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Essmart
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Co-Founded with Diana Jue Rajasingh
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2013 Global Fellow
bold idea
Deliver life-improving technologies to the people in India who need them most by developing innovative distribution channels embedded within existing local retail networks.
organization overview
Despite the invention of hundreds of life-improving technologies, such as affordable solar lanterns, clean cooking appliances, and efficient agricultural tools, few of these products are reaching their intended end users because distribution channels are broken. Essmart is a distribution company in southern India that ensures these life-improving technologies reach these users by creating a marketplace for these goods in places where people already shop—local mom-and-pop retail stores—by aggregating a catalog of existing, high-quality products; demonstrating them in stores; and training shop owners to sell them. Essmart fills a significant gap in the global supply chain while improving local businesses and enabling technology access for rural households.
Personal Bio
Jackie Stenson is passionate about technology dissemination. An engineer by training, Jackie worked for technology-for-development initiatives in 11 African countries, until she realized that the real challenge is getting these products to their intended end users. She shifted her focus to technology dissemination strategies in low-income settings, specifically in East Africa and India. Her work and research helped lay the groundwork for Essmart, where she serves as co-founder and executive director. Jackie also actively supports the conceptualization and development of new impactful solutions in academic settings and as part of co-creation programs. She is an adjunct professor at INSEAD and has lectured at Harvard, MIT, and Yale. Jackie has a BS in mechanical engineering from Harvard and an M.Phil. in engineering for sustainable development from the University of Cambridge. Jackie is a 2013 Echoing Green Fellow.
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