CARE Failing Forward

Emily Janoch
  • 0,0 (0)
  • Gemeinnützig
  • Zweimonatlich

CARE staff around the world talk about experiences we learn from failure, and how we use that to get better at our work.

  1. 17. Juni

    Plan for when it breaks

    Ask yourself, 'Did the system become stronger because we were there?’” That’s the biggest piece of advice Nelima Otipa and Nithya Ramanathan from Nexleaf Analytics have for you about trying to scale up technology. It’s not about building the perfect tech. It’s about seeing people as actors in their own systems. You need to adapt with governments, not sell to them. Inspired by their article on Scale that Lasts in Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), we talk about why governments often prefer paper systems, how reliability is the key to trust, and what it takes to build a culture where you lead by understanding failure instead of ignoring it.

    34 Min.

  2. 11. Mai

    Who is it working for? The messy realities of AI in practice.

    What happens when your brand new tool makes things worse for low performing entrepreneurs? Or restricts your most successful teachers so they can't unlock the full power of their skills? One of the most important questions you can ask about an AI tool is NOT, "is it working?" You really need to ask, "who is it working for?" and "How did the change happen?" Crystal Huang from IDinsight and Matthew Smith from IDRC talk about ways to evaluate AI tools, and how to think about if they really are creating the change you hoped for. Just like the internet didn't end poverty, neither will AI. What succeeds or fails will depend on how well we implement AI, and whether we can truly center how technology connects to humans and real life contexts. What do we do to take something that works in a controlled setting and help it survive the messiness of real-world implementation?

    32 Min.

  3. 16. Apr.

    Why AgTech Startups fail

    Robots that get stuck in the mud, a "successful" product a farmer will never use more than once, and a financial model clients can never pay for. Listen to Ankit Chandra and Ishani Lal talk about their article, Why AgTech Startups Fail, what inspired them, and what they learned. The core lesson is that we need to change what counts as success in AgTech. Success is not "does it work in the lab?" Success is, "Will this save the farmer time or money? Will it increase profit and lower risk?" Maybe most importantly, "will any farmer ever choose to use this more than once?"

    34 Min.

  4. 19. Feb.

    What you're probably doing wrong with AI: Failures, Lessons, and capturing 60 years of data

    Lindsey Moore was working in AI before most of us knew what it was, and she can tell you the most common mistakes to avoid. Ignoring context, building ever more precise models that provide terrible answers, and assuming that AI will replace smart strategy and human decision-making are three on the top of her list. If you're looking to do more with AI, she recommends you invest in learning good research methods, double-down on your data architecture, find ways to counteract bias, and stay skeptical. Developmetrics' Large Language Model with was trained on 60 years of USAID documents, and taps into a wealth of expertise that doesn't exist anywhere else. It can tell you what has worked, and what hasn't, over decades of work in dozens of countries. Here's what it tells us: we often repeat the same failures over and over again. Why? Because failures are as much about organizations as they are about tactics. The newest widget won't solve an organizational culture that drives people away from spending time understanding the local context.

    27 Min.

  5. 09.12.2025

    How is your smartphone like HIV?

    Eric Kaduru and Julia Arnold talk about why simply distributing phones doesn't help people--especially women--access the internet. After seeing free phones get broken, stolen, or cause men to punish women for owning phones, they needed a new plan. Instead, they talked about learning from HIV prevention campaigns in the 90s, demystifying something complex, and making learning accessible. Social norms are at least as important as technology. Soap operas, hip hop concerts, and talking to men are critical tools in opening up access to tech for women in Uganda, and worked better than free phones ever have.

    26 Min.

  6. 02.09.2025

    The app and the enterprise: when not to build new digital tools

    CARE has a more than 30 year history with savings groups--starting from the lowest tech version you can possibly imagine: 25 women with a box and a notebook in Niger. Building on that, in 2013, we launched the process of building Chomoka--an app that would help women in savings groups manage their record keeping and connect to digital finance. Christian Pennotti talks about that journey, and why we finally passed the work over to Ensibuuko. Building a successful, scalable enterprise around digital tools was ultimately better put in the hands of a tech company that focuses on banking tech for people who can't access existing tools. What did we learn, and what are we doing now? Tune in to find out.

    35 Min.

  7. 12.08.2025

    We Built a Women-Centered GPT. It Flopped – and Taught Us Everything

    What happens when you try to build an AI tool that works for women entrepreneurs – and it totally flops? In this episode of Failing Forward, CARE’s Koheun Lee and Sarah Hewitt share the story of their ambitious attempt to create a women-centered GPT trained on real-world data from women entrepreneurs. Spoiler: it didn’t go as planned. But the failure revealed a lot.  In this episode, Koheun and Sarah discuss:  Why CARE built a custom GPT to fight bias, and what went wrong How even well-trained AI tools can reinforce stereotypes and exclude women What we learned about prompt design, user behavior, and the limits of scrappy innovation Why most users still defaulted to mainstream AI tools Actionable tips for using AI more intentionally, and with less bias What this "failure" taught us about building better tools and better teams Tune in for a candid conversation about tech, bias, and what it really means to learn in public.  To learn more and join the conversation, visit the Women’s Entrepreneurship LinkedIn Community of Practice.

    26 Min.

  8. 12.11.2024

    Beyond Money

    "If you've already built an elevator to the first floor, why not take it all the way to the top?" Vidhya Sriram talks about the journey of savings groups (also called VSLAs) at CARE, and what it took to think not just about scale, but also about the biggest benefits to women. VSLAs do build savings and income, but they can also do so much more. She talks about understanding what women themselves aspire to, not what we aspire for her. She also talks how savings groups can be a platform for women to build economies, change the support women get from the people around them, and thinking about building not just savings, but also equality that benefits the whole community. Check out the report here.

    20 Min.
Alle anzeigen (100)

Info

CARE staff around the world talk about experiences we learn from failure, and how we use that to get better at our work.

Informationen

  • Erstellt von
    Emily Janoch
  • Jahre aktiv
    2020 - 2026
  • Folgen
    100
  • Bewertung
    Unbedenklich
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 All Rights Reserved
  • Sendungswebsite
    CARE Failing Forward