01 Poverty – Page 40 – Public Intelligence Blog

2010/07/142011/03/15

Design for the Other 90% Exhibit + “Micro-Giving” Global Needs Index to Connect Rich to Poor/Fullfill Global-to-Local Requests

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Economy, 04 Education, 06 Family, 07 Health, 12 Water, Civil Society, Collective Intelligence, Geospatial, Gift Intelligence, International Aid, microfinancing, Mobile

“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

Exhibition on view National Geographic Museum, Washington, DC through September 6, 2010

Imagine connecting item & service-requests to those lacking basic needs into a global online and mobile market forum like a Craigslist.org merged with Kiva+ SMS/txt message capabilities, something like Ushahidi, Wikimapia, as well as GoogleEarth-like & SecondLife-like 3D map to post photos and messages of requests and successful transactions without a centralized “middle-man” who manages everything.

Example: An African farmer needs a part for 1950’s Romanian pump. An aid worker posts need via UNICEF Rapid SMS. A Romanian engineer volunteers to make the part; a German pays for FedEx from Romania to Nigeria; a tourist commits to personally delivering it and posting a photograph of the farmer and repaired engine online to close out need.

It would be designed so that anyone could add “affordable” items (that meet a particular criteria) to the list. Please email earthintelnet |at| gmail.com if you have suggestions. For more info on the concept, see page 7 of the Earth Intelligence Network overview draft and this global range of nano-needs graphic. On 7/21/10 Craig Newmark of Craigslist.org sent this email: “..a number of people say they're working on similar efforts,” but he did not specify. Another great example is Practical Action's “Practical Presents” store where a goat, fish cage, farm tools, and many more products can be purchased for donation.

Global Range of Needs Index/Map/Forum could include the following items:
+ Cheap colloidal silver-treated water filters: see Potters Without Borders & Potters for Peace

+ Lifestraw, the one person water filter that can be worn around the neck

+ Saline water condenses into drinkable water using the WaterCone (video) (product info)

+ Various water storage products (bladder & plastic lined pond)

+ Peanut butter project (child malnutrition) connected with UNICEF, Doctors without Borders, USAID, etc and PlumpyNut

+ Affordable burn-proof stove | Guatemala Stove Project | stoves fr the Congo | Darfurstoves.org

+ Hand-Crank Battery-Free Dynamo Flashlight | “Light Up the World” solar powered battery L.E.D. lighting

+ List of innovations here from the Honey Bee Network

+ Cell phones (regionally compatible) / One Mobile per Human / One Mobile per Child / instead of just One Laptop per Child (see the $12 computer project) There are phone donation campaigns but the closest one found so far aims only at health care workers. And this wireless, local, do-it-yourself, telephone company toolkit.

+ KICKSTART water pumps for crop farming

+ Micro-irrigation systems for small plots (mentioned in this video at the chapter 6 mark), also called PEPSEE systems (also see DripTech)

+ Moringa seeds/leaves (nutrients + water filtering)

+ “Pot-inside-Pot Cooler” filled with sand and water (see 36 sec video). When that water evaporates, it pulls heat from the interior of the smaller pot, in which vegetables and fruits can be kept. See this African “refrigerator” called Zeer Pot (also: link1 | link2 | link3) which can keep meat fresh for five days mentioned in the book Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

+ Shoes (Soles4Souls.org)

+ Shelter (mini-domes) and Architectureforhumanity.org (video in Haiti), Open Architecture Network, rammed earth, tires, and plastic bottle innovation, Earthship Biotecture, Grassroots United, and Uber Shelter (video).

