Hala Hanna, the Executive Director, MIT Solve

Hala Hanna, the Executive Director of Solve, an initiative of the MIT, speaks passionately about our need to achieve a more sustainable and equitable future for everybody through new voices and new equitable and innovative solutions.

Episode Transcript

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The following broadcast is paid for byWhat's at Risk. This is What's at
Risk with Mike Christian on WBZ,Boston's news Radio. Hi Mike Christian,
here of What's at Risk. Firstup on tonight's show, we speak with
Halla Hannah, the executive director ofSolve, an initiative of MIT focused on

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equitable social impact to drive innovation andsolve global challenges. Our second segment is
an encore presentation featuring musician Bob Crawford, longtime basis with the Avid Brothers,
talking a little about music, butmostly about his deep love of history and
in particular his popular podcast founding sonJohn Quincy's America. Alla Hannah's career revolves

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around building catalytic partnerships and strategies forsocial impact. Her work has included that
leading a public private initiative for employmentin the Middle East at the World Economic
Forum, advising governments on public sectorreform, and inspiring donor engagement through her
roles at the World Bank and theUnited Nations. Well, hello everyone today,

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we're lucky to have Halla Hannah,who is the executive director of Solve,
an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology MIT. Solve is a marketplace
for social impact innovation with a missionto drive innovation to solve global challenges.
Nice to have you here, HALLIthank you for spending time. It's so

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nice to be here. Mike,thank you for taking this time. So
that was a big mouthful of stuffthat I said about Solved. Maybe you
could make it more intelligible for ourlisteners. Absolutely so we you know,
I think, to put it verysimply, at might Solve, we believe
that if we want to achieve amore sustainable and equitable future for everybody,

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we need new voices and we neednew solutions, and our mission is to
find and scale the best. Wedo this by launching challenges. So we've
launched eighty of them to date,and that allows us to find tech based
solutions to the most pressing challenges ofour time from anyone anywhere, and the
selected innovators then get the backing ofour community of supporters and that's how we

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are able to do what we doand support our solvers to scale their work.
And I know you've been the executivedirector for over a year now.
I think maybe you could tell usa little bit about your path to where
you're at today and what your lifejourney has been. Oh absolutely. So.
I came to the world of innovationand technology through the world of economics

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and international development. And I thinkthe main impetus behind what I was trying
to do is asking what makes societyprogress? How do we close the equity
gaps that we see in health,in learning, in wealth. And I
spent some time at the World EconomicForum and at the World Bank, and
both of those places taught me alot and really showed me the world.

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I think at the World Bank it'sthe importance of rigor in thinking. At
the World Economic Forum, it wasabout the value of convening and creating a
community to do things together. SoI believe in the power of community,
in our responsibility to uplift others,and in the necessity to disrupt everything that

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is broken about the status cope today. So I'm thirsty first paces that enable
a fast paced change, and Ithink the world of our solvers and our
innovators is the best way to goabout that. And obviously there's the tech
angle, and that's what's thrilling abouttechnology is that it makes things more affordable,

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more effective, and allows them togo big and sal and how long
have you been with solve itself sincethe almost the very beginning. So I
joined alve in twenty seventeen. Iwas probably the fourth or fifth person to
join. And it's so rewarding tosee us now at this you know,
at the stage that we're at,we have over four hundred innovators that we

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select that we work with from solversand other and our solvers themselves. If
I was to think about how itis that we measure the effectiveness of what
we do those innovators, we havebeen able to mobilize seventy million dollars in
funding to them. For example,Kitty, she's a chyrogenic scientist who developed

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a life saving solution to make surevaccines reach remote areas, and she was
about to quit until she make shemade a key connection at one of our
events. She was selected as asolver and her two unit prototype turned into
a thousand unit order from a governmentin Africa that she was working with.
And so we have so many ofthose stories where really the difference between a

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great idea making it to scale orjust dying out is that early support of
people who are opening their doors obviouslytheir checkbook, but also their advice when
I look at MIT, and I'msure I have the same perception or I
did before I knew about SOLVE,that it's a world class institution focused on

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science and technology and a whole arrayof other topics, but really known as
a world class institution. But nowI've come to know that it looks at
itself as a global institution and reallypart of the global community. And SOLVE,
I think, is a great exampleof that. How did SOLVE come
about within MIT? That's a beautifulques. So we were set up the

