"Tamul Plates Social Impact Report: 2014 Baseline" Now Available

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During the summer of 2014, the Upaya staff and Tamul Plates management began work on this Social Performance report to document the economic and social background of the company’s beneficiaries. This report provides a snapshot of social metrics for 95 of Tamul Plates’ beneficiaries, serving as the baseline for reporting their progress out of poverty over time. 

Surveyors interviewed Tamul Plates beneficiaries across ten districts of Northeast India. For the purposes of this report, the respondents were broken into two geographic groups - the Lower Assam Group and the Upper Assam Group. Beneficiaries were evaluated across key social and economic metrics, including income, education, assets, and expenditure. Among the highlights:

• Households in the Lower Assam Group have a higher likelihood of falling below the $1.25-a-day poverty line than those in the Upper Assam Group. In particular, leaf plate producers (32 percent in the Lower Assam Group, and 36 percent in the Upper Assam Group) and raw material collectors (28 percent in both respondent groups) are the most likely to fall below the poverty line among Tamul Plates beneficiaries.
• Leaf plate producers are highly dependent on Tamul Plates, with income from Tamul Plates-related activities constituting the primary source of income for a vast majority of households across the Lower and Upper Assam Groups.
• Households spend roughly 50 percent of their total monthly expenses on food alone. Expenditure on school for children and miscellaneous (unplanned) expenses form the next two biggest categories. Savings constitute a very small component of total expense for households at 6–7 percent. 

A midline (check-in) survey will be conducted after 12 months for the same group of beneficiaries to measure the changes in income levels and quality-of-life indicators. Click here to download the full report.

Social Performance Metrics report 24% increase in the per capita income of MILK ROUTE dairy farmers

Committed to rural transformation, MokshaYug Access (MYA), the company behind the brand MILK ROUTE, in association with Upaya Social Ventures, released its first Social Performance Metrics report for 2012-2013. MYA undertook this evaluation to measure the social impact of its dairy business and assess the benefits MILK ROUTE has had on the lives of dairy farmers. The survey was conducted over a course of four months in 2012 and covered a total of 1,486 households across 269 villages in the districts of Tumkur, Mandya and Kolar.

According to key findings of the survey:

• MILK ROUTE households reported a 24% higher average per capita income when compared to their counterparts (Control Group households).
• By virtue of access to high quality cattle feed and veterinary services, MILK ROUTE households produced milk that consistently beat the industry’s average yield parameters, as measured by percentage fat and non-fat solids. These higher yields provided an additional 10% in earnings per litre for the households.
• MILK ROUTE households were also able to provide, on average, 5.5 more litres of milk per month to their children compared to households that were not suppliers of the MILK ROUTE dairy. The choice to consume more at home versus selling the milk demonstrated greater income security in general.
• As a result of increased, regular and transparent compensation combined with a support system that included access to training, high quality feed, and veterinary services— nearly 41% of all MILK ROUTE households reported dairy as their primary livelihood versus 25% of households before MILK ROUTE was introduced.

Harsha Moily, Founder and CEO, MokshaYug Access said, “One of MYA’s key objectives is to create income certainty for the farmers through our First-mile focus. It is encouraging to know that our efforts of transforming rural households are paying off. The social performance metrics survey helped us analyze our progress in our farmer centric approach and also helped us understand the gaps and what we need to do next to take this to the next level.”

Sachi Shenoy, Executive Director, Upaya Social Ventures added, “We believe in partnering with businesses that transform lives by creating dignified job opportunities. It is encouraging to see that MYA has had an impact on the lives of so many dairy farmers in Karnataka. This is just the beginning and we look forward to growing our association with MYA.”

METHODOLOGY: The data collection for MILK ROUTE involved both quantitative and qualitative approaches and relied on the usage of standard survey tools to directly collect and assimilate data from farmers. The SPM evaluation was carried out in three districts of Karnataka, namely Kolar, Mandya, and Tumkur. A total of 1,486 households were surveyed from 269 villages and fall into one of two groups: those who are suppliers of the MILK ROUTE dairy and those who are not (Control Group).

The process of narrowing down which MILK ROUTE households to survey included three tiers of selection criteria. In the first tier, milk procurement estimates were taken for each district to help in the selection of MILK ROUTE villages. Based on the percentage of milk procured from each district, a proportional number of sample villages were selected. Thus, 49% of the MILK ROUTE households were selected from Tumkur, 40% from Kolar, and 11% from Mandya, which roughly aligns with the fact that 48% of the total milk collected by MILK ROUTE comes from Tumkur, 44% from Kolar, and 8% from Mandya. In the second tier, the selection of individual villages was further qualified through purposive sampling. The only villages eligible for selection were ones that provided over 80 litres of milk per day to MYA. The third tier involved a random selection of households based on the short list of villages prepared through purposive sampling.

