[tt] NYT: Design That Solves Problems for the World's Poor

[Premise Checker]

If necessity is the mother of invention, why haven't most of these 
inventions already been made by those most needing them?

Design That Solves Problems for the World's Poor
New York Times, 7.5.29
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/science/29cheap.html
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

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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.

A pot-in-pot cooler that relies on the evaporation of water from wet
sand to cool the inner pot.

The Lifestraw drinking filter, which kills bacteria as water is
sucked through it.

One computer for every child.

A portable light mat.

_____________

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 worlds cleverest designers, said Dr. Polak, a former
psychiatrist who now runs an organization helping poor farmers
become entrepreneurs, cater to the globes 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 [52]Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, which is
housed in Andrew Carnegies 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.

Their creations, on display in the museum garden until Sept. 23,
have a sort of forehead-thumping Why didnt someone think of that
before? quality.

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.

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.

Most of the worlds 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, dont do market research.


Many of them have never left their villages, he said.

References

52. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/c/cooperhewitt_national_design_museum/index.html?inline=nyt-org