ICT-enabled One-World Solutions for Poverty Alleviation and Health through Fruits and Vegetables: eKutir and Wholesome Wave Ashoka Enterprises

A Convergent Innovation Seminar

Presented by:

Suvankar Mishra, Executive Director, eKutir

Alan Hunt, Director of Policy and Research, Wholesome Wave

Laurette Dubé, James McGill Chair of Consumer and Lifestyle Psychology; Chair and Scientific Director, MCCHE

Moderated by:

Chris Lannon, Managing Director, MCCHE

 Overview

This convergent innovation seminar presents the pioneering work of eKutir and Wholesome Wave, two ICT-enabled social enterprises from the global Ashoka enterprises network. They both operate at the nexus of farm, food and health systems, singly and collectively aiming for one-world solutions at scale to poverty alleviation and disease prevention. These two social enterprises target behavioral changes and ecosystem transformation, one in rural and urban communities in Odisha, India, the other in many states across the USA. The concept and business models of these two social enterprises weave innovation, entrepreneurship and community mobilisation with deep behavioral insights and cutting edge information and communication technologies (ICTs). Suvankar Mishra and Alan Hunt, leaders in each of these enterprises, will provide an overview of their concepts, business models, achievements, challenges and possibilities. Laurette Dubé will report related research on the underlying pathways to such behavioral change and ecosystem transformation through a unique combination of information technology, entrepreneurship and human agency form (MISQ, in press). She will position this work within the broader context of convergent innovation that bridges social and commercial economies with health, education and other society systems to scale up pragmatic solutions for convergence between human and economic development at provincial/state, national and global level.

Agenda