Control Group villages were selected in order to establish a proxy baseline to aid and assist in comparison. The selection of Control Group villages was completed through a matching process. This exercise involved each MILK ROUTE village being matched to a Control Group village based on key parameters such as economic activity, demographic profile, access to infrastructure, and distance to the nearest city. The selection of Control Group households was also purposive, i.e. those who did not own cattle were screened out.

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Midline Social Metrics: October 2012

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In August 2011, Upaya initiated a partnership with Samridhi Agri-Products to create steady employment for households living on less than $1.25 a day. Surveyed in early July 2012, this Midline Social Metrics report provides a snapshot of the progress out of poverty made by Samridhi’s 55 longest tenured employees.

Before Samridhi’s arrival, these families could only rely on hard manual labor on construction sites or working someone else’s land to earn a meager living. One year later, Samridhi has created 104 new jobs rearing and milking dairy animals for ultra poor families who did not previously own cows or goats of their own. The company has also improved the livelihoods of an additional 220 dairy farming families in the same villages by providing higher, more reliable payments than the local middle men.

For the purpose of this report, the employees have been separated into two groups. Group A includes those who joined the company in 2011, and Group B includes those who joined in the first three months of 2012. For both groups, baseline metrics (those collected prior to employment) and midline metrics (collected as of July 2012) are presented side-by-side for comparison. We are happy to report that both Group A and B have made good progress along certain indicators and we are seeing improvements to their quality of life.

• Both Groups A and B have seen an 80% reduction in households living below the $1.25 a day extreme poverty line.
• Group A’s average daily food expenditure quadrupled to nearly $0.81 following a 78% increase in households’ average daily income. Group B saw a similar rate of increase, with a 24% increase in income producing a 49% increase in average daily spending on food.
• Both groups report consuming a greater variety of grains and vegetables in the home.

You can download the full report here.

Upaya Teams Up with Chicago Booth Social Enterprise Initiative to Promote New Models for Social Change

Upaya Social Ventures is proud to announce today the appointment of its Executive Director, Sachi Shenoy, to the Advisory Board of the Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI) at Chicago Booth. Robert Gertner, Deputy Dean at Chicago Booth and Co-Director of the SEI, will also join Upaya’s Board of Advisors.

“Throughout the world, enterprise development and job creation have proven to be a highly effective way of ushering populations from poverty to prosperity. We look forward to working with Upaya to identify new models for social enterprise, while giving our students the tools and exposure to design and build companies that can provide social benefit,” said Gertner.

Chicago Booth established the SEI to enhance the efficiency and impact of social sector organizations through research, data collection, communication and education. The initiative builds on the school’s commitment to rigorous analysis and its discipline-based approach to understanding organizations, markets, and policy.

The collaboration allows Upaya to advise Chicago Booth on the design of its MBA curriculum for students interested in social entrepreneurship. It will also open internships and research projects for the Chicago Booth community, while allowing Upaya to call on the school’s thought leadership, academic resources, and vast alumni network to advance its mission. Additionally, Shenoy will be a judge in Booth’s Social New Venture Challenge and Upaya will contribute to the Social Entrepreneurship Lab programs.

“We are very excited by the invitation to help the next generation of social entrepreneurs both in Chicago and around the world,” said Shenoy. “As an alumnus, I am honored to join such an accomplished group of faculty and alumni on the SEI Advisory Board, and believe that Chicago Booth is well positioned to be a global leader in social enterprise.”

As a member of Upaya’s Board of Advisors, Gertner will work with the Upaya team to refine methods to measure social performance. He will also support Upaya’s efforts to identify new models and best practices for creating jobs and improving the quality of life in the world’s poorest communities.

“We are thrilled to welcome Rob Gertner to our team and know his involvement will ensure Upaya adheres to the highest standard of excellence in business development and social performance measurement,” said Shenoy.

About Chicago Booth’s Social Enterprise Initiative - The Social Enterprise Initiative (SEI) at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business aims to enhance the efficiency and impact of social sector organizations through research, data collection, communication, and education. Established to support interest in the non-profit and social sectors, SEI builds on Chicago Booth's commitment to rigorous analysis and its discipline-based approach to understanding organizations, markets, and policy. The initiative's mission is to further the field of research on issues of importance to the social sector and to support social enterprises that wish to apply proven business practices to strategic decision-making and organization management. For more information, please visit http://research.chicagobooth.edu/sei/.

Social Indicator Baseline: December 2011

In August of 2011, Upaya formalized its partnership with Samridhi Agri-Products to create steady employment for extremely poor women living on less than $1.25 per day. Through the LiftUP Project, Upaya is helping Samridhi develop scalable dairy operations and create hundreds of salaried jobs throughout Uttar Pradesh. In turn, these new positions will increase and stabilize household income for employees.

This Social Indicator Baseline provides a snapshot of the living conditions for women employed by Samridhi at the time of their hire, and serves as a baseline for their progress out of poverty. Data will be gathered and reported on a semi-annual basis as a way of demonstrating positive change throughout the partnership.