Social entrepreneurship innovation

Bacolod-based social entrepreneur and marine engineer Auke Idzenga has been residing in the Philippines since 1985. His remarkable work in providing clean water to 600 remote villages is truly inspiring.

On behalf of his organization, the Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation Inc (AIDFI), he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2011 and has recently been honored with the 3rd Mansmith Innovation Award for his innovative social initiatives. In this interview, he shares his journey in social innovation to uplift the rural poor.

Question: Could you share the story behind your decision to dedicate your life to providing clean water to remote villages in the Philippines?

Answer: I studied marine engineering because of my interest in technology and to see the world. After graduation, I worked on three ships and saw extreme poverty. I then, in 1984, decided to dedicate my life to the poor. I joined an appropriate technology group at a technical university in the water lab with a ram pump made from concrete. I had never heard of such a pump, which could bring up water from a lower source to a much greater height without electricity or fuel. The model was crude but it blew me away and I knew there would come a time that I would work with it.

I left without any organizational support since I didn’t want to be ‘boxed’. My choice became the Philippines, where I had stayed twice.

I ended up in Negros and worked with sugar workers in a farm lot program. It was the period of hunger. Hacienderos had ceased planting because of the low world market prices. The sugar workers had no alternatives and were going hungry. We helped them borrow a piece of land to produce their own food. We were too busy with organizing and providing basic inputs and guidance that there was no time for technologies. Later, we got engaged in land transfer of mostly indebted haciendas with the DBP (Development Bank of the Philippines) and PNB (Philippine National Bank) under the new land reform program.

From my many visits to the projects, which were often in hilly areas, I observed the need for technologies, with water for drinking, household and irrigation as the most expressed need. Basic services (water, sanitation, energy, roads, health and education) were mostly absent. With three other Filipino colleagues, we brainstormed about an organization catering to agrarian reform communities with programs on sustainable agriculture and appropriate technologies. In 1992, we registered AIDFI.

Q: What were the biggest challenges you faced when initially trying to bring water to these remote areas?

A: Actually, AIDFI got involved in many different technologies for basic needs. It was a natural reaction to what we heard and saw. The ram pump was already there.

As said earlier, it was in the predigital period that we started. Our disadvantage was that we were in Negros. [There were] no computers and everything was expensive. To make a phone call or a telegram to my parents would cost me half of my monthly local salary. We had so many dreams and ideas but no money. AIDFI started in a very small rented bodega with a garage. \

There were instances [when] we could not pay the rental or have our salary. To develop technologies, we needed to have research material, but where do we get those? From the US, we bought a microfiche reader with 1,000 books on appropriate technologies. It had no possibility for printing but still was langit (heaven) for us. I wrote a lot of letters to try to get some small funds. A few turned out positive and enabled us to buy some basic equipment from a closed shop.

Before AIDFI, I had already experimented in Negros with ram pumps I designed. My first installation was at the farm of my father-in-law, Gregorio, in the mountains of Southern Negros. We pumped water 55 meters below the creek to the highest point of his farm. A lot of experiments were carried out on his farm. It was my ‘laboratory’ and Gregorio loved it. Proven technologies were adapted by AIDFI.

Q: How did you develop the solutions that have made this project successful?

A: The ram pump was a forgotten technology. It was swept away during the Industrial Revolution since there was no concern for energy and pollution. When we started working with the ram pump, hardly anybody had heard of it.

My idea was to see what was already existing in relation to the ram pump technology here in the Philippines. In the absence of computers, I typed around 100 letters to groups, academe and government agencies. Some responses were received a year later. I visited all the places mentioned in the replies, to learn from their experiences.

On one hand, there were the imported expensive models and at the other side, the inferior DIY models. I saw the need for a cross-breed model based on local materials and spare parts (ordinary door hinge). It was labeled the AIDFI model and rigorously tested on projects. We observed and further modified; innovation never stops. Our guiding principle for all our technologies is: “The designer knows he has reached perfection not when there is no longer anything to add, but no longer anything to take away.”

Things went slow because of the predigital situation and introducing an unknown technology was hard. We developed a working miniature set, which we could hand-carry and display. That was the best thing we did. It fits in a camera box and has been displayed already in many countries.

In the digital era, things went faster. In 2012, we moved from one project at a time to batches. We were instrumental in getting the technology institutionalized at the Department of Agriculture and started working with Coca-Cola Foundation Inc. for which we have implemented systems in 178 previous waterless upland villages benefiting 130,000 people.

