SOCIAL CAPITAL VENTURES: WATER FOR LIFE IN THE CAMBODIAN COUNTRYSIDE

CASE 1 : SOCIAL CAPITAL VENTURES: WATER FOR LIFE IN THE CAMBODIAN COUNTRYSIDE

1. Role and business model of SCVD :

Despite a lot of resources, the development of Cambodia is restrained by many problems, of which the key ones were :

• health,
• education,
• archaic farming methods/infrastructures.
  

For SCVD, the priority is the health. Indeed, healthy people can work harder, happier and improve their business and economy. And, people are not healthy for two main reasons : unclean water and lack of sanitation (or lack of awareness and practice of simple hygiene).

The value propositions bring by the company is to provide clean water to rural communities thanks to filters who are durable, portable and with a big productivity (a production of, at least, 60L per hour). To reach this goal, the company have key partners like the water filtration company of Singapour : Hyflux, the company who placed the filters or even the KK hospital who wanted to work together to train doctors and nurses on clean water to improve the quality of health in Kampong Chhnang in Cambodia.

The company supports all the cost structure : the cost of filters and his costs associated (the mould, the research, the production),  the cost of water tanks, the drains and stands. Everything is made locally, from the choice of key partner to the choices of the employees (San Yu is a local man who was going to help, the company made him SCVD’s general manager in Cambodia and they implemented the first system in his community).
The revenue provides from the communes and organizations who buy the filters. At the end, the key metrics is the number of people in rural access who has access to clean water.

1. Which elements of SCVD's business model allows us to classify SCVD as a social enterprise?

A social enterprise is a new organization who propose a solution to a social or societal problem. For SCVD, we are in this case : to answer of the problem of health in Cambodia who limit his development,  the company provide a filter who is capable of deliver clean water to rural communities.

So, the primary aim of the company answer to a social mission. And, in addition to provide clear water, the company focus also on education. At each meeting, they gave away booklets and posters to the people. With clear graphics and simple words, the booklets and posters explained the basics of hygiene.

The skoll foundation give the following definition at a social enterprise : society change’s agents : creators of innovations that disrupt the statut quo and transform our world for the better. Even it’s a little bit utopic, that is the goal that the company try to reach thanks to a plan in different phase :

• Testing : implementation of the filters in 7 schools,  one orphanage, 11 health centres, one hospital, three places of worship, one village (250 families)
• Changing mindsets : try to convince villagers and leaders that this solution was very important and they needed to take advantage of it, even if it meant a little more work for them.
• Health centres and schools : educated children who then educated their families and carried clean water home from their schools, expending his action to 48 schools, 28 health centres, one orphanage and 2 hospitals had clean water for 500,000 people (every school and health centre hospital in the Trah Lak province)

But, we must not forget that social enterprises are businesses. So, they must generate most their income through trade. They must to make profit even the majority is reinvested to further its social or environmental mission. This factor contributes to make the company autonomous.

1. Identify SCVD's institutional logics and describe the process of value creation. Who are the beneficiaries of each process of value creation identified?

Basically, SCVD is a NGO and not-for-profit organization. They take a bottom-up approach while conducting community projects. The mission is to improve the lives and conditions of rural communities in Cambodia, through priority of dedication to sustainable clean water with complementary work in fields health, education and farming. With effective management, sustainable methods, and monitoring of performance, profits made are invested back into the venture for expansion or future plans.

Starting from providing clean water, the projects can extend to other aspects of local lives such as hospital, education, health care center, etc, forming a network which contributed by local’s efforts. Moreover the core activities have much to do with autonomy empowerment. Concerning all these factors, we consider SCVD as a Beneficiaries with multiple roles.

(Key points are:

• Bring resources to communities
• Use sustainable methods and technologies for maximum impact
• Create scale effects through community driven projects.
• Provide education programs to bring awareness to communities
• Create values with community leaders, with shared responsibilities, to empower through ownership.)

economic value: the economy is highly related to communities. So with the improvement of conditions, communities would also become healthier. Healthy people can work harder, happier and improve their business and economy. And the infrastructure also develops with the changing situation. What’s more, transporting the water to houses further away from the centre could “lead to another small business: the making of panniers for motorbikes and bicycles”.

Beneficiaries: local people, workers, small business.

...