+ 10 cent blood-type test, 99 cent ovarian cancer blood test

+ Toothpaste & toothbrushes or teeth-cleaning twigs | African twig brush/chew sticks (sell to Westerners, sold here) | traveler feedback on chewsticks | Miswak | Other African info and some historical perspective on chew sticks

+ Solar dynamo radios + Farm Radio (African rural poor)| Healthy Radio

+ Bicycles / bicycles for humanity (and locks!) ONE | TWO

+ Devices powered by bicycle (Global Cycle Solutions)

+ Durable versatile safer wheelchairs Video 1 | Video 2 | Whirlwind Wheelchairs International (open source)

+ Low-cost infant warmers

+ Affordable prosthetics, eyeglasses, mobile eye exam lense

Other needs: medical supplies ($3 negative pressure pump, telemedicine microscope, Rice Univ project list), seeds & fertilizer, toilets (see this loo, & one-time use bags), electricity and medical equipment in Afghan hospitals, products for the elderly, games for children, and services such as the needs for software to be developed where there is a desire for “Code in Country” (CIC), and a global “classifieds” tool for job-hunting via mobile SMS (Craigslist.org but with more reach and aware to those without a web connection). Continue reading “Design for the Other 90% Exhibit + “Micro-Giving” Global Needs Index to Connect Rich to Poor/Fullfill Global-to-Local Requests”

2010/07/14

Multidimensional Poverty Index (new)

01 Poverty, 03 India, 04 Education, 07 Health, 08 Wild Cards

London, 14 July 2010: The Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) of Oxford University and the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today launched a new poverty measure that gives a “multidimensional” picture of people living in poverty which its creators say could help target development resources more effectively.

The new measure, the Multidimensional Poverty Index, or MPI, was developed and applied by OPHI with UNDP support, and will be featured in the forthcoming 20^th anniversary edition of the UNDP Human Development Report. The MPI supplants the Human Poverty Index, which had been included in the annual Human Development Reports since 1997.

The 2010 UNDP Human Development Report will be published in late October, but research findings from the Multidimensional Poverty Index were made available today at a policy forum in London and on-line on the websites of OPHI (www.ophi.org.uk).

The MPI assesses a range of critical factors or ‘deprivations’ at the household level: from education to health outcomes to assets and services. Taken together, these factors provide a fuller portrait of acute poverty than simple income measures, according to OPHI and UNDP. The measure reveals the nature and extent of poverty at different levels: from household up to regional, national and international level. This new multidimensional approach to assessing poverty has been adapted for national use in Mexico, and is now being considered by Chile and Colombia.

Continue reading “Multidimensional Poverty Index (new)”

2010/07/132010/07/13

Emergency response after the Haiti earthquake: Choices, obstacles and finance

01 Poverty, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Environmental Degradation, 06 Family, 07 Health, AID, Civil Society, International Aid, Non-Governmental, References

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Six months after the earthquake that devastated Haiti on 12th January 2010, this report describes the evolution of MSF’s work during what is the organisation’s largest ever rapid emergency response. It attempts to explain the scope of the medical and material aid provided to Haiti by MSF since the catastrophe, but also to set out the considerable challenges and dilemmas faced by the organisation. It acknowledges that whilst the overall relief effort has kept many people alive, it is still not easing some of their greatest suffering.

Report link

Related:
+ The sad math of U.S. aid in Haiti: 6 months, 2 percent (Washington Post, July 13)
+ Haiti Rolling Directory from 12 January 2010

2010/07/122010/07/12

Unhealthy “Aid” fr Industrial Food Giant’s Ship (a store on an actual ship) Peddled to Brazil’s Poor + Project Peanut Butter & Nutrients fr Moringa

01 Brazil, 01 Poverty, 07 Health, Academia, Corporations, Gift Intelligence, Government, International Aid, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence

Link to article (ship of junkfood to feed poor, helping them become more susceptible to illness?) Photo Credit: Marie Hippenmeyer, Nestle

AlterNet / By Michele Simon

Nestle Stoops to New Low, Launches Barge to Peddle Junk Food on the Amazon River to Brazil's Poor

Has Big Food already run out of customers in cities and other locales that are more readily accessible by land?

