The strategy of hope over despair

I'm sitting here in a coffee shop at Khan Market, reading all sorts of depressing statistics about maternal and child health in India and Africa: in Ghana, where I'll be going in a few weeks as part of our partnership with the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, 40% of deaths in children under 5 years old happen in their first month of life. Of those, 50% of deaths happen on the first day of life, with another 25% happen within the first week of life. The situation is similarly bleak in countries like Malawi, where half of all births happen without a skilled practitioner, and one out of seven women face the risk of dying due to complications during pregnancy.

Suddenly, Shakira's "Waka-waka: It's Time for Africa" blasts on the stereo, and I can't help but sing and bop along, all the while conscious of the dichotomy between reading bleak health statistics, and hearing a song about the vitality and vibrancy of Africa.

It reminds me of a TEDx talk by Melinda Gates, given in New York last year and which was shown during the recent TEDx event in Delhi earlier this week. In it, she talks about what non-profits can learn from Coca-Cola.

Her three main points of what Coke does, which leads to its success in a continent like Africa:

1) Utilizing data in real-time to make continuous improvements, as opposed to post-project evaluation (which is basically akin to a post-mortum)

2) Leveraging local entrepreneurs and local talent

3) Effective marketing

In fact, what was exciting to realize as I listened to her talk is that LifeSpring does each one of these, through our use of SalesForce and HIMS; hiring outreach workers from the communities they work in, and utilizing marketing strategies that translate need into demand. But without a doubt, there's always more that we can do.

The area of Melinda Gates' talk that really hit home was her discussion around marketing. At TEDx, she showed K'naan's video, "Wavin' Flag"- discussing how Coca Cola was the official sponsor of the World Cup. As the camera panned to the audience, nearly everyone was uplifted by the video -- bopping along with smiles on their faces.

And that's exactly her point: The strength of Coca-Cola's marketing is that it is inspirational and aspirational. It makes people want to be part of the community (like the Coke commercial when we were younger: "I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony.")

Contrast this to the messaging that non-profits in global health tend to bombard communities with: "Don't deliver your baby at home"; "Don't have unprotected sex"; don't, don't, don't... And we wonder why people in the community shut us out.

It reminds me of going to a foundation in New York City. Their walls were covered in black-and-white photographs of homeless people around NY -- clearly the beneficiaries they're serving, but looking at all the photos made me so depressed that I just wanted to lay down.

Contrast this with Acumen Fund's offices in New York -- painted in loud, vibrant colors, and filled equally vibrant, hopeful photographs of people their investee companies serve -- photos that fill you with hope and inspiration, and make you want to be part of the change.

The difference is huge. And potentially can impact thousands of lives.