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same year as a sustainable Development Goalsis when SOLVE was first created. And
the idea behind it is to goand find the problem solvers that are who
may not have the chance to beon MIT campus, but who have that
same DNA of the ethos of experimentationand entrepreneurship. And you know, there's

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no way we will achieve the sustainableto get development goals on time without bringing
down the cost of achieving that throughinnovation. I think there's for climate alone,
there's two point four trillion. Ithink for developing countries that are still
that need to be there's a gapevery year. I don't know too many
things in the trillions like that,and yet we're still investing in the same

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type of people and things. There'sa lack of diversity in funding that endoors.
So this is the type of peoplethat we focus on. Of our
three hundred entrepreneurs, sixty two percentare women. Their women led solutions and
these are women in tech, whichis incredible, and they're based in the

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work in every country around the worldalmost and they all have this first hand
experience of the problem they're trying tosolve. So there's for example, Afif
who created Tejimli. He was inspiredby his immigrant parents to create an app
that provides affordable on this spot translation. There's people like Temmy who created life
Bank and it's a delivery system foroxygen and blood in Nigeria after she had

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her own difficult experience giving birth,and it goes on and on. It's
hard to create those solutions and tomake them scale, and so it takes
that grit and personal investment. Ican imagine that having the validation of MIT,
giving an award or having them bepart of a Solver group has got

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to be very beneficial. What aresome of the benefits that SOLVE and MIT
bring to these innovators. Absolutely,I think it is a very important stamp
of approval, particularly when technology ispart of the solution, and we know
that our methodology and our platform allowsus to vet very very closely all of

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the solution do com and we're notthe ones making the decisions. In fact,
it's a group of judges every yearfor every challenge that are experts in
their field, and they're the oneswho are making the final decisions. Once
a solder is selected, it startswith a very deep needs assessment because we
know that you know, needs arevery different for different organizations at different stages

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of their journey, and then wemake sure that we are able to match
them with the right type of support. Coaching is a big part of it,
particularly leadership coaching, and so isfinding the right mentors. But we
know from talking to all these entrepreneursthat the biggest constraint to scaling remains capital,

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and so we really focus as muchas we're raising money for Solve,
we're also raising funds for our solvers. There are so many success I was
just telling you about Temmy. Temmymet someone for Mothers in at one of
our events and that led to afive million dollar investment from the team,

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which is obviously transformational. So ifI wanted to assess how impactful the program
is, I think one of themeasures would be our organization surviving. They
have a better chance of surviving aftergoing through SOLVED. And eighty nine percent
of our solvers are still operational sincethe fall of twenty seventeen, so that

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is higher than the average for organizationsthat have gone through accelerators. Otherwise,
what kinds of organizations are part ofthe SOLVE community that come in outside of
you and your colleagues at SOLVE,that come in and provide funding and provide
strategic advice and help these solvers toscale and to become viable. As you
just described, there's all leaders intheir field who are interested in making and

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making a change, and it rangesfrom corporate foundation leaders, family foundations,
impact investors, and individuals who reallywant to use their good luck and hard
work in life to make it easierfor others. And you talked to I
think you said, over seventy percentof the solvers that you've chosen down through
the years are still actually have abusiness and they're still viable. Are they

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nonprofits? Are they for profits?What's the form of a solver and how
do they how do they you know, if they're not for profit or they
are for profit, how did howdoes that differentiate how you look at them
and how you support them? Right, that's another very good measure of diversity.
Mike, thanks for bringing that up. And it's eighty nine percent of

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our solars that are still operational.Since then, I don't know, how
did I hear seventy? Okay,I'll deferring. Then I repeat it and
it's yeah, that's good. Andso for that so we have a really
good mix. I would say fiftyto fifty between a for profit or hybrid
and nonprofit. And I think what'simportant about that is that there are so

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many ways to make an impact.You know, it does not take These
are all organizations that are first andforemost for purpose. How do you design
your your initiatives every year your solvetheir challenges because they're different, they're they're
not all dramatically different every year,but they are different from year to year.
What's the what are the motivations andwhat criteria do you use to design

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those challenges? Well, that's true. So we work on four general pillers.
Our health our learning, economic,prosperity, and climate in addition to
our Indigenous Communities Fellowship, and everyyear we set out global challenges on all
of these topics and we design thosewith our community. This year we're actually

