DIV in the News
Innovation and International Development: The Case of Development Innovation Ventures
March 19, 2012 | Center for Strategic and International Studies
Daniel Runde and Nikki Collins ask, what is Development Innovation Ventures? Why is innovation in development so important? How does the U.S. government incorporate innovation into mainstream development work? "In a time of austerity, innovative and cost-effective development solutions are in greater demand than ever. The traditional delivery of assistance can make it difficult for partner organizations to test new ideas or explore different methods for alleviating poverty due to cost and time constraints. At the same time, innovation can generate cost-effective and better ways to solve problems." Read more of their take on the DIV model.
African Elections: How to Save Votes
February 28, 2012 | The Economist
Could smartphones help reduce electoral fraud in Africa and in other regions? At a recent forum hosted by the Brookings Institution on the ways that wireless technologies are affecting politics in various countries, Clark Gibson, a professor at the University of California, San Diego (USCD), presented findings from experiments in Afghanistan and Uganda which suggest that they can. Local researchers were deployed to polling stations armed with digital cameras and smartphones to take photographs of the publicly posted election tallies. The research found that this alone can cut electoral fraud by up to 60%. Read more about DIV-sponsored research from the University of California, San Diego
White House hosts DIV at 'Innovation for Global Development' event
February 8, 2012 | The White House
How is the government fostering game-changing innovations that have the potential to solve long-standing global development challenges? Watch the full discussion featuring the following presentations by DIV grantees: Mera Gao Power, University of California San Diego, and Georgetown University.
Gayle Smith, Senior Director of the National Security Council: DIV is "providing the seed capital to take an idea and really test-run it at a larger scale."
Could Solar Lighting Be the Next Mobile Phone?
January 31, 2012 | The Center for Global Development
Between 2000 and 2010, the number of mobile phone subscriptions in developing countries increased from 215 million to 4.1 billion. From a luxury for the rich, the mobile has become a ubiquitous presence in rural and urban areas alike, even in some of the most fragile countries in the world. [...] So what’s going to be the next mobile phone –the technology that spreads rapidly to improve the lives of even the poorest people in the developing world? One possibility is solar power. Read more about Development Innovation Ventures and DIV grantee Mera Gao Power
Indian villagers' lives transformed by new energy delivery system
January 16, 2012 | The Guardian
A social enterprise is providing low-cost mobile-charging and light services through micro grids in Uttar Pradesh, enabling the poorest to cease relying on kerosene – and to stay connected. Read more about DIV grantee Mera Gao Power
USAID´s New Partnership Sets the Stage for a Post Assistance Relationship with India
December 23, 2011 | Center for Strategic and International Studies
Over the next several years, foreign assistance is going to come under increasing pressure. Hard questions from taxpayers and elected officials are going to put a premium on innovation, effectiveness and resources leveraged/catalyzed. At the same time, this period of retrenchment provides the foreign policy and development communities to rethink US relations with middle income countries. Read more about a new USAID partnership in a development fund modeled on DIV
Point and Shoot Elections
December 15, 2011 | Foreign Policy
Members of the international community met this past week in Bonn, Germany to discuss Afghanistan's future in the shadow of a NATO withdrawal of troops. At the conference, key policymakers, from the United States to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, expressed the consensus that corruption is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to efforts at rebuilding and stabilizing the country. Read more
November 30, 2011 | Congressional praise for the DIV award to Sanergy
Senator John Kerry (D-MA) congratulated Sanergy "on having been selected for a USAID Development Innovation Ventures grant. This award is a testament to MIT’s commitment to finding innovative solutions to the world’s development challenges. DIV grants open up the space for great ideas that ultimately provide effective development solutions at a fraction of the cost.”
Toilet Entrepreneurs, Powered by MIT Innovation
November 30, 2011 | Fast Company
Sanergy is a business full of waste. The startup—funded in part by the U.S. government—gives toilets away to business people in the slums, who charge for use. In exchange, Sanergy gets the… leftovers, which they convert into electricity and sell. Read more
Sanergy to be Awarded $100k from USAID's Development Innovation Ventures to "Turn $hit into Gold"
November 30, 2011 | BostInno
No matter what happened at this year’s MIT's $100k Entrepreneurship Competition, David Auerbach said his team was determined to give Sanergy a go. After capturing the crowd with the quip, “Join us as we turn shit into gold,” the team won the competition, and five months later, they’ve found themselves with another $100,000 grant, this time from USAID's Development Innovation Ventures. Read more
Developing World: Small-Scale Innovation Brings Vital Help to Poor Communities
October 28, 2011 | Financial Times
In the developing world, where many citizens lack access to power or clean water, a wave of innovation is bringing these vital services to growing numbers of people, often using renewable energy and water-saving technologies. And in some cases, clean-tech solutions may provide lessons for wealthier countries. Read more Article discusses DIV grantee Mera Gao Micro Grid Power
A Picture of Democracy: How Digital Cameras and Smartphones Might Reduce Corruption in Afghanistan and Elsewhere
October 21, 2011 | Slate
With the deadline approaching for troop withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. is facing the unhappy prospect of handing off military and political control of both countries to thoroughly corrupt regimes. Of the 178 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (2010), Iraq comes in at 175; Afghanistan is tied with Burma for 176. The prognosis for a transition to honest and accountable government is pretty grim. At the same time, some innovative experiments in the democratic process provide at least a glimmer of hope for nudging these countries toward more inclusive government. Read more
October 19, 2011 | Congressional praise for the DIV award to the Program for Appropriate Technologies in Health (PATH)
"I applaud USAID for this lifesaving investment in innovation," said U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA). "Investing in global health improves lives across the world and prevents millions of needless deaths. Washington state has long been a leader in the discovery, development and delivery efforts and I'm proud to see PATH once again leading the charge in making a difference."
“Washington state is a center for innovation, and PATH proves that the way forward in global health development is with innovative and cost-effective,” said U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA). “I applaud USAID for investing in PATH's innovative work improving maternal health worldwide and expanding access to life-saving technologies in rural areas.”
“PATH's creative designers understand global health from the developing world's perspective, and have a track record of designing culturally sensitive, life-saving products,” said Representative Jim McDermott (D WA-7). “USAID investment […] is money well spent in furthering its mission.”
Esther DuFlo Bribes India's Poor To Health
August 8, 2011 | Fast Company
Rajasthan is India's desert state, an often inhospitable place where per capita income averages around $1.77 per day. Poverty like that--understanding it and imagining ways to fix it--is what Esther Duflo lives for. Read more DIV supports research by Esther DuFlo in Kenya and India
July 19, 2011 | Congressional praise for DIV's launch of "WASH for Life" in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
“Access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation is a right that everyone in the world ought to enjoy but too few are able to realize,” U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) said. “I applaud the Gates Foundation and USAID for working together to find new solutions to improve access and address this devastating problem.”
Read more
Which Poverty-Fighting Policies Work? J-PAL Has the Answer
December 1, 2009 | Fast Company
A global league of economists called J-PAL is deploying its experimental methods and one all-powerful asset -- data -- to explain human behavior, change how we help the poor, and try to save the world. Read more DIV supports J-PAL research
