Technology Development for a NPO to Provide Clean Water for 3,000+ Rural Families
UpTrade – Goats for Water
As SPRING Accelerator’s preferred technology partner for UpTrade, DPL, in partnership with UpTrade built a web and mobile app platform. Through it, UpTrade can put a Rupee value on the goats exchanged for assets for smallholder farmers.
The Client
SPRING is a five-year program which aims to help adolescent girls across East Africa and South Asia through products and services that can improve their lives while fueling their businesses. This initiative is currently backed by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
SPRING’s graduate from Pakistan, UpTrade, is a social enterprise that aims to meet the water and energy needs for rural, remote communities.
UpTrade was founded by Fariel Salahuddin, an energy analyst and former World Bank consultant who envisioned a unique model to support rural communities by enabling them to exchange livestock for solar water pumps.
The Problem
With over 130 million people, the rural areas of Pakistan make 62.8% of the country’s total population. Scarce resources and absence of direct access to big markets allow contractors – the middlemen who provide resources including water and means of transportation – to exploit the helpless with overcharging and delayed deliveries.
Moreover, the absence of big markets leaves natives with no means to attain liquidity. This major chunk of population, therefore, remains at the helm of extortionists.
The Solution
Excited to part of innovative movement that will create impact in thousands of rural farmers’ lives, UpTrade together with DPL started working on a livestock trading platform that included web and mobile app for UpTrade.
The website would be used for online marketing of UpTrade’s initiatives Goats for Water. Visitors can also purchase goats for Eid, Aqeeqa, or charity (zakat or sadqa
UpTrade developed E-Mandi as part of platform with DPL providing the development and design services for farmers that are technologically challenged and in some cases are illiterate.
A user-friendly mobile app that helps remote villagers sell their livestock to wholesale buyers in large cities for cash facilitated in the operations and quality assessment by Uptrade, eliminating middlemen while preventing the need for long travel and exploitation at markets.
E-Mandi is also connected to a database where livestock and trading data are collected. This data can be used by government, NGOs, financial inclusion, and social sectors.
The Impact
UpTrade overachieved SPRING’s goal of helping 8,500 women save at least 1,000 hours of labor. Yet most importantly, we are proud to have empowered an initiative that helped 2,830 families gain access to water.
Further, Goats for Water has attracted global attention. In addition to being featured by BBC and other media, it made Fariel Salahuddin a finalist in the 2019 Cartier Women’s Initiative (South Asia and Oceania region) and recently as TED Fellow
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$200
Increase in income
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17,000+
Beneficiaries
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1,460hrs
Labor saved
