”. The roles of enabler versus regulator are conflicting and confusing.Besides process burden, there’s also roomto improve the experience by reducing Innovating always comes with risk. Buttime lag (and thus anxiety from waiting) with public/donor funds always comesbetween actions/stages. The grant process the procurement mindset and a need tois often a linear, hierarchical step-by- demonstrate transparency, fairness andstep process, of which at various points value-for-money. This usually means a lowthere are opportunities for running things appetite for risk, and a correspondinglyconcurrently to ease waiting anxiety. For high need for control, especially if theinstance, instead of waiting a week more project looks like its not meeting outcomes!for the offer letter to be hand-signed and However, Ying highlights how KPIsdelivered, perhaps the news can be shared don’t tell the full story – sometimes theover email first while the mail is on the way. project must be given time to generate results. VWO partners typically want toHow might we introduce feedback ensure quality and integrity of servicemechanisms to help us co-iterate the delivery but a grant manager’s anxietyaccountability process with partners? How over public accountability, failure and KPImight we make waiting time productive and micromanaging might cause frustrationengaging? What if applicants just have to and drive the wrong sorts of behaviour that‘do it once’ with regards to providing info compromises service integrity. Are thereand reporting? ways to create a process, where so long as accountability is in place and due diligence done, failing can be rationalised?

DESIGN The ideal grant experience From the synthesis of our findings, we had a hunch that there were 3hypothetical groups of grant applicants. These fictional profiles are usefulby showing us how one size does not fit all when it comes to managing thegrant. Through these 3 profiles, we can envision different ways of supportand resourcing for groups of organizations in a more nuanced and targeted way that meet their needs based on its growth phase in the life cycle of their organization or service.

The ideal grant experience on LinkedIn and Facebook. What madeBased on the insights from the previous him most excited are the ideas exchangedsection, we brainstormed ideas around the and possible collaborations with a VWOideal experience that a grant applicant and research institute. He decides to fillwould go through together with SG Enable. out the application form for an idea hisWe re-imagined how our ideas would flow social enterprise had been testing out. Thein each stage in their journey with us. form was easy to understand, written inThis is called a user journey. Hence the simple language, visually appealing. There’sstoryboards serve to illustrate the spectrum even examples on how to think throughof interactions and activities offered by the logic model, including an eligibilitythe grant, how different stakeholders criteria checklist and a diagnostic checklistwould interact with one another, and how to help self-evaluation. Information onthe grant might benefit VWOs, social website provides more details and the FAQsenterprises, research institutes, funders answered most of his questions.and other stakeholders. These scenarios ofinteraction show how the different stages 2 / Applicationof the grant are structured to serve the Helpful helpline keeps the relationshipneeds and alleviate the pain-points of the warm.different stakeholders who are part of thegrant process. We can break down their Gina, who also attended the grant calljourney into 7 stages: 1) pre-application, 2) briefing, went ahead to fill out theapplication, 3) assessment, 4) notification, 5) application form downloaded from theimplementation, 6) reporting, 7) closure. website. As she prepared the relevant information, supporting documents and 1 / Pre-application wrote up the proposal to get more funds forSetting the tone right by a human first the programme that her organization hadtouch. Seeding collaborations at the onset. been running for the past year, she decided to call up Ai Ling to chat about fine-tuningSam receive an EDM in his email that tells her proposal. To Gina’s surprise, Ai Linghim about an exciting new grant called the even offered mentors and industry contactsTB-ELI Grant. He attends a fun briefing if she ever need to beef up those projectionhosted by Ai Ling from SG Enable, where numbers and counter-check for possiblethey shared an interesting presentation blind spots. Gina also thought of gettingabout the new grant and assessment in touch with the people she met at thecriteria. What’s even interesting is how briefing to talk about her proposal and tothey shared the larger intent and mission see if they are interested to collaborate.the grant wish to achieve for the disabilitysector. It was an inspiring vision. At the 3 / Assessmentbriefing, Sam meets interesting people from Differentiated help for different needs.diverse fields – social sector, technologists, Pitching in to pitch, together.researchers, industry experts, and also AiLing, the friendly go-to people for any Ivan receives a call and was sad to hearqueries about the grant. He exchanged that his proposal for a national-scalename cards, made lots of new connections program was rejected. But at least they

