Intelligent Development
In Africa, EWB’s approach to development focuses exclusively on systemic innovations that impact the masses. So we don’t drill wells, we help to ensure that tens of thousands of wells are monitored and repaired. We don’t distribute seeds, we work with small businesses to help them provide the tools and information that farmers need to prosper.
All of this is made possible by unprecedented local insight – our teams integrate with businesses, governments, organizations and entrepreneurs to understand systems from the inside out, then work with them to incubate change using an established, five-stage process.
Incubating
systemic innovations
Search
We integrate into the system, understanding it from within and identifying opportunities for systemic innovation.
Prototype
We co-design systemic innovations with local partners, with the goal of fixing a broken system or introducing a new model.
Pilot
We test small to determine viability at low cost, providing support as our partner leads. Failure means we learn and return to prototype. Success means we refine and multiply.
Multiply
We support our partner in deploying the innovation on a larger scale, ensuring we aren’t needed to sustain the solution.
Exit
The innovation is sustaining itself or the change is institutionalized through policy innovation and we withdraw, allowing the partner to own the success.
It all combines to create an unprecedented, locally driven approach to development that ensures:
- Greater efficiency and value—we identify what doesn’t work early, learn, and improve until we find what does.
- Local relevance—we “get inside” problems to ensure we really do understand and address the root causes.
- Local capacity is built—our partners learn and get stronger, changing the system from within.
- Change is lasting—EWB is invisible. Put bluntly, if it appears that a solution is ours, we’ve failed.