MAY

DELIVER LASTING CHANGE

special
issue

Then & Now Winner’s Circle What’s in a Name? Focus

Closing the Gap Innovation to Impact Emerging from the Cocoon In the Red Zone
CARE’s Scale X Design Accelerator Out of 15 teams that competed in CARE Sri Lanka’s evolution Veteran CARE staffer
builds on more than 70 years of CARE’s Scale X Design Challenge, into Chrysalis signals a answers the hows and
innovation, beginning in 1946 only three would take home the new approach to development, whys of innovation in
when CARE delivered the first CARE $150,000 cash prizes. Check out following 67 years of CARE’s emergency
Packages to a war-weary Europe. the competition! work in-country. response efforts.

p2 p7 p10 p14
 WELCOME

Executive Editor
MARY KATE WILSON

Editorial Committee

Carey Wagner/CARE
MARY KATE WILSON
VALENDA CAMPBELL
SHAWN REEVES

Contributors
MICHELLE NUNN
TAMARA SHUKAKIDZE
RICK PERERA Innovation Primed
for Investment
SHAWN REEVES

Design
PAUL LEWIS
CARE’s Scale X Design Challenge aims to take
innovative programs to scale

BY MICHELLE NUNN

On the Cover
A garment worker sews fabric in a Levi
M aruf Azam drew a harmonica
from his pocket and began
playing for the 275 of us packed
expert judges and a live and online
voting audience that Krishi Utsho
— a network of shops selling quality
Strauss & Co. factory near Phnom Penh,
Cambodia. CARE’s CHAT! program uses into New Lab design and technology supplies and services to smallholder
technology to promote health education center in Brooklyn, N.Y. And while farmers in rural Bangladesh — was
among women factory workers. With
the Bangladeshi tune was traditional, an innovation primed for investment.
investment, CHAT! could reach as many as
75 million garment workers worldwide. the event was anything but. Azam By night’s end, three of the five
Josh Estey/CARE was trying to convince a panel of teams that had made the finals of
CARE’s Scale X Design Challenge would new and creative approaches to
be awarded $150,000 cash prizes overcoming entrenched poverty.
to quickly scale their innovations We have to do more and in
and deepen their impact. new ways.
Azam had stiff competition. By the end of the decade,
Four other finalist teams had traveled CARE aims to support 200 million
their own long distances — from people from the most vulnerable
Cambodia, Tanzania and Rwanda — and excluded communities as
unpacking both their own visions they defeat poverty and achieve
for scaling and a desire to win a social justice. Innovation is key
challenge that, while unique in the to that — not only to reaching
poverty-fighting world, does have them, but to reaching them faster.
roots in CARE’s history. CARE itself was And that requires investing
Representing Krishi Utsho, Maruf Azam kicks
founded in 1945 to deliver on a simple, in and bringing people together
off his pitch with a traditional Bangladeshi
innovative idea: to save the lives of around the most innovative ideas song during the Scale X Design Challenge in
World War II survivors by sending them in the development field. Toward Brooklyn, N.Y. Carey Wagner/CARE
CARE Packages full of food and supplies. that end, the Challenge is the
Over the next couple of decades, pinnacle of our inaugural Scale Azam’s Krishi Utsho project did
CARE delivered 100 million of them to X Design Accelerator (which you indeed take home one of those $150,000
families throughout Europe and around can read more about on Page prizes. The other two winners were:
the world, adapting the packages to 2), a first-of-its-kind platform
local diets and local needs, from seed drawing on many private-sector • Mobile Application to Secure
and farm tools to school supplies. examples to rapidly design, test Tenure (MAST): a mobile phone
and learn, iterate and implement app that helps people in Tanzania
what we know already works. map and claim title to their
Today, more than 70 years The first cohort of 15 teams land faster, cheaper and more
later, our Scale X Design that followed the Accelerator reliably than ever before.

Challenge is built on that curriculum — and ultimately • CHAT!: a package of technology

competed for the combined that promotes health education
same belief in innovation as $450,000 — were all CARE among women factory workers
a timeless tool to save more projects. But our aim going in urban Cambodia.
lives, alleviate more poverty forward is to engage other
organizations, other projects Beyond the winners in our inaugural
and achieve more social and ideas, other team leaders Scale X Design Challenge, we know
justice in a world rife with — maybe even a harmonica or that today’s best innovations come
challenges. two — in order to accelerate the from the men and women working in
pace at which the world’s best communities around the world who
development programs reach the understand what works in specific
In spite of remarkable progress people who need them most. and often challenging contexts.
the global community has made in Scale X Design represents Those ideas just need the investment
cutting extreme poverty in half since the future of innovation at to move them forward. Our Scale X
1990, more than 800 million people CARE, and, more broadly, we Design Accelerator is one promising
still live on less than $2 a day. believe it’s a leap forward in means of delivering exactly that.
Enormous need and inequities social development, shaping a
remain. Armed conflict, disease, future in which we all tackle Michelle Nunn is president and CEO of CARE.
natural disasters, political hurdles and — and overcome — the world’s This story has been adapted from content
social norms challenge us to develop greatest challenges together. that originally appeared at devex.com.

