This interesting article in the Economist highlights the difference between the adoption of a new technology in emerging markets and the diffusion of this technology in the country. This article also mentions some of the challenges faced in bringing large-scale technology-based solutions to the poor in some of the markets Acumen Fund focuses on. If we are to achieve sufficient scale and bring, for example, affordable and effective technology-based health solutions to low-income consumers in these markets, we have to support solutions that recognize and target these potential pitfalls.

IDEO was recently recognized as one of Fast Company’s top five “Fast 50” Most Innovative Companies, alongside Google, Facebook, Apple and GE. We are thrilled to see an organization that has been a valued partner to us for years get this recognition, and not only for its award-winning design work, but also for its proactive stance on having a social impact. Tim Brown, their CEO, was quoted saying “As social issues increasingly become business issues, this will be a critical new direction for design.”

Our work with IDEO has included a collaborative project to bring design innovations to the challenge of water storage and transportation in the developing world. Having worked on a team with IDEO designers, I was struck by the passion and interest across the company in projects that have a potential for social impact. Despite long dusty road trips to remote Rajasthani villages with scarce water supplies, and getting soaked on rainy days in Mumbai slums, interviewing local water consumers, the team at IDEO showed an incredible level of enthusiasm for listening to the needs of consumers whose needs are not being met. This may not have always been the norm for a design company famous for designing the first Apple mouse, and the interiors of jet airplanes, but it is becoming the hallmark for IDEO, which sees addressing developing world issues as core to its culture and its strategy. For the past two years, the Acumen Fellows have benefited from training on design thinking from IDEO, and an IDEO designer joined this year’s cohort and is now working in India with Scojo, one of our investees.

The role of cutting-edge design thinking in solving critical social issues is now being explored by companies like IDEO, and institutions like the Stanford Institute of Design and the IIT Institute of Design, as well as the non-profit Design that Matters. We look forward to seeing more applications of human-centered design to the many solvable problems facing low-income markets around the globe, and congratulate IDEO on its success demonstrating true innovation and leadership.

Yesterday’s visit by President Bush to the A to Z Textile Mills factory in Arusha, Tanzania, was a tremendous boost for Africa’s fight against malaria and for African economic development. A to Z is now the only manufacturer of long-lasting insecticide nets in Africa, supplying nearly 8% of the continent’s demand for these life-saving products and employing over 5,000 people. ABE, another local company that we have supported, has a long-term supply agreement to produce Artemisia, and by the end of the year should be producing about 15% of the world’s supply. ABE also employs thousands of farmers in cultivating a valuable cash crop. 

As we reflect on our experience with these two malaria ventures, we think that the President’s Malaria Initiative could go further in spurring economic development in Africa with a few policy changes in the allocation of funding for malaria prevention and treatment commodities.  (more…)

The Wall Street Journal published this very good op-ed from Bill Easterly, who actually is sometimes mischaracterized as being only market-driven. In fact, he is a big supporter of social entrepreneurs and of using the market to bring efficiencies while also recognizing the need to address market failures with other means. What excites me most about this is that we’re seeing a growing dialogue around poverty with much smarter thinking on all sides than we’ve seen in a long time.

On my recent trip to India, I was struck by how in that country, almost nothing is wasted. Paper and packaging are minimized and always recycled. Food is purchased or made based on actual daily consumption. Garbage containers fill up much more slowly. (Unlike the two I drag to the curb of my home in New Jersey each week.) This is true at every level of Indian society – this consciousness is part of the culture. Given the current worldwide obsession with green, organic, and CO2, surely there is something that can be learned from this example.

A social entrepreneur, a woman, is taking shape in the form of a young nurse who, after witnessing the mistreatment of children in an orphanage, begins to teach nurses out of her home. Soon, she moves to a slum, so she can more easily treat families who live nine or ten to a tiny room for diseases that should have disappeared long ago. She scrapes together funds for a small group of nurses to visit the slums alongside her, providing critical basic care.

She gets the attention of a successful businessman, who sees her commitment and effectiveness, and begins to support her, first modestly, and anonymously. But he demands accountability, requesting receipts for all expenses, and going to the slums himself to see the work of the nurses and their impact on the community.

Eventually, he helps her scale her solution based on the clear evidence he sees of her accountability, efficiency, and results.  He donates large sums of his own money, investing as he would in a business venture, based on performance and track record. To many, putting such sums into an organization run by a woman, a social worker, would seem ludicrous, but he is only focused on results, and the potential upside of this particular investment. This all happened over a hundred years ago. (more…)

This article points to the power of the long-lasting insecticide treated nets on reducing malaria infections and deaths in Rwanda and Ethiopia. Rwanda is a very organized country with an excellent record of executing on the kind of distribution for nets and Coartem - and the results they have achieved are thrilling to see. A to Z in Tanzania produces ten million long lasting nets annually now, and our investee ABE in Kenya produces artemisinin for about four million doses of Coartem monthly (nearly 50 million annually). These are both examples of investing in local entrepreneurs to produce local products that save lives in Africa. We’re proud to be a small part of this change. Next steps toward eradicating malaria altogether must be to improve execution on distribution and delivery through countries without the order and compact geography of Rwanda.