Leveraging Big Tech to create last mile social impact

Building a social unicorn can have a significant positive impact on society at a massive scale. However, with limited resources and reach, social enterprises usually struggle to achieve this aspiration, especially when it involves leveraging technology to reach the masses. It can be solved using support from large companies, big tech in particular, that can assist impact enterprises to build capacity to build, deploy and solve for multiple users. The panel will share examples and opportunities of collaborating with large private sector technology organisations to use their digital infrastructure to reach and solve for millions. One of the use cases to demonstrate this is of a mental health startup that uses technology to support mental and sexual reproductive health and resilience for adolescent girls in India through a chatbot. The panel will share principles of what it takes to build a credible model of collaboration between large tech companies and smaller social impact enterprises especially as we enter the new era of shrinking development aid. With such strategic collaborations, social impact can amplify its reach to impact billions. Using capacity development support from Big Tech companies can bring about a winning proposition for all stakeholders, including private companies, development sector companies, and the last-mile beneficiaries.