1
THEN & NOW

Josh Estey/CARE
Closing the Gap
CARE’s first-of-its-kind Scale X Design Accelerator drives proven,
promising programs exponentially forward, faster
BY SHAWN REEVES

O n a dimly lit stage at Brooklyn,

N.Y.’s New Lab, a multidisciplinary
design and technology center,
CARE’s, but others across the
development world — by connecting
them with mentors, workshops and
Associations (VSLAs), through which
members, mostly women, save and
lend one another money to start a
Mwimbe Fikirini points to a bright funding. On the line at New Lab: business, build a home or educate
blue metal box with three padlocks one of three $150,000 cash prizes. their children. Since CARE launched
and asks the 275 or so people in Her question is rhetorical, and the first VSLA in rural Niger in 1991,
front of her, “Would you put your she knows the answer. Locks can be millions of people — regularly
annual savings in this box?” She broken, the boxes and their contents depositing modest sums under shade
had come from Tanzania to compete quickly stolen. Yet for millions of trees in the world’s farthest reaches
with her team, Chomoka, in the people across Africa and around the — have used a lockbox to safeguard
culmination of CARE’s inaugural world, it’s their only option — and, their group’s savings. They make an
Scale X Design Accelerator, a first- for them, the reward is worth the risk. estimated 350 million transactions
of-its-kind initiative that advances Lockboxes are the linchpin of a year, which adds up to a lot of
the best innovations — not only CARE’s Village Savings and Loan reward — and substantial risk.

2
 So Fikirini and her team created starving Europeans, a small group of
a mobile phone application that Americans came together with a simple
mitigates that risk by more accurately but powerfully innovative solution: “This is fundamentally about
recording transactions and by linking rush lifesaving CARE Packages of food disrupting and redesigning
VSLA groups with formal banks, and supplies to Europe. They mobilized
how development is done and
where they can more securely deposit businesses, governments and the
their savings, access larger loans and public to create a global humanitarian conceptualized. We started
benefit from the more sophisticated relief organization called CARE. Their the Accelerator program
financial services formal banks offer. work — along with the compassion, because we know that CARE
Fikirini’s presentation to the organization and generosity that
audience, including a panel of unleashed it — dispatched more
has incredibly innovative
judges, affirmed the success of than 100 million CARE Packages to solutions, but we need better
CARE VSLAs. But there was a war survivors and families around ways to scale quickly to meet
problem: It took 25 years for the the world. Those packages started
the problems of today.”
VSLA program to become what it as food shipments, but evolved to
is today — 200,000 CARE savings meet other specific needs: Some DAR VANDERBECK
groups with more than 5 million boxes contained school supplies, for CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER, CARE
members in dozens of countries. example, and others had farm tools or
(Other organizations have replicated meals customized for special diets.
the program, engaging at least that
many more members worldwide.) 1991
Why did it take so long for innovative
such a proven, transformative
model to spread?
solutions
That is precisely the question CARE’s from Past to Present CARE pioneers
Village Savings and
Loan Associations
Scale X Design Accelerator intends
in Niger. 2007
to answer, says Dar Vanderbeck, 1946
CARE’s chief innovation officer, who 1990
leads the Accelerator initiative. “This
is fundamentally about disrupting
and redesigning how development is The original CARE CARE announces it
CARE emphasizes will no longer accept
done and conceptualized,” she says, Packages of lifesaving
the empowerment
food and supplies arrive open-market monetized
noting the years — even decades — in post-war Europe.
of women and girls food aid, because it
as a key poverty-
it can take for a promising program undermines the very
fighting strategy. families and communities
like VSLAs to really take off. it intends to serve.
“We started the Accelerator program
because we know that CARE has 1949
incredibly innovative solutions,” she
1961
says. “But we need better ways to scale 2016
quickly to meet the problems of today.”
CARE Packages evolve
beyond food aid, some CARE is tasked with
Back to the future containing tools for selecting and training
In a very real way, CARE’s present and farming, carpentry the first group of Peace
and other trades. Corps volunteers.
future — embodied in the Accelerator CARE launches its Scale X
— draws from the organization’s past. Design Accelerator, which
closes the gap between
In 1945, as a war-weary world innovation and impact.
lamented the plight of millions of

3
 The world — and CARE’s place in
it — has changed a great deal in
those seven decades since (CARE
sent its last CARE Package in 1968),
but the same fearless thinking, agile
problem-solving and swift action
from CARE’s founders of that era
apply to CARE’s Accelerator today.

