Why social technology does not reach end users

This post was contributed by Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Gustavo Gennuso and is part of a case study done by Innovations, a journal from the MIT Press.

"The majority of inventions or ideas aimed at bettering the quality of life for those in poor or secluded sectors end up in technologists' shelves, but may win an innovation award. We must try to develop a sustainable system that enables technologies to reach these sectors,” reflects Ashoka-Lemelson Fellow Gustavo Gennuso, founder of ETV, Emprendimientos Tecnologías para la Vida (Enterprises Technologies for Life).

When we started our job, it was very clear to us that many times the so-called appropriate technologies do not reach people. In our diagnostic we found the following problems:

The distance between those who design and the recipients of the technologies. Many times design does not incorporate the cultural norms of groups receiving the technologies.  An artifact is designed thinking about its technical aspects, often forgetting about the "product-individual" which is really the "product-culture". The spinning wheels produced by ETV are made with wood to respect the regional tradition that spinning wheels are usually made with that material. Even when we have proved that a metal structure is easier to construct, and therefore it is cheaper, we have still not been able to achieve acceptance for this change.

People's or groups' motivations behind adopting certain products. To know the interests and the motivations of different cultural groups can help promote technologies that will benefit them. There are groups whose interest in an increase in the quality of life for the community is mediated by the topic of production (i.e., agricultural or artisanal) and will privilege technologies associated with an increase in production, even if we think that they need others. Their logic is that improving production will improve other aspects of their lives and so that is where we start. ETV’s rope pump can be seen as a tool to extract water for the home or for the field. Some groups see the necessity from the first and others for the latter. From these logics there is a need to know how to interact and design products.

Knowledge of the groups and their contexts determines the details of design. Even if this is a basic concept in the production of technology, many times it is not regarded. It is not always known or there is not enough knowledge-sharing about the contexts of the groups that will receive the products. A very simple example is that generally of those locations that do not have access to replacement parts for the technologies for which products that are either hard to break, or that have easily replaceable pieces are required.  Our rope pump rests on two wooden blocks that, according to our experience in the Patagonian region, are easily available to any individual; people there say “anyone has a couple of wooden blocks lying around”. We were surprised when we went to the La Puna (Jujuy) zone where big wooden blocks are something rare since they use wood from “tuna” (a kind of cactus) that does not serve as a support.  This mistake caused us to search for hundreds of kilometers for appropriate support and taught us that even when we thought a product was universal there are always communities that add their particularity.  We know of areas in Africa where the rope pump has to be covered because the rivalry between can cause one of the groups to cut the rope as a way of provoking the other.

To develop an artifact does not imply that it is ready to be distributed or to be commercialized. As it happens in practice, technologists or technology innovators often believe that the level of proto type of first design is already the final product.  There is a long way to go before the product is ready to be distributed, to have interchangeable pieces, with repair pieces, with a possibility of compact packaging, etc. There is a need for a redesign that takes a prototype to a product that is ready for distribution.

About Gustavo Gennuso:  Gustavo is designing and distributing appropriate technologies for low-income communities, including a manual rope pump for water extraction.. Gustavo is also battling unemployment among Argentina's young people by growing and inspiring inventors and entrepreneurs. He was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 2002.