Youth, Technology and SRHR- Taking the Road Less traveled.
FPA India hosted a first-ever global webinar on January 28, 2021, to showcase some of the tech-innovations in the youth SRH space presented by young entrepreneurs in the course of a 12-week long Innovation Challenge, organized in India in collaboration with Villgro Innovation Foundation. The webinar, titled, “Youth, Technology and SRHR- Taking the Road Less travelled”, marked the culmination of the inception phase of the Youth Social Venture Fund, a business initiative under the IPPF Business Plan solution 3, managed by FPA India.
New learnings stemming from the partnership between SRH experts, innovators and incubators of technology, newly fostered by FPA India, were indeed the highlights of the well-attended proceedings, with representation from the IPPF secretariat, MAs and partner organizations.
The webinar presented insights into the arduous, yet exhilarating journey of an entrepreneur along the course of fostering an innovation from the stage of an idea to creating a prototype and further, to a market-ready product. Validation of the idea right at the beginning of the journey, good mentorship along the course of innovation, infinite patience and perseverance to create early-stage prototypes and pilot-stage experiments, a willingness to evaluate progress dispassionately and course-correct as needed, were the key to progress.
Some of the early-stage startups on the panel represented Padcare Labs, a startup that has developed an eco-friendly solution for sanitary napkin disposal and Stand We Speak, a sex-ed tech startup working on improving access to multi-lingual comprehensive CSE through mobile-app based technology. Young entrepreneurs also presented prototype stage innovations on point of care ovulation monitoring and using a bio-marker for infertility diagnosis that can be a proxy indicator of PCOS through a rapid test. The innovators acknowledged the role of subject matter experts who provided them expert advice and mentorship during the one-month long virtual immersion programme under the Innovation Challenge.
The panel of SRH experts discussing the way forward in preparation of the launch of such a Challenge at a global scale, stressed on the need for a conducive ecosystem, with active participation from tech industry, medical professionals, and an ethics panel, in order to come up with ingenious, cost-effective and inter-operable tech solutions. The importance of identifying problems and solutions that are embedded in local culture but applicable globally was underscored.
As articulated by Dr Alvaro Bermejo, DG IPPF, in his special address during the event, the endeavor of IPPF is to explore new ideas and innovative solutions to address persistent challenges in SRHR, particularly for adolescent girls. There is an underlying need for new partnerships, new ways of financing beyond grants, technologies and a different mindset to meet this vision. The YSVF is a revolutionary concept especially since a non-profit such as IPPF and FPA India will be working with for-profit ideas and start-ups to benefit women and young people globally.