New York Times Magazine – Innovation Feature

June 5, 2012 · 0 comments

The June 3, 2012, issue of the New York Times Magazine was entirely dedicated to the topic of innovation.  One of its more intriguing articles ponders the possibly of designer bugs: “Each of the bugs will have a mission. Some will be designed to devour things, like pollution. Others will generate food and fuel. There will be bugs to fight global warming, bugs to clean up toxic waste, bugs to manufacture medicine and diagnose disease, and they will all be driven to complete these tasks by the very fibers of their synthetic DNA.” The magazine also highlights “32 Innovations That Will Change Your Tomorrow.”

 

InnoCentive and the Humanitarian Innovation Fund Collaborate to Reduce the Health and Disease Risks Associated with Inadequate Waste Treatment

May 10, 2012 · 0 comments

Source – Sun Herald, May 9, 2012

Challenge Seeks to Identify Innovative and Novel Methods for Improved Containment and Decontamination of Human Waste in Emergency Situations

 WALTHAM, Mass. — InnoCentive, Inc., the pioneer in open innovation and crowdsourcing, and the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF), today announced a Challenge to find easy-to-use, economical, and innovative waste management solutions that will reduce the health risks related to inadequate containment or decontamination of human waste during emergency or disaster response situations. This Challenge is sponsored by the HIF through a partnership between Enhancing Learning and Research for Humanitarian Assistance (ELRHA) and Active Learning Network for Accountability and Performance in Humanitarian Action (ALNAP). 

Natural or man-made disasters—including earthquakes, tsunamis, flash floods and volcanic eruptions—typically occur rapidly and without notice, resulting in large numbers of displaced people often gathered at aid sites and in urban areas. This influx can quickly overwhelm existing sanitation infrastructure and create significant difficulties in managing the containment and disposal of human waste. Historically, pit latrines have proven to be an efficient and relatively rapid solution. However, in situations where the ground is not suitable for digging latrines, such as in flooded or urban environments, few other sustainable options exist. Raised latrines, ‘portaloos,’ chemical toilets, and personal waste containers are alternatives, but all of these known solutions have notable drawbacks. Without adequate treatment of human waste in emergency situations, outbreaks of enteric disease become common. In fact, disease outbreaks can cause more fatalities than the primary disaster.

HIF has teamed up with InnoCentive on a new Challenge, Safe Containment or Processing of Human Waste in Emergency Situations, which seeks novel methods for the containment or decontamination of human waste to reduce the health and disease risks endemic in disaster response situations. Ideal solutions will be those that can be implemented by non-specialists using materials and methods that are readily available to developing nations. This Theoretical Challenge is open to all InnoCentive Solvers worldwide through July 3, 2012, requires only that Solvers submit a written proposal and carries a total award payout of $15,000 for winning solution(s). The HIF will work to disseminate winning solution(s) across the humanitarian sector.

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SciDev.Net – How innovation is flourishing at the grassroots

May 2, 2012 · 0 comments

Source: SciDev.Net – May 2, 2012

From small-scale hydro-powered electricity in Malaysia to cost-saving solar pumps in Pakistan, communities across the developing world are devising ingenious solutions to improve their livelihoods and promote sustainable development.

They face many hurdles — from fostering collaboration between community members and technical experts, to acquiring funding to take their innovations to market.

Grassroots innovation is flourishing in the developing world (Flickr/pyjama)

But despite the difficulties, grassroots innovation is certainly flourishing.

SciDev.Net spoke to five organisations about their goals, challenges and successes.

Walking the walk

Aziph Mustapha, chief operating officer of the Malaysian Foundation for Innovation (YIM), believes hardship and the need to use locally available resources are the major drivers of novel technology development.

Last year he started a programme called Innovation Walk to seek out knowledge and creativity in Malaysia’s remotest communities.

It involves researchers, government officials and patent experts travelling on foot to visit communities and provide advice on enhancing and commercialising rural innovations, and offering training on related intellectual property issues.

The first walk, in July last year in the state of Melaka, identified 17 promising grassroots innovations, six of which were chosen for commercialisation by Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian non-profit organisation.

Mustapha gives the example of a villager in Dalat, Sarawak, who used a redundant car engine to design a machine that can separate the husk from rice, speeding up processing for all the families living in his long-house community.

“The entire village has been going to him for the past ten years for this service, which he doesn’t even charge for. He is happy to help the community,” Mustapha explains.

