April 2008 - There are thousands of people who unearth the problems in this world. Very few of them try to solve them. And fewer of them are successful in their attempt; Jacqueline Novogratz is one such individual, who has redefined the cliché by truly making an observable difference in a short span of time. On the eve of the seventh anniversary of the organization, Jacqueline, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Acumen Fund, Inc shares with SouthAsia how fulfilling the journey continues to be.
What were your vision and goals for Acumen when it first started out and how far have they been achieved?
I believe that everyone should be treated equally. The poor can be helped through charity but to fundamentally change their conditions, a world is needed where everyone can give their best and can live with dignity. Therefore, the vision was to build a new system to raise charitable funds from individual foundations and corporations and we turn around and invest like a business by channelling it through entrepreneurs and social needs.
Once Mohammad Younus said to me that it’s not a stream but a river which needs to be crossed; you better be thinking 30 years not ten. If you take that, we are much further ahead than I’d have imagined us. However, we still have a long way to go and during the course of time, our strategy has changed. Apart from capital, the focus is also on developing knowledge, imparting awareness and nurturing talent.
How has the company evolved over the years?
The company has grown. It has its own personality now. The biggest manifestation of the growth is the development of the country offices with local advisers, boards and funders.
In Pakistan, we have a team of 6 people who are very close to the work itself. They make decisions, creating the kind of change needed on ground. The local offices have fundamentally changed the effectiveness of our work.
The second best thing is our focus on the three pillars; capital, charity and scale. We used to think that a million dollars is a big number to be invested in. However, today we have made investments of $32 billion globally. Our orientation has gotten very different from the start of the organization.
When I was young, I got slapped often by my friends for trying to change the whole world. I realized how hard it was and got more modest in my ambition; if not the whole word then a little corner and so we focused our efforts too.
Nevertheless, with all the communication and the desire to be connected to one another that individuals can really change the world and a small group of such individuals can make a huge difference. This is something I strongly believe in now.
Please highlight some of the major areas where Acumen has contributed to the South Asian region, and what further plans do you have?
I would say that in Pakistan, there are two places where we are contributing in and when I say we, I mean Acumen Fund with the entrepreneurs because without them we won’t exist. In Pakistan, we’ve been really lucky to work with Kashf, Saaiban and Tragheeb. When we first started working with Kashf in 2002, the organizations had around 17,000 borrowers, and today it is working with 250,000. Acumen Fund has been one in many which has helped micro finance grow and thrive.
Since its inception Acumen has funded around 32 projects most of which are still successfully operational. Any particular reason?
Actually, all of them have been successful which is a little mind boggling. There has not been a single payment not made to Acumen Fund. I think the success depends on investing in the right leaders, having the courage to approach the world with a strong head and a soft heart and charity.
Of all the projects funded by Acumen, which venture is the closest to your heart and why?
They all are different in their own way. Each of them teaches in a different way; many times unexpected. At the beginning of every new operation, we have all this excitement and ambition. For the first year, things go very slowly as people get ready. Once it starts moving, changes are apparent. This aspect becomes my favourite when I see people’s lives being changed and how proud they feel.
Currently, I feel emotionally attached to the drip irrigation project we are working on near Nagarpakar. It is so painful to see parched land and then you see a sunflower field in the middle of it and it is truly breath taking just as is knowing that for the first time in their lives, the locals don’t have to migrate!
Similarly, the first two years when we went to see the land that ‘Saibaan’ had purchased, it was completely empty. Now there are forty houses and 200 people living there. It is amazing to see lives being built in front of your eyes.
Amongst all the projects, underline some of the most challenging?
At the very beginning there were projects that taught us what not to do. We were really excited about technology changing the world when we first started. So we invested in a low cost hearing aid for the poor. What we underestimated is how tough it would be to distribute them. If you are blind, you actually lower your life expectancy. If you can’t hear, not only can you be productive but people also associate hearing aid with shame and don’t think it affects their productivity. You see people don’t buy technology, they buy services. Many people still come into our offices and say I have the technology that will change the water quality in South Asia. But we say we are not interested. But if someone says that I have been working in the community and I know how to bring safe drinking water which they can afford, now that is interesting to us. One of our earliest investments was electro-magnetic immunal centre which taught us that if you don’t understand it, you shouldn’t get into it. The operation was successful but not at the level which we were expecting it to be. We learned about the ethics of metrics. Acumen, through various means, can boost the sales but the real metric is about brining quality services to people. I won’t say they were difficult but made us learn valuable lessons.
What makes the case of South Asia different than the rest of the developing world?
I don’t know if there is any key factor. South Asia is going through an extraordinary moment in history. It has in its hand everything for the future. India and Pakistan can truly be the laboratories in the way we deliver healthcare, not only in the developing world but also in the developed countries. The entrepreneurs are experimenting in a lot of exciting ways around how to deliver. High volumes at very low margin cost; if that is figured out, it will really change the world. The region has the human capacity, the researches, brain power and wealth. All that it needs is a confident attitude.
Has the receptivity of your local stake holders changed over the years since you first started here vis-à-vis the concept of philanthropy and empowerment?
We provide entrepreneurs with loans. This shifts the balance of relationship. In a trapped charity relationship, all the power rests with the provider. On the contrary, in the lending relationship, both sides are powerful. Both can decide if they want to enter the relationship or not. They need to talk more honestly to each other about their goals, plans and execution which makes our way work.
As a magazine that caters to high profile business men, is there a message that you would like to share with our readers that can help Acumen’s cause?
Business leaders should look into low income, viable markets to provide goods and services. If not, then there should be an alignment; even if the market is out of reach in the traditional mechanisms, there are ways of supporting organizations like Acumen to the accelerate the development of these aspects, so at the end of the line, they are contributing to a healthier economy all together. We as a world need not only financial support but their human capital, technology and skills as well to make the change.  Caption pic 2 Jacqueline being presented a momento for her efforts towards poverty alleviation by Syed Jawaid Iqbal, Chairman Moderates, a private sector think tank
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