Working in Crisis for Rapid Impact and Systemic Change

1. A few days after the Covid-19 crisis began, the IIC team analyzed its durability.
2. Deciding that it was likely to last, they adjusted goals for the long-term project, which they still believed important.
3. They sought to identify the pieces of crisis work that aligned best with their skillsets, recognizing that a roll-up-your-sleeves approach might be needed at times.
4. They brought in interns to meet greater staffing demands.
5. They allocated the staff, deciding who would prioritize crisis versus long-term work.

The government-ordered lockdown is currently set to last until May 3^rd, and an Oxford University government-response tracker ranks India’s measures as among the most stringent in the world.

But with 1.3 billion people, India faces specific vulnerabilities in fighting Covid-19. Last year, according to the World Health Organization, 14 of the world’s 20 worst cities for air pollution were in India; researchers say poor air quality may be associated with higher death rates.[1] Additionally, WHO estimates that nearly one in eight Indian adults have diabetes,[2] which is considered a risk-elevating condition.

The partners with whom Abhinav’s team works are at the heart of determining and communicating the country’s coronavirus strategy.

“In the beginning, sometimes we were doing tasks as small as writing a letter. But then the letter would be distributed across India, so the importance even of that task was immense,” Abhinav says. “Now, some of the work is super tangible where we are the feet and the legs and the arms, and some of the work is very invisible, but we believe it is vital.”

In general terms, the team analyzes data, compiles international research, creates partnerships across the healthcare ecosystem, collates critical information such as field preparedness, evaluates apps being used by the public to understand the crisis, and itemizes misinformation that may be gaining public traction, among other things.

They also surveyed Rockefeller Foundation partners across sectors in India to determine steps taken and challenges faced in response to the pandemic, with the goal of exploring cross-collaborations. Among international partners, they notably tapped into learnings from ACCESS Health International because of its work in China beginning with the initial Wuhan outbreak.

“Basically, we try to make sure the right kind of information is available to our partners at all times,” says the IIC’s Director of Projects Shriya Sethi, who oversees this and nine other IIC projects.

For instance, one deliverable Abhinav worked on with Project Associate Yukti Sharma was to compile over 100 COVID-19-related technical solutions being used around the country.

“We also worked on a project to help coordinate efforts around the country to deal with problems arising from the pandemic. People have good hearts and everyone is trying to build solutions. But we can use our skills to help the solutions reach scale and avoid duplication of efforts.”

          Yukti Sharma, IIC, Project Associate

Taking a step back from the crush of daily demands, Shriya and Abhinav analyzed their staffing needs. First, they needed to make sure every team member would continue to participate in the project. Project Associate Samuel Neufeld had arrived from the U.S. in late February, less than two weeks before it became clear that the country was going to lock down.

But the distance works to some advantage by giving him additional latitude to strategize. Currently he’s also writing about public health issues and preparing for webinars this spring that will spotlight some of the work of the original grant. He thinks the pandemic has made the incorporation of digital and AI work into India’s health system that much more important. “We need to be thinking about how AI can predict and combat the next coronavirus, and how it can design for genome sequences to help find a vaccine much more quickly.”

Even beyond Covid-19, Abhinav would like to see more data tools for India’s frontline community health workers, who are mostly women. “It would be great to have AI list which cases are highest priority in terms of risk and determine the most optimal route to get the health care workers to whoever needs them most,” he says.

Lessons learned from this time, Abhinav says, include that “we should try even more quickly to sit back and assess which pieces best align with our backgrounds, where we best fit in. But when a crisis hits, you just get involved in everything.”

“Working on Covid-19 is a milestone. Everyone is needed,” agrees Krisstina Rao, Project Associate, who came to IIC trained in design thinking and communication for social impact.

“Sometimes it is just ‘I need this done, you are in front of my eyes, you do it.’ Other times we get to be in the background, introducing tools and research,” Krisstina says. “The longer-term efforts on digital integration moves more slowly, but at the very least we will have developed policy recommendations. And we are all happy to be doing meaningful work on something of importance.”