DESIGNcalled so that he could ask questions. An allowing new funders to come in to fundemail confirmation was later sent to him steadily before the current one expires.to confirm the rejection and closure this That’s really good as he might need totime round. Meanwhile, Sam is overjoyed! iterate on his novel concept. Gina, made itHe was informed of being shortlisted over to panel but unfortunately didn’t get herphone followed by an email confirmation. proposal approved. But Ai Ling links herHe meets up with Ai Ling to answer up with another funder who might be morequeries and refine his proposal over 2-3 suitable for her. “We wish you all the best.”meetings. They highlighted that despite was nice but a rejection nonetheless. At leastthe shortlisting, sometimes things might she’s not left empty-handed. She decides tonot work out at this stage if there’s any pitch a better proposal to the new fundernew information or developments. Sam based on the feedback she got from theis confident to make this work. He then evaluation panel.goes on to meet the evaluation panel toco-present his proposal together with Ai 5 / ImplementationLing. He thinks he dazzled them with his Mentors bring much needed diversity ofpitch. He’s glad he was there to answer skills to help projects succeed. Fail fast toquestions directly but also heard many succeed sooner.useful advice on his project. Back end, AiLing recommended different assessment Sam had regular meetings with Ai Lingcriteria for different projects, as well as to discuss issues his project faced. It alsofast track approvals and endorsement for allowed them to see the programme inthose applying for smaller quantum since action. Being new to reporting, trackingit has lower liability/risk levels. The “A, B, and evidence-based planning, they providedC” banding for projects based on potential guidance and tools to help him. Whatimpact were helpful for the evaluation panel he was really grateful for was the mentorto decide fast. network that he could tap on anytime for advice and consultancy. He also tapped 4 / Notification on SG Enable’s network of PWD clientsCelebrate the start of a great partnership. and other VWOs to get feedback and testOr if rejected, alternatives offered to help ideas. He liked the grant team’s Agilepartners press on. methodology-inspired philosophy of “fail fast, fail early”, troubleshoot on the spot“We will love to partner you and support together. He doesn’t feel like he’s beingyour project. You can start pre-ops while monitored or micro-managed like in otherwaiting for offer letter to arrive in 2 weeks.” grants. Instead he feels supported as andit said over email. Sam checked through when he needed it. It feels like an equal,the terms and conditions in the email mutually supportive relationship instead of awhile waiting for the letter to deliver. He heavy-handed, top-down transaction.then meets Ai Ling face-to-face to signthe funding agreement and agree to the 6 / Reportingroles and responsibilities, obligations, Working together to reduce process pain-reporting requirements, outcomes and points and time lag as much as possible.deliverables. Sam really happy that there’sfast track approval for his funding quantum Sam only had to submit reports every 6below a pre-determined amount. He was months. He understands that it’s to protectalso informed that there is flexibility him and help him see if his project is onincorporated within the agreement to allow track. He thinks 6 months is reasonable asfor changes after working with mentors he has sufficient time to prepare his reports.or experts, as well as exit clauses allow for In any case, these reporting requirementsearly exit of project if it doesn’t work, and were communicated clearly upfront in

