USAID Partners With Villgro To Accelerate Family Planning In India

HT Bureau

GUWAHATI, April 17: The US Agency for International Development (USAID)’s MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership India Yash project, together with Villgro, a leading social enterprise incubator in India, launched the Yash Entrepreneurs Program to catalyze innovative business models to improve family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) outcomes for young people. It was launched on April 14 last, in collaboration with the office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.

The Yash Entrepreneurs Program will support 20 enterprises across India, for over 36 months, to invest in solutions to revolutionize how youth and adolescents access quality FP/RH services. The program will help shape an entrepreneurial ecosystem to scale promising and cost-effective FP/RH innovations by leveraging partnerships with key public and private sector stakeholders. Each enterprise will receive funding of up to Rs 10 lakh, as well as technical assistance, mentoring, and incubation support from Villgro. The support will include skill-building in the designing, prototyping, and manufacturing of products such as sanitary napkins, digital marketing, financial dashboards, legal compliance, organizational culture, and leadership capability.

A smaller number of promising startups will be provided with more intensive acceleration support, as well as additional funding of up to Rs 1 crore. The selection will be made based on evidence of future cash flow for the startup, its technology potential, the strength of the product pipeline, the ability of the team to grow the company, and the potential reflected in the first round of funding.

Speaking at the launch, USAID/India Health Office deputy director, Dr. Amit Shah said, “As the world’s largest family planning/reproductive health bilateral donor, USAID is committed to helping countries meet the family planning and reproductive health needs of their people. Through the Yash Entrepreneurs Program launched today, USAID will harness the capabilities of India’s vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem to test and scale innovative models to improve reproductive health and family planning outcomes for young people. USAID views this as a valuable platform to bring together investors and donors to support enterprises that show promise of creating sustainable health impacts.”

Dr. Sapna Poti, director, Strategic Alliances Division in the Office of Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) to the Government of India added, “The Office of PSA is working towards identifying and commercializing innovations across India that have the potential to improve the lives of Indians. The ‘Yash Entrepreneurs Program’ will contribute to driving innovation and technology delivery towards solving challenges in the family planning and reproductive health space. We will be facilitating public-private linkages and partnerships for enterprises associated with the program, such that they can attain greater scale and create more social impact. We appreciate USAID’s support in improving the health and well-being of our young citizens.”

Meanwhile, Srinivas Ramanujam, CEO, of Villgro Innovations Foundation, informed, “As an organization striving to support and strengthen social enterprises and health avenues, we are tasked with heralding a new wave of transformation across the FP/RH domain in the country. We are confident that the Yash Entrepreneurs Program will prove to be a remarkable achievement in facilitating the incubation and acceleration of solutions which will effectively empower the FP/RH ecosystem to match global standards.”