What I Learned from Losing the World Vision Social Innovation Challenge
A lesson for social impact practitioners with grand ideals for impact
It’s 10:49PM. I just got off the phone with a representative from World Vision Canada to talk about Umalalay, the business idea my team and I developed for the World Vision Social Innovation Challenge.
The competition wrapped up a month and a half ago. My team lost.
The challenge aimed to address the plastic waste issue in the Sto. Niño community of the Philippines. Until 6 months ago when my professor presented the challenge to my Technology for Global Development class I knew next to nothing about the issue, nor was I able to find Sto. Niño on a map. But just a few months later I was captivated enough by the problem to email the World Vision representative and schedule a call with her to talk about pursuing our business idea further. Even though we lost the competition, the feedback we received from the judges and the audience left me with the feeling that we had a killer idea. Of course it would work, if only someone pursued it. Why couldn’t that someone be us?
10:15PM. I hop onto Skype for my call with the World Vision rep.
10:20PM. Skype isn’t working — my internet connection is terrible. On to WhatsApp.
10:35PM. The call is over. I won’t be pursuing Umalalay further.
20 minutes. That’s all it took for my drive to pursue Umalalay to die. Really, 15 if you discount the 5 minutes of not being able to hear each other talk because of shitty internet. How did my ambition die so quickly? It came down two questions:
Why are you passionate about the plastic waste issue in the Philippines?
I’m not, really.
Why are you the best person suited to address this issue?
Again… I’m not.
Done. I mean, there was a bit more to the conversation than that. But to be blunt, I don’t care enough about plastic waste in the Philippines to fully dedicate time and energy to tackling it, and truthfully I’m not the best person suited to do it.
In the 14 minutes between ending the call and firing up Microsoft Word, two thoughts (lessons if you will) emerged in my mind.
First - a Canadian University of Toronto engineering graduate living in Kampala is not the person best suited to tackle the plastic waste issue in the Philippines. And second - solving big problems requires commitment.
Yes. A very specific, but obvious statement about my current situation accompanied by a vague statement that I probably stole from a cliché graphic I saw while scrolling through my Facebook timeline. Let me explain.
A Canadian UofT engineering graduate living in Kampala isn’t the best person to tackle plastic waste issue in the Philippines
No, I’m not. And in my opinion, neither were any of the other finalists of the Social Innovation Challenge.
Okay, that’s not a fair statement. I can’t definitively say that I know the other competitors aren’t experts on plastic waste. I can’t definitively say that I know the other competitors weren’t just treating this as a class project, or a competition, or one more thing to put on their resumes. I can’t definitively say that the other competitors weren’t willing to transplant their lives to the Philippines for a several years to build out their business ideas. What I can say is that I am not an expert on plastic waste, I did treat this as a resume-boosting class project turned competition and no, I wouldn’t transplant my life to the Philippines for a few years to pursue my idea. And if I had to put my money on it, I bet my fellow competitors would say the same.
On the call I learned World Vision was actually currently working with a business in the Philippines to address the same plastic waste issue. I don’t know its name, or the specifics of what they do, but what I do know is that they have spent the last two years working on the ground to understand the plastic value chain and build relationships with stakeholders.
Two years.
To understand the problem.
Two years to build the knowledge and relationships necessary to get their locally owned business off the ground. Two years (let’s be honest — probably more) that I, a university student from Canada, would need to spend living in Sto. Niño to understand the plastic waste issue and build relationships in the community to make Umalalay work. Two years that, if I’m being honest with myself, I don’t want to spend building that business.
Why? Because it is not my issue to tackle. It is not the issue that I am deeply passionate about and want to commit years of my life towards. Because like I said…
Solving big problems requires commitment
Am I better suited than a team of Filipino entrepreneurs to tackle plastic waste in the Philippines? Probably not. I am not from the Philippines, nor have I ever been to the Philippines, and plastic waste is not my area of expertise. Does that mean that I can’t be? Heeeeeeeell no. My lack of knowledge and context is something that can be overcome, but not without a l̵i̵t̵t̵l̵e̵ lot of effort.
Writing this, I am reminded of a friend of mine, Mina, who also lives here in Kampala. Mina is a fellow UofT engineering graduate who finished up his degree a few years before I started there. After graduating, Mina packed up his life and moved to Ghana to start a micro-finance business. His business ultimately failed and so he pivoted to another business which he now runs in Uganda. I am reminded of Mina because in my mind he exemplifies commitment. Mina rightfully recognised that a UofT graduate living in Toronto isn’t best suited to tackle micro-finance challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa. So what did he do? He transplanted his life to Ghana, studied the market, piloted a business, failed, moved to Uganda, studied the market, and started a new business which he is now running today (rather successfully I might add).
Now if that’s not commitment, I don’t know what is.
Ultimately, there are no quick solutions to big, global problems. There are no shortcuts and no corners to be cut. Long term solutions require time and effort to test, build and scale. I am the byproduct of a generation of Millennials and Gen Z’ers who are passionate about a number of social issues plaguing the world we are inheriting, and who want to do everything they can to solve them. Our resolve distinguishes us, but it is often accompanied by an underestimation of the actual time and commitment required to meaningfully address these challenges.
“In your lifetime there are probably only one or two big problems that you will get to tackle. What are the challenges that you want to take on?”
The nail that closed the coffin of my Umalalay dream was the final question the World Vision rep asked me on our call. She told me, “In your lifetime there are probably one or two big problems that you will get to tackle. What are the challenges that you want you take on?”
I still haven’t figured that one out yet, but what I can say is that plastic waste in the Philippines isn’t it.
Now don’t get me wrong - I learned so very much by participating in the Social Innovation Challenge. Competitions like that do an amazing job of engaging passionate and driven youth with tangible, real world problems faced by the most vulnerable communities on our planet. I would encourage anyone reading this article to look up a similar challenge, build a team and tackle it head on. Where these challenges fail though is in highlighting the amount of effort and dedication required to actually bring our ideas to fruition once the curtains close on the competition and the real work begins.
After all of this, I still don’t know what global challenges I want to take on. When I do figure that part out though, I know I won’t be naïve about the commitment required to take on the issue I choose.
Note: I originally wrote this article in August 2019. The dates and timelines referenced in the article are from the original writing date and not the publishing date.
If you’ve made this far, this is the little scene you get after sitting through the end credits. Here is the jingle we came up with for Umalalay to kill the nerves on pitch day. It is still stuck in my head almost two years later. To be sang in the tune of the Oompa Loompa song:
Uma, Uma, Umalalay. Give us your trash, cash you’ll take away.