“CARE was founded on an

innovation,” Vanderbeck
says, “so it makes sense that
more than 70 years later
our Accelerator showcases
innovation as key to
deepening our impact in the Members of a CARE Village Savings and Loan Association in Niger deposit money during their
world today.” weekly meeting. CARE has developed a mobile application that will help ensure accuracy in VSLA
group transactions and link members to formal banks, where they can save more securely and
access larger loans. Josh Estey/CARE

step by step: making scale x design work

Teams with innovative, proven and scalable ideas are selected to participate in a yearlong program that builds core skills
for scaling innovations while delivering tailored support to tackle their biggest barriers to scale. CARE’s Scale X Design
Accelerator draws inspiration from private-sector approaches to rapidly design, test, iterate and scale bold new ideas. It is
a first-of-its-kind platform that arms development practitioners with the skills, mentorship and resources they need to move
from idea to impact.

accelerator timeline SCALING THROUGH FINANCIAL MOVEMENT-

THE PRIVATE SECTOR FORECASTING BUILDING

ASSESSING THE LAB #1 LAB #2 LAB #3 LAB #4

NEEDS OF EACH MINDSETS DESIGNING BUSINESS PITCHING
INNOVATION AND FOR FOR MODEL
FORMING TEAMS INNOVATION SCALE GENERATION ALUMNI
SUPPORT
MARKETING & LEGAL POLICY &
COMMUNICATIONS & IP ADVOCACY

april may - october january/ february february - fall winter

Core Labs In-Person B
 oot Camp Elective Labs onward

4
 WHAT IS
CHOMOKA?

It’s a mobile app that village savings

groups use to:

• Accurately record financial

transactions
Mwimbe Fikirini with CARE in Tanzania represents her team, Chomoka, during a competition in • Link to formal banks
Brooklyn, N.Y. Competing for one of three $150,000 prizes during the Scale X Design Challenge, • Securely manage their savings
Chomoka has developed a mobile application that digitizes CARE’s Village Savings and Loan • Access more financial products
Associations, linking members to formal banks. Carey Wagner/CARE

Accelerators, which essentially the Scale X Design Accelerator’s Chomoka did not win one of those
incubate and fund new ideas, are nine-month customized curriculum, $150,000 grants in New York — one
nothing new, at least in the corporate which included assessments, learning measure of the stiff competition
world. Popular companies such as labs and a “boot camp” where teams they faced at New Lab. But the
Airbnb, a marketplace for travel sharpened their pitches, as Fikirini team’s innovative work continues.
accommodations, and the file-sharing had done before arriving in New York. “The biggest thing we are trying
service Dropbox have started out “When we first learned of the to do right now is transition the
in accelerators as they polish their Accelerator, we were excited to see team members from a part-time to
business plans and attract investors CARE finding and investing in the best a full-time focus,” says Christian
who can bring those plans to life. But ideas that were already working across Pennotti, Fikirini’s team member who
an accelerator for the development the organization,” Fikirini says. “Not heads up CARE’s financial inclusion
world is new. “There wasn’t really an only did the Accelerator introduce efforts across Africa. “We have
off-the-shelf solution for development us to tools we’ve used to organize continued building the app, talking
practitioners,” Vanderbeck says. and explore our own ideas, but it with groups and banks, and getting
So CARE created one, applying to exposed us to a huge range of other nothing but positive feedback.”
its Scale X Design Accelerator the innovations going on throughout CARE, And their vision for deeper impact
best ingredients from dozens of and that in itself has been inspiring. is unwavering.
for-profit accelerators, focusing on The business model and people- With its mobile app, Chomoka aims to
proven programs like VSLAs that focused design we adopted through reach 1 million people across Tanzania
already are making a difference. the Accelerator are now integral to by 2021. Half of them, Pennotti says,
And that has delivered huge the Chomoka plan and approach.” will use the app to open their first
benefits for Accelerator teams like bank account; others will access new
Fikirini’s. Chomoka, which means Breaking barriers loans to improve their lives. Perhaps
“lift off” in Swahili, was one of 15 But fully realizing their vision even more compelling, as Pennotti
CARE teams that progressed through has come with challenges. explained to the audience and judges