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President Obama and USAID Launch Innovation Fund for the Americas

April 17, 2012 · 0 comments

USAID PRESS RELEASE

Photo of globe focused on South America map - INSEAD Knowledge

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Obama announced a new Innovation Fund for the Americas (IFA) to support cost-effective and innovative solutions to some of the Latin American and Caribbean region’s toughest development challenges. The President made the announcement during his April 14, 2012 address at the Sixth Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia.

As a region, Latin America and the Caribbean has made impressive social, economic and political progress in the past several decades, but countries continue to grapple with security, governance, and climate change issues that could threaten these gains.

Based at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the IFA seeks to fund the most promising development solutions proposed by NGOs, academia, entrepreneurs and the private sector. Using the Agency’s Development Innovation Ventures staged financing model, successful applicants can access grants ranging from $100,000 to $15 million to pilot, rigorously test, and bring their ideas to scale.

“This fund will tap into the ingenuity of the people of Latin America and the Caribbean and the world, to help USAID do better development at a lower cost,” said Mark Feierstein, USAID Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean. “Anyone with a good idea is welcome to apply.”

The IFA is especially seeking proposals that address:

  • Energy, climate change, citizen security, at-risk youth, education and democracy challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean; and
  • Challenges within the four pillars of the U.S. Government’s Haiti strategy – infrastructure and energy, food and economic security, health and other basic services, and governance and rule of law.

For more information on how to apply, visit: idea.usaid.gov/div/ifa.

IDEO.org’s Mission to Tackle Global Social Challenges Through Design for All

April 12, 2012 · 0 comments

Source – Huffington Post, April 12, 2012

IDEO.org’s Mission to Tackle Global Social Challenges Through Design for All

Jocelyn Wyatt is the Executive Director and Co-Lead of IDEO.org, the nonprofit organization started by Palo Alto, CA-based design consultancy IDEO to address poverty-related challenges through design and to encourage the use of a “human-centered approach” to innovation in the social sector. 

IDEO.org has worked with the Rockefeller Foundation, identifying potential funding strategies in support of youth employment initiatives around the world and Winrock International to help simplify and articulate a process for multiple-use water services in Nepal and Ethiopia. Recently they have worked with TED to design TEDx-In-A-Box for organizers of TEDx events who don’t have access to technology to host events in diverse locations around the world.

Previously, Wyatt led IDEO’s Social Innovation practice, which she expanded over the course of several years. Wyatt specializes in building social enterprises and advising businesses in the developing world, where she uses the market to effect social change. She has lent her perspective to social innovation projects with clients such as Acumen Fund, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, KickStart, the Rockefeller Foundation, Unilever, the U.S. Agency for International Development and Water and Sanitation for the Urban Poor.

Based in San Francisco, she travels worldwide to grapple with strategies and issues related to product, service and system design. Wyatt speaks on the use IDEO’s human-centered design process in solving global challenges, particularly at the base of the pyramid.

An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Can you describe IDEO’s ‘human-centered’ design process?

Joceyln Wyatt:  The human-centered design process is one that both IDEO and IDEO.org employ. It’s a process of really understanding deeply the needs of communities or people that we’re trying to serve. We do that by spending time with them, through observations and interviews, and through that gain a set of insights that help us understand what some of those needs and opportunities are. Then from there, we come up with a whole series of innovative solutions through brainstorming and through concept development. Then we go into a process of prototyping, where we actually make some of those ideas tangible and go back, return to those communities, share with them those prototypes, get feedback on them, iterate them, and then ultimately communicate them back to the partner organization that we’re working with for implementation.

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Oliver Lawal – An Innovation State of Mind

April 4, 2012 · 0 comments

Source – WaterWorld – April 2, 2012

An Innovation State of Mind

By Oliver Lawal 

H2O – the most recognizable chemical formula in the world. This vital substance covers over 70% of the Earth’s surface and has from the genesis of time sustained all life. Our civilization largely depends on our ability to do three things to water; move it, measure it and treat it.

Early man’s use of a ladle to transport water to his mouth, perform a sniff-test to ensure quality, progressed through the ages to Greek innovators like Archimedes’ design of a screw pump and Hippocrates’ cloth bag filter around 500 B.C. Further technology advancements came with the discovery of microorganisms in the late 17th century and chlorination in the 19th century.

Our ability to sustain large populations is inextricably linked to our ability to farm intensively. With agriculture today consuming 70% of fresh water supplies, it has been argued that today’s food production can largely be seen as a global trade in water.

Discussions on the relationship between water and energy, known as the water-energy nexus, are increasingly being held. Escalating energy costs act as a market driver to water equipment manufacturers, who fight to become known as the greenest supplier.

Likewise energy providers understand the cost of water use in their production.

