{"id":36544,"date":"2017-06-27T05:00:49","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tested-neuron.flywheelsites.com\/?p=36544"},"modified":"2017-07-14T08:24:59","modified_gmt":"2017-07-14T14:24:59","slug":"innovation-sexy-not-always-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/innovation-sexy-not-always-right\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovation: Sexy, But Not Always Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"or much of the past 25 years, I\u2019ve dedicated my time<\/a> to figuring out how mobile technology might help support positive social and environmental change in the developing world. During that time, I created FrontlineSMS<\/a>, an open source software for grassroots organizations to distribute and collect information via text messages, and it was built from the ground up to reach global scale. Along the way, I spent time living and working in many communities where I both led and witnessed development projects firsthand. I\u2019ve seen attempts at innovation go well, and I\u2019ve seen others crash and burn.<\/p>\n

In its Sustainable Development Goals<\/a> (SDG) Agenda for 2030, the United Nations recognizes the importance of building resilient infrastructure and fostering innovation<\/a>. The vast majority of my work over the years falls under the umbrella of this particular SDG. However, my entry point comes not from technology, but rather from the intersection of anthropology, development and conservation.<\/p>\n

In fact, the most important thing I\u2019ve learned over the years is not how to implement a technology; it\u2019s that you need to spend time with real people to understand their real needs. Too often in the development sector, I still see this critical step overlooked. In human development, assumptions are dangerous. If we\u2019re going to make progress toward this SDG by 2030, then we need to slow down, drop our innovation fetish, and lead first with the people and the problem.<\/p>\n

Building Appropriate Technology<\/h2>\n

To seriously tackle the problems we face as a society at scale \u2013 such as the billions of people without access to financial services or who live far away from medical facilities \u2013 we\u2019re likely going to need to adopt some form of technology. We simply won\u2019t reach the numbers we need if we don\u2019t. It\u2019s also fair to say that it\u2019ll be hard to meet almost all the other SDGs if we don\u2019t focus on innovative engineering and problem solving to some degree.<\/p>\n

But while it\u2019s encouraging to see an acknowledgement of the role of technology and innovation, one critical word is missing in the description of this SDG \u2013 and that\u2019s \u201cappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

For me, this is an unfortunate oversight. Everybody seems to love the word \u2018innovation,\u2019 and people like to emphasize everything digital. It\u2019s all about exciting, new and sexy, and it\u2019s celebrated in the Western world with prizes, challenges and fame in the press for those who make the most noise. Sadly, the vast majority of technological innovations serve only a\u00a0minority of people, who\u00a0often live in the West. For reasons of cost, access \u2013 and yes, appropriateness \u2013 most technologies just don\u2019t work in settings much different from those where they were designed.<\/p>\n

\"\"Although FrontlineSMS was designed, built and launched in a matter of months, it was not an overnight success story. The secret to it working came from experiences I had gained over 12 years living and working with people, and studying what life was like for those it was built to help \u2013 with much of that time spent in the field. Without that intimate knowledge, I don\u2019t believe I would have been able to build something that ended up working so well for them.<\/p>\n

I had also seen too many development projects come in and bulldoze their way through local ideas and knowledge, and that wasn\u2019t a mistake I was going to make. Instead, my solution was built on trust in the users and faith that they knew how to best solve their own problems \u2013 or at least more than an English guy who lived several thousand miles away. I also wanted them to own their solution.<\/p>\n

There really is no shortcut to spending time in the field and spending time understanding people and their needs.<\/p>\n

What Happens When Innovation Works<\/h2>\n

We live in an exciting time, and opportunities are endless if we slow down and think about what it is we\u2019re trying to do. Here\u2019s just a few of the things that excite me.<\/p>\n

First, it\u2019s now possible to bypass the charity sector and send direct payments from our mobile phones in Boulder, Paris or London directly to the handset of a farmer in Uganda, Zimbabwe or Zambia. This represents huge potential for disruption in how aid is delivered, especially after devastating natural disasters. Again, it\u2019s about trust, but also about efficiency. If we give people cash, and not food aid for example, do they spend it wisely? Can we save money and give them more by cutting out aid bureaucracy? So far, the evidence points to yes, and we\u2019re only at the beginning.<\/p>\n

Second, mobile technology has enabled us to leapfrog infrastructure challenges in places where bricks and mortar financial institutions don\u2019t exist (and there are many). Now, people can transfer or save money, take out insurance, put money aside for their futures, or make payments without traveling large distances, all through their phones. For anyone who has seen what a struggle making payments used to be, this is huge.<\/p>\n

Third, smart phones are becoming increasingly widespread in emerging markets. We\u2019re still a long way off from finding them in sufficient numbers in the places they need to be, but in 10 years it\u2019s possible that most people who have a phone will have one that connects to the Internet. This is another opportunity to build and deliver solutions to pressing needs, but also to allow people to solve their own problems.<\/p>\n

\"\"The final thing that excites me is the increasing numbers of home grown software developers, engineers, technologists and innovators using digital technology to build solutions in the communities and villages where they grew up. Problem solvers and solutions developers are no longer just people coming in from the outside. Across Africa, we\u2019re seeing talented programmers with intimate knowledge of their country\u2019s problems graduate with computer science degrees and go into the business and social sectors. We\u2019ve never had a better opportunity to solve some of these problems than we do today, and it will only improve.<\/p>\n

In summary, for me it feels like we have a perfect storm brewing. We could be on the cusp of a revolution in how solutions are built for the kinds of problems we see in the world today \u2013 a revolution led by local leaders and innovators. The existing model has been broken for some time, and we finally have something to replace it.<\/p>\n

The Dark Side of Innovation<\/h2>\n

Despite all the positive things innovation can do for us, there is a flip side. The first, which I mentioned earlier, is that we have a habit of building inappropriate solutions that don\u2019t scale, or are difficult to scale. When we think about developing digital solutions, we need to remember that many people still don\u2019t have a phone, or access to the Internet. Without a smart phone and a connection, how are people going to use your app, however innovative or groundbreaking it is? The irony is that more often than not, older and less sexy \u2013 but well-tested \u2013 solutions may be better for some communities.<\/p>\n

Another danger is that we\u2019re developing a growing dependency on technology. We all know how difficult it is to do anything when our Internet connection goes down, when we lose power, or when an airline\u2019s booking system fails. While technology seamlessly streamlines things and increases their efficiency and reach, things collapse when it breaks. Imagine a world where we got rid of physical cash and only had digital payments \u2013 how would we buy anything if the technology crashes? Today, if we go to the store and our credit card doesn\u2019t work, we can usually dig out a little cash. In these circumstances, we have a Plan B. What\u2019s our bigger Plan B?<\/p>\n

\"\"We\u2019re building a world that runs on technology, yet we know full well the chaos that ensues when that technology fails. I often feel I\u2019m giving out contradictory messages \u2013 promoting technology use on one hand, but preaching the dangers on the other. But I know I can\u2019t sit here and say not to build anything that uses technology because one day it might break. Progress doesn\u2019t work that way. Perhaps what I would say is think about what might happen \u2013 and what your users would do \u2013 when it does.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, many of us live in places where it\u2019s easy to get things fixed. But that can\u2019t be said for a rural farmer in Zambia. Mitigating this danger takes me back to my starting point of creating appropriate technologies that can be maintained, supported and repaired locally wherever possible. Supporting innovation hubs can foster a strong sense of local ownership, and today there are plenty of these.<\/p>\n

Moving from Vanity to Value<\/h2>\n

On our current trajectory, I\u2019m not overly optimistic that we\u2019ll achieve Goal #9 by 2030. I still see far too much wasted effort going into building or funding the wrong things, often for the wrong reasons, and far too much duplication of effort.<\/p>\n

At almost every conference these days, you\u2019ll see someone tweet that we need to \u201cstop reinventing the wheel.\u201d Yet nearly every week some new \u2018innovation challenge\u2019 seems to launch, asking people to submit their ideas on how to solve education in refugee camps, or access to healthcare in the last mile. There\u2019s this unproven belief that the wisdom of the crowd will solve all our development challenges, but what does the average person living in the U.S. or U.K. know about refugee camps in Syria? In many cases, people have been working on these issues for decades. Their solutions may not be perfect, but why can\u2019t we build on their efforts? The message these innovation challenges give are that none of the solutions we currently have work, and that we desperately need new ones. That couldn\u2019t be further from the truth.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t, and shouldn\u2019t, look at technology, engineering and innovation in isolation without considering everything else around them, and that means putting people and their problems at the heart of everything we do. We should constantly keep our eyes on the bigger prize \u2013 the alleviation of human suffering \u2013 and remember who we\u2019re doing this work for.<\/p>\n

We are custodians of this opportunity, and it\u2019s down to us to make the most of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We could be on the cusp of a revolution in how solutions are built for the problems in the world. But when it comes to innovation, we need to remember this. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":36546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[476,3485,1528,1529,3696],"tags":[3900,2005,1650,331,729,3699,3901,3698],"class_list":["post-36544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","category-innovation","category-scaling","category-technology","category-unreasonable-goals","tag-appropriate-technology","tag-frontlinesms","tag-ict4d","tag-innovation","tag-banks","tag-sustainable-development-goals","tag-technology-for-development","tag-unreasonable-goals"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInnovation: Sexy, But Not Always Right \u2013 UNREASONABLE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We could be on the cusp of a revolution in how solutions are built for the problems in the world. 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