Manmohan Singh, CEO & Co-Founder, Kaivalya Education Foundation

No matter what we do, the poorest of the poor will always go to government schools and government hospitals. Enabling the government is extremely important. And therefore, we believe that partnering with the government as a co-creator is critical to ensure that quality health and education gets provided to the poorest of the poor.

Lesson 1: Understand the mode of partnership 

There are multiple ways of engaging with the government. What is your model of engagement? Are you going with the government saying that “I have more expertise than you, and therefore work with me”? Or are you going to the government saying “I have more resources: money, technology, or funding.” Or are you going in, training, and going back? Or are you saying “I'm a problem solver, give me the problem, I'll solve it for you”? 

There are multiple ways. At KEF, we have always been a co-creator, an embedded co-creator, which required us to listen for months, understand the pain of government, understand what the individuals in the system need, and therefore co-create the solution instead of pushing through your own solution.

Lesson 2: Work as collaborators not competition

“Are you going there as a competitor or are you a collaborator?” What is at the heart of your engagement? If you're going there as a co-creator with the government, this will require a multi-year view. This will require patient capital. This will require you to work across departments and across the hierarchy. This will help you become one who is embedded, as one of the government officials taking decisions, that will lead to better solutions which could be more sustainable.

Lesson 3: Create a pull not a push approach

In my experience, creating pull with the government is extremely important for a sustainable partnership. Pull gets created with your delivery on the ground. If you're honest and true to collaboration, you end up delivering something which builds trust in the community and in the government, and that creates pull.

Then people start endorsing you. So the government chases you instead of you chasing the government, you will have more demand than you can ever supply.

Key takeaways

• Listen to understand the government's actual pain points, then co-create solutions together.

• Approach the government as a patient collaborator, not a competitor. Building sustainable partnerships often requires a long-term commitment.

• Deliver to create pull. If you build trust through consistent results, the government will pursue you.