Lemelson-MIT Program - Developing Country Programs and Projects

Developing Country Programs and Projects

Design for the Other 90%. This exhibition, produced by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, focuses on the growing movement among designers to develop cost-effective ways to increase access to food and water, energy, education, healthcare, transportation and revenue-generating activities for the nearly 1.8 billion people living in poverty around the globe. "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%."

Technology Dissemination projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The foundation supports projects that develop life-improving products and deliver them into the hands of those living on less than $2–4 dollars a day. Funded organizations include:

  • KickStart, a Kenya-based organization that develops agricultural technologies for very poor entrepreneurs. It has helped over 61,000 families start or transform their farming enterprises in Kenya, Tanzania and Mali. Collectively, these enterprises generate over $66 million a year in new profits and wages.
  • SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) and SELCO (Solar Electric Light Company). SELCO adapts and improves energy technologies to meet the needs of poor people, while SEWA helps women entrepreneurs launch businesses to sell the products.
  • IDEAAS (Instituto para o Desenvolvimento de Energias Alternativas e da Auto Sustentabilidade), a Brazilian organization that leases—rather than sells—its customized solar energy kits to poor rural people. IDEAAS links monthly charges to a household’s existing budget for lighting. Pricing includes installation, maintenance, and replacement of the battery after three years.

The Lemelson RAMPs (Recognition and Mentoring Programs). RAMPs began as a partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Rural Innovation Network in India, then expanded to sites in Indonesia and Peru. The RAMPs provide inventors with resources to develop and bring to market inventions that address basic human needs, improve the quality of life among the world's poor, and support innovations in sustainable development. Innovators supported through RAMPs include:

  • Dr. Sathya Jaganathan (India): Her innovation—a low-cost baby warmer— dramatically reduced the rates of newborn and pre-term mortality at the rural hospital where she works. Jaganathan plans to manufacture the warmers and get them to more hospitals.
  • Ari Purbayanto (Indonesia): Prof. Purbayanto has developed a machine that separates the bones and meat of small by-catch fish, making it profitable for fishermen to sell the by-catch, rather than throw dead or dying fish back into the sea.
  • MSc. Luis Lira Coronado (Peru): Lira Coronado has devised a ventilation system that keeps perishable products fresh for longer periods of time.

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