"I am confident that we will continue to innovate on behalf of the poor," says Bill Gates in his video on development innovation for Gates Notes. He is often criticized for his top-down approach to development and that statement does little to dissuade critics. Also note the parachuted safe landing in on the ground. All seems to indicate that innovation is coming from the outside.
Unfortunately, the video ends when it shows how innovations are being shared between countries like Japan and Brazil. The recipient, in the end, is an African country. It misses the final step that shows how future innovations will involve countries like Mozambique. The recipients will not be limited to the developing world. Accomplishing this, in part, will necessitate a re-configuration of the view that innovation goes in only one direction.
We continue to do a disservice to the poor if we insist on innovating on their behalf.
1 comments:
We need to help the poor utilize what they already have. What we have done is invent a manual machine and method for making good houses out of the plastic trash that is smothering our planet. The plastic ends up either in our oceans or our landscape.
We have always built our houses out of trash. It might have been dead trees, dirt, or rocks, but it was what was available. The idea is the same with plastic trash.
No heat, no chemicals added, just effort and ingenuity make it work.
Look at this way, the Carter/Habitat project done this last week in Haiti? Ubuntu-blox would have produced 25 percent more homes, better homes, and they wouldn't need protection from the community.
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