July 8, 2010 |

Last month Nestlé announced that it, the world's largest food company, would soon start delivering its products to the far reaches of Brazil. But not in the usual way, through a distributor, which in turn delivers products for sale in actual stores. Rather, the plan is to sell to customers directly from its own ship. Full article here

Comment: Although more related to malnutrition and not general eating habits of the poor, Project Peanut Butter's Ready to Use Therapeutic Foods (RUTFs) are of worthy mention. They work with USAID, Doctors Without Borders, The Clinton Foundation, UNICEF, Save the Children, and Concern Worldwide (all listed here). However, it is surprising how much of a somewhat low profile they have when they are associated with such a major global need. In 2009, the Earth Intelligence Network identified the connection-need between Project Peanut Butter and the Malnutrition Surveillance Project (plus the Moringa Tree leaves to be used in food aid) and contacted UNICEF and those associated with the Malnutrition Surveillance Project team but did not receive any clear feedback about these ideas. Another inquiry was sent to UNICEF today.

Related:
+ Report: The 2008 Copenhagen Consensus ranked micronutrient supplements as the top development priority out of more than 40 interventions considered.
+ Moringa tree leave nutrients and this recent report on its water filtration qualities
+ Review (Guest): The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick – And What We Can Do About It

2010/07/112010/09/02

Reference: Mini-Atlas of Human Security

01 Poverty, 06 Family, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Immigration, 10 Security, 11 Society, Academia, Cultural Intelligence, Non-Governmental, Peace Intelligence, Strategy-Holistic Coherence

berto small — Berto Jongman Recommends...

Phi Beta Iota: One day the World Map ofConflict & Human Rights pioneered by Berto Jongman will return–it is a travesty that his official duties do not allow him to continue this hugely significant endeavor. In the interim, he recommends, as do we, the below effort.

The miniAtlas of Human Security

An at-a-glance illustrated guide to global and regional trends in human insecurity, the miniAtlas provides a succinct introduction to today’s most pressing security challenges. It maps political violence, the links between poverty and conflict, assaults on human rights—including the use of child soldiers—and the causes of war and peace.

The miniAtlas is available in print and online in English, French and Spanish. The miniAtlas is also available in print in Russian and Japanese. It will be available online in these languages in the summer of 2010.

Home Page

See Also:

Graphic: Simplified World Conflict Map

Graphic: Global Threats to Local Survival (1990′s)

Search: world map with 8 conflicts

Search: world map with conflict marked other maps

Search: The Future of OSINT [is M4IS2-Multinational]

2010/07/082011/01/03

Aid Data (Beta) fr AidData.org | Tracking Development Finance

01 Poverty, 02 Diplomacy, 02 Infectious Disease, 03 Economy, 04 Education, 06 Family, 07 Health, 11 Society, 12 Water, International Aid, Research resources

website link

AidData attempts to capture the universe of development finance and foreign aid, increase the value of data by providing more descriptive information about development activities, provide data in an accessible format, and strengthen efforts to improve donor and recipient strategic planning and coordination. The PLAID Project — the predecessor to AidData — benefits from significant support given by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, Richard and Judy Finch, and the National Science Foundation. PLAID is a partnership of the College of William and Mary and Brigham Young University. Its successor, AidData, is a merger of PLAID and the Development Gateway's Accessible Information on Development Activities (AiDA) Additionally, our work would not be possible without the institutional support of the College of William and Mary, Brigham Young University, and the Development Gateway Foundation.

The AidData team is committed to building an easy-to-use, comprehensive, and timely resource describing the universe of development finance project-by-project, including all grants and loans committed by all major bilateral and multilateral aid donors. We currently have the most comprehensive database on development finance, but have plenty of additional work to do. Better data will help increase aid targeting and coordination, and it will enable better measurement and evaluation of aid effectiveness. AidData is currently developing a publicly-accessible interface that will enable researchers, field workers, and policy makers interested in development finance to access detailed project level data in order to increase transparency, accountability, and effectiveness.

2010/07/072010/07/08