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taking a broader approach and we're justasking for each of these how do we
close equity gaps or health outcomes,learning access and outcomes, the wealth and
you know, peace and prosperity ifyou weigh and then finally adaptation and mitigation
for climate. In addition to this, we also actually work with clients and

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partners who have a very specific challengethat they want to work on, whether
it's geographically specific or thematically specific,and we are able to use or reach
our platform, our methodology for themto be able to also outok fined and
select the right innovators that they wantto work with. And I would say

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it's a very effective and efficient wayto move funding because I think there is
a lot of funding out there,it just needs to find the right pockets.
Will take just a quick break fromour interview with Hawahana to explore just
a few examples of recent Solver initiatives. Here's one on biotechnology, a project

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focused on using insect protein to feedfarm animals in Brazil, aiming to reduce
deforestation soy crops used for animal feed. And another one in the financial sector,
blockchain powered micro insurance platform for buildingfinancial resilience for low income farmers and
migrants against climate shocks. And myfavorite, Every Kid gets a Robot an

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affordable robotics kit increasing technical educational accessfor indigenous youth. And finally, an
accessible simcard based application that provides microloans of fifty to one hundred dollars to
low income, unbanked and financially underservedindividuals, families, and communities to enable

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their upwards mobilization. And now backto our discussion with Halla, Hannah,
and you bring up a really goodpoint. I'm always curious about it.
How do you make the funding efficientand effective for your solvers because you're sort
of in the middle there and youhave the relationships with the funders and you

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introduce them, and as you said, there's a lot of money out there
and it's not always effectively deployed.What value add to solve have in that
sort of transaction. What I hearfrom our partners is that a lot of
them can be smaller foundations, forexample, that are not interested in staffing

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up completely, but want to doa selection process that is more open,
that potentially is more equitable, andthat is a very good way to you're
just using something that's already set upfor you in order to get that.
Every time we put a challenge out, we are putting it with pre committed
funding because we respect the time ofthe entrepreneurs too, and we don't want

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them to apply in places where thereisn't enough benefit for them. But we
also work with very large corporate foundationsor international organizations, and there, I
think what the advantage is just thenimbleness and the speed with which we're able
to move and get the challenge out, get the word out, and get
the solutions selected, and to solveinvest in some of these for profit organizations

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or direct investments. I'm claud youasked, So there's always, you know,
there's always been this kind of alittle bit maybe frustration of why couldn't
our entrepreneurs raise funds in the moretraditional ways, And so we instead of
wait around, we just set upour own solve. We call it Solve

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Innovation Future. It's a philantropic venturefund that invests directly in our entrepreneurs,
and it takes that investment take multipleyou know, it can be a debt,
revenue share or direct equity, andI think it enables it does two
things. One is it really unlockscapital for our solvers, but the other

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one is that it has a multipliereffect. So, for example, we
had one of our entrepreneurs, Garyfrom Ripley, who's built an amazing platform
for enterprises to be able to managetheir assets and recycle them, so very
helpful from a climate protection perspective,and he was really struggling to raise funds

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and we came in with a smallcheck. Really our checks are all small
comparatively, and then that unlocked anothermuch bigger investment from another more traditional entity
and that today Gary has raised thirtyeight million. Then he's really scaled beyond
anything we would have hoped for.That's very impressive. And how do you

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do or do you tap into thevarious resources that MIT itself has to support
these solvers. Yes, MIT hasa very important role to play in Our
faculty are very involved in the challengedesign and in being in the judging panels
that makes the selection. We've hada few cases where faculty ended up working

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with with some of our solvers.One of them is this Oyster Reef project
in Boston. It takes different forms. We also have our solvers end up
being some of them end up beingcase studies for classes, whereby MIT students
are able to help them with theirwork. Recently, we had a team
Mcare from Nigeria. They've worked withstudents to analyze this huge data set on

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health outcomes and the analysis led tothe Ministry of Health of Nigeria revising the
micro nutrient dosearch for kids under fivein the country. So some really nice
policy impact for this kind of work. And you mentioned the Indigenous Communities focus
that I think SOLF has and that'san ongoing yearly focus. What's that all

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about? Tell our listeners about that. So sol's Indigenous Communities Fellowship started a
few years ago with an invitation fromthe ers to do more. As MIT,
you know, we have the capacityto do more to support the work
that's happening on reservations and for indigenouscommunities. So we annually select Native innovators

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who are using traditional knowledge and technologyto drive positive impact in indigenous communities anywhere
in the United States and Canada includingterritories, and one of my favorites is
our twenty twenty to follow Alliance forTribal Clean Energy, which championed ensuring federal
infrastructure and coal transition funding is adequatelyallocated to tribal communities across the US.

