Kopernik finds what works to reduce poverty by experimenting with potential solutions that address common challenges facing people living in the last mile. Kopernik ensures that all their projects support the SDGs with a particular geographical focus on Indonesia. The demand for honey in Indonesia is reaching 3,000 - 4,000 tons per year, while production is around 1,000 -1,500 tons per year. Kopernik begun the Forest Honey Filter project in November 2016 in East Nusa Tenggara province, aiming to create a simple tool to assist with the extraction of forest honey, saving smallholder honey collectors time and increasing production.

Kopernik rapidly tests innovative solutions in last mile contexts to determine their potential to reduce poverty effectively. In these experiments Kopernik adopts a lean approach, collecting and analyzing small-scale data to determine the effectiveness of the solutions. Kopernik undertakes a series of phases to learn and tweak our path during the experiment. For this project, phase one was implemented from November 2016 - November 2017 and phase two will run from April to September 2019. Kopernik designed the K-Honey Filter, a tool to assist with making the forest honey collection process more productive, and compared it with the traditional filtration method by measuring the weight of the honeycomb filtered, the honey filtration speed and the amount of honey collected.

Kopernik’s local partners are engaged, or approach Kopernik, to collaborate on a project due to our joint expertise in a particular sector. A partnership agreement is signed and a project profile is agreed between all partners. In this case, the Senoesa Cooperative and Rumadu owner approached Kopernik because they saw a gap in the forest honey business that they thought Kopernik could address. Kopernik’s general role is to carry out the assessment of simple technologies aimed at last mile communities. Kopernik designs the experiment and gathers funding through our online crowdfunding platform and by applying for grants. Kopernik also fulfills the role of writing project reports and disseminating these findings. We do this by publishing the results of the projects online through our website and by representing what we do and what we have learnt at international events. We also hold stakeholder meetings at the end of each project to discuss our findings with key players as a way of capacity-building and involving other public and private interest groups. Kopernik’s end goal with this project is to develop a honey filter product that is commercially available at an affordable price. We want to develop a sustainable business that provides honey collectors with a superior tool that makes honey collecting a more viable income-generating activity.

Kopernik’s Solutions Lab serves communities in the last mile by conducting lean experiments to find what works. Our projects are largely related to finding appropriate simple technological solutions to reduce poverty. Kopernik’s Solutions Lab team is comprised of engineers, economists, industrial designers and project management specialists that are experienced in product development, logistics, business planning, project management, data collection/analysis and report writing. Since our team’s establishment in 2017, we have conducted over 30 experiments across six sectors to support the sustainable development goals. In our projects, we engage local partners because of their expertise and availability to monitor and carry out the experiment in the field as most of our projects are located in remote areas. For this particular project we were asked by the Senoesa Cooperative (Mr Anis) to develop a tool to assist with making the forest honey collection process more effective. After the success of the first stage of prototyping, the East Flores Regency’s Local Government Office for Cooperatives funded us to produce 10 version 3 prototypes. The Solutions Lab is responsible for managing the partnership, collecting data, writing the final report and disseminating that information amongst like-minded professionals. Our ultimate aim is that the honey filter proof of concept stage is completed and the filter then moves to the scale-up stage where with the engagement of a manufacturing partner, our filters can become commercially available and our reach can be more broad and more impactful.

Kopernik, Rumadu, The Daiwa Securities Group and Russell Investments, Senoesa Cooperative, East Flores Regency’s Local Government Office for Cooperatives (Dinas Koperasi Flores Timur)