5
in New York, is the opportunity for
Chomoka’s innovation to transform the
VSLA model itself. “Driven by revenue
from banks, which are increasingly
interested in serving these customers,
we will be able to take VSLAs from a
recurring dependence on donor funding
to a sustainable, growth-oriented
social enterprise,” he tells them.
That kind of evolution and scale
is exactly what CARE must seek in
order to meet — and overcome — the
world’s biggest challenges, Vanderbeck
says. And the Accelerator is one
dynamic tool toward that end.
“You can’t deny the amount of global
suffering, injustice and poverty right
now across the world,” Vanderbeck
says. “The solutions are there and
the urgency is great. We need to look
across sectors for the best in class,
the most cutting-edge models to
identify what is working and then
Lockboxes are the linchpin of CARE Village Savings and Loan Associations. Worldwide, millions of
build creative pathways to scale those members regularly deposit their savings in them — creating a risk of theft. Linking groups to formal
solutions to meet the world’s need. banks through mobile phone technology helps mitigate that risk. Josh Estey/CARE
This is a real imperative for CARE, but
also for our entire sector right now.” But like their fellow teams, Chomoka Accelerator is a fantastic platform
needs further investment to deliver for proactively building relationships
From idea to impact on the vision they’ve refined through with potential supporters who may
Only three of the Accelerator’s 15 the Accelerator process — particularly not have been on CARE’s radar — or
teams won the grants to help take their transforming VSLAs into a social even existed at all — in the past.”
innovations to scale. But all the teams enterprise, creating a network of rural Fikirini, Pennotti and Team
represent the best in class at CARE. agents, ensuring quality controls and Chomoka have made great progress
And with the right investment, their getting the app into the hands (and toward getting their app to market
potential impact is immense: better onto the phones) of Tanzanians. in September. Their challenge now?
lives for nearly 400 million people. As it has done for the other 14 teams, Raising the $3 million necessary
Fikirini, Pennotti and the rest of Team the Scale X Design Accelerator has to deliver the app — and the
Chomoka know they have a good thing positioned Chomoka for success and financial inclusion it channels
in their mobile app. Others do, too. primed its innovation for investment. — to 1 million Tanzanians.
With support from Visa, for example, “It was really exciting to see not only That’s just $3 per person, Fikirini
the team has developed an algorithm the internal process, but also how the reminds her audience, the bright
that generates credit histories for VSLA Accelerator can attract new partners blue box resting closed on the
members otherwise isolated by paper and supporters to CARE’s work,” judges’ table, within her reach.
ledgers and metal lockboxes. A number Fikirini says. “There is an increasingly
of banks in Tanzania have committed complex and vibrant community of Learn more about Chomoka and
to partnering with Chomoka when people and organizations trying to drive the Scale X Design Accelerator
the app is rolled out later this year. social change and global justice. The at sxdaccelerator.care.org.

6
Innovation
to
impact
CARE’s Scale X Design Challenge is a win-win for development’s most promising
programs and for the communities they serve
The pinnacle of CARE’s Scale X Design Accelerator, the Scale X Design Challenge brings together social entrepreneurs,
investors, corporate executives and development practitioners to celebrate and reward proven, promising programs that
cut at poverty’s roots. The inaugural Challenge occurred in Brooklyn, N.Y., last January, when five finalist teams (out of an
original 15) competed for three $150,000 cash prizes. Following are the winners, the finalists and all the teams that represent
the first cohort in the Scale X Design Accelerator. Meet the team members and learn more at sxdaccelerator.care.org.

WINNER WINNER WINNER

Mobile Application to Secure Tenure Krishi Utsho: Bangladesh CHAT! Cambodia

(MAST): Tanzania While small family farms and plots feed Young people are leaving their families
MAST is a mobile phone app that helps the majority of the world’s population, and migrating to the world’s cities
people in Tanzania map and claim title there are few businesses that cater in search of work. They become
to their land faster, cheaper and more to their needs and constraints, vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
reliably than ever before. We piloted which include a lack of access to CHAT! harnesses the reality of young
the technology in three villages, and quality agricultural supplies, market urban factory workers in Cambodia,
99.7 percent of households received information, technical knowledge, integrating both entertainment and
a certificate, doubling the number of business skills and working capital. mobile phone technology to provide
women landowners at one-fifth the cost Krishi Utsho is a one-stop solution cost-effective health education through
and in half the time as the traditional to bridge that gap. It is a micro- a unique combination of hands-
process. Verified landownership franchise network of small kiosks on training, relatable video dramas
incentivizes people to invest in their that sell supplies and services to and mobile games. With demand
homes and farms. It becomes an asset these farmers, particularly women, from nonprofit organizations and
that women can use as collateral for in rural Bangladesh, increasing global brands such as Levi Strauss
loans to expand their livelihoods. their productivity by 50 percent & Co. and Marks & Spencer, CARE
And it protects the poorest of the and their income by 30 percent. seeks to launch CHAT! as a social
poor from land grabs by governments, business that could be scaled to all
family members and companies that factories in Cambodia — reaching up
may not recognize the informal land to 700,000 workers — and extended
rights that communities often rely beyond Cambodia to reach as many as
on. CARE seeks to scale MAST as a 75 million garment workers worldwide.
social business to benefit more than 20
million Tanzanians and reach millions
more by expanding to countries with
similar land-registration problems.

