IXL Social Enterprise Case Studies Food Security January 2013 | Page 20

Food Security in Urban Slums by 2018

Influencers from Self-Help Groups
It is nearly impossible to describe how
many people live in Kibera slum area
of about 225 hectares. Everywhere you
look there are people. People walking,
people working, people selling food or
tennis shoes, people sorting trash, people
herding
goats—people
everywhere.
And despite that people here lack water,
sanitation services and land they are also
thriving.
In between all this mess in Kibera there
is a “self-help” group of women farmers,
who are growing food in “vertical
farms” for their families and selling the
surplus. These groups are present all
over Kenya and around 1,000 in Kibera
neighbourhood—giving youth, women,
and other groups the opportunity to
organize, share information and skills,
and ultimately improve their well-being.
These small gardens can yield big benefits
in terms of nutrition, food security, and
income. All the women save money
because they no longer had to buy
vegetables at the store and they claimed
they taste better because they were
organically grown—but it also might
come from the pride that comes from
growing something themselves.75

Use powerful influencers
Projects at the BOP often fail without support from key influential people or groups within the local
community and government. Gaining buy-in of these people who can be your voice to people at the
BOP can be the key to acceptance and scaling at a faster pace.
SunnyMoney, a social enterprise that offers solar-powered lamps, approached school authorities
on Mafia Island off the African coast with a proposal for a short-term sales promotion: head teachers
could offer students the opportunity to buy a solar lamp at a discount if they were willing to place
their orders within the next three days.
With trusted teachers demonstrating the solar lights’ value and eager students immediately
experiencing their benefits, concerned parents were only too happy to make the purchase to help
their children towards a better life. At a time when SunnyMoney was lucky to sell 1,500 lights a
month elsewhere in Africa, they sold 3,500 in just 3.5 days.76

Who or what are the influencers that can accelerate acceptance of your offering? Consider local
village stores who value relationships over price or symbols of higher status such as owning a cell
phone or TV set.
Offerings should be affordable and accessible
Right-size solutions
The purchasing power of a poor person is not large enough to allow him to buy products that are
sold in larger sizes. Increasing purchasing power is difficult; decreasing the offering is relatively
easy.
Sachet packaging, which started in India and was made popular by Unilever and Procter &
Gamble for products such as shampoo, toothpaste and detergent, is now being applied to other
industries. Globe Telecom in the Philippines is making use of “sachet marketing” that empowers
customers to purchase phone minutes in their own personalized allotments. Rather than restricting
by standardized, pre-set values, the company employs a more flexible payment model: “you only
buy what you need, when you need it.” As a result, customers can “package” their own service
plans as they see fit and only pay for services that suit their particular needs and usage habits (e.g.,
a combination of voice and cheaper text messaging, only text messaging, etc.).
In the developing world, a simple rugged laptop can go a long way towards providing benefits for
the BOP. One Laptop per Child’s laptop had to be sensitive to the needs of both the user and the
purchaser – kids’ need for something fun and easy to use and developing countries’ requirement
for an affordable, low-cost computer. Because reliable access to electricity is not often available
in the developing world, the device also had to be able to run on little power. The solution was to
deliver a laptop computer (the “XO”) that was priced less than US$200 with features quite different
from Western standards—a rugged, low-power, bright-green laptop requiring less than two watts
of power and able to run on human-generated and solar energy sources.

Can you make your offerings bite-size? Snacks, condiments, spices, and even basic food such as
milk, rice, and meat can be bought at single-use sizes.

Version 1.0, January 2013

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