At Maanch, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Agenda 2030 is our to-do list. Our technological solutions and the knowledge networks that develop our products are rooted in the acceleration of impact – leaving ‘no one behind’!
Our products accelerate the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development goals in the upcoming decade of action and alliance. Furthermore we are committed as a team to the Sustainable Development goals and targets in all our engagements across our internal operations, business model, supply chain and collective action. We aim to embed the Agenda 2030 in our value chain.
Maanch & The UN SDGs
Goal 5: Gender Equality
Collective Action: As a female founded FinTech startup and female heavy team with 50% of managerial and directorial roles occupied by women (30% female directors from underrepresented social groups), our team is an equal opportunity and diversity unit striving for women’s digital inclusion. Our female leadership is also part of various advisory/trustee boards and mentorship programs with organisations both in the UK and in India that further champions the cause of nurturing female talent for STEM professions, addressing the gender imbalance in talent pools with ICT skills.
Internal Operations: Aligning with our strong belief that women should be duly equipped for digital innovation and represented in the ongoing digital transformation, we provide regular training and development opportunities to our team. More than 60% of our team benefitted from reimbursements for learning opportunities in the past year while over 75% received on the job training for their roles and also additional life skills development. Along with a zero tolerance on violence and harassment in our company policies, we also commit to the industry standard of 39 weeks paid statutory maternity leave.
Supply Chain: 50% of our supplies are sourced from majority women owned enterprises while our external stakeholder engagement is backed with a gender sensitive marketing strategy.
Goal 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Internal Operations: We have a strict no-bribery and anti-corruption company wide policy. We have checks and balances in place for senior management teams, to ensure ethical decision-making through financial controls and regular reviews. There is regular pay equity analysis for all staff members to ensure wage parity for all demographics, with a 100% commitment to equal compensation improvement plans. There is zero tolerance for workplace harassment and discrimination as part of our policy with reporting structures in place. There is profit sharing with +30% of our team who also have provisions for company co-ownership. We offer volunteering and paid internship opportunities for young graduates to hone their entrepreneurial skills and industry knowledge. We have an open loop recruitment policy that draws from talent pools, CVs from university job sites as well as mentoring opportunities for interested and relevant younger industry professionals. We have no zero work contracts and no hourly wages. All our employees earn well above the London Living Wage for a household and are eligible for national + private pension schemes. We also have 35 days paid holiday (incl. State holidays) and 39 weeks paid statutory maternity leave. Almost 75% of our team are millennials; and youth empowerment and entrepreneurship is a key theme in our team’s values.
Business Model: Our workplace business model is one of open book and self management where employees’ inputs are central to building the system. These inputs and systemic processes are reviewed yearly by senior management. We are also a B-Corp certified company. Our set KPIs ensure ESG performance, especially diversity and inclusion. Our equal opportunity workplace culture is backed up by a set of KPIs to screen our targets, objectives and reviews from board members. We are committed to ensuring ESG performance at all levels, even at the costs of financial returns.
Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
Collective Action: Our innovative in-house built technology is powered by our partners, Agaetis Technologies. Our impact metrics and dashboards have enabled Maanch’s Coronavirus Relief Fund to collect £12,159 ready for distribution. 791 projects, worth £77.7M of their collective budget, have already been funded by our donors. We are committed to a meaningful stakeholder engagement and partnership under the aegis of a group of industry experts and advisory board members that help us identify underrepresented stakeholders’ groups and demographics.
Internal Operations: We are committed to research backed development of our products and knowledge content investing into research insights roles and reimbursement of over 60% of employees for learning opportunities. We collaborate with industry players, competitors, knowledge providers and academics over panel discussions. We share data and public resources; and cooperate for standardisation regarding environmental and social performance. Along with third party audits to ESG performance, all our employees’ job descriptions and performance reviews also require environmental and social performance as part of their contributions.
Supply Chain: 80% of our company facilities are certified to meet requirements of an accredited green building program. We also have company wide procedures to enable safe disposal of e-wastes and resource sharing for environmental stewardship for our work from home setups.
Business Model: Our B2B customer stewardship approach ensures regular product assessments of positive and negative externalities on the beneficiaries, while iterating on user feedbacks into our product development. Our community-focused business model is designed to create positive benefits for local stakeholders, such as vendors and suppliers. Our technological products with ample scope for interoperability and retrofit into already-existing solutions have improved operational efficiencies and market access for underserved communities and SMEs, while improving financial inclusion of the beneficiaries.
Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Collective Action: Enhanced resource mobilisation of developing countries like India with tech partnerships with local companies. Maanch has been named the Start Up of the year 2019 by Infosys with CEO Darshita Gillies named as top 100 influential people in India-UK relations. Senior members and team managers also extend their partnership in mentoring capacities, guest lecturers, panelists, workshop experts in developing regions of Asia and Africa in collaboration with local organisations. The element of STEM development and financial knowledge cum inclusion among underserved groups or communities is a common thread that runs across all these engagements. Our team through their pro bono engagements constantly strive to enhance the North-South collaboration in disseminating knowledge, innovation and tech for environmentally and socially sustainable solutions.
Internal Operations: We collaborate with industry players and competitors to share data and public resources that would facilitate collaborative solutions designing. Through our panel discussions with organisations and movements like Philanthropy Impact, NEDonBoard and Conscious Capitalism, our senior team also provides pro bono knowledge insights and resources for accelerating impact within the ecosystem.
Supply Chain: Through multi-stakeholder partnerships, we collaborate with purpose lead organisations, nonprofits and civic bodies to curate conscious and inclusive marketing and social media content. Our blog posts have been curated in partnership with social enterprises like Sona Circle and Treeapp.
Business Model: All our technological products and services are designed keeping in mind the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and the central role of partnership in achieving the Agenda 2030. Our 600+ registered charities are spread across different sectors and developing countries like Kenya, India, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Uganda, Tanzania, Thailand, Swaziland, Syria, Sudan, Suriname, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Panama, Paraguay, Rwanda, Nigeria, Niger, Nicaragua, Myanmar, Mozambique, Malawi, Mali, Lebanon, Kuwait, Jordan Honduras, Haiti, Guyana, Ethiopia and several other countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. These organisations and their projects span across over 250 countries. Our charity partners work towards a range of topics from community development to biodiversity conservation, clean energy and youth development.
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