Sustain Plus is a multi-stakeholder collaborative platform dedicated to scaling technology solutions for productive use to enhance livelihoods, alleviate poverty, and build climate resilience among underserved communities across India.

Positioned at the intersection of grant-based funding and market-led holistic, sustainable innovations, Sustain Plus functions as an open-source platform that delivers technology solutions more sustainably, with greater impact through scale.

Most interventions at the grassroots level have been limited to small pilots, but innovation diffusion requires value demonstration through large-scale implementations.

This challenge persists due to several factors. First, there is a disconnect between the technology solutions available and the specific needs and aspirations of the communities. Second, there is a lack of alignment between the incentives of key stakeholders—communities, governments, and markets. Lastly, the current ecosystem does not adequately support the deployment, after-sales services, and financing required to sustain implementation at scale. 

Sustain Plus believes that to deploy effective solutions at scale, they not only need to be relevant and responsive to the real-world context but should also be economically and operationally viable to deliver sustained value and service to the community in the long term.  

Sustain Plus, therefore, focuses on taking a “bottom-up community-centric” approach towards problem identification and resolution and applies the rigour of a “business model” perspective to make the solution more viable, operable, and sustainable. It also strengthens value chain ecosystems by establishing local processes that provide timely maintenance and repair services. Further, as a cross-sectoral integrator, Sustain Plus collaborates with a wide range of actors, including central and state government agencies, social enterprises, technology developers and innovators, implementation partners, and community-based organisations. By aligning and building on the ongoing initiatives of these actors in the livelihoods, health and education sectors, Sustain Plus facilitates a multiplier effect for the communities that complements and intensifies the impact of its own interventions and programs. 

Financial inclusion is a critical piece in the delivery of technology solutions to underserved communities. Sustain Plus works to unlock financing opportunities by offsetting the financial risk of investing in new technologies, encouraging financial institutions to extend affordable loans, and by engaging its partner network to enable high repayment rates. It also encourages solution providers to extend credit lines to their customers, easing the burden of upfront payments.