Millennium Alliance launches ADITI to scale cooperation between India, Africa through Innovation, Technology transfer

Millennium Alliance, a joint initiative of the Technology Development Board, Government of India; United States Agency for International Development; Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry; United Kingdom Agency for International Development (UKAID), ICCo Cooperation (Netherlands); ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth; Wadhwani Initiative for Sustainable Healthcare (WISH Foundation); World Bank Group and Facebook is a national platform to identify, test, award and scale innovations which bring improvements at the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP).

The Alliance has so far funded 62 high impact social innovations with close to Rs. 55 crore. Out of these, twelve enterprises have been funded for replication of their innovations in Africa and South Asia including Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Buoyed by success of the Program and responding to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi's call, "India shares because it cares" as enshrined in the Joint Statement of Prime Minister with the Heads of States in India Africa Forum Summit III (IAFS III), the Millennium Alliance has launched a special initiative called 'African Development through Indian Technologies and Innovation (ADITI).'

ADITI aims to foster South-South cooperation between India and Africa through innovation and technology transfer. Under ADITI, the Millennium Alliance shall provide financial and technical support to Indian entrepreneurs who have successfully demonstrated their technologies in India and are willing to scale them in Africa.

Responding to the needs of African markets, these technologies and innovations would provide low cost affordable solutions for service delivery at last mile in priority sectors such as agriculture, healthcare, water and sanitation, education and financial inclusion.

The Alliance is already supporting replication of Indian innovations in Kenya such as CassavaTech, a patented technology that brings down capital cost of processing Cassava from USD 15,000 to USD 200 and reduces operating cost from USD 20 to USD two for 200 kg processing capacity.

The technology further reduces drying time for Cassava from 10 days to 10 hours producing high quality Cassava flour. Another technology being replicated in Kenya is ~100 percent compostable menstrual hygiene solution providing affordable pads to adolescent girls and women.

This is done using a unique low cost, low electricity consuming machine that produces 1200-2400pads/eight-10 hrs through community participation from 12-16 women (no specific skills required) as production workforce.

Dr. Bindu Dey, Secretary, Technology Development Board stated, "TDB's partnership with FICCI, USAID, DFID, ICCO, ICICI, WISH and other like-minded organizations to create a unique platform called Millennium Alliance is revolutionizing social enterprises by leveraging India's creativity, expertise and resources to scout and build innovative solutions for those who are needy but mostly ignored. We have now created the very special ADITI initiative under the Alliance to transfer the knowledge to our friends in Africa by way of technology transfer."

Dr. A Didar Singh, Secretary General, FICCI said, "ADITI is a natural extension of the work being done under the Millennium Alliance. The intellectual property being developed by Indian innovators should be shared with African entrepreneurs to foster bilateral cooperation and in the interest of global prosperity. India and Africa face similar challenges and it is wise that we work together to develop innovative solutions to meet to respond to such challenges."

Nirankar Saxena, Senior Director, FICCI shared "Millennium Alliance is a first of its kind partnership where several governments have come together to support breakthrough innovations that directly impact the lives of the bottom of the pyramid. ADITI is a positive step forward that would create a bridge for Indian and African entrepreneurs to connect and collaborate to develop and implement solutions that would benefit both sides.