TEDxSFU Shawn Smith
## Speaker Context - Speaker role/profession: (Unspecified, related to social change/development sector) - Setting/Occasion: Presentation where the speaker is introducing topics related to global poverty and social change. - Framing: The speaker frames the discussion by presenting examples of global poverty (Malawi boy, $2 a day metric) and criticizing common, often ineffective, approaches to solving it, suggesting a need for a shift in perspective. ## People - Will: Young man, 14 years old, in Malawi, trying to connect a battery to a windmill built from scratch. - Daniela Papy: Friend of the speaker, associated with an organization (implied expertise in curriculum/education). - Dr Muhammad Yunice: Person who received the Nobel Peace Prize for microfinance. - Dr V: Person who was inspired by McDonald's operations to improve eye surgeries. ## Organizations - UN: Organization mentioned as needing to keep all factors in check when developing solutions. - Asoka: Organization mentioned as being in the ecosystem of social change. - Echoen Green: Organization mentioned as being in the ecosystem of social change. - Skull: Organization mentioned as playing a role in providing scholarships for MBAs at Oxford for social entrepreneurship. - Livelihoods: Project name/program example, working with Urban Street Youth in Kenya to employ them as a distribution Salesforce in urban slums. ## Places - Malawi: Location where Will lives, where his family lacks access to electricity. - Continental space of Africa: Area discussed, noted for its massive size, diversity, and multitude of cultures/languages. - China: Mentioned as being large enough to fit within Africa. - United States: Mentioned as being large enough to fit within Africa. - India: Mentioned as being large enough to fit within Africa. - Europe: Mentioned as being large enough to fit within Africa. - Tijuana, Mexico: Destination of the cycling tour from Vancouver. - Vancouver: Starting point of the cycling tour. - Kenya: Location where the Livelihoods project is working with Urban Street Youth. - Oxford: Location where Skull provides scholarships for MBAs. ## Tools, Tech & Products - Battery: Object Will is trying to connect to the windmill in Malawi. - Windmill: Device built from scratch by Will in Malawi, used to generate electricity. - LifeStraw: Device mentioned for clean water filtration. - Solar lighting: Product by Delight, providing solar lighting in Africa and India. ## Concepts & Definitions - Social Change / Social Innovation / Social Entrepreneurship: General field of work the speaker is engaged in. - Global Poverty: The overarching issue being discussed, exemplified by the two billion people lacking electricity. - Microfinance: A system involving the provision of very small trust-based loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world. - Systemic Change: Desired outcome of supporting organizations that create long-term structural improvements. - Electrification: The basic need in Will's family in Malawi. ## Numbers & Data - 14 years old: Will's age. - Two billion: Estimated number of people in the world without electricity. - $2 a day: Metric used to measure poverty (percentage of population living under this). - 1,1800 number: Example number used for making donations via infomercials. - $30,000: Amount raised during the cycling tour from Vancouver to Tijuana. - 100 million: Approximate number of people reached by microfinance so far. - 99 cent: Price point of uniform standard hamburgers at McDonald's. - Tens of thousands: Number of free surgeries handled by Dr. V's hospital. - 270 students: Number of students who received funding for a year through the crowdfunding mechanism. - $70,000: Amount raised while spending very little in the crowdfunding effort. - $400: Amount needed for Via to continue her university education. - 50,000: Average grant amount for a project like those supported. - 10: Number of new initiatives the speaker aims to support in the year going forward. ## Claims & Theses - Most people's reaction to global poverty is to disengage. - Engaging with poverty is often motivated by guilt. - We tend to view poverty only as a lack of material goods, stuff, and money. - Schools don't teach children, teachers teach children. - We tend to think about the hardware and physical tangible stuff we can touch nearly as much as we think about software. - Toms Shoes is a solution looking for a problem more than anything. - The failure of a community business due to free stuff drops from an NGO/government agency disrupts the market. - These development organizations are really good at known solutions to known problems. - These organizations are not particularly good at coming up with innovative solutions to issues. - We need a shift in perspective on poverty and oversimplifying this issue. - Africa is massive and equally diverse. - The speaker's organization needs to figure out how to come up with solutions to an intractable issue. - The speaker's organization realized that change doesn't have to come from them in a uniform, top-down manner. - It's more on us to recognize where people are trying to change their own communities. - What we need is to invest in people and ideas. - Market-based solutions, like those governments and charities can play, aren't always true. - We must think very intelligently about ways to fail carefully. - The organizations