7
 Finalist

Chomoka: Tanzania
Chomoka aims to digitize CARE Village
Savings and Loan Associations through
a user-friendly mobile application that
provides a pathway to formal financial
services. It does that by documenting
users’ credit histories, streamlining and
simplifying the transactions of savings
groups and linking them to banks,
where members can save more securely
and access the more sophisticated
financial services they need.

Finalist
Representing CARE’s CHAT! program, Julia Battle describes how the initiative uses technology to
promote health education among women factory workers in Cambodia. CHAT! won $150,000 in CARE’s
Journeys of Transformation: Rwanda Scale X Design Challenge. Carey Wagner/CARE
When women gain the means to
contribute financially to their THE RUNNERS-UP
household, it can upset long-held
power dynamics within the family, Inclusion Solutions: Global Inclusive Dairy Value Chains: India
often leading to conflict and even For companies looking to help their CARE’s Inclusive Dairy Value
violence. Journeys of Transformation employees address unconscious bias Chains model enables women
empowers couples to improve and negotiate issues around diversity to become entrepreneurs in all
communication and, together, tackle and power, Inclusion Solutions is aspects of the dairy business by
domestic violence, disproportionate a social consulting business that designing and developing new
workloads and other issues at the core provides training and capacity credit products, increasing access
of inequitable gender roles holding building for staff, while facilitating and control over resources and
women and communities back. dialogue across the organization and building entrepreneurial skills.
assessing related gaps in the overall
conversation around diversity. Community Score Card: Malawi
Community Score Card brings
A Different Cup of Tea: Sri Lanka together community members, health
Community Development Forums are care providers and government
mini parliaments where workers and officials to identify barriers to high-
management convene to resolve labor quality health care and develop a
disputes and transform historically shared plan for improvement.
marginalized communities into an
empowered workforce for Sri Lanka’s
tea plantations. The model addresses
social and economic injustices for
workers while increasing productivity
and reducing costs for tea companies.

8
 MAST
Mobile Application
to Secure Tenure

The mobile app helps people

map and claim title to their
land faster, cheaper and more
reliably than ever before.

With verified land

ownership, people are
more apt to invest in their
homes and farms. It also
protects them against
land grabs.

And it becomes an asset

that women can use
as collateral to expand
The MAST team from Tanzania pitches to the judges during CARE’s Scale X Design Challenge, featuring their livelihoods.
a mobile application that shortens the time, reduces the cost and simplifies the process for individuals
claiming their land rights. Carey Wagner/CARE

Team-Based Goals and Incentives: The Young Men Initiative: Social Impact Incubator: Burundi
India The Balkans For local nonprofit organizations
In India, community health workers The Young Men Initiative is seeking to expand their impact
receive little training, support and a school-based program that and professionalize their growing
positive feedback to boost morale and merges an accredited curriculum operations, the Social Impact Incubator
improve motivation. Borrowing ideas with social change campaigns to is a low-cost, capacity-building
from the business world, the Team- transform the school environment, program that develops new leaders,
Based Goals and Incentives model brings combat harmful attitudes and promotes collaboration and equips
frontline health workers together to stereotypes, and promote a them to more effectively engage donors
form teams and set goals for improving culture of nonviolence. and create new funding sources.
health outcomes in their community.
Broadening Gender: Sri Lanka Community Entrepreneurs for Skilled
Dignified Work for Domestic Workers: On behalf of women and girls Health Services: Bangladesh
Ecuador who are experiencing violence, For remote communities that lack
Female domestic workers in Latin Broadening Gender is a multi- access to health services, Community
America are largely unprotected by labor pronged approach to address Health Entrepreneurs is a unique
laws and denied basic human rights. sexual and gender-based violence public-private partnership that trains
CARE Ecuador is building a movement in Sri Lanka by directly engaging local women to be both skilled health
to support dignified work for domestic men and boys, building social care providers and entrepreneurs.
workers by extending the reach of labor movements through education and Communities and providers together set
unions, empowering women’s voices advocating for key policy changes. prices for services, ensuring an income
on labor rights and strengthening for providers and improving health
collaboration between coalitions. outcomes for the entire community.

