Design That Solves Problems for the World’s Poor

 

 

Design That Solves Problems for the World’s Poor

 

 

 

 

 

 

P.J. Hendrikse

Solutions The exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt has many items to show a grasp of the depths of world poverty and ingenious ways to attack it. They include a 20-gallon rolling drum for transporting water, above.

 

 

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Published: May 29, 2007

 

 

“A billion customers in the world,” Dr. Paul Polak told a crowd of inventors recently, “are waiting for a $2 pair of eyeglasses, a $10 solar lantern and a $100 house.”

 

The world’s cleverest designers, said Dr. Polak, a former psychiatrist who now runs an organization helping poor farmers become entrepreneurs, cater to the globe’s richest 10 percent, creating items like wine labels, couture and Maseratis.

 

“We need a revolution to reverse that silly ratio,” he said.

 

To that end, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, which is housed in Andrew Carnegie’s 64-room mansion on Fifth Avenue and offers a $250 red chrome piggy bank in its gift shop, is honoring inventors dedicated to “the other 90 percent,” particularly the billions of people living on less than $2 a day.

 

 

Tomas Bertelsen

A pot-in-pot cooler that relies on the evaporation of water

from wet sand to cool the inner pot.

 

 

 

Their creations, on display in the museum garden until Sept. 23, have a sort of forehead-thumping “Why didn’t someone think of that before?” quality.

 

 

 

Vestergaard Frandsen

The Lifestraw drinking filter,

which kills bacteria as water is sucked through it.

 

 

For example, one of the simplest and yet most elegant designs tackles a job that millions of women and girls spend many hours doing each year — fetching water. Balancing heavy jerry cans on the head may lead to elegant posture, but it is backbreaking work and sometimes causes crippling injuries. The Q-Drum, a circular jerry can, holds 20 gallons, and it rolls smoothly enough for a child to tow it on a rope.

 

 

One computer for every child.

 

 

Interestingly, most of the designers who spoke at the opening of the exhibition spurned the idea of charity.

 

“The No. 1 need that poor people have is a way to make more cash,” said Martin Fisher, an engineer who founded KickStart, an organization that says it has helped 230,000 people escape poverty. It sells human-powered pumps costing $35 to $95.

 

Pumping water can help a farmer grow grain in the dry season, when it fetches triple the normal price. Dr. Fisher described customers who had skipped meals for weeks to buy a pump and then earned $1,000 the next year selling vegetables.

 

 

Stanford Richins

A portable light mat.

 

 

“Most of the world’s poor are subsistence farmers, so they need a business model that lets them make money in three to six months, which is one growing season,” he said. KickStart accepts grants to support its advertising and find networks of sellers supplied with spare parts, for example. His prospective customers, Dr. Fisher explained, “don’t do market research.”

 

“Many of them have never left their villages,” he said

 

 

 

 

Video

 

An exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York

features inventions designed to help the world's poor move out of poverty.

Tools for Better Living

 

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/science/29cheap.html?ex=1181275200&en=e4830c604ed7b1c8&ei=5070

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10% of the world’s customers. Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90%.”
—Dr. Paul Polak, International Development Enterprises

 

 

Designers, engineers, students and professors, architects, and social entrepreneurs from all over the globe are devising cost-effective ways to increase access to food and water, energy, education, healthcare, revenue-generating activities, and affordable transportation for those who most need them. And an increasing number of initiatives are providing solutions for underserved populations in developed countries such as the United States.

Encompassing a broad set of modern social and economic concerns, these design innovations often support responsible, sustainable economic policy. They help, rather than exploit, poorer economies; minimize environmental impact; increase social inclusion; improve healthcare at all levels; and advance the quality and accessibility of education. These designers’ voices are passionate, and their points of view range widely on how best to address these important issues.

 

Each object on display tells a story, and provides a window through which we can observe this expanding field. Design for the Other 90% demonstrates how design can be a dynamic force in saving and transforming lives, at home and around the world.

On view at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum through September 23, 2007.

 

 

 

MORE THAN onE BILLION PEOPLE DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO SAFE DRINKING WATER.

 

ALMOST HALF THE WORLD'S POPULATION, OR 2.8 BILLION PEOPLE, LIVE on LESS THAN $2 A DAY. onE IN SIX PEOPLE AROUND WORLD, OR ABOUT 1.1 BILLION, BARELY EXIST on LESS THAN $1 A DAY.

 

 

EIGHT HUNDRED EIGHTY-FIVE MILLION PEOPLE WORLDWIDE ARE ILLITERATE. OF THAT NUMBER, TWO-THIRDS ARE WOMEN.

 

SEVENTY PERCENT OF PEOPLE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD HAVE NO ACCESS TO ELECTRICITY IN THEIR HOMES, HEALTH CLINICS, OR SCHOOLS.

 

 

IN THE UNITED STATES, APPROXIMATELY 3.5 MILLION PEOPLE EXPERIENCE HOMELESSNESS EACH YEAR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.peoplesdesignaward.org/design_for_the_other_90/