In addition to the relationship between water and energy, we see a strong relationship between water and technology – a water-energy-technology nexus. Today’s advanced water treatment technologies are helping to create more and more advanced materials, this in turn is helping to create more advanced treatment technologies. In the very near future we can see nanotechnology and semi-conductors (in the form of UV-LEDs) playing an increased role in water treatment. Add to that major advances in rapid microbiological analysis driven by photonics and microprocessor developments, and the relationship becomes clearer.

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Device for harvesting energy and water from human waste gets green light

March 26, 2012 · 1 comment

Imperial College in London and partners begin developing prototype device, following funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.  The post originally appeared on their website here.

By: Colin Smith

Work on a prototype device for harvesting energy and clean drinking water from human waste gets the go ahead this month.

A project from a team of researchers from Imperial College London, the University of Manchester and Durham University beat more than 2,000 other proposals to receive funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a prototype system for recovering drinkable water and harvesting hydrogen energy from human faecal waste. The researchers believe the technology could provide an inexpensive device for people in the developing world to generate clean water and energy from waste and a sustainable source of hydrogen energy that could be used to power homes in developed countries.

The researchers say that the device will be portable, allowing installation in homes and remote locations. The technology is based on a porous scaffold that holds bacteria and metal nano-particles. When faecal sludge is filtered through the scaffolding these particles will react with the waste mater to generate the recycled resources. These can either be used immediately or stored for later use.

Bacteria in the device will form part of a process to extract energy and clean water from human faecal waste

The first stage of the project will see the team developing a stand-alone sanitation device, making it easier and cheaper for people in developing countries to adopt the technology where large sewage networks may not exist. Where sewage infrastructure is in place, the technology could be hooked into the system, minimising implementation costs for home owners.

In the long-term, the researchers aim to further develop their device into a ‘pick and mix’ series of recycling units that can extract the types of resources most useful for users such as: electrolytes, used for generating electricity; methane, for energy; and ammonia, which is a widely used fertiliser. The team says their device would be an advantage over other systems currently on the market that can only recover one or two resources at most.

Dr Martyn McLachlan, Department of Materials at Imperial, says: “In the future, we may see homes in the UK generating their own clean water, energy and fertilizer simply by doing what comes naturally to us all once or twice day. More important are the implications for developing countries, where the provision of clean drinking water is essential for supporting life and self-generated energy could be used to support economic growth.”

The researchers plan to have a prototype ready to demonstrate by 2013. The project team and the concept were a product of a recent Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council “Inspire in the Physical Sciences” workshop.

P&G and CARE to Provide 100 Million Liters of Clean Drinking Water

March 22, 2012 · 1 comment

Source – Market Watch, March 22, 2012

P&G and CARE Announce Commitment to Provide 100 Million Liters of Clean Drinking Water Through Innovative Partnership

Announced today at a ceremony hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Procter & Gamble Company and leading humanitarian organization, CARE plan to provide more than 100 million liters of clean drinking water in Kenya and Ethiopia through an investment of over $1 million dollars. The organizations came together on World Water Day to announce the grant and to celebrate the milestone of the 100th school in Kenya provided with clean drinking water through their partnership, which focuses on enabling students to be agents of change. 

In addition, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced P&G’s commitment to the newly formed US Water Partnership, a public-private effort to unite and mobilize expertise and resources to address water challenges around the globe. P&G will sit on the 2012 Steering Committee of the US Water Partnership and continue to focus efforts on sharing clean drinking water through partnerships like the CARE schools program.

“Introducing the P&G water purification packets to a community through school programs has a dramatic impact,” explained Greg Allgood, Director of the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program. “Children are empowered by the ability to transform their drinking water, and take that knowledge home to their families. By investing in children, we enable them to make a difference every day in their communities.”

The collaboration was initiated in Kenya in 2007 to explore ways to provide clean drinking water and teach simple hand washing behaviors to students. CARE trains two teachers in each school as patrons of the program in that school. Patrons are responsible for teaching improved hygiene behaviors, including hand washing, either directly or through school hygiene clubs. The program provides over 17,000 liters of clean drinking water each day to students and their families. Today, the program celebrates bringing clean water and sanitation education to St. Linus Nzoia Primary School in western Kenya.

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Making sanitation count: Developing and testing a device for assessing latrine use in low-income settings

February 24, 2012 · 0 comments

The abstract below is from the article in Environmental Science & Technology

Making sanitation count: Developing and testing a device for assessing latrine use in low-income settings, Environ. Sci. Technol., DOI: 10.1021/es2036702, February 9, 2012.

Thomas Clasen, et al.

