US Museum Showcases Low-Cost Solutions for World’s Poorest

NEW YORK (Agence France-Presse)—From smart latrine lids to biodegradable emergency shelters, low-cost solutions to long-standing problems in the developing world are the focus of a new exhibition at a New York design museum.

The "Design for the Other 90%" exhibition is showcasing designs by so-called social innovators who come up with small-scale inventions that mostly rely on low to medium technology to help meet basic human needs.

The exhibition explores a growing trend among designers to help the 90 percent of the world's population who have restricted access to the kind of services taken for granted in most developed countries.

"Ninety-five percent of the world's designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services exclusively for the richest 10 percent of the world's customers," said Paul Polak, who helped put together the exhibition.

"Nothing less than a revolution in design is needed to reach the other 90 percent," added Polak, the head of International Development Enterprises, a non-profit organization that tackles poverty in the developing world.

Among the exhibits is the "One Laptop per Child" project, which aims to provide affordable computers to children in the developing world and help their communities leapfrog decades of development.

The small computer is designed to cost no more than $100 (70 euros).

Other projects have used satellite technology to provide Internet access to solar-powered village schools in rural Cambodia or harnessed the sun's energy to power projectors for use in improving adult literacy in rural West Africa.

Among the simplest inventions is LifeStraw, a 25 centimeter (10 inch) device dreamt up by a Danish firm that removes organisms that can cause diarrhea, dysentery and cholera and allows people to drink directly from surface water.

Many of the designs were adapted for use in response to natural disasters, such as emergency shelters that are pre-constructed, flat-pack designs that can be assembled without tools and last for up to 18 months.

Another innovation that is already in use in several parts of East Africa is the domed pit latrine slab, which provides a relatively low-technology solution to the problem of poor sanitation in refugee camps.

The museum is hoping the exhibition will help raise awareness of the need for "humanitarian design" by showcasing innovations that can dramatically affect people's quality of life, said museum director Paul Warwick Thompson.

Other innovations that have universal appeal in developing countries include solar-powered street lighting, currently being used in Central Africa, and a foot pump that allows farmers to increase yields through better irrigation.

For the estimated more than one billion people without access to safe drinking water worldwide, another simple solution features a donut-shaped water drum that allows people to transport water long distances with minimal effort.

The exhibition is at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution, and runs until September.