the beginning already. Besides, he finds Jason’s Bioit really helpful receiving feedback on hisperformance based on the information Jason’s first forays in design was helpinghe submitted. At the end of the financial businesses build online brands throughyear, within 6 months, he had to submit an user-centered web design, as well asaudited financial statements to demonstrate applying design thinking to developingcorporate governance. What he found his freelance business. Before starting outinteresting was how financial reporting as a designer, he was previously with thewas separate and done differently from the National Council of Social Service whereoutcome reports. As he usually discuss his he helped develop new social servicesprogress on project outcomes at their regular and championed ground-up collaborationmeetings, he was told that he need not between government agencies, voluntarysubmit a formal report on outcomes; case welfare organisations and the grassroots.notes and meeting notes will suffice. That’ssaves so much hassle! He’s happy to have At The Human Experience Lab in themore time thinking ahead for his project. Public Service Division, Jason had the opportunity to bring his passions for 7 / Closure human-centered design, social innovationContinuity and sustainability is key. My and entrepreneurship into government toending is your beginning. It’s been 5 years. create public good. He spent 2 monthsAs Sam nears the end of the grant, he working as part of the design consultancycontinues to submit audited statements team at the globally renowned innovationand there is no need for a consolidated firm IDEO, on a project commissioned bystatement. He works with Ai Ling to craft the housing authorities and PSD to looka final report on the project outcomes into the future narrative of public housingachieved not just for sake of fulfilling in Singapore.his commitment to reporting, but moreimportantly, as a way for him to share his He is now running Outsprint, a socialsuccess and journey, using the numbers he enterprise as public innovation designhad submitted over the years as well as client consultancy, creating products and servicesstories, case notes, interviews and videos that deliver public good and social impact.to illustrate the richness of his outcomes He recently helped SG Enable, an agencydelivered. Even though it’s nearing the end, dedicated to enabling persons withhe was again surprised by the grant team’s disability, design a new end-to-end grantcommitment to helping him – they linked experience through a one-week designhim up with funders to help him sustain sprint.the project beyond this grant term. He’sconfident to approach other funders as he His voracious reading and passion forhas the data and evidence to show that it sharing online articles had now found someworks. Besides, being a graduate of the TB- popularity and practical use, in the DesignELI Grant has some degree of prestige to it, For Public Good Flipboard magazine, withwhich would help him secure other funding over 11,000 readers.much easier as he envisions scaling uptowards national distribution. It’s been onegreat journey with SG Enable, and he feelslike he’s only just started!The human stories end here, but here iswhere we can start creating new and betterexperiences for our grantees and benef iciaries.Keep on designing.

W|MTransforming lives through Design PROXIMITY DESIGNS











DESIGN Geoff Brewerton, Senior Designer + Media Team LeaderI am a graphic designer focused on brand identity development, and I’m the headof Proximity’s Media Team. I first came to Myanmar on a Fellowship in 2013 todevelop proposals for Myanmar’s first mobile phone app for sustainable farmingmethods, such as: how to avoid using harmful chemical pesticides, how to identifypests and crop diseases / what to do about them, and proper fertilisation time- lines.Working at Proximity has felt like a perfect fit for me. Before studying design,I earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations (IR), with a focus onglobalisation and social justice issues. Myanmar is a place where these topics evolveeach day and are at the forefront of our work here at Proximity. And it’s clear howdesign can play a major role in creating positive change toward that development.Here, I’m able to apply what I’ve learned from both IR and Design degrees and see the effects and impact in real-time.This is a place where I feel I never stop learning. Currently, I’m an enthusiasticstudent of Burmese typography as well as Burmese Lethwei boxing. As a designer, I’m thankful for all the inspiration Myanmar continually brings.

U MyoMyint Farm Advisory Services ManagerIn Myanmar, our university majors are decided by the scores we get on ourmatriculation exams. Originally, I wanted to be a doctor, but because of my scores Iended up studying Agriculture at the Institute of Agriculture in Mandalay instead. I had no idea then how fortunate this chain of events would turn out to be.After graduating, I spent 37 years working in a governmental organisation calledMyanmar Agricultural Services, where I ended up as the head of the PlantProtection Division. My time at MAS was instrumental; I spent decades travelingthe country and meeting with farmers nationwide who helped me understandwhat support they really needed to boost their farm businesses and to deal withall sorts of threats, from climate change to pests and diseases they’d never seenbefore. There was so much we needed to do to help farmers, but our funds atMAS were limited and tied to the constant up’s and down’s of national politicsafter the late 80’s. In 2008, when Cyclone Nargis hit, Debbie Aung Din fromProximity sought me out to create a program to help farmers directly impacted bythe storm. Farmers had a very short window during which they had to replant theirrice or risk losing the entire season. This work led to the creation of Proximity’sFarm Advisory Services. Since then, I’ve led the FAS Team to combine Proximity’sdesign mindset with my agronomist background to teach farmers low-cost, climate smart farming techniques that will radically boost their incomes.