While efforts are underway to expand latrine coverage to an estimated 2.6 billion people who lack access to improved sanitation, there is evidence that actual use of latrines is sub-optimal, limiting the potential health and environmental gains from containment of human excreta. We developed a passive latrine use monitor (PLUM) and compared its ability to measure latrine activity with structured observation. Each PLUM consisted of a passive infrared motion detector, microcontroller, data storage card, and batteries mounted in a small plastic housing that was positioned inside the latrine.

During a field trial in Orissa, India, with ~ 115 households, the number of latrine events measured by the PLUMs was in good agreement with that measured by trained observers during 5 hours of structured observation per device per week. A significant finding was that the presence of a human observer was associated with a statistically significant increase in the number of latrine events, i.e., the users modified their behavior in response to the observer.

Another advantage of the PLUM was the ability to measure activity continuously for an entire week. A shortcoming of the PLUM was the inability to separate latrine events that occurred in immediate succession, leading to possible undercounting during high-traffic periods.

The PLUM is a promising technology that can provide detailed measures of latrine use to improve the understanding of sanitation behaviors and how to modify them, and for assessing the intended health, livelihood, and environmental benefits of improved sanitation.

White House – Harnessing Innovation for Global Development

February 9, 2012 · 0 comments

This post was originally published by the White House Press  Office here.

Feb. 8, 2012 – FACT SHEET: Harnessing Innovation for Global Development

We’re expanding scientific collaboration with other countries and investing in game-changing science and technology to help spark historic leaps in development.” – President Obama, September 2010 

President Obama’s Global Development Policy, released in Fall 2010, calls for investments in game-changing innovation to accelerate progress toward development goals in health, food security, climate change, energy and environmental sustainability, and broad-based economic growth. Focusing on innovation utilizes the U.S. comparative advantages in research and innovation, making our efforts more effective and efficient.

Today, government and private sector leaders gathered at the White House to highlight progress in answering President Obama’s call to use science, technology and innovation to promote global development. At this event, several new public and private sector efforts were announced that will:

  • Harness the energy, idealism, and expertise of university students and faculty to generate, implement, and evaluate new solutions to critical development challenges;
  • Make the greatest use of scientific breakthroughs by expediting commercialization of inventions for humanitarian purposes and rewarding companies that use their patented technologies to solve societal challenges; and
  • Leverage advances in Internet and communication technologies to accelerate research and scale innovations – such as financial services for the unbanked– faster, further, and more efficiently.

“A core part of my global development strategy is harnessing the creativity and innovation of all sectors of our society to make progress that none of us can achieve alone,” said President Obama. “The new collaborations we’re launching today will help save lives from hunger and disease, lift people from poverty and reaffirm America’s enduring commitment to the dignity and potential of every human being.”

From the Green Revolution to the historic scientific achievements that have marked the “Beginning of the End of AIDS,” the United States has played a leading role in driving innovation for dramatic and lasting impact on the lives of millions in the developing world. Today’s event called for an “all-hands-on-deck” approach, asking public and private sector partners alike to bring their expertise to address today’s global challenges. New public and private sector efforts include:

Engaging University Students and Faculty

  • A new U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) partnership with universities to define and solve large development challenges: The program will focus the next generation of problem solvers on development’s most vexing challenges, and harness the energy and idealism that exists in universities across America and the developing world. These novel partnerships with universities will strengthen the understanding of potential problems and the range of solutions, support multidisciplinary approaches to development and encourage innovation to improve the efficacy of our development interventions and to reduce costs to U.S. taxpayers. USAID will fund awards for single university centers and consortia centers and will request that applying universities provide matching funding to leverage USAID’s investment.
  • University of California at Berkeley facilitates technology commercialization for global good: The University of California at Berkeley will adopt the National Institutes of Health model term sheet for non-profits for licensing technologies that can diagnose, prevent or treat neglected tropical diseases, malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS. Pre-negotiated license terms reduce transaction costs and promote collaboration among universities, industry and the global nonprofit sector. Partnerships and contracts under Berkeley’s Socially Responsible Licensing program currently target therapeutic, diagnostic, vaccine, sanitation, and agricultural biotechnology solutions for use in developing countries.
  • Technology and innovation for sustainable development: Just last week, a “Rio 2.0 Conference” was hosted by the State Department and Stanford University. At the conference, a variety of Silicon Valley tech firms and students joined officials from across the world to participate in an innovation “unconference” to lay the foundations for broader cooperation on sustainable development in anticipation of Rio+20 in June 2012. This conference demonstrated the value of modernizing global participation and the potential of new networks, technologies and coalitions to develop solutions to sustainable development challenges.
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