Base of the Pyramid
International Conference
From November 16 to 18th 2009, the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering will be welcoming delegates from all over the world, to discuss the state of the art on Impact of Base-of-the-Pyramid Ventures. The main question this Conference is addressing is:
How to define, measure, and optimize towards enduring value creation of BoP ventures?
The purpose of this conference is to increase BoP knowledge on value creation and impact assessments by bringing together keynote speakers and delegates from business, academia, NGOs and the public sector. The conference will provide a platform to share conceptual and empirical evidences that address ways to better understand and increase the sustainability impacts of BoP ventures in terms of changes in economic, capacity, environmental and relational well-being. For more information see bopimpact.nl. To register go to aanmelder.nl/bopimpact. Made possible by
Downloads for the conference:
PhD in Design for Developing Countries - position available
Some theories of distributive justice and equality, such as that of John Rawls, discuss fair distribution in terms of the shares of primary goods available to people. The main criticism of these views by Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen, is that it is not the goods that are important, but what they allow us to do and be. Human functioning and capabilities are therefore at the centre of Sen’s work. This project examines how Sen's 'capability approach' can be used in (thinking about) technological innovation and industrial/engineering design. The application context for this project is innovation for the ‘Base of the Pyramid’ (BoP), i.e., the poor in developing countries. The PhD student does research and writes research papers and a PhD thesis. A 3-month research visit to the Indian Institute of Science is anticipated at some point during the project. A small part of the appointment may involve teaching in BSc/Master courses.
Fore more info: the job description on the TU job site.
This PhD position is within the framework of the project "Technology and Human Development; A Capability Approach", described in the next paragraph.
Technology and Human Development; A Capability Approach
Applying the capability approach of Nussbaum and Sen to technology, engineering and design
Some influential theories of distributive justice, fairness and equality, like that of John Rawls, discuss fair distribution in terms of shares of primary goods available to people. The main criticism of philosopher and Nobel laureate in economics Amartya Sen of these views is that it is not the goods that are ultimately important, but what they allow us to do and be, the kind of lives they enable us to live. Giving everyone a laptop or some other piece of technology is no good in and by itself, according to Sen’s approach. Some people will be able to make good use of it and increase their level of functioning, but others who are illiterate or do not have access to reliable power supply cannot possibly convert their possession of the technology into anything useful in their lives. Human functionings and capabilities are therefore at the centre of Sen’s work, referred to as the ‘capability approach’. Although it has been widely adopted in development thinking, hardly any work has been done on the interrelations between the capability approach and technology. This is remarkable, since technology by definition aims at expanding human capabilities. This project investigates how the capability approach can be utilized in (thinking about) technological innovation and engineering design. The context of application for this project is innovation for the so-called ‘Base of the Pyramid’ or the poor in developing countries. Case studies are taken from three engineering areas: ICTs, healthcare/medical technology and sustainable human settlements.
This research project is a joint effort of
- 3TU.Ethics
- Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft
- Centre for Sustainable Technologies, Indian Institute of Science
For more info, see the 3TU.Ethics website.
Books
Designing for Emerging Markets
March 2009; This book entitled "Designing for Emerging Markets" describes Base of the Pyramid problematics and 40 projects done by Industrial Design Engineering Master students over the past few years. The book was edited by Prof. Prabhu Kandachar, Ilona de Jongh and J.C. Diehl. You can order this book for 25euro by sending this order form to BoP-IO@tudelft.nl. The PDF can be downloaded here.
Sustainability Challenges and Solutions at the Base of the Pyramid
September 2008; "Sustainability Challenges and Solutions at the Base of the Pyramid: Business, Technology and the Poor", edited by Prof. Prabhu Kandachar and Prof. Minna Halme, was launched at the Sustainable Innovations at the Base of the Pyramid conference in Helsinki in September 2008. The book, published by Greenleaf, includes insights from academics and practicioners from developed and developing countries. For more information and to order a copy go to Greenleaf Publishing.
Background
About two third of the world’s population of 6 billion people earns less than three dollars per day. These individuals spend their lives searching for the food and shelter, fighting for physical survival, and fearing for the future. This does not go unnoticed. Global poverty, its extent and distribution, is of daily news screaming for attention of all world citizens. The world’s poor die at a young age and the poorest have a lower life expectancy than the privileged. The challenge at world level is enormous. In Africa alone, poverty and hunger, unemployment, disease, malnutrition, lack of shelter, gender inequity and environmental deterioration are some of the main challenges in addressing poverty.
Man in his house on Chong ming Island, near Shanghai & Girls in a Rio de Janeiro Favela in Brasil (Photos respectively by Jaap Daalhuizen and Linda Schnieders)
Millennium Development Goals
These developments in the last century have attracted the attention of world leaders. At the Millennium Summit in September 2000 the largest gathering of world leaders in history adopted the UN Millennium Declaration, committing their nations to a new global partnership to reduce extreme poverty and setting out a series of time-bound targets, with a deadline of 2015 that have become known as the Millennium Development Goals (source: UN) .
The eight United Nations Millenium goals for 2015
Challenges for Industrial Designers
These developments have also helped in exposing the dire human needs. Being an expert in designing products and services to meet human needs, some of these needs are addressable by the expertise available at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology. A few examples of existing needs are in the areas of education, healthcare, food and nutrition, water, energy, housing, materials, connectivity, designing and tools, and entrepeneurship.
This website is complemented with a book that describes the BoP problematics and student projects in more detail (download here).