DESIGN Gill Pattison Proximity Finance Operations ManagerI grew up in New Zealand, but I began my career in London where I worked in amanagement consultancy company, specialising in strategy and economics. Aftersix years of project work in the UK, I wanted a change of skies and to focus onjust one organisation so I moved to Hong Kong, where I joined Citibank. I stayedwith the bank for 10 years, starting out at the consumer bank, and then moving tothe regional asset management business. In 2002, my husband and I were lookingfor a new adventure while our two-year-old daughter was still young enough to beportable. We had visited Myanmar before, and it had really got under our skin, sowe decided to relocate to Yangon, envisaging we would stay here for a year or two. Thirteen years on and we’re still here - we must be having fun.Not long after we arrived in Myanmar, I came across Proximity Designs. I hadnever heard of this concept of social business for social impact, and was fascinated.Then in 2011, it finally became possible to do microfinance in Myanmar, andit made a lot of sense for Proximity to expand into this area. I came in on atemporary basis to help out developing a business plan for the new service, butthem somehow I never really stopped working at Proximity Finance. In my timehere, we’ve grown quickly and I’ve really been able to see that impact that thesesmall loans can have on families that are struggling to make ends meet. Helpingthem buy the inputs to their farming improves productivity, and can help them getout of a vicious cycle of debt that keeps people poor over generations. Being able to see that difference really drives my work forward.

Su Mon Rural Energy ManagerI come f rom a small farming town in Myanmar. Fresh out of high school at 17,I secured a microloan to set up a popcorn shop. My future was set. But thenthe business went under. An unfortunate forecast of how much Burmese peoplereally like popcorn. Realising my mistake, but undeterred, I embarked on adegree in economics and finance, followed by graduate studies in developmentat Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Equipped with insightsand skills in new business development, program management and research, Ireturned to Myanmar in 2012 to first manage Proximity’s Knowledge and SocialImpact team and later to lead Rural Energy Business Unit. In addition to myregular role, I am often called upon to co-lead the design research projects whenwe have collaborative opportunities with global design firms such as IDEO, f rog design and Studio D. I enjoy both roles tremendously.I feel fortunate that I am now living my dream. Within three years, I havetravelled to 25% of all townships in Myanmar, deep-diving into customers’lives to find insight into their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours. I have workedon a number of design research projects, ethnographic studies, and impactassessments. Uncovering things that are hidden in plain sight is truly excitingto me. On a day-to-day basis, I run the rural energy unit, leading a team ofanalysts, managers and frontline sales force across the Dry Zone of Myanmar.It’s quite fast-paced and challenging. I also get to work on the nuts and bolts of reaching rural customers with our last-mile distribution network.

DESIGN REDEFINING WEARABLESPossibly the next mobile revolution, wearables are fast becoming a game-changer to solutions for top global issues. It is predictedthat the revenue from smart wearable devices will generate $22.9billion in revenue by 2020. These wearables bridge the divide betweentechnologist, designers and data scientists and those working in socialimpact in developing wearable technology that could have impact, and not just nice to have, but that people need.

Lechal (lay-chull, “Take me along” in Hindi) footwear is a disruptive innovation designed to smoothly integrate into the everyday.Available as an insole or a shoe, Lechal footwear uses Bluetoothtechnology to connect to the user’s smartphone via an App. Usingsimple foot gestures or voice commands, the wearer can use it as anavigational tool or track their activity from a fitness perspective.The footwear communicates with the user via gentle vibratory responses or haptic feedback.

DESIGN OMsignal biometric smartwear records and streams real-time biometric data wirelessly from user’s shirt to smartphone. OM is focused on improving user’s daily wellbeing. It records a complete picture of everyday activity including steps walked, calories burned and intensity of body movement throughout the day. It strives to empower making a change and take control of your health.52

Amulyte is a pendant, able to track movement and activity, and alertsfamily members and caregivers instantly via text, phone call, emailand online notification. It has an easy to press help button that willautomatically connect user for help or assistance. The device has aspeaker and mic so users can talk to each other directly through the pendant.

