Revealing Demand for Pro-Poor Innovations
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Revealing Demand for Pro-poor Innovations MARCH 7, 2014 • WASHINGTON, DC State of the Science Conference #DIL2014 Program There are many barriers to the adoption and diffusion of promising innovations in resource- constrained environments. New technologies may be inappropriately designed, unaffordable, or inaccessible due to weak supply chains. While some of these problems require policy reform, others could be remedied if engineers had better information about the needs and preferences of low- income users and consumers. Remote and low-resource settings often lack the infrastructure required for intensive consumer data collection. Instead, development practitioners have traditionally relied on small-scale, infrequent surveys and focus groups to capture households’ self-reported preferences. These methods are prone to measurement errors, and can be costly to implement. More recently, social scientists and engineers have begun using new tools and techniques to better capture consumer demand and market information from underserved communities. The conference will review some of these novel approaches and critically analyze different cases studies of technology deployment in developing countries. Download the conference white paper at dil.berkeley.edu/news-events/conferences Agenda Registration & Breakfast 8.15 AM – 9.00 AM Welcome Remarks Edward Montgomery (Dean, McCourt School of Public Policy) 9.00 AM – 9.10 AM Robert Groves (Provost, Georgetown University) Introduction to the Development Impact Lab 9.10 AM – 9.15 AM Temina Madon (Managing Director, DIL) Keynote Speech 9.15 AM – 9.35 AM David Ferguson (Deputy Director, Office of Science and Technology, USAID) EMERGING TOOLS FOR UNDERSTANDING DEMAND In recent years, social scientists and engineers have developed innovative techniques to better capture the needs and preferences of potential users from underserved communities. This session will review four of these novel approaches. Generating Data through Field Experiments 9.35 AM – 10.15 AM Pascaline Dupas (Assistant Professor of Economics, Stanford University) Sensing Technologies for Data Collection and Monitoring Patrick Pannuto (PhD Candidate in Computer Science, University of 10.15 AM – 10.55 AM Michigan) Break 10.55 AM – 11.10 AM Understanding Demand through Big Data 11.10 AM – 11.50 AM Nathan Eagle (CEO, Jana) Human-centered Technology Design Susan Wyche (Assistant Professor of Telecommunications, Information 11.50 AM – 12.30 PM Studies and Media, Michigan State University) Lunch 12.30 PM – 1.30 PM Welcome Back 1.30 PM – 1.35 PM Billy Jack (Director, gui2de) CASE STUDIES IN CONSUMER-DRIVEN TECHNOLOGY DESIGN This session will feature real-world case studies of technology deployment in developing countries. Drawing from their own experience, presenters will review different challenges in terms of product design, marketing, and adoption by local communities. Sanergy 1.35 PM – 2.10 PM Building sustainable sanitation in urban slums Lumeter Networks 2.10 PM – 2.45 PM Enabling networks of micro-grids for efficient delivery of electricity Digital Green 2.45 PM – 3.20 PM Helping smallholder farmers share best practices through ICT Break 3.20 PM – 3.35 PM Flashcast 3.35 PM – 4.10 PM Bringing smart transit to congested cities Gram Power 4.10 PM – 4.45 PM Smart grids for energy access Agenda CASE STUDY PRESENTATIONS WILL REVIEWED AND DEBRIEFED BY: ** Priya Jaisinghani (Deputy Director of Innovation and Development Alliances, USAID) ** ** Catherine Wolfram (Professor of Business Administration, UC Berkeley) ** ** Amos Winter (Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, MIT) ** Next Steps: Beyond Understanding Consumer Demand Ticora Jones (HESN Program Director, USAID) – moderator Jeffrey Asher (President, Consumer Product Testing Consultants) 4.45 PM – 5.15 PM Bruce Baikie (Executive Director, Inveneo) Laura Hosman (Assistant Professor of Political Science, Illinois Institute of Technology) Closing Remarks 5.15 PM – 5.20 PM Guillaume Kroll (Evaluation Coordinator, DIL) Reception 5.20 PM – 6.00 PM Case Studies Sanergy builds healthy, prosperous communities by making hygienic sanitation affordable and accessible throughout Africa's informal settlements, for everyone, forever. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, Sanergy franchises low-cost, high-quality sanitation facilities to residents of urban slums. The organization provides critical support services, including a daily waste collection service. Sanergy then converts the waste into useful byproducts, such as organic fertilizer, which it sells to Kenyan farms. Lumeter’s vision is to provide a sophisticated Pay as You Go (PAYG) technology solution to energy companies in order to enable them to reach millions of underserved customers. Lumeter’s Solution consists of affordable meters at each house, and at different places across the mini-grid. The meters monitor and control consumption, look for tampering and are controlled via codes obtained from a cloud-based accounting software. The technology is designed to be affordable to even the poorest customers. Digital Green believes in transforming lives of the poor around the world by bringing together technology and social organization. DG works with partners to effectively communicate identified good practices to the community using locally produced videos and mediated dissemination. DG’s innovative communication approach focuses on low cost and effective peer- to-peer learning processes, thus empowering poor households to increase their productivity and incomes in a sustainable manner. FlashCast is an innovative Nairobi-based technology startup focusing on in- vehicle transit-advertising. FlashCast uses connected, location-aware displays to tap into captive audiences of transit passengers during long commutes. Useful, relevant, and interactive content is served through the in-vehicle display, and responses and interactions are enabled by free, 2-way SMS. Gram Power sets up energy efficient Smart Microgrids in remote areas to provide on-demand, reliable electricity to telecom towers and rural households with an affordable prepaid purchase model. The Gram Power model helps rural consumers bypass conventional grid supplies and costs substantially less than what they would spend on alternatives such as kerosene. Bios Amos Winter | Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering | MIT Amos Winter is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. His research focuses on the marriage of mechanical design theory and user-centered product design to create simple, elegant technological solutions for highly constrained environments. His work includes design for developing/emerging markets, agricultural equipment, water systems for purification and irrigation, and assistive devices. He was the recipient of the 2012 ASME/Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal and was named one of the MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 (TR35) for 2013. Billy Jack | Co-founder & Co-director | gui2de Billy Jack is an Associate Professor in the Economics Department at Georgetown University, where he is currently the Director of Undergraduate Studies. He is the co-founder and co-director of gui2de, the Georgetown University Initiative on Innovation, Development and Evaluation, which conducts empirical field-based research to assess the impact and effectiveness of interventions and policies aimed at empowering individuals in developing countries to improve their lives. Previously, he held positions on the Joint Committee on Taxation of the US Congress, the IMF, the Australian National University, and the University of Sydney. He holds a BSc in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Western Australia, and an MPhil and DPhil in Economics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Bruce Baikie | Executive Director | Inveneo Bruce Baikie is Inveneo’s Executive Director and the Founder of Green WiFi. He leads Inveneo with extensive experience in the energy and telecom industries, including 17 years in Silicon Valley. He has a background in engineering and substantial experience implementing solar powered ICT4D projects. His areas of expertise include: wireless networking, eco-data centers, DC power, and solar power. His educational background includes a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University and advanced studies in International Business from the University of Wisconsin. Catherine Wolfram | Professor of Business Administration | UC Berkeley Catherine Wolfram is the Cora Jane Flood Professor of Business Administration at the Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. She is also the Co-Director of the Energy Institute at Haas and a Faculty Director of The E2e Project. She has published extensively on the economics of energy markets. Catherine has studied the electricity industry around the world and has analyzed the effects of environmental regulation, including climate change mitigation policies, on the energy sector. She is currently implementing several randomized control trials to evaluate energy programs in the US, Kenya and India. David Ferguson | Deputy Director | USAID Office of Science and Technology David Ferguson is Deputy Director of USAID’s Science and Technology office with a particular emphasis on open innovations and the Grand Challenges for Development program. Before joining USAID, he worked as a consultant at the nexus of development, technology, and the private sector. His first career was 27 years at AT&T where he created and ran AT&T’s Professional Services Division, developing it into a US$200M profitable entity.