How can horizontal platforms be used to scale up? The Aspirational Fellowship experience.

35 Aspirational Fellows are working with TRI to help in the development of India’s most backward districts. These aspirational fellows are part of an initiative from the Ministry of Home Affairs for which TRI has been hired to design, implement and monitor the program.

The fellows are young, highly-trained and motivated professionals that, as part of the program, have been incorporated in the district offices and are improving the efficiency of their processes and bringing innovation to solve public service delivery challenges.

Initial evidence suggests that this is an added value that makes a difference in every aspirational district’s overall performance. The program is beginning to move forwardon both fronts i.e. — improved service delivery, and innovation in the areas of developmental challenges. While too early to assess impacts on the ground, it is noteworthy that 8 out of 18 of the fast-moving districts are ADF’s districts. However, after a year, some common challenges have appeared among all fellows and rapid action is required in order to scale their impact.

A key part of IMAGO’s work is to reflect with partner organizations on their practices and identify a path forward: take their social innovations to the next level, growth within the organization. On August 30th, 70 fellows attended a session conducted by Michael and Zachary (part of the IMAGO team). The session allowed the development of a trusted environment where fellows felt safe to engage and speak their minds.

The goal of the session was to support Fellows in developing action plans for the period ahead that are focused and informed by personal development needs and collective processes of mutual support. As a result, the central focus was to understand what the fellows’ current challenges were, how they have been dealing with them, and how they can plan and improve for the next year.

Soon after introducing some core concepts the interactions among fellows and presenters started, and peer learning took place. After a few minutes, it was evident how demanding and complex the day to day life of each fellow is, professionally and personally. The challenges were similar among them: how they can lead without authority in the districts, dependency for decision making, complex red tape in districts, among others. Moreover, most of the fellows are constantly innovating on how to deliver services or solve policy problems. However, this information is not necessarily being shared among them when they could be learning from each other. More support is needed for them to improve, looking forward to the next year.

But, if there are common challenges among the fellows and they are dealing with them daily and trying to overcome them, why not share the knowledge and support each other in a more structured way?

IMAGO introduced the concept of “Horizontal Learning”, fellows learning from each other and efficiently using the available information in other districts. Fellows need to cooperate with one another and become a learning organization: horizontal learning is an essential input to achieve better results. As suggested in the workshop, some of the key components of this horizontal learning platform should be:

Weekly virtual check-in: ongoing support to one another on the unique personal and emotional challenges of being an Aspirational District Fellow

Best practices advisory: sharing on the lessons learned and hurdles faced in making efforts to create innovative transformation

Network creation: collective commitment to building a network of ongoing connection and systemic change in the development sector through the Fellowship

Trusted partner: identify one or more fellow Fellows with whom mutual support can be cultivated to address efficiency, innovation, and personal issues.

The workshop finished with a commitment from the fellows to start developing this platform. The young, skilled and motivated fellows need to be supported to thrive and succeed, and who is more fitted to give that support than other fellows that are facing the same situation?