INVENTORY

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Memoirs of an “average jane” Words Jang Leong Chia Work. Lunch. Home. Sleep. my current company was really supportive of work-life balance (we have 4.5-day work And the cycle repeats itself every day weeks, which means that we work 9 hours without fail. This was my life as an daily from Monday to Thursday, and we can Applications Engineer when I first entered leave the office by lunch time on Friday). the workforce; just like any other doe-eyed My “extra time” on Friday afternoons has fresh graduate I suppose. There was always been very much occupied by a new charity so much to learn at work, and we are trying that I have co-founded in 2014 - Engineers to absorb as much experience as we can, so Without Borders Asia (EWB-Asia). that we can apply ourselves to the various aspects of engineering; e.g. procurement Work. Meetings. More meetings. Kinda / seeking RFQs (request for quotations), tiring. But inspiring. design conceptualization (schematics), detailed design (process and instrumentation Edged on by my new-found “kakis” in diagrams - P&IDs), site implementation, EWB-Asia, it was with much excitement testing and commissioning, etc. and anticipation that I registered for the first hackathon in my life, ever. (None of After a couple of years, when we have my old friends were as adventurous about earned enough money to repay our parents trying out such new / technical things.) and education loans, we start to get used I didn’t even realise how life-changing to the work processes, and then during that this simple act of registering for the catch-up sessions with friends, we begin to Enabling colab(*) would be. This, was the discuss about what else we can do to fulfil first step to AllGoEasy, and a jumpstart to our lives to go beyond the monotony of the a totally different way that I look at things daily work rituals. For me, I was lucky that now.58

When I registered for the “Colab hackathon provides disability inclusion educationfor social good”, I had no idea what to programs and innovating disability servicesexpect. “Hackathon” and “Social Good” through trending technology. They operatejust felt like extreme opposite ends of the in Australia and emerging economies likespectrum. Lots of people whom are very Cambodia and Timor-Leste. One of theirgood at computers and software, I was initiative was called Greatvenue, an onlineguessing. So, what was I supposed to do platform to break down barriers that excludethere? What would be my value-add? Was people from going out more by providingI more on the technical side or the charity factual information about venue access. Heside? There were some FAQs from the suggested to do similar in Singapore andevent organizer, so I got to learn about the that became my 5-min pitch during theflow of the event, and that there is a slot Enabling Colab. (Huy always say that,for pitching ideas. At that point of time, people are not disabled, but rather, it isI thought of my only friend on wheelchair external conditions that fail to empowerthen, Huy Nguyen, ACT Young Australian / enable the person. e.g. If there were noof the Year 2014; whom I had met briefly spectacles, then everybody who are short-during an EWB Australia event whereby he sighted would be “disabled”. However, withshared about his projects, e.g. re-design of technology, e.g. spectacles, contact lens, etc.wheelchair-accessible public toilets. they are all enabled to see things clearly on their school chalk/whiteboards and learn atI quickly sought Huy’s advice on what the same pace as others. So, the differencepossible PWD projects we can embark on between the “disabled” and the “enabled” is(thanks to modern technology / WhatsApp). just a matter of mindset.)Huy shared about his company EnableDevelopment, a social enterprise thatWe are in the midst of crowdfunding for Engineers Without Borders Asia (EWB-Asia)