But even how simple the technology is, it will need care. We train two local technicians in each village. We also realized that in order to make the systems sustainable, social preparation through holistic package was vital. All this was geared toward ownership by the community of the technology and water associations.

Women play a big role and around 70 percent of the officers are women. It was necessary to counter the old dole-out system of doing projects. The social component is also groundwork for the further development we try to trigger through the holistic water system.

AIDFI also introduced water filters to be sure that the water is safe to drink, as well as a monitoring app because of the remoteness of our projects. The associations sent us vital data such as volume of water delivered, fees collected, meetings held and repairs and maintenance carried out.

AIDFI has innovation in its DNA and is constantly looking for further improvements in all aspects of its program.

We had observed that the public faucets in the villages placed near households gave lots of issues. The villagers were paying a monthly fee but there was unfair distribution, causing poor collection. I then had the idea of a water kiosk that would provide 20 liters for a peso coin.

We developed it around many electrical and electronic parts. The installed pilot units worked well but started experiencing many issues. I then shifted to the idea of a kiosk based on a mechanical coin acceptor like those in gum ball machines, combined with a toilet flush system. After some revisions, we had a unique mechanical water kiosk. For Coca-Cola Foundation, we manufactured and installed already some 200 kiosks.

The beauty of our mechanical water kiosk is that it can also be used in other water systems like gravity, electric or fuel-driven systems.

The results with the kiosk are astonishing. The collection of fees increased many times. This gives financial space for the associations to pay for allowances, spare parts, repair, expansion etc. Some associations already used the collection for other kind of development.

Q: Can you share any memorable stories that highlight the impact on remote villages?

A: The ram pumps brings us to many places, even abroad. The most exciting experience was in Northern Afghanistan during the war. With another technician, I went there. Upon arrival in Kunduz, we decided to immediately start making an inventory of all materials we had ordered in advance. We heard a super loud bang and the security guards went out. When they came back they laughed and said, “Don’t worry it was only misfiring (of a rocket propeller).”

We worked in mountainous areas [that were a] six-hour drive from Kunduz, where there was no more vegetation left. Bringing up the water to 150 meters high opened up the possibility for the Afghan farmers to distribute water and grow fruit or nut trees. In many ways, this was unforgettable.

We later did technology transfer to three Afghans in a training in Bacolod. Even though we do not gain anything financially, seeing our model being produced locally in Afghanistan makes us proud. We did this also in Nepal, Colombia and Mexico. At the moment, we are communicating with Ethiopia, but [lack of] finances at both sides hinders the transfer.

Q: What are some of the most pressing challenges in the field of social entrepreneurship and innovation today, and how do you see them being addressed?

A: The bureaucracy sees social enterprises as regular business. For example, we have a coffee shop at our office to generate income for our work, but it is considered business. This creates difficulties for us. For a long time, there is a social entrepreneurship bill in the making, which eventually will provide special attention to social enterprises. We need an environment in which (social) enterprises are comforted and can thrive, [where there’s] stimulation rather than restriction.

Another challenge is the constant need to look for funding. We work with the poorest of the poor who can’t afford to pay for the infrastructure, so the funds have to come from somewhere else. It costs so much time to explore for funds. We prefer to spend that time on quality manufacturing and installations, developing new concepts and carrying out actual research and development.

Q: As a social entrepreneur, how do you measure the long-term sustainability and success of your projects? Are there specific metrics or indicators you focus on?

A: From the 600 village systems, we perfectly know the many benefits of easy access to an increased volume of water: better health and sanitation, time and money savings, ease of doing household activities and increased income from water-related activities.

We, however, never had the time and budget to carry our impact research to gather evidence-based data. Lately, we developed an app for impact monitoring, which will be launched this December. The trials of gathering data before an installation and six months after showed big changes. It confirms that bringing up water near the doorsteps or the farms is changing the lives of uplanders.

In order to create sustainable systems, AIDFI needs to be sustainable itself. In 2006, we bought a 3,000-square meter (sqm) lot, built an office and workshop, expanded this workshop with another 325 sqm and invested in machines to produce good quality ram pumps and components of the systems.

The poor also deserve good working technologies. We have a group of skilled and committed technicians and community facilitators and a passionate management team. AIDFI has a track record of 600 installed systems with 300,000 beneficiaries, pumps in 15 countries and [completed] four technology transfers, with a complete infrastructure to professionally carry out ram pump installations anywhere, anytime. —CONTRIBUTED

Josiah Go is the chair and chief innovation strategist of Mansmith and Fielders Inc., offering eight innovation courses to help your company thrive. Visit www.mansmithinnovation.com to discover leading innovators in the Philippines.