9
WHAT’S IN A NAME?

Sethambaram Annaletchumy plucks

tea shoots on the Carolina estate in
Sri Lanka, just as her mother and her
grandmother did. Rick Perera/CARE

Emerging From the Cocoon

CARE Sri Lanka transforms itself — and the future of CARE
BY RICK PERERA

I n the picturesque tea-growing

highlands of Sri Lanka, Sethambaram
Annaletchumy is hard at work
few opportunities for education
or work beyond manual labor.
In these terraced hills, CARE’s
Sri Lankan staff has pioneered
some of our most successful work
“plucking” — gently harvesting tea promoting gender equality and
shoots, each comprising an unfurled opportunities for youth. And CARE
bud with two or three young leaves. Today, change is brewing is on the verge of one of the most
Here on the Carolina estate, tea has here — in the lives of tea important organizational evolutions
been produced in the same labor- workers like Annaletchumy, in our more-than-70-year history.
intensive manner since the plantation Working closely with tea estate
was founded under British rule in
but also in the future management and community members,
1892. Annaletchumy’s job is the of CARE, and the entire CARE is changing a culture of gender
same one done by her mother, and humanitarian world. inequity and domestic violence among
her mother’s mother — who were tea workers — whose lives have
born on the plantations and had changed little since their ancestors

10
were brought here from India over Change Is Brewing
a century ago. We’re promoting
leadership skills among women and
providing vocational development
for plantation youth. Annaletchumy
has seized the new opportunities for
women, and with training from CARE
has become a leader among workers.
She serves as assistant secretary
of the Community Development With more tools and
Thanks to more equitable training, the next
Forum through which CARE, worker Generations of tea working conditions and generation of would-
representatives and management create “pluckers” in Sri Lanka youth opportunities for be tea “pluckers”
have had limited vocational training, new is looking for and
more equitable working conditions
options beyond the options are opening for the finding work beyond
and opportunity for youth. tea plantations. next generation. the plantations.
CARE is capitalizing on our success in
transforming lives like Annaletchumy’s,
leveraging the experience into a new After 67 years of working in the economic growth, the end of a civil
business model. Through our tea country, CARE has evolved into conflict, and long-term investments
estate work, and other innovative Chrysalis, which although still in education and infrastructure. CARE
projects like it, CARE staff has affiliated with CARE, is a Sri Lankan- and Chrysalis want that prosperity to
developed expertise that has made registered company, earning profits by reach the most vulnerable Sri Lankans.
CARE in Sri Lanka a world leader in marketing its expert services while still And that calls for a departure from
assisting companies determined to implementing grant-supported projects. the traditional, top-down style of
improve their work environments. It’s no surprise that this new model development aid, funded by donors and
Until now, CARE has worked with is emerging in Sri Lanka — a country managed from a headquarters in the
tea producers, like our other corporate that has made progress thanks to robust wealthier, developed global North.
partners worldwide, on a traditional
nonprofit, humanitarian model:
Companies make tax-deductible
donations to support CARE projects
that benefit their workers.

But in Sri Lanka,

CARE has launched
a revolutionary new
concept: a social
enterprise that applies
business principles,
generating revenue in
support of our social
and humanitarian goals. Chrysalis staff members in Sri Lanka are leading the departure from a traditional top-down style of
development aid to a more flexible consultative approach. Rick Perera/CARE

11
 CARE President and CEO Michelle
Nunn traveled to Sri Lanka last year,
where she met with Chrysalis leaders
and encountered real promise in the
newly formed enterprise. “Chrysalis
will be a nimble organization that
partners with the private sector, with
the nonprofit community and with
government to ensure that youth
and women are carried forward into
private-sector employment,” she says.
“That really is a kind of partnership
model I believe we’ll be talking about
five and 10 years from now, as we
talk about development innovation.”

What’s in the name?

A chrysalis — the transitional
stage as a caterpillar transforms
into a butterfly — reflects a Michelle Nunn, president and CEO of CARE, meets with a tea plantation employee during a trip to see
philosophy, says Ashika Sarashundera, the work of Chrysalis in Sri Lanka. Rick Perera/CARE
former assistant country director
for CARE in Sri Lanka, now we were creating could be used and needs to be different in its operating
the first CEO of Chrysalis. helpful otherwise. There are countries form, and social enterprise can be one
“What are we doing as Chrysalis?” like Vietnam, Indonesia, a lot of the of those forms. It’s not the only answer,
she asks. “We’re incubating ideas, Latin American countries, where CARE but it’s one answer to the change we
potential and energies of people.
Inside the chrysalis is where
the caterpillar gets the genetic
material, the motivation, the
energy, to become the butterfly.”
Chrysalis, as a new, independent
CARE affiliate, has much to
offer the larger CARE family,
Sarashundera says — serving as a
laboratory for grassroots innovation
driven by leadership from the
global South while benefiting
from CARE’s global expertise.
Greg Brady, former country director
of CARE Sri Lanka, agrees: “We
created Chrysalis first and foremost
because we felt we could make a
huge contribution in Sri Lanka, but
secondly because we know that CARE
After 67 years of working in Sri Lanka, CARE has evolved into Chrysalis, which although still affiliated
must change internationally,” he said. with CARE, is a Sri Lankan-registered company, earning profits by marketing its expert services to
“We started to realize that the model companies, particularly the country’s tea plantations. Rick Perera/CARE