INSIGHTSMiraculously, I managed to recruit some facilities, we listened; and so did theinterest despite the overwhelming number audience and judges of our first round ofof sensational pitches for new “enabling” the hackathon! With much excitement (andinitiatives. Clara and Manya rocked up to $1,500 in our pocket), we moved on fromme said they were interested to help! I was the intensive weekend of hackathon pitchingoverjoyed that my amateur-hackathon-pitch and entered the second phase of themanaged to draw interest! However, neither competition to further develop the technicalof them knew how to put together an app, aspect of our concept as well as our businessso we went around trying to enlist the help sustainability. Afterall, the Enabling Colabof the supercool yellow-sticker people, i.e. was the hunt for the next social enterprise toapp-developers, whom were unfortunately, benefit PWDs.so much in demand that we didn’t manageto secure any of them. By this time, our group had grown to include Ivan from another HackathonNonetheless, we formed our small little team and also Raja who got in touchteam between Clara, Manya, myself, and after hearing about our idea. After someTony whom I had chatted up earlier whilst training sessions organized by Padang / UPqueuing to pitch. The organizers reassured Singapore, we were ready for our 2nd roundus that, we could simply represent our idea of presentations. Ding-Ding! Thanks tousing powerpoints instead of coming up Tony and Raja’s insights to PWD needs, wewith a working prototype of an app. The were named one of the 10 successful teamshackathon-mentors who were assigned to to be awarded S$20,000 of seed fundingour team patiently listened to our random to embark on our social entrepreneurshipbudding ideas of measuring the angle of adventure! Hooray!incline of all the slopes encountered byusers, and providing a complaint channel to WhatsApp. Google Drive. Google Hangout.building owners for any noncompliance with AllGoEasy.universal building code (i.e. BCA’s designguide to ensure accessibility for everybody With our first tranche of seed moneybe it the elderly on walking sticks, pregnant (S$10,000) and some limelight in localladies, those using baby prams, wheelchair newspapers (our one-day of fame), weusers, blind, deaf, etc.) Then they convinced decided that “Assessing Accessibility” is toous that it is more powerful to have a single much of a tongue-twister and AA soundedmessage than multiple confusions. So we too much like Alcoholics Anonymous. Assought Tony’s opinion on what would be the we brainstormed for the next big cool namemost important value-add that a “solution” that everybody will *like*; I insisted that ourcould bring. name starts with “A” so we will still come up quickly on search-lists. This... is how we…Just as we started to learn that it is ok to say All… Go… Easy!“nice to see you again” to blind friends, Tonybecame our teacher to PWD lingo and also After some “shopping around” in thedemonstrated other daily challenges faced overwhelming developer-market, weby our friends on wheels as we went around managed to convince SoloPlus to help usCineleisure to recce and collect ground- with our app development for AllGoEasy todata to substantiate our concept idea of crowdsource for information from willing“Assessing Accessibility”. volunteers / users, e.g. caregivers, friends of wheelchair-users, social workers, generalNaturally, when Tony said that what he public, etc. The development process was areally needed was more information about good learning journey for our team, learning

how to communicate within ourselves and AllGoEasy. Version 2. Universal design.coordinating meetings around our alreadyhectic work schedules; within the team and Currently we have simplified our conceptalso with external parties. WhatsApp and and come up with a cleaner look. A trueGoogle have become our best friends. embrace of “less is more”! Personally, I feel that the lesson learnt, is to keep trying andBeing first-timers to the app development keep improving and not be afraid to admitworld, we also had to prioritise our “wants” our failures. There will always been criticsand “needs” for the app in view of our and continual room for improvement. Therelimited budget and project schedule to meet will always be challenges and ways for usthe tranche disbursement requirements. to level-up at problem-solving when weTo elaborate my point, we were looking at overcome the obstacles. Hopefully, as weabout 3 platforms (Andriod, iOS, website) shed light on lacking facilities, we managein barely 1+ months! (App development to influence everybody to re-design theirworks are much more tedious and expensive facilities, so that one day, nobody will needthan we realised!) our AllGoEasy app, as there would be no longer be any obstructions to our friends onAfter our testing period with alpha-users, wheels.we recognized that our app design may beoverly complicated for users who may not Whereto henceforth? Forum. App v2.have sufficient patience to complete our Take over the world.entire suite of questions / observations. OK,time-out to re-think our concept!

INSIGHTS

We are trying to expand our AllGoEasy Enabling Community CoLab is a coLAB socialforum discussions from the sharing of innovation project to encourage collaborationassistive technology information, paralympic between persons with disabilities, socialsports in Singapore, wheelchair-accessible entrepreneurs, researchers, students,transport, etc., to include everything under developers, designers and other professionalsthe sky; be it new AT inventions, or simpleforum games! Everybody is welcome to to design and prototype solutions.contribute to this online community! Pleasefeel free to contribute to the threads onwww.allgoeasy.com/forum.Our AllGoEasy version 2 will be ready inthird quarter of 2015. Prior to its launchon the competitive app market, we wouldneed database volunteers and beta-testusers to help us crowdsource informationand identify any bugs. Say hi to us onwww.facebook.com/allgoeasy or email usallgoeasy@gmail.com so we can approachyou when we need help!In order for our App to rank #1 on the freedownloads section, we would also appreciateany experts in publicity and marcomms tohelp us create our App Campaign strategy!And of course, financial support is alwayswelcome, so that we can move towardsversion 3 to incorporate our dream-wants,e.g. fancy features such as cross-app linking,sponsored rewards for our regular users, etc.Finally, thanks to my family for enduringmy frequent absences from home; andsincere thanks to all whom have helped andsupported me technically and emotionally.You know who you are.