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So we have some really incredible solversthere and some really committed partners who work
with us. And I know Mikethat you're you're very involved in this community.
I don't know if you want toadd something, well, I think
it's if I look at it frommy own perspective, it's one of the
most underestimated groups of people in theworld, certainly in the United States,

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and with a history that I won'tgo into. It's a longside history.
And I think what Saul is lookingto do and the objectives that you have
in that community are really admirable andI think really needed, and it can
spur change in a way that's alittle more innovative and maybe less threatening and
bring more trust to the process.That's my observation. Thank you for adding

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that. Yeah, I agree.When you think about the organizations that you've
supported, are there a couple thatcome to your mind that are you know,
you reference some of many of themthroughout this discussion, which is great,
but there are there a couple thatare really striking, and you've got
to, i know, be bejudicious about your words here because you're there.
But there's got to be a coupleof favorites there. There are so

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many. So, yes, you'reright, I don't have any I like
all of my children equally. No, but you know, I think maybe
maybe I will highlight our climate portfolio. You know, there's something a little
daunting about climate work, but Ithink some people can feel quite just overwhelmed,
and there is so much hope.So there's Globe, for example,

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which uses a fleet of drones tocollect climate data from around the world.
There are safety nets technologies which theyare developed a sensor that attaches to long
haul fishing nets and reduces by catchby eighty percent. And there is smart
greenhouses. There are ways to filterwater and make it safe for communities that

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do not have water. It goeson and on, really, and I'm
just so fascinated really the ingenuity thatexists out there and the ability to just
make the most of the resources thatare available. I think, going back
to a question about how do youknow that the money is effectively and efficiently
distributed? Relatively small investments can gosuch a long way when you're talking about

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global work. One of our solvers, Housing Now creates houses out of bamboo
for the price of a smartphone inMe and mar and these guys they got
twenty five thousand dollars price funding whenthey got selected, and that was just
that they were able to build aschool in a refugee camp, move a
family from informal settlements into their firsthome ever, replenish their inventory by land,

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and set up a workshop. Allof that. It's very satisfying to
see how far such capital can go. Yeah, that's that's tremendous. How
many solvers apply every year, it'sa global it's like a contest. I
know you don't call it a contest, but it's like a contest, and

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it's global. How many applications doyou get every year? It is?
We wish we could take many moreevery year, but we to date we
have had eighteen thousand applicants on ourplatform from probably every country, and we
love that diversity. And I thinkfor me, there isn't anything more hopeful

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than just knowing that there are allof these problems solvers around the world that
are pushing to make a change intheir community. For every challenge, it
really depends on how specific the topicis, but it ranges between two hundred
two, can be in the thousandsof times. Well, listen, how
it's been terrific talking to you.What's just one last question. What's on
the horizon for you and MIT solvein the next year or two? Oh,

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I hope very good things we willbe since you know, we will
be coming together for a flagship eventon MIT campus in May. That is
always a wonderful moment to come togetheras a community and celebrate the progress that's
been made by the class since they'vebeen selected. So we always look forward
to that. We're also before thatin March, will be convening our Indigenous

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Community Fellows in Tucson. And it'sbeen a bit of a tough year globally.
I love that as a community weask more of technology. It can
produce these extremely destructive weapons, andit can spread misinformation, and it can

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and yet there are all of thesepeople around the world who are using it
for tremendous goods, and that's whatI look forward to every day. Yeah,
well, that's that's a wonderful wish, and I think we'll all join
you in that. For our listenersthat might be interested in following up a
little bit, how can they learnmore about MIT so yes solve that.
Mit du is where you'll find allthe information. Sign up for our newsletter,

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send us a note. We wouldlove to connect and keep the conversation
going well. We've been honored tohave Halla Hanah here, who's the executive
director of Solved MIT. Thank youso much for your time and your insights.
Sala Mike, thank you, andyour audience. Thank you so much.

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We'll be right back after the newsat the bottom of the hour.