Principal Investigator Saida Benhayoune
Project Website http://impact-alliance.mit.edu/
Project Start Date September 2014
The Practical Impact Alliance aims to harvest the power of collaborative learning and action to increase, accelerate, and sustain impact on global poverty.
Over the last decade, an increasing number of businesses, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and public institutions have been striving to create “shared value” by making life-enhancing products and services accessible to the world’s poor. In doing so, these organizations are encountering common challenges – from understanding the needs, wants, and habits of resource-poor communities, to managing logistics in remote locations with limited infrastructure. As they explore and embrace new and inclusive models for delivering value, organizations are gathering essential knowledge and experience with the unique challenges of these new markets. This learning, and the resulting innovation, often happen in relative isolation, with organizations duplicating efforts to build the capacity and knowledge they need.
Across MIT, world-leading thinkers are applying their talents to the development of innovative business and technology solutions to global poverty. The Practical Impact Alliance is the latest chapter in the Institute’s accomplished history of collaborating with leading organizations to bring knowledge and innovation to bear on the world’s greatest challenges.
As members of the Practical Impact Alliance, leaders from diverse organizations with aligned missions will be able to share learning, collaborate, and develop best practices together. Through PIA’s activities, member organizations can increase their individual and collective impact -- all while leveraging and supporting the work of MIT programs focusing on global poverty alleviation.
The Practical Impact Alliance is facilitated by D-Lab’s Scale-Ups program.
Launched in 2011 with the support of Abdul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives, Scale-Ups enables market-driven deployment of technology solutions to poverty by supporting MIT and IDDS alumni entrepreneurs, providing technical assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises, and engaging industry in research collaborations.