Are Israelis up to the ‘Grand Challenge?’

Technology, like nutritious food, clean water, and money, tends to be distributed most in the places where it is needed least. Many incremental advances in medicine, communications, and the like could work wonders in the developing world, and Israel should be playing a key role in bringing these innovations where they are needed most, says Dr. Peter Singer, CEO of Grand Challenges Canada.

A “grand challenge” is just what it sounds like, said Singer, who was in Israel exploring the possibility of drawing Israeli tech companies into working with his organization. “In the Grand Challenge approach, we deal with a specific critical barrier that, if removed, would help solve an important health problem in the developing world with a high likelihood of global impact through widespread implementation.”

A good example of that, he told The Times of Israel, was the development of the Odon device, which makes it easier for doctors or nurses in areas where equipment is in short supply to deliver healthy babies.

“Many infants and mothers die within 72 hours prior to childbirth in poor countries because of difficulties in delivering, especially during the second stage of labor,” said Singer. “The Odon device, a sort of plastic casing that is wrapped around the infant while it travels down the vaginal canal and extracts it, is a low-cost way to deliver infants when complications arise that could be used in rural settings where they don’t have equipment for C-sections, and where the workers don’t have the requisite skills to use forceps.”

The device, which won last year’s Grand Challenge for Saving Lives at Birth, could potentially save the lives of 150,000 women and 1.6 million children, Singer added.

That’s the kind of thinking the two-year-old Grand Challenges group is looking for – innovative, creative, and adaptive to the environment a proposed solution will be used in – and the organization is willing to pay for that thinking. With the backing of the government of Canada and a plethora of philanthropic and international groups, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges offers payments of up to $100,000 to the winners of one of its five challenges.

Applicants present proposals to the group in one of the challenge areas, in the form of a traditional RFP (request for proposal), business plan, and/or working prototype. The proposal is then evaluated, along with the others in the categories, and a decision is made on which idea is most likely to advance the cause it is being proposed for.

“The challenge is to come up with solutions for these problems, and we find that many individuals and companies are up to that challenge,” Singer said.

Challenge categories include areas such as improving global health conditions, developing diagnostic tools and tests for use in less-developed areas (that do not rely on high-cost equipment, etc.), and solving medical issues like hypertension and improving mental health.

Singer would like to expand that list of challenges to include solving problems related to nutrition, clean water, desertification, and so on – areas that Israeli innovators would, he said, do very well in, considering their record of achievement in these areas. “These are areas that, it seems to me, would fit the Israeli ‘technology genome,’” Singer said. “But we don’t want to limit it to any specific areas. I believe in casting a wide net, and in time we can see if there are any areas Israelis are more interested in developing.”

Singer would be perfectly satisfied with a great idea coming out of Israel that could ensure greater health among third-world residents, as he would be with a low-cost way to purify water in remote villages.

Right now, Singer is exploring the possibilities of enrolling Israeli companies in Grand Challenges. “I’ve been speaking to a lot of people, and I have found a great deal of interest among many of them to present ideas,” he said. “Working with Grand Challenges provides a framework for channeling technology to projects that can help those in need. There is a great deal of innovation here that is very impressive, in many different areas.”

With that, Singer said, “they haven’t been applied in a systematic way for the benefit of third-world countries. The Grand Challenge method can help them do this.”

It’s not all about being philanthropic. Singer understands what makes businesses tick, which is one reason why the organization provides $100,000 for further research and development of good ideas. But in Israel’s case, there’s an added-value for both the companies that develop technology for developing nations, and for Israel itself. “Imagine what an Israeli innovation that could save millions of lives would do for ‘brand Israel,’” a brand that could stand a bit of touching up, especially in the third world.

In addition, Singer added, companies would benefit as well, because it would give them an “in” in the markets of the future. “Seven of the fastest growing markets are in Africa,” and any company that develops something that will help them can be assured of a strong, positive image in those markets that will do well for them in the future, he said.

Many Israeli companies are engaged in philanthropy, funding training courses and classes in schools on the periphery and in inner cities.  Numerous organizations, like Magen David Adom, respond to international disasters, airlifting equipment, doctors, and sometimes whole field hospitals. And Israeli supplies, medicines, and products are in use in a large number of developing countries. But there hasn’t been an organized tradition of international philanthropy of the type advocated by Singer, where Israelis see themselves as global change agents.

Could such a tradition develop? Most definitely, said Baruch Lipner, executive director of Tmura, an organization that collects stock options from private companies and then sells the shares when the company goes public, raising money for education and youth activities. “There are similar things that have taken off in Israel, if on a smaller scale, like Ashoka,” Lipner said, referring to the international organization that works for social change.

Dozens of Israeli companies work with both Tmura and Ashoka, so it makes sense that some companies would be willing to expand their horizons and work internationally as well. “There are definitely philanthropists who would want to get involved with something like this,” said Lipner. “There are a lot of people out there who would like to change the world.”

That’s what Singer is counting on. “Some problems are too big to be solved by one country,” he said. “Israel has an awful lot to offer, and I am certain that Israel can and will help to solve some of these problems.”