12
as an organization must make to be mountain resort of Castlereigh Lake,
much more reflective of the changing some 4,000 feet above sea level.
CHRYSALIS
world around us and the changing “At home, men share the workload SERVICES
architecture of international aid.” with the women, looking after the
Chrysalis will continue CARE’s children, washing clothes, helping
pioneering work in women’s the wife in cooking and creating a
empowerment, gender equality and pleasant environment at home. And
engaging men as champions for the it really helps me in my workplace,
rights of women and girls. It will because a worker is working for me Advisory
Years of experience allow us to identify
offer consulting services to business, for eight hours, and again she has to challenges in a local context and to
government and nonprofit clients, work at home about eight hours. And offer practical solutions.
as well as to other CARE country now that work is shared with men.”
offices, to help them build cultures of Nearby, at the Carolina estate, the
equal opportunity. Already, experts late afternoon sun is low over the
from CARE in Sri Lanka have been hills, and Annaletchumy is finishing
contacted by corporations across Asia an exhausting day of plucking.
and as far away as West Africa — She stops to chat about her family Business
where clients in the cocoa industry and their future — a future that We help businesses create and
promote a more equitable and
seek to create a more equitable and has radically changed. She and productive work environment.
productive work environment. her husband have both completed
That’s the right thing to do, but secondary school. Their 17-year-
it’s also the smart thing, because old daughter also has graduated,
today’s empowered women make more and plans to go on to university.
satisfied workers, as Sri Ganesha, “My expectation is that, unlike
manager of the Mayfield tea estate, me or my mother, she will leave
Development
says on a hillside overlooking the the plantation to find work.” We help transform the lives of
As for Annaletchumy, she women and youth through economic
will continue her work with the empowerment and equal rights.

Community Development Forum —

now under the guidance of Chrysalis,
launching a new generation of young
women and men toward careers their
parents never could have imagined.
“Previously, women were just Local to global
housewives,” she says, “not allowed We help develop approaches and strategies
for more equitable work environments
to participate in larger society. from the local to the global level.
Nowadays, after our leadership
training and other activities, there is
a change in the relationship between
husbands and wives. Women are
free to contribute and speak our
minds. That tells you something
about the credibility of CARE.”
Technical
We help clients design projects and
business models using our social and
Sri Ganesha, who manages the Mayfield tea economic development expertise.
estate in Sri Lanka, says a more equitable work
environment is both right and smart — for
companies and their employees. Rick Perera/CARE

13
FOCUS

Hadjara Moumine/CARE
In the Red Zone
Innovation is crucial to CARE’s worldwide emergency response

A 14-year CARE veteran, Tamara Shukakidze has traveled extensively leading CARE’s emergency response
efforts in a range of extraordinary contexts. She serves as director of strategy for CARE’s Emergency and
Humanitarian Assistance Team and talked with Impact magazine about how and why innovation is shaping
CARE’s work in the 21st century.

Q. How is the emergency landscape increased over the past 50 years — when disaster strikes. And a big part
changing and how is CARE adapting to it is a strategic imperative that we of that is our capacity to compete
improve our response? elevate our capabilities in emergency for new funding — particularly from
A. Given our global footprint and and humanitarian contexts. We cannot the private sector and even more
the fact that crises of all types are achieve our mission of alleviating specifically from the technology
increasing — and have steadily poverty without being able to lead sector. Proposed cuts for humanitarian

14
assistance by the U.S. government
also require us to be increasingly
innovative and creative as we seek out
and cultivate other funding sources.
Another growing challenge in the
emergency landscape is the increase
in conflict-driven emergencies. That
creates more refugees and levies
more hardship in other areas such as
food security. Whereas humanitarian
workers were accepted and respected in
the past, they are increasingly targeted
in conflict situations, and that makes
our operations more challenging and
dangerous. So we have to find new
and better ways to deliver our support
under these changing conditions.

Q. How would you describe the role

of innovation in CARE’s emergency
response strategy worldwide?
A key tactic in CARE’s emergency response efforts is cash assistance in the form of debit cards, which
A. People often assume innovation give affected families the flexibility to determine what they most urgently need — all while supporting
is only about starting from scratch, the local economy. Vangi Dora/CARE
about creating something new. But
we’ve seen that it’s just as much lies in our long-term programming, assets, no education and no access
about identifying existing ideas that where we have amazing examples of to technology. They were extremely
already are working, then investing in speedy, creative solutions to deliver malnourished and lived in the most
that kind of out-of-the-box thinking aid — such as debit cards that allow impoverished parts of the world.
as a way to take them to scale. The affected families to determine for That still characterizes many of the
role of innovation in emergency and themselves what they most urgently most vulnerable people today, but
humanitarian response for CARE is need — allowing us to reach the we also have people fleeing their
all about breaking the “silos” that most vulnerable by engaging local homes as a result of conflict and
interfere with that identification community resources. Going forward, war; they arrive with smartphones,
and investment process. It’s about CARE will work closely with our often are well educated, and are very
thinking before, during and beyond regional and country offices to identify well versed in using banking cards
the actual response and, in many such best practices and to promote and other modern technology.
cases, identifying ways to administer these innovative solutions among other
existing programs better or more critical partners, even as we internally
efficiently. For example, during shelter replicate and scale up the best ideas This completely changes the
reconstruction following a disaster, that are already working well.
dynamics and the landscape
we not only want to rebuild what
was destroyed, but also to improve Q. How has that role evolved? In what of how humanitarian aid
the design so that the shelter will be ways do you expect innovation to should keep up and be
more resistant to future earthquakes, play a bigger role in the next five or innovative to address the
typhoons or other shocks. In other 10 years?
words, we want to build back safer A. It the past, the vast majority of
needs of the 21st century.
and better. Very often, our strength the most vulnerable people had no

