Forget first world problems – real innovation is happening right now in the developing world
Innovation is the product of the first world, or that is the common belief. However a new wave of innovation is beginning to spring from the developing world. It's innovation grounded on the idea of doing more with less and provides a valuable lesson for the developed world to take onboard.
Tom Eldridge
Throughout my childhood, there was a long running series called Tomorrow’s World which spotlighted the latest innovation trends that had the potential to change our lives. It was slightly uncool, with a hint of calamity about it, as it broadcast live with experiments that were more than likely to fail.
If Tomorrow’s World was resurrected, what would it look like today? Arguably it would reflect the fickle nature of how we regard innovation today in the developed world. Innovation has moved from a world of usability to a world of persuasion. From making us look up at the stars, to looking down at our personal screens.
Innovation works hardest when less is more. The choice between having the latest smartphone or access to clean water is not a decision that many of us will thankfully face in our lives.
Around 1.5 million children’s deaths each year – nearly one in five – are caused by diarrhea. The roots of the Vestergaard Frandsen was in making the lining in jackets. Later the company diversified into providing products that provided disease control in developing countries.
One such product was the Lifestraw, a simple filtration tube that could remove parasites from water without any moving parts or the need for electricity. But Vestergaard Frandsen hit a couple of problems.
The first hurdle was getting adoption of the device by local villages. This was overcome by educating local elders and promoting the Lifestraw along with other aid programs visiting villages. Gradually news of the Lifestraw spread and demand began to increase.
The bigger problem was funding the project. The cost of the device was more than the average household could afford and the foundation believed that if the Lifestraw adoption was to continue to grow, it had to be funded through over ways than penalising the people who needed it the most.
So the Foundation turned to funding the scheme through carbon tax credits, by proving that the Lifestraw was replacing the need to burn fuel to sterilise water. What the Lifestraw example illustrates is that innovation flourishes where there is friction – where different ideas, cultures and people collide.
Contrast that with the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley and it’s not hard to see why the type of innovation being produced is tackling the most superficial first world problems.
This idea of innovation happening when ideas and cultures collide is apparent throughout history. Just look at the Gutenberg Press, which used wine making processes of the time to create a new type of scaleable printing.
Even Henry Ford, lauded as the creator of mass produced cars developed through the factory assembly line, acknowledge that “...I invented nothing new. I simply assembled the discoveries of other men”.
But what can be regarded as the Gutenberg Press in the information age we live in today? M-Pesa in Kenya offers the means by which anyone with a regular mobile phone can pay for goods and services or transfer money without the need for a bank account. It works using established technology, in SMS, making it universal to all. With over 15 million members in Kenya, it has improved the lives of many who had limited access to the country’s poor banking infrastructure.
Innovation in the developed world is increasingly making us consume more – through offering the consumer more choice, updating the product or service, or in some cases building obsolescence.
So let’s start to evaluate innovation differently, away from the echo chamber of Silicon Valley, and let’s hold up how the developing world is applying innovation. This frugal innovation doesn’t have deep pockets, but it has the melting pot of ideas. It doesn’t have the latest technology, but it chooses to address the fundamental needs of communities.
Tom Eldridge is a freelance creative consultant – currently at LinkedIn. You can follow him on Twitter @invisibldigitl