Platforms and Partnerships
The Platforms and Partnerships team translates the knowledge produced by other WELL Labs initiatives into tools or templates that the stakeholders they work with can use. We also work with civil society organisations, philanthropies and governments to effectively diagnose problems and implement solutions by developing digital products, easy-to-use guides and reports.
Our Approach
Publications
Our Approach
Digital Tools
In our conversations with grassroot communities about their water management challenges, lack of water data and hydrological expertise to use the data emerged as critical gaps. Coming up with demand-side interventions as part of water security planning requires solving a highly technical problem in every gram panchayat with very limited funds and access to technical capacity. We recognised that digital tools could make data easily accessible and address this expertise bottleneck.
Collective Impact Framework
The socio-environmental change that we envision is complex and evolving in real-time. This change cannot be brought about by a single organisation or sector or skillset. We need multi-disciplinary research, multi-institutional partnerships and cross-sectoral collaboration to make this happen. We need to drive diverse stakeholders and their interests towards a common goal. We work on creating such frameworks for collective action and impact.
Publications
Success Stories from the Green Rural Economy Initiative
We foster collaboration between social-sector organisations, enabling them to better address the challenges they face and expand their sphere of impact. This has benefitted organisations working on agriculture, waste management, and livelihoods, among other issues
From Doubts to Direction: How ‘Clinics’ for the Social Sector Can Spark Action and Collaboration
Clinics are virtual or offline sessions that promote knowledge-exchange between two groups: experts from an organisation or enterprise and people seeking solutions in the domain of rural livelihoods
The Social Sector Has a Scale Problem. Here’s How We Can Solve It
Build, operate and transfer models, master trainers, chatbots, call centres, and secondment can help the social sector effectively scale solutions
Downloading the Expert’s Brain: How to Decode Knowledge and Encode it into Solutions
Development practitioners sit atop a wealth of knowledge that goes undocumented. The Green Rural Economy is trying to make this more accessible.
How Can Social-Sector Organisations Find Solutions to Pressing Challenges?
The Green Rural Economy team experimented with various approaches to ensure social-sector organisations receive the help they need
Lessons from Netflix Matchmaker ‘Sima Aunty’ for Nonprofits
How nonprofits can find effective solutions to grassroots challenges and propagate these solutions to newer contexts
The Green Rural Economy Initiative: ‘Servicifying’ the Social Sector
Building a service-ready rural economy by enabling knowledge-sharing, breaking rigid solution models, and connecting grassroots problem solvers with seekers.
GRE Success Stories: Fostering Collaboration for Rural Development
The GRE Clinic has proven to be a catalyst for meaningful collaborations between organisations dedicated to rural development and sustainability.
The Odisha Sandbox: Advancing the Green Rural Economy Through a Place-Based Approach
By integrating the sandbox concept into the Green Rural Economy platform, we aim to create a structured environment that fosters innovation, collaboration, and the practical testing of solutions.
From Pilots to Scale: We Are Documenting Knowledge to Spread Effective Rural Solutions
WELL Labs has partnered with the Axis Bank Foundation to create playbooks, which could be how-to manuals, instructive videos and audio libraries for rural communities to learn and implement new solutions.
Challenges and Opportunities for Catalysing Corporate Water Stewardship in India’s River Basins
Given the push for investments in the water sustainability space, businesses need to be better informed about where the big problems lie so that projects can be properly planned and executed. But there’s a data gap. Our comprehensive study of three important river basins — Cauvery, Ganga and Krishna —…
Farmer Responses to Solar Irrigation in India: Agent-Based Modelling to Understand Sustainable Transitions
We applied an agent-based modeling (ABM) approach to understand farmer choices and transitions before and after solar irrigation in six districts
Landscape Review: Innovation Gaps in India’s Agritech Startup Ecosystem
Through this landscape review, we take a closer look at agritech startups to identify how to secure the livelihoods of farmers while simultaneously addressing environmental concerns
Net Water Positivity in the Indian Context: A Framework for Exploring Industrial Pathways to Water Sustainability
We explore how to bring aquifers back into balance by increasing recharge and reducing abstraction. We also make the case for a system of water credits to effectively drive collective action.
Insights from a Review of Water Security Plans
Water security plans (WSPs), which describe the current state of water challenges in the region under study and the interventions planned, are an important component of rural water security programmes. Based on our review, we argue that WSPs need to be more streamlined and must shift focus towards using water…
Pain Points on a Rocky Road: Journey Mapping Challenges CSOs Face with Interventions for Small & Marginal Farmers
This report details the ‘pain points’ or challenges CSOs face as they attempt to intervene at different stages in the farming process. This is based on fieldwork we carried out in four states - Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Leveraging Digital Tools and Shared Digital Assets to Address Rural Water Security in India
We conducted a series of interviews with Civil Society Organisations and philanthropic organisations to understand the role of data, maps, and digital tools in rural water security programmes. This report summarises our insights and suggested solutions.
Depleting groundwater: Why India needs to rethink many agri practices
Published in India Today
Drought in India: Can Businesses Play a Role in Collective Action for Water Security?
Published in Eco-Business
70-80% Indian Farmers Depend on Groundwater; Solar Irrigation Inadequate to Change Crop Choices: Report
Published in Down To Earth
How Reliable are Water Quality Monitoring Results from Field Test Kits
Published in Down to Earth