15
 our work to support the sexual and
reproductive health needs of women
and girls during times of crisis; and
explore creative fundraising that will
supply more flexible, upfront resources
that we can invest more efficiently
on the ground. Also, today there is
a greater awareness and acceptance
of the different needs women have
in emergencies compared with men,
so we can customize relief packages
that account for those needs, such as
dignity kits that include items such
as sanitary napkins, soap and towels.

Q. Tell us about a “wow” moment

when you found innovation
particularly evident in CARE’s
emergency response. What was the
outcome? 
A. As part of our emergency response
in some parts of the world, we have
introduced technology in the form of
cash transfers that benefit not only
the families who receive them, but also
vendors in local markets where that
money is spent, local microfinance
services and the government. In Haiti,
for example, the USAID-funded Kore
Djimila Abdoulaye is a refugee from the Central African Republic living in Dossoye Camp in southern
Chad. Direct cash assistance helps her meet her family’s needs, covering food, supplies and school fees. Lavi program began in 2013 with
Maxime Michel/CARE an electronic voucher platform that
enrolled thousands of extremely poor
Our use of technology — such as A. We decided now is the time to households into the national safety
emergency cash transfers through rethink how CARE — with more than net program. Not only did this serve
mobile phones or grocery debit 70 years of experience — responds to the program’s long-term purpose,
cards — and our engagement with emerging needs, even as we continue but it also proved to be a fast, useful
non-traditional partners that are addressing the scale of humanitarian mechanism to transfer emergency cash
stepping up with new solutions crises unfolding in different parts of to families most affected by Hurricane
have become necessary elements the world. We have identified areas, Matthew last October. As in other
of our innovative thinking and both internally and externally, that instances of emergency cash assistance,
decision-making going forward. we need to adjust, revamp and even we also saw a broader benefit emerge
reconsider altogether. We want to in local markets in which vendors
Q. How is CARE reshaping our focus on and invest in our efforts were able to respond to — and
emergency response to better to prepare vulnerable countries that continue operating in — the changing
prioritize the needs of women are chronically exposed to natural environment, even under extraordinary
and girls? and man-made disasters; elevate circumstances of a disaster.

16
FROM THE FIELD

Grassroots Innovation
Not all innovation requires fancy gadgets or other 21st-century technology

In our work around the world, CARE often employs simple yet powerful solutions to improve life for families and communities.
Check out these “hacks” to see what we mean. Then find more at care.org/impact/careknowshow

Angela Platt/CARE

Angela Platt/CARE
Nadia Naz/CARE

PAKISTAN BANGLADESH ECUADOR

Homegrown health care Staying afloat Out of thin air
There is no hospital in Pakistan’s village With 80 percent of its land located High in the Ecuadorian cloud forest,
of Haji Pur of Rajanpur, Punjab, forcing in a floodplain, Bangladesh is no CARE implemented a program to help
families to travel many miles for medical stranger to floods, which inundate families harvest water from thin air.
treatment. It’s an expensive trip most nearly one-fifth of the country each On a foggy day, this mist collection
can’t afford. So they often rely on home year. That causes major problems and system — made of a stainless steel
remedies to cure diseases. But this destroys livelihoods, particularly for screen, PVC piping, a bucket and
CARE hack does much more than cure the country’s poultry farmers, whose sensors — can collect up to 53
diseases — it helps prevent them. By chickens often drown. CARE and gallons of water. The water is then
burning goat droppings in a special mud our local partners happened upon a filtered for use in the home, saving
container, residents create a natural simple solution: Raise ducks instead. much time and energy once spent
mosquito repellent — adding a line of Since ducks can swim, they’re better walking long distances to fetch it.
defense between them and mosquito- able to withstand Bangladesh’s wet That’s time and energy that can be
borne diseases such as malaria and season and routine floods. They also redirected to generating household
dengue fever. provide protein-rich eggs and meat and income or getting an education.
generate a solid source of income.

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