22 February 2011

Technology Programs for the Poor Seek Recipients

The pepper grinder helps a woman in Ethiopia work faster and reduce burns and discomfort.

This is the second of two articles on technology for the developing world.

By Andrzej Zwaniecki
Staff Writer

Washington — During their stints as U.N. workers, Ewa Wojkowska and Toshihiro Nakamura realized that many technologies that could help the world’s poor could not find their way to those who needed them, and those who needed them were usually unaware of the technologies’ existence. Wojkowska and Nakamura started TheKopernik.org, a Web-based service that matches users in the developing world with the providers of devices designed for them. According to Wojkowska, the Kopernik site has been overwhelmed by the response from communities that seek low-technology solutions to their problems.

But initiatives such as Kopernik alleviate, rather than eliminate, the problem of low-tech dissemination in the developing world, according to experts. Efficient methods are needed to deliver products directly to intended users who live in areas with no electricity, clean water or roads. Those methods depend on the technology, its use and local market conditions, according to Jenny Aker, a professor of economics at Tufts University. Certain technologies, for example in health care, may require some form of government support or approval; others can rely mostly on market forces, she said.

Many helpful devices for the poor have been sold or donated through charities, official aid agencies or developing countries’ governments. A government order can make a huge difference in the life of a startup. For example, Joshua Silver’s self-adjustable eyeglasses got a tremendous boost when the U.S. Defense Department ordered 20,000 for distribution in Africa and Eastern Europe.

But Marc Epstein, a business professor at Rice University, said that, for the most part, neither governments nor aid organizations have been effective at getting products to the people who really need them. Breaking through government bureaucracy often has proved time-consuming for designers of simple, low-cost devices, and meeting government requirements has proved too costly. As for charity funds, the level of giving goes through highs and lows, often leaving technology providers in limbo. So the new generation of inventors increasingly opts for a market-based distribution.

Several entrepreneurs have discovered that local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) make helpful partners in running trials or pilot programs in target countries. For example, re:motion designs, which provides an inexpensive knee prosthesis, would not be able to reach amputees in India without the partnership of an Indian NGO — the Jaipur Foot Organization BMVSS — according to the venture’s American co-founder, Joel Sadler.

“They know the country and patients, and serve as a bridge between us and the culture,” he said.

A Malian woman uses the CTI grinder to produce flour from pearl millet.

But once trials are finished, he and others plan to commercialize their ventures one way or another.

A pure for-profit model doesn’t always work in the social context of developing nations, according to Emily Cieri, managing director of the Wharton Business School’s entrepreneurial programs at the University of Pennsylvania. But a not-for-profit enterprise with basic aspects of a commercial venture has the advantages of both, she said. The business structure ensures efficiency of the enterprise in the quest for the social impacts, she said. According to Amit Chugh, who runs Cosmos Ignite Innovations in India as a for-profit enterprise, the commercial success of a multifunctional solar lamp he developed with U.S. partners — 150,000 sold since 2006 — has allowed him to expand the product line.

“But from the outset, you have to realize you’re not going to be a millionaire," Chugh said.

Most inventors do not want to just supply useful gadgets to poor communities, though. They say they want to provide opportunities for local employment and entrepreneurship as well. Samuel Hamner said the venture to sell a pepper grinder he has developed with his partner Scott Sadlon will be structured in a way that allows everyone in the supply chain — from the manufacturer to the end user — to generate income. Other young inventors have similar concepts.

Technologies themselves can provide a platform for microentrepreneurship, according to Roger Salway, executive director of Compatible Technology International, a not-for-profit group. For example, the use of an adjustable grinder for different crops designed by his organization for West Africa not only cut the grinding time from between eight and 10 hours to less than one, but also “allows women to educate their children, take care of family’s health needs or earn extra income from additional flour they produce,” he said.

In addition, microentrepreneurship is a solution to the problem of affordability, according to Joseph Nganga, an entrepreneur in Kenya. Although most simple devices for health care, energy and other purposes cost less than $20, they are too expensive for those who live on $1 or $2 a day. Nganga’s company — Solanterns — which sells solar lanterns as replacements for hazardous kerosene lamps, trains the unemployed and helps them get microloans so they can rent lanterns to neighbors for a small fee.

“Not only can we provide clean energy to rural households and employment to the youth, but we can do it without handouts or subsidies,” he said.

See also “Young Inventors Set Out to Improve Lives.”

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)