This year, NPC has supported the Stone Family Foundation (SFF) in managing the inaugural Stone Prize for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Water. The £100,000 prize came about as a way to help SFF scale up its giving in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WSH) sector, and highlight some of the ground-breaking initiatives developing across sub-Saharan Africa, South and South-east Asia.
Competitions, such as prize schemes, can be an effective way to catalyse innovation, incentivising people to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions. Of course, they are not the only way to encourage innovation and are not always appropriate for every scenario. However, when competitions are run in the right way and at the right moment, they can help to move agendas forward as well as increase impact.
On November 1, SFF announced the Prize winning project, Dispensers for Safe Water in Kenya, chosen from 179 applications across 38 countries. SFF is also looking to support four other highly commended organisations outside the Prize framework. Neither NPC nor SFF have previously set up a Prize scheme from scratch, so htis marks the end of a long and interesting journey for both, -one that has taught us three key lessons:
1. Setting the right criteria
To attract the right type of initiatives and ultimately short-list candidates, it was important to set clear criteria--without being overly prescriptive. We identified six criteria for the Prize, but with a particular emphasis on two areas: a) innovation in service delivery, usually in response to a specific need, and b) innovation in financial model--typically looking to harness the power of the private sector.
DSW meets both of these requirements. It addresses a clear need in rural Kenya: its water purification technology, a Chlorine Dispenser System, is placed near a communal water source, allowing individuals to treat their water free of cost with the correct dose of chlorine. This simple but cost-effective solution has already reached approximately 424,000 people across 800 villages.
But what makes this initiative truly exciting are two innovative financial models. First, the dispensers generate carbon credits by reducing the demand for boiling water using firewood, which DSW will eventually be able to sell. Second, DWS is able to bundle the dispenser as part of a wider package of agricultural goods sold by its partner, One Acre Fund. If successful, both models offer new ways of making water purification accessible and sustainable for low-income communities. It will also allow DSW to expand the Kenya Chlorine Dispenser System program into other countries.
2. Setting the right reward
The promise of £100,000 for scaling up the winning initiative attracted a pool of strong applications, but as we narrowed down the candidates, it became clear that the level and type of funding offered through the Prize was not necessarily appropriate for all. As a result, the Foundation is now looking at the best way to support four highly commended candidates outside the Prize framework--this could be through providing investment or smaller grants to further test an aspect of the approach, or simply by helping to identify partners to move an initiative from pilot to scale.
3. Publicity, publicity, publicity
Running a Prize scheme is not just about funding, it's also about generating publicity in a way that reactive grants programmes cannot. Getting publicity for a prize scheme is important not only for attracting applicants, but also for promoting the winning candidate and boosting its profile. We hope the prize will not only help DSW gain recognition and attract further support from other funders, but also stimulate wider discussion on what innovation means for the water sector.
For the Stone Family Foundation, the Prize has been a successful endeavor. At NPC, it has enabled us to find some exceptionally strong organisations for the Foundation that we might not otherwise have discovered. Much depends on what a funder is looking for and how the prize is structured, but prizes can be an incredibly powerful tool for identifying and driving innovation.