Million Lives Collective

As we approach the end of 2024, we’re looking back over the year’s highlights and celebrating the incredible impact that MLC innovations are having in underserved communities around the world. Read on for a snapshot of our activities in 2024... 👉 In April, MLC members gathered in Oxford for the 21st Skoll World Forum. At the event MLC members showcased their innovations, shared their learnings, and forged new pathways for collective impact with fellow innovators, entrepreneurs, SMEs, civil society organizations and funders. 👉 In July, evaluation firm 60 Decibels released an impact report on the MLC’s first collaboration grant, which was awarded to Healthy Entrepreneurs and RestoringVision to improve vision care access in Kenya and Uganda. The report found that, by integrating their initiatives, the organizations were able to significantly increase eyeglass distribution in their target communities, while improving customer earnings by 44% in just three months! 👉 Building off the success of the first collaboration grant, the Bayer Foundation announced new funding for MLC members working at the nexus of health and women’s economic empowerment. Two collaboration grants have been awarded this year, and four MLC members are now actively piloting innovative collaborative approaches to scale their impact. 👉 In November, MLC members driving critical solutions in nutrition, agriculture, health and vision care gathered in Delhi for the International Development Innovation Alliance’s bi-annual Hub meeting. At the event, Simprints delivered a presentation on their innovative work to bring marginalized and ‘invisible’ populations into the digital world through the use of biometric enrollments in Bangladesh, and VisionSpring held a unique innovation demonstration with the Alliance’s principals, highlighting the significant scaling potential of their vision care services and affordable eyewear. 👉 Across the year, MLC welcomed 12 new members, the latest four of which will be announced in early 2025. Stay tuned to hear how these innovations are improving the livelihoods and wellbeing of millions of people living on less than $5.50 per day!

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗱 💪 Our winners of the Million Lives Collective Grant 2024 are aiming to 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝟯𝟬% 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝟭𝟬𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻! 💧 4Life Solutions & Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organization collaborated to test a sales agent model for distribution of clean energy drinking water solutions. 💳 Medic & D-tree collaborated to develop a platform to enable digital payments to Community Health Workers. Join us in congratulating our awardees! 🎉 Read more about their projects through the link in comments! This award program is supported by our partner organization Million Lives Collective. #Africa #CleanEnergy #DigitalPayments #Announcement

We are so proud to be a winner of Bayer Foundation’s Million Lives Collective Grant 2024 alongside our incredible partner D-tree. The platform we co-developed enables digital payments so that community health workers can be recognized and rewarded for their critical contributions to the health of their communities. Together, we will continue to advocate for digital solutions that support paid, professionalized CHWs! #ProCHWS #digitalpayment Community Health Impact Coalition

Empowering Communities through Clear Vision! Today, on #WorldSightDay, we celebrate the transformative impact of Near Vision Glasses on communities worldwide! Through partnership between Healthy Entrepreneurs and RestoringVision funded by Million Lives Collective and Bayer Foundation With support to assess impact, research was done by 60 Decibels, a leading social impact research firm, reveals that #NearVisionGlasses have significantly improved livelihoods, productivity, and self-dependence among community members. These results have been due to efforts of Community Healthy Entrepreneurs (CHEs) who enable the last mile deliveries happen. Key Findings: - 96% reported increased confidence. - 80% experienced reduced dependence on others. - 87% showed improved ability to work. - 94% reported enhanced overall quality of life. Notably, within just three months: - 44% reported an increase in earned income. These findings demonstrate the profound impact of these specialized glasses on users' personal and professional lives. (Check the link more insights: https://lnkd.in/dBha36Qm) The numbers tell a powerful story, but it's the human impact that truly inspires: - Men and Women can now read, sort feeds, sew, and stitch without dependence on others - Small business owners can accurately manage finances and inventory - Farmers can inspect crops and livestock with precision Near Vision Glasses have unlocked a new level of autonomy and confidence, especially for women. Less reliant on others for daily tasks, they're taking control of their lives and livelihoods. Join the movement to bring clear vision to every community! Let's work together by creating an environment to: - Increase access to affordable Near Vision Glasses - Support economic empowerment through clear vision - Celebrate the resilience and determination of communities worldwide #WorldSightDay #ClearVision #EmpowermentThroughSight #Productivity #SelfDependence #WomenEmpowerment #60DecibelsResearch #NearVisionGlasses #SustainableDevelopment

Did you know that one of the fastest-growing innovations in global health today is digital payments for community health workers? 🌍 Earlier this year, D-tree and Medic received a Million Lives Collective and Bayer Cares Foundation grant to identify strategies to increase over 100,000 women's income by 30 %. With timely, secure payments, digital systems provide community health workers — especially women, who make up 70% of this workforce — with vital support. A well-designed payment system supports their well-being, improves transparency and ensures that community health workers can focus on their job, delivering healthcare to those who need it the most. Want to learn more? Dive in here: https://lnkd.in/d3aHDx9N

Evidence shows that professional hashtag #communityhealthworkers could save two million lives annually, and generate a 10:1 return on investment for governments that support them. There is broad agreement that CHWs deserve fair compensation for their critical work. But the question remains: how can this be done efficiently and effectively? That’s why D-tree and Medic, through a Million Lives Collective and Bayer Foundation grant, have been working on digital solutions to ensure that CHWs receive the right recognition for their performance.💡 These are our findings on how to build strong, usable, and transparent payment systems 👉 https://bit.ly/40vDrt1 Community Health Impact Coalition | Transform Health | #DigitalHealthWeek #DigitalPayments #HealthcareInnovation #TechForGood

It's an exciting week for Villgro Africa, as several team members are in Kigali attending the HealthTech Hub Africa's HealthTech Policy Summit! This gathering brings together innovators, policymakers, and industry leaders to shape the future of healthcare in Africa. A special highlight: Our Senior Program Manager, Moses Waweru, had the opportunity to present the Million Lives Collective checklist, a tool designed to help scale impactful health innovations within the public sector. This checklist is a powerful framework for guiding initiatives to reach broader populations, especially within Africa's rapidly evolving health landscape. We look forward to collaborating and learning from other visionaries who are committed to making sustainable, life-changing impacts. Wilfred Njagi Immanuel Momanyi

💪🏼We’re building our evidence of impact and the results are outstanding! One of my favorite results is increased confidence when vision is restored. It seems so obvious but the data is essential to make the case so we can do more and solve the vision crisis! 🙏🏼 Thank you 60 Decibels, Results for Development, Bayer Foundation, Healthy Entrepreneurs, our very own RestoringVision team, and Million Lives Collective. 🚀 Looking forward to taking these results and the program from pilot to scale, equipping more #CommunityHealthWorkers and #Communities with the #readingglasses they need. Imagine what our communities would look like if 800M people were empowered with reading glasses.

The Million Lives Collective and the Bayer Foundation are excited to announce the winners of our 2024 Women’s Economic Empowerment Grant! ✨ 4Life Solutions & Maendeleo ya Wanawake Organization - Testing a sales agent model for distribution of clean energy drinking water solutions 💫 Medic & D-tree - Developing a platform to enable digital payments to Community Health Workers These two collaboration projects aim to increase incomes for 100,000+ women in sub-Saharan Africa by 30%. 🎉Join us in congratulating our awardees! 🎉 Stay tuned for more information on these organisations and their collaboration projects!

This #WorldMalariaDay, we echo the World Health Organization's call to shed light on why we need to continue with the fight to end malaria in Africa. ❻⓿❽ - Thousands of malaria deaths in 2022 ❷❹❾ - Millions of new malaria cases in 2022 As we honor the heroes in this battle, Akros, a dedicated member of the Million Lives Collective, persists in its commitment by leveraging the Reveal platform to utilize geospatial data for delivering health services to the most remote areas. With more than 3 million lives impacted, they continue to support governments across the continent to achieve targeted indoor residual spray (IRS), mass drug administration (MDA), and larval source management. Most recently, their mapping of antimalarial resistance markers in #Ghana with the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria, and the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP) - University of Ghana marks a new innovation linking genomics with the power of spatial data. The use of spatial intelligence means bringing data science to the ground through Reveal! We are very proud to have Akros in the collective, and excited about all the possibilities that await them! And so continues the journey of 100+ claps... 👏https://lnkd.in/dDbDVxVG Villgro Africa E&K Consulting Firm Insight Health Advisors Results for Development #meetthecollective