Seeking Innovative Ideas to Improve Eye Health Globally
Do you have an innovative idea that could improve eye health worldwide? The deadline for applications for the eXcellence in Ophthalmology Vision Award (XOVA) 2014 (www.xovaprogram.org) is 30 June 2014. The XOVA is a scheme, sponsored by Alcon and Novartis Pharmaceuticals, that provides funding to support initiatives aiming to address unmet needs in eye care. […]
What Support Do Energy Access Enterprises Need To Thrive?
Many enterprises are working to solve the huge problem of energy poverty in the developing world by delivering electricity to the 1.3 billion who live off the main grid, or by selling improved cook stoves to people cooking over smoky stoves or open fires that damage their health. Lots of donors, NGOs, investors and others […]
Google Hangout – Successful Product and Service Design
Amplifying Innovation Through Collaboration
DFID’s Innovation Hub team were faced with a challenge. How could they bring in new partners to gain fresh perspectives and improved outcomes on tackling poverty whilst enabling true collaboration, end-user involvement and iteration in the innovation process? To answer this, the team worked with their partners IDEO.org to develop a flagship programme called Amplify. […]
Taking The “Product” Out Of Product Design
Social entrepreneurs are driven by passion. We are people who have bold ideas to solve huge challenges, and have almost singular vision to the execution of our idea. Our products are our babies- we know every dimension, every line of code, or every component because we have spent many long evenings debugging, tinkering, sketching, and […]
Preparing The BoP Market
The markets that need innovative solutions the most, very often are not yet ready for them, which is a difficult barrier to overcome for successful growth of inclusive business models. For the base of the pyramid (BoP) market we often talk about push and pull products. Pull products being things that people immediately desire, such […]
There's Big Business in Toilets at the BoP
This is the story of a successful partnership between two organizations that share a passion for toilets: an NGO with 30+ years of making markets work for the poor and the largest toilet manufacturer in North America. Eventually, they made more impact together than either organization could make alone. Combining diverse expertise The idea of […]
There’s Big Business in Toilets at the BoP
This is the story of a successful partnership between two organizations that share a passion for toilets: an NGO with 30+ years of making markets work for the poor and the largest toilet manufacturer in North America. Eventually, they made more impact together than either organization could make alone. Combining diverse expertise The idea of […]
Bill Gates Can’t Build a Toilet
IN addition to eradicating polio in India and starting the personal computer revolution, the Seattle Superman of our age has managed to make going to the bathroom a cause célèbre. Five years ago, if I’d told people I worked on toilets, they would have surely assumed I was a plumber. Now, they exclaim: “Oh! Isn’t […]
Carbon For Water
In the spring of 2011, Vestergaard embarked on a bold initiative to provide over 4 million people in Kenya’s Western Province with access to safe drinking water. Investing roughly 30 million dollars of our own funds, the company took a significant risk to prove that carbon finance could be a new way to unlock funding […]
Marketing WASH Products To The Base Of The Pyramid
Carole de Bazignan, Antenna Technologies, May 2014 As stated by Urs Heierli, economist and director of msd consulting (www.poverty.ch), reality is such that very few success stories have emerged so far and BOP marketing is a very demanding task: to design products and services that poor people can afford is not easy and to setup […]
Creating Access to Safe Drinking Water
Access to safe drinking water is a significant problem globally, with over 784 million people worldwide lacking access[1]. Waterborne disease is a leading cause of illness in developing countries, contributing to the death of approximately two million children every year. Sub Saharan Africa is the worst affected region, where 40% of the population is still […]
Easy Latrine Scale-up And The Power Of Markets
The Problem and Context iDE believes in the power of the market—the private sector—to improve lives and livelihoods. In the places that iDE works—rural areas of developing countries—the markets for many basic goods and services do not work; either they do not exist or they operate very ineffectively. Historically, the “civil society sector” – that […]
Maximising Impact through Co-Creation
Over 70% of Tanzania’s population, or 35 million people, lives in rural areas and faces daily problems, from water availability to lack of electricity, that could be alleviated with appropriate technology solutions; however, most technologies are designed and manufactured abroad and fail to truly address the needs of rural Tanzania for 3 main reasons: These […]
Successful Last Mile Distribution
Delivering Cutting Edge Micro-Irrigation Technologies
I’m excited to share with you an inspiring private/ non-profit collaboration between Toro Irrigation, a US-based world leader in irrigation equipment design and manufacturing and International Development Enterprises, an international non-profit organisation with over 30 years of experience developing markets for agriculture products and services that benefit smallholder farmers. Through the partnership, an innovative drip […]
Improving Economic Conditions For Smallholder Farmers
Xylem’s Saajhi Stepping Pump was created to significantly enhance the daily operations of rural smallholder farmers across the globe. The Saajhi pump features self-priming diaphragm technology, small overall dimensions, a tilt and transport design, and simplified maintenance to ensure efficient use for all farmers. The design not only makes Saajhi easy to use but also […]
Alleviating Hunger And Poverty Through Irrigation
Benson Maira, a subsistence farmer in a remote area of Zambia, had little formal schooling let alone engineering training. By tinkering with scrap metal, he created an elaborate system to bring water to his house, earning him the nickname “MacGyver” in his village after the 1980’s fictional character famed for his ability to solve complex […]
Business Solutions to Empower Smallholder Farmers
Most smallholder farmers do not grow enough food to last the year. Once their food runs out, many farm families experience what is referred to as a “hunger season” – typically a six-month period of time of meal skipping and meal substitution. This plays a major role in child deaths: one in 10 children die […]
The Africa Fertilizer Gap
Africa has awoken. Ten of the world’s fastest growing economies are now in Africa, with around one third of our 54 countries seeing annual GDP growth of over 6%. However, this momentum has not yet spread to all sectors. Cereal crop yields in Africa are only one-third as high as in developing Asia, and only […]