IDDS 2008 Guest Speakers
Dr. Paul Polak is the founder of International Development Enterprises (IDE),
a non-profit organization which has ended poverty for millions of people in
rural areas worldwide. Dr. Polak was named by Scientific American magazine as
one of the Scientific American 50 for his outstanding acts of leadership in
technology. IDE pioneered the development and rural mass marketing of
affordable technologies in developing countries. It applies proven techniques
to enable the poor to participate in markets, enabling them to work their way
out of poverty. Some of the technologies developed by IDE include a low-cost
irrigation system and a low-cost treadle pump.
IDE
Anil Gupta’s research interests include the expansion of global as well as local space for grassroots innovators to ensure recognition, respect and reward; blending excellence in formal and informal science; protection of intellectual property rights; ethical issues in prospecting for and conservation of biodiversity; research management linking innovations, investment and enterprise; institution building in agricultural research systems; leadership for social change; organic farming; socio-political transformation towards a meritocratic society; creating a knowledge network at different levels for augmenting grassroots green innovations, ecological economics and the development of a multimedia – multi language database on innovations to overcome the barriers of language, literacy and localism.
Founder of the Honey Bee Network, which promotes people to people networking and represents the voice of creative grassroots innovators. Established Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI) and Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN), two NGOs to support the Honey Bee Network and to scale up and convert grassroots innovations into viable products respectively. Has also helped set up the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India to make India an innovative and creative society and a global leader in sustainable technologies. (www.sristi.org/honeybee.html)
Shawn Frayne is the founder of Haddock Invention LLC and its recent spin-off
company, Humdinger Wind Energy, LLC. The mission of these companies is
two-fold. First, to create technologies that can address long-standing problems
in developing countries; and second, to leverage the novel aspects of those
inventions through licensing deals in capital-rich nations such as the U.S.,
thereby generating a self-supporting revenue stream for the projects.
His work has so far focused in the fields of solar water disinfection, inflatable packaging, food preservation, charcoal-production, and wind power generation, with several products successfully licensed or sold. It was during his time as a student in MIT’s D-Lab that Shawn first became convinced that the key inventions of the next century won’t necessarily be born in wealthy countries. Rather, the new industries of the coming years will be founded on breakthrough technologies invented in Haiti or Zambia or Guatemala, where the hardest problems in the world will yield the greatest inventions. (www.humdingerwind.com)
Jock Brandis is the inventor of the Universal Malian Nut Sheller, a low-cost
mechanical peanut sheller that creates new economic opportunities for women who
typically would spend hours shelling peanuts by hand in order to provide for
their family. The peanut sheller is distributed worldwide through The Full
Belly Project, a non-profit organization. In 2006 Jock met former U.S.
president Jimmy Carter to discuss the peanut sheller. In the same year, Jock
received Popular Mechanic’s “Breakthrough Award” for his invention.
Jock has also developed other appropriate technologies including a pedal
powered food processor, a pedal powered corn cracker and a pedal powered cotton
gin.
FULLBELLY
Harish Hande has pioneered access to rural solar electrification for families below the poverty line through a combination of customized home lighting systems, innovative doorstep financing, and an understanding of market needs of different user groups. To further the effects, he has created SELCO entrepeneurs who distribute solar powered lights to low income communities. SELCO revenues from services and products constitute up to 85% of its budget.
Thus far he has reached 80,000 clients across Karnatake and Kerala and has recently moved into Gujarat. Solar electrification has led to everything from better education outcomes for children who can now study at night to increaesed livelihoods from night time vegetable vendors. (http://www.selco-india.com/)
Ruth Mufute was born and raised in a village in Zimbabwe. She became a teacher at a young age and assisted her parents to educate her siblings. Ruth worked hard to improve her academic level despite the many barriers faced by a lot of girls her age. From a primary school teacher, Ruth rose from an office clerk in the Zimbabwe Government Public Officer to being first a country represnetative for Africare and now their regional director for East and Anglophone West Africa. She has worked in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia over the past 10 years. She holds a masters degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of government at Harvard University. Her goal is to reach out to more girls and women who have lost hope due to unfortunate circumstances surrounding them. (www.africare.org)
Michael Delaney has worked in the international arena for the last 25 years and philosophically believes that urgent, humanitarian emergencies in poor countries require a long term approach to help them recover and rebuild. As Director of Humanitarian Response for the international relief and development organization, Oxfam America, Michael has led the agency’s response to all emergencies over the last ten years, including the Asian tsunami, earthquakes in Pakistan and El Salvador, Hurricane Mitch in Central America, food crises and conflict in West Africa, Hurricane Katrina in the U.S., and complex emergencies in Ethiopia and Sudan. Michael believes that each of these crises offers an opportunity to build up community organizations that together, can find lasting solutions to poverty and also make the affected community better able to survive the next disaster.
Michael is a member of Oxfam International’s Humanitarian Consortium Management Group, which is responsible for all aspects of emergency response in over 120 countries. As a member of the Tsunami Fund Management Team, Michael is responsible for the $280 million dollar Oxfam response to the December 2004 disaster that affected 13 countries. Prior to this role, Michael was Oxfam America’s Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, responsible for overseeing the agency’s development projects in three sub-regions: Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. He initiated Oxfam’s programs in Cuba and Mexico.
Before joining Oxfam America in 1990, Michael spent five years in Central America and Mexico, working with refugee populations and promoting grassroots development initiatives in war torn El Salvador. He also coordinated disaster relief efforts following the devastating 1986 earthquake in San Salvador. Michael holds a B.A. in Political Science from Niagara University and a M.A. in Economics from SUNY, Buffalo. (http://www.oxfamamerica.org/)
Lotika Paintal is the founder and executive director of Water Centric, an international NGO focused on providing clean water to school children around the world beginning in India. She has worked in international development organizations in the US (Oxfam America, World Education, Education Development Center). Lotika grew up in India, then lived and worked for 9 years in Europe before moving to the US. She was on the William J. Clinton Foundation 5-person water/sanitation task force – which piqued her interest in water related issues. Lotika lives in Lexington, MA with her husband and two teenage children. (www.watercentric.org)