Appropriate technology

British economist E.F. Shumacher used the phrase appropriate technology in his 1973 book “Small is Beautiful” as an answer to the large-scale use of “inappropriate technology” in international development: usually technology transplanted from the developed world that was so ill-matched to the cultural, environmental, and economic realities of the poorer nations that the technology either simply didn’t work or created new problems. Appropriate technology on the other hand, is designed specifically for the needs and accessibility of poorer communities, and since labor is more abundant than capital in these markets, often also focuses on human-powered solutions over laborsaving ones. Appropriate technology is commonly associated with simple technology, however as the adoption of cell phones and even Internet kiosks in the BoP has shown, appropriate technology does not always mean low technology. Indeed, at its root “appropriate technology” just means technology that is appropriate for the situation it is intended for. For the BoP this means technology designed with a specific BoP market in mind, or better yet, technology developed via a process of “co-creation” that designs not only the technology itself, but also the adoption model and the business model for the technology as well.

A great example of an organization focused on appropriate technology is the NGO KickStart (formerly known as ApproTec), which is most famously known for its treadle-powered irrigation pumps (imagine a stair climber machine that also pumps water). KickStart claims that its “MoneyMaker” pumps have added a half a point to Kenya’s GDP by increasing output of small farms and the NGO states that its focus on appropriate technology is the reason for its success. However, Cornell’s Erik Simanis and Stuart Hart dispute this reasoning in their 2006 article “Expanding Possibilities at the Base of the Pyramid”. Simanis and Hart point out that during KickStart’s 15+ of developing appropriate technologies, only one of its creations has been successful, either in terms of revenue or social impact. The two instead point to KickStart’s organizational ability to pilot test and adapt it technologies as being more important to KickStart’s success than its technology development itself. Whether in KickStart’s case or even cases in the developed world, it’s important to remember that thousands of new “appropriate” technologies fail every year. Development of appropriate technology must therefore be matched with the eveolution of appropriate business models to house them and the creation of appropriate markets in which to sell them: processes which require an organizational capacity for trial and error, adaptability, and of course, proximity to end users.