supported must catalyze things that will carry on beyond the funding period. ## Mechanisms & Processes - Attempting to connect a battery to power a device (Will's action). - The process of crowdfunding through small donations (raising money for education). - Cross-subsidizing (Dr. V's hospital model, using paying patients to fund free surgeries). - Structuring a business model (Delight's solar lighting) so that every sale contributes to sustainability and growth. - Global Catalyst initiative: A process that invests money to help early-stage social entrepreneurs prove out their model and get ready for larger investment. - Livelihoods mechanism: Pairing identifying a need (products beneficial to slums) with a solution (local youth as distributors) to build a market. ## Timeline & Events - Before/Past: Will's family lacking electricity in Malawi. - Recent: Economist report showing six of the ten fastest growing countries are in Africa. - Start of Global Agents: Running a cycling tour from Vancouver to Tijuana, Mexico. - Past: Revenue growth occurred while the organization faced an existential crisis regarding its ability to effect change. - Recent/Ongoing: The speaker's organization has been supporting initiatives like Livelihoods in Kenya. ## Examples & Cases - Will's family in Malawi: Illustrates lack of electricity access. - Nelly Fado infomercial: Example of donating money based on perceived small contributions. - Buying Tom's Shoes: Example of consumptive behavior meant to help the poor. - The community shoe business disruption: Example where a free shoe drop ruined a struggling local business. - Aravan Eye Hospital: Example of deriving efficiency from global standardization (McDonald's model) to improve eye care costs. - Delight: Example of a solar lighting company structuring sales so poor people can afford it via spending on worse alternatives. - Via: Example of a student needing $400 for university education funded by crowdfunding. - Livelihoods in Kenya: Example where Urban Street Youth were employed as distributors to create a thriving business. - Cycling tour: Example where the group raised $30,000 for "Sustainable Solutions to Global poverty." ## Trade-offs & Alternatives - **Approach A (Traditional/Material focus):** Building schools, technological solutions for water, buying goods (The "lack of stuff" view). - **Approach B (Systemic/Market focus):** Market-based solutions vs. the assumptions made by charities/governments. - **Approach C (Top-down vs. Bottom-up):** Imposing solutions top-down vs. recognizing what people are trying to build in their own communities. - **Approach D (Risk):** The risk of investing in entrepreneurs who might fail vs. the need to be mindful of who can afford failure (vulnerable populations). ## Counterarguments & Caveats - (Speaker's admission) The natural reaction to poverty is to disengage. - (Speaker's observation) We tend to think about hardware more than software. - (Speaker's warning) The way free stuff is introduced can disrupt existing struggling local markets. - (Caveat regarding global bodies) Organizations like the UN are good at known solutions to known problems but bad at innovative ones. - (Self-critique) The speaker's own organization was initially very naive. - (Caveat on market solutions) Market-based solutions are not true all the time. ## Methodology - Direct personal experience (Speaking from the experience of the organization). - Pattern recognition (Identifying recurring destructive patterns in the development sector). - Deconstruction (Analyzing what causes the limitations of current approaches). ## References Cited - Economist report: Cited for stating six of the ten fastest growing countries are in Africa. - Nobel Peace Prize: Award received by Dr Muhammad Yunice for microfinance. ## Conclusions & Recommendations - The speaker suggests that what is needed is a shift in perspective on poverty. - Recommendation: To think really hard about the organizations supported—are they creating long-term systemic change, or are they applying Band-Aid solutions? - Recommendation: Look for organizations that are self-critical enough; they should tell you as much about what didn't work as what did. - Core suggestion: Find more wills, more livelihoods, and more organizations envisioning new ways to tackle issues in their own communities. ## Implications & Consequences - If the current approach continues: The money will eventually be pulled away, leading to a collapse of support structures. - If successful strategies are adopted: The world can tackle intractable issues through localized possibility. ## Open Questions - How do we find more "wills" (people like Will) in global poverty? - How do we recognize the right moment and way to get behind emerging local efforts? ## Verbatim Moments - "Teachers teach children and good curriculum matters and we don't tend to think about that software nearly as much as we think about the hardware and physical tangible stuff we can touch." - "Toms I think is a solution looking for a problem more than anything." - "we quickly had this $300,000 Nest Egg to work with" - "it wasn't necessarily on us to come up with big brilliant ideas for how we could change the world and go out and try and Implement them in some sort of uniform way and impose them in in a top down top down manner" - "we're more than capable of tackling some of these in able issues"