Frontier Markets

India’s population is 1.4 billion, 80 percent of whom live in rural areas with little access to basic needs such as clean water. Whilst water purification technologies are common, it remains a challenge to reach the last mile rural household and encourage communities to adopt the practice of water purification. 

Alongside this, there are thousands of women living in rural areas in India who have low levels of literacy, little connectivity infrastructure and lack a sustainable income. With a mission to provide rural households easy access to high-quality, climate-friendly and gender-inclusive products and services, Frontier Markets recruits women through Self Help Groups (SHGs), equips them with a technology platform, and trains them to market, sell and service life-improving assets - from clean energy to digital finance - in their villages, creating equitable job opportunities for women where they live. 

Frontier Markets recently launched an initiative called “She-Lead Bharat” which aims to expand and formalise Frontier Markets’ partnerships with the Indian government and NGOs in seven states to adopt this model at a national level. 

TRANSFORM supported Frontier Markets to reach the last mile consumer and empower female entrepreneurs to earn an income by becoming safe water experts. The initiative leveraged Unilever’s water purification product basket to build a scaled market for untapped product solutions. It also enabled the enterprise to build wider business solutions (including expanding to products from climate, healthcare, agriculture and more); training processes; digital marketing materials; marketing and customer acquisition processes; strong operations for delivery and service; and a financial service system.