| In 2007 the
IEEE announced a new initiative to bring the resources of IEEE members
and collaborators to bear on meeting the humanitarian goals set
out under the United Nations to eliminate the worst of world poverty
in two development stages1 by 2025. This IEEE program,
dubbed the Humanitarian Technology challenge (HTC), was described
at length in the November NPSS Newsletter2. Having been
recently designated the NPSS liaison, here are some personal views
on what this program is about and how NPSS can become involved.
First, some further background:
The broad program goals stem from the highly publicized UN Millennium
Development Goals (MDG’s), conceived by economics experts
such as Jeffrey Sachs3 who left Harvard to lead the new
Earth Institute at Columbia University, and who along with many
international economic and political leaders crafted the MDG’s
into a formal UN initiative. The UN program calls for developed
nations with growing economies to pledge a percent of GNP to a program
pool to support a range of initiatives including eliminating health
threats such as malaria and AIDS, protecting and advancing the rights
of women to make major contributions, elimination of crushing national
debt and punitive trade agreements, attacking problems of the environment,
and in general developing sustainable, achievable economic growth
toward independence in the poorest of countries.
IEEE has installed Howard Tepper to lead its pilot project (h.tepper@ieee.org)
along with a supporting team. The program is partnered with the
UN Foundation, a major source of project funds, along with our own
IEEE Foundation which has begun a solicitation for HTC support.
This modest start aims first to identify possibilities, which means
discussing the most urgent needs with the feet-on-the-ground people,
the NGO’s (Non-Government Organizations) which operate in
every corner of the globe, making lists, and discussing them with
project members. Many of the urgent needs require simple technologies
such as better communications in remote areas; power supplies from
remote generators such as solar, wind and water; better transport
to medical services; better means of tracking people and keeping
records. Obviously more efficient technologies to solve these common
daily problems without leaving a huge footprint will be extremely
helpful. But every new investment must be done carefully and with
a high payback to the people we are trying to partner with.
Personally I have a strong concern that the overarching goal be
to enhance the capabilities of the people to learn and adopt the
helpful technologies themselves; to learn design and manufacturing
and to develop trade within as well as outside their developing
regions and countries. A crash technology program is not likely
to be successful because it precludes building partnerships of trust
needed for the long haul. On the other hand, I find this initiative
extremely encouraging and hope it will lead to a greater awareness
of how each of us can contribute in truly meaningful, sustainable
ways. These ways should be ultimately owned by the partners. Howard
Tepper has observed that many IEEE members have project management
skills in bringing together teams members with diverse skills to
solve large complex problems. This is an area where we, or our younger
members who are so motivated, can truly make a large impact. A news
report a few months ago pointed out that while significant funds
are being collected under the MDG program, the worthy projects themselves
are not forming at a pace that can effectively use the funds at
this time. If this problem is not solved quickly, donations will
dry up and the whole initiative will fail. Success in these NGO-partnered
ventures requires establishing a high degree of trusting relationships
and management tools at the very grass-roots levels. There is no
substitute for getting out into the field no matter what the level
at which we participate.
The HTC program is just getting started. Initially all Societies
have been asked to marshal their ideas on how to best plug in. But
we need to think both inside and outside our fields of expertise,
to find many ways to help; some will be serendipitous and unexpected,
and I hope we can all get take up the challenge to contribute.
Look for more in the next newsletter, and meanwhile please send
your comments, questions and bright ideas to rslarsen@coastside.net.
1 The first stage addresses people living
on the equivalent of 1 $US/day if they lived in the US; and the
second, people living on less than 2 $US/day. (An NPR news report
on 7/16/08 reported half of Khartoum’s 3M people lived on
$150/year, or 40 cents a day equivalent US.)
2 http://www.ieee.org/organizations/pubs/newsletters/npss/0308/29-31.pdf
3 Author